Stop it. It’s not your money. Find another angle.
What do you think Henry spent the savings on? A super yacht? Maybe he’s still saving up to bring an NBA team to Vegas?
It’s clear whatever it is it’s not going towards the Red Sox.
But make sure to keep Fenway filled!
We’re a top 5 market in the country who gives a fuck about an “overpay” that’s what we’re supposed to do
Who cares how much you pay a player a.) not my money and there’s no cap b.) he’s in our jersey playing for us that’s how this shit worked/is supposed to work
Mookie trade ended this franchise and John Henry doesn’t give a FUCK about the on field product
Not a top 5 market.
you're right. we're a top 4 market.
If they wanted to be cheap asses i wish they would have kicked the tires on Okamoto at least. This franchise is one of the richest in baseball and have spent 0 dollars in free agency
Yeah but we signed Seth Martinez to a minor league contract
Sure, but we traded for a couple of players, so what do people expect the Sox to do? Trade for players and sign FAs? That’s crazy talk, I’m sorry for even saying it.
Unfortunately it sounds like nobody thinks he’s really capable of playing third full time in the majors. I’d have loved to have him otherwise.
Okamoto is a AAAA player
But we got such a great return for Devers!
Oh, wait . . . 😣
Blame Henry. Reportedly Giants ownership went over Breslows head since he was looking for too big of a return. Henry was the one desperate to get Devers out of town.
John Henry got such a great return for Devers by saving millions of dollars. The team did not!
You don’t know what you got for Devers. They may be fixing the kid. He was in the bags at a very young age, his future still might be bright. And remember teams were not beating down the door for Devers. They know he’s a problem child. Lastly, the off-season is not over yet.
Teams weren’t beating down the door for Devers because they didn’t know he was available and the Giants took on his entire salary.
Harrison needs to amount to a solid number two starter otherwise the trade did jack shit to the roster.
Obviously a DH with a bad attitude owed $300 million could have gotten them anything they wanted, they just wanted to take the worst offer they got!
A bad attitude that didn’t show up until last year. Wasn’t a problem before for some reason.
Yeah it was mightily convenient that we never heard a thing for the first 8 years he was here and then right when it’s convenient for them he now has a bad attitude and they must trade him.
The red sox state media have never slandered coaches or players on their way out or during contract negotiations
Before I take this seriously, is this supposed to be an avatar reference. Kinda reads like it.
bad attitude, absolutely valid point. 300 million, that does not changing anything, cuz whatever money FSG is saving, it ain't going back to Red Sox. We could've saved 3 million, 30 million, 300 million, 3 billion, it's the exact same scenario, FSG still ain't paying for shit.
Stupid take.
You are 100% right, all these l’il bitches are wrong.
No kidding. You need talent. Elite talent.
People on here seem to be missing that Hicks, Story and Yoshida are off the books in two years and we have no one major that we need to keep and garbage free agent classes coming up outside of a few names.
I can’t wait to not spend that money either!
FSG is Lucy. You’re Charlie Brown.
Bregman is not elite talent
If you think devers is elite talent you really need to watch more of the rest of the league play.
this is outrageous. we got Jordan Hicks & an AAAA pitcher (please be like good or something)
with us, Raffy was a top 10 hitter for what felt like a decade & will continue to rake. I’d trade just about any prospect we have for him at this point
we’ve entered desperation down bad mode
Raffy is clearly an elite bat. Argue about the semantics of elite all you want, there are like 10-15 guys that avg an .850+ ops and Devers was one of them
Don't forget the second round pick that we gave up, too, to sign Bregman.
Lmao he’s arguably not even a top 25 hitter. We now have one of the best rotations in the league and need one more bad to be legit World Series contenders with a good young core and you guys still whine, it’s so unbearable to listen to. Get a life
He's t-18 in active ops+ leaders, 5 spots behind...Pete Alonso.
Our top 4 last year in order were Devers, Anthony, Refsnyder and Bregman. Anthony is the only one that remains.
We'll be lucky to have a league average offense, but keep licking boots.
So we’re just pretending Devers doesn’t have a sub 4 war in the majority of his seasons? He’s not even close to elite, this sub still vastly overrates him
Aaron judge is elite, his war is regularly over 9.
We need more than one more bat to be World Series contenders my guy. One more bat might get us playoffs, but that shouldn't be good enough.
We don’t even have the best rotation in the division.
Well I and most National baseball writers disagree with you
Yeah what do they know? They write and cover the game for a living and you just regurgitate constant negativity and hate towards a team you claim to be a fan of. You’re definitely the expert, not the baseball writers.
I mean, a couple of writers had them winning the pennant last year…
Sometimes experts have dumb opinions. What’s your excuse?
Seriously, Devers isn’t that elite, it’s why the Sox have already replaced his bat with an equal or better hitter. There are tons out there.
You think these people watch baseball?
These are the guys who start whining that "Patriots training camp can't come fast enough" 3 weeks into the regular season.
I thought they did, but they absolutely do not. Considering someone just seriously said Devers has been a top ten hitter in the game for a decade.
But he was their best player during the years they didn't have good players!
It’s Marcus smart all over again
Devers is elite, watch your mouth.
He had a sub 4 war 23 and 24. He’s a good hitter. He’s not elite and he’s a God awful defensive third basemen
Who cares about giving playoff ABs to the likes of Romy Gonzalez, Nick Sogard, Nate Eaton, and Nathaniel Lowe when you can hang a banner in 2031 for not having to pay over the market value to premium FAs in their late 30s?
Is Roman an overpay? Crochet?
