Timmy U

Kind of sad about this. He's not the greatest player who ever lived, but he's a Chicago guy and he played well for the Sox. I hope it means they think Braden will be ready sooner rather than later.

Angels gonna Angel.

Vargas had a fascinating year. He struggled early, against rhp, and at home. It added up to a league average bat. On a contender, he would probably be the short side of a platoon, but there’s enough there to make you want to give him another year of development with Fuller. Also, I like his style of play. Personally, I would keep him, but I could see selling relatively high.

I have a simple rule of thumb here: If it looks like the Angels did something smart, they didn’t. I bet Rodriguez gets TJS a month into the season.

Boston has found their sucker. Ronny has a lot of potential.

Wow. Davitt?! Wtf. Sorry to hear about Ellard. I’m sure it is health related.

Never been a Pereira fan cuz of the hit tool, but maybe Fuller can fix him.

Naylor is resigning with Seattle according to Passan. 5 year contract.

Looking at the teams listed calling on Quero (Nats, Padres, Astros, Rays, Rangers) I have a hard time finding matches. If the Nats would give up Lile, I could see that. Would you take a flier on Crews? I have never been a believer. Maybe Evan Carter from Texas. Theo Gillen from Rays is a few years away. Everyone the Padres could offer is way far away. It’s easy to say, “Let’s trade Edgar, but there’s no Create A Player option. Who would you actually want for him?

Clase and Ortiz have been indicted. Unlikely either pitches in mlb ever again. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6792150/2025/11/09/guardians-pitchers-sports-betting-scandal-mlb-clase-ortiz/?campaign=15624343&source=athletic_breaking_targeted_email&userId=107704

Both Antonacci and Meidroth are good 2b who can play ss in a pinch. The question with both is impact, not defense.

Antonacci 3-5, HR, sb, 3R .394 1.074, playing ss today. Braden 1-3, 2bb .351 1.124. Fall League and all that, but these guys are both pretty close. The Meidroth/Antonacci debate is gonna be spirited. Not by much, but I am Team Antonacci.

Nice to see Hagen throwing strikes. He, Schultz, McDougal, and Oppor have way more upside than anyone the Sox would go after in FA. I am also intrigued as to whether Shane Murphy could eat innings as a number 5. Stuff is meh, but that might be 70 command.

The Sox are not in compete now mode, so any FA they sign will not move the needle anywhere but down. If you sign Tucker, Bellinger, Framber, maybe Cease and Naylor, you are tangibly improving your club. Sox aren’t gonna do that. Everyone else is sorta meh, so whether people want to play here is kinda moot. I could see them picking up Tauchman, signing a platoon bat like Lane Thomas or maybe Austin Hayes, then maybe Adrian Houser and someone like Gregory Soto and calling it an offseason. I think they won’t spend until they know what they have in Braden, Hagen, Schultz, McDougal, and Antonacci. If some of those guys, esp Braden, are good enough to be part of the core, I could see them going after a big fish after that.

Montgomery was 3-4 with a HR, 3b, bb. The pitching in that league kinda blows, but nice to see him and Antonacci taking advantage of it.

Most of that WAR is gonna have to be developed internally. Between Hagen, Schultz, McDougal, Oppor, and lesser guys like Murphy, and all the guys coming back from injury, they have to find at least three guys to add to Shane Smith. I think it’s possible. You’re never gonna get 15 WAR outta the types of FA the Sox sign.

This year’s FA class of pitchers is pretty meh. I would be fine with either a low dollar one year/milb contract with Fedde or maybe Perez, and I could see bringing back Houser, but multi-year deals for any of these guys feels like a bad idea. I just don’t want to end up watching the pitching equivalent of Benintendi.

A Kwan ceiling would be amazing compared to what the Sox have run out at 2b since Ray Durham.

Flowers played parts of 12 seasons in mlb and qualified for a pension. The guys in that league could do worse. You want AFL HoFers that didn’t pan out, try Brent Morel. I believe he hit .400 there.

I think that is a bonus. Less time on the mlb roster makes it easier to keep him. I think 2 TJS guys were taken in the Rule 5 last year. If you like him, you probably protect. If you question the ceiling and feel he’s replaceable, you roll the dice. I am sort of in between on him cuz I like hard throwers.

I left Eisert off this iteration cuz I kinda hate him. You are correct. He probably makes it. Plenty of other guys who could go tho.

Here’s my theory of what things may look like in a month. Feel free to point out that I am likely very wrong. Mason Adams, rep, Aldrin Batista, rhp Prelander Berroa, rhp * Cam Booser, lhp Sean Burke, rhp *Ky Bush, lhp Jonathan Cannon, rhp Juan Carela, rhp *Fraser Ellard, lhp Jairo Iriarte, rhp Yoendrys Gomez, rhp Wikelman Gonzalez, rhp *Bryan Hudson, lhp Jordan Leasure, rhp Davis Martin, rhp Tanner McDougal, rhp *Shane Murphy, lhp Peyton Pallette, rhp Shane Smith, rhp Grant Taylor, rhp Drew Thorpe, rhp Mike Vasil, rhp Steven Wilson, rhp Korey Lee, c #Edgar Quero, c Kyle Teel, c #Brooks Baldwin,ss/2b/3b/of Tim Elko, 1b Curtis Mead, 1b/3b/2b Chase Meidroth, inf *Colson Montgomery, ss Bryan Ramos, 3b Lenyn Sosa, 2b/3b/1b Miguel Vargas, 1b/3b/dh *Andrew Benintendi, of Luis Robert, of * Mike Tauchman, of (arb 3) Rule 5 Eligible but leaving off *Samuel Zavala, of Duncan Davitt, rhp Ben Peoples, rhp% Eric Adler, rhp% Adisyn Coffey, rhp% *Tyler Schweitzer, lhp Wilfred Veras, of DJ Gladney, of Connor McCullough, rhp

There’s a lot to criticize the Getz regime on, but their performance in the Rule 5 draft seems to be a pretty thin reed. Drohan wasn’t a sexy pick, but a lefty with starter traits who had success at AAA isn’t a horrible gamble for essentially nothing. Real problem there was health. Obviously they did much better this year. Also, why are people dogging on some JC pitching coach for getting his dream job? Seems kinda extreme, but I suppose there’s not a lot of news until after the WS.

Derek Hill survived nothing. He’s arb eligible and to cut him they would non-tender, not try to pass him through waivers.

The theory on Mead is that he was a really hyped prospect who couldn’t pick a lane hit vs. power. The Sox grabbed and said, “You gotta get stronger and hit for power.” They have a plan for him this offseason similar to Vargas. Is it gonna work? Who the heck knows? Gotta wait until next year to find out. But they are betting they can help him reach his ceiling. Not a terrible bet for a guy they picked up after he opted out of his AAA contract. Mead certainly has a higher ceiling than either of the pitchers they got.