ChiSox59

I don't agree with GreenSox on much, but I do agree here. Kelly could be quite useful in 23. Would I trade him in a salary swap for a useful position player? Yah, probably. But I'd rather keep him that give him away, or eat money to do so. The arm is very good. The FIP was much better than the ERA. He know what he is doing. I think he could be a very effective middle reliever next season.

If the Sox we’re trying to acquire him, it’d require Montgomery++. But since it’s the Sox, best we can do is a blocked guy outside the top 100 headlining the deal.

Hendricks definitely isn’t, but Hendriks might.

He was awful last season. And hurt for most of it. Not suggesting we hand him the 2B job, but wouldn’t be a bad guy to bring in and compete for the job if they’re not going to acquire anyone of note.

LaStella DFAd. Sox should definitely try to get him on an milb deal.

Cue Balta telling us why that doesn’t matter for us, but does for Cleveland.

Except the AL East is going to be significantly harder to win than the AL Central. Winning your division is pretty damn important in these expanded playoff days.

Conveniently leaving out our best pitcher in Cease. The Sox are not signing a SP that is better than Cease, Lynn, Giolito, Kopech or Clevinger. In fact, there aren't even any left that are better. We also don't really have any room in the bullpen because most of our relievers are on MLB deals or out of options. So that leaves milb deal guys, which certainly should be a focus.

Why would another legit SP sign with the Sox? The rotation is full. They’d be looking at bullpen duty, most likely. Now, the Sox should be bringing in several milb type guys for insurance in Charlotte; I do not understand why Hahn hasn’t started that project because they need basically an entire rotation. But that’s different.

Yep. Very good post. It’s very hard to understand, but is no doubt this is coming from JR. He loves hindering his organization.

Yeah, I think it is possible. I also think it could well be a mixture of the two things, and the Sox used the legit health issues to get out from under TLR without actually having to fire him. Purely for sanity - and since we'll never know for sure - I choose to move forward believing he was never coming back, because the alterative is too difficult to bear.

I am not at all surprised you choose to believe that, but there is no way TLR was coming back. They gave him a way to leave without getting fired, and he took it. Now, I will admit - this little nugget of information definitely fits in the "he would be back if not for health" category, but he is a HOF manager afterall. I don't want him anywhere near to club - to be clear - but I could at least understand why they wouldn't tell him to f*** off, even if I would.

I still refuse to believe this is true.

Probably.

You have to imagine the Sox would be pretty attractive landing spots for milb guys with the Sox having literally no depth anywhere ---- SP, OF and middle IF don't need much to go wrong to have an MLB role.

Alot of these models are also assuming that the Guardians were not a 2 month flash in the pan. I remain far from convinced everything is going to go right for Cleveland yet again in 2023.

While on this topic, the signing of Benintendi does effectively end Eloy's days as a primary OF. Beni cannot be relied on to play RF - he has yet do it in his career and I don't see our new staff trying that. Eloy isn't going to play RF, I wouldn't think. So unless Benintendi is on the IL, or getting a blow against a tough LHP, Eloy isn't going to be playing any LF. I think this is major positive of Benintendi's lack of experience in RF. Another OF, such as Conforto, would have given the org the opportunity to continue to try to jam Eloy into LF at times. The less that happens, the better.

It has not.

Probably not, but they do need relief pitching. Marte probably doesn't have a ton of trade value, so they can't really expect to get much prospect-wise. They could of course hold in hopes he has a big 2023, and then re-assess. He is controlled thru 2027 at $73M ($14.6M AAV), with a $13M club option for 2028.

Dbacks are said to be seeking RP. With Ketel’s contract, he probably doesn’t have a ton of surplus value coming off 22. Perhaps Sox could get him for something like Graveman + Burger + backend filler piece (Dalquist/Yolbert type). They have room to give Burger at bats. Impact to Sox payroll only a few million for 2023. edit - not that it means much, but trade sim says that deal is well in favor of Dbacks and even would be flipping Kelly in for Graveman. Doubt dbacks would view it that way, tho!

Dbacks seem to be in a bit of limbo following the Varsho deal. Would love to get Marte from them. Segura would be better than nothing but just don’t love that fit.

Yah, me too.

Signed with an NPB club today. He gowne

Sox are in my dna. Not much I can do about it. Considering the limitations with the org, they’ve been largely at least competitive for large portions of my life (I’m 32). They are frustrating as can be, but that’s fandom for most professional sports franchises. I am hopeful that when JR moves on, we’ll see things operated different the following 3 decades of my life. I prefer to be hopeful than the alternative when it comes to the Sox, there’s enough other BS in life to worry about.