Extending both guys was the bare minimum a big market team should do, but neither are contracted after age 32 so I don’t see how that changes my point?
“Instead of paying Giambi let’s recreate him in the aggregate” - why is one of the biggest markets in the league trying to copy what the A’s did with the guys I listed above instead of actually throwing their weight around as a big market team with Bregman, with Alonso?
I don’t understand why we should strive to lock down guys over 32. I like the strategy of signing young guys to long term deals and not going after older guys for everyday positions.
I don’t know where the quote about Giambi comes from. It certainly wasn’t me. And the quotes are an odd way of constructing a conversation.
I was paraphrasing from Moneyball, adding all those platoon bats instead of paying top dollar for FAs and then scraping the bottom of the barrel for guys like Lowe is what small market teams do.
Well not paying guys after 32 is how we got here with no Betts and Devers…just helping John Henry write the propaganda at this point lol.
I said nothing about moneyball. I don’t know who you’re arguing with.
The original comment I replied to said we need elite talent, perhaps the sarcasm was lost but all the platoon hitters is the opposite of that.
Not being willing to pay FAs in their late 30s is how we end up plugging the holes with these platoon bats, further romanticized by the premise of moneyball.
Noted
Crochet was 25 when they extended him.
Yeah I missed the 30+ denomination. My bad. Thanks for pointing that out.
I’m still of the thinking that locking up studs like crochet and Anthony is the way. Bregman is good but not a game changer unfortunately. Fragile and relying a lot on defense that’s breaking down
We have a club capable of springing forward in a win now position, but ever since 2018 we have a front office that treats us like a rebuilding franchise.
Devers and Bregman, with the emergence of Roman Anthony, put us in a world series window last year. We need Suarez and Bichette now just to trot out a projected lineup that's better than last season's.
Why are the Boston Red Sox, of all clubs, worrying about eating a few bad years of Bregman's deal? There are now NO 3rd basemen as complete as Bregman available for us to go after even in the best case scenario. We just locked in a black hole at 3b for the year, after causing that gigantic cluster fuck of drama over Devers last year. We nuke third base after all that? Clown shit.
We could have had Devers at 3b and Bregman at 2b to start this season. Imagine if we could just go back to that hypothetical. Have you checked the projections on who's starting at both positions this year? We are FUCKED.
I’m with you, I think the pendulum has swung too far to the other side now with so many fans afraid of their team giving contracts to players aging into their 30s.
Some elite talents never make it to FA because they get extended beforehand like what we do with Crochet and Anthony(who the other commenter keeps pointing out), but we’re supposed to do that especially as a big market team.
Then you have the guys who don’t get extended and test FA, that’s where big market teams like the Red Sox should come in to throw their weight, but don’t…so instead you rely on plugging those holes with value contracts and platoon hitters, things that small market teams do.
Yeah that contract isn’t gonna be pretty when that player is 35+, but that’s the price of doing business if you want to win now. But some fans think it’s some sort of victory just so we don’t have to worry about one bad contract in 2031.
We’ve signed crochet, Anthony to long term deals. It’s not fair to overlook those because they weren’t free agents. I’m not thrilled with the team but I don’t understand the mentality of “spend money” regardless of the player.
And I sincerely hope we don’t sign Bichette. He’s a very ok player that’s getting old.
Because if you want to compete for a title, as every big market team should be doing, you have to spend. You may even have to overspend to make sure you are fielding competent players at each position.
Missing on Bregman just guaranteed we made ourselves worse this season at both 3b and 2b. A Bregman re-signing, and simply NOT trading Devers for nothing of value, would have been far more value than the offense we just gutted. Now we are not a world series contender anymore.
You have to spend wisely. We’ll really miss his 18 home runs this year. Irreplaceable /s
The money we freed up by trading Devers.
Where has it been spent?
would love to know where the pro-Devers trade guys are…
it was always a premature, unnecessary, brutal trade….our former sweet little prince is laughing at us somewhere, eating an ice cream cone
I was good trading Devers because he was acting like a big baby, but hated the return and timing from the start.
I’m bummed we didn’t land Breg but I’m not surprised they weren’t willing to match the Cubs’ offer.
I’ll be much more pissed if they aren’t aggressive for Bichette or Tucker, so im expecting to be pissed.
Overall I blame Henry for behaving like we’re now a mid-market team.
what makes you think they have any aggressiveness in them? when’s the last time they’ve proven that?
starting to seem Raffy was almost in the right acting like a baby because this org has no clue wtf they are doing….
need to quit hiring these untenured nerds
Like I said, I’m expecting to be pissed.
This is so much cope about Bregman not re-signing lol Multiple things can be true at the same time. The front office did a terrible job handling the "position change". Devers is a great hitter, bad fielder and the stories that came out say he's not a great teammate. FSG traded him for peanuts to save money and aren't reinvesting it like they should (so far). They just got lucky that it was someone unlikable this time instead of a repeat of Mookie. I'm still pro Devers trade, he didn't want to be here and your sweet little 29 year old prince was eating his ice cream cone watching the Red Sox make the playoffs without him when the Giants tanked after getting him
The stories, to be clear, pushed by FSG as Devers was on his way out. Just like the stories about Theo, Tito, Farrell, Lester, etc. There was never a peep about him being angry or a bad teammate before this year. It’s weird. It’s like something changed. Something they’d no longer have to worry about if he was still on the team.
He was never unlikable and it’s wild people still give FSG the benefit of the doubt when it comes to stuff like this.
And I wouldn’t hate the Devers trade if I thought they were going to spend the money somewhere else. It’s very clear they’re not going to.
He clearly had issues with the front office and that's why the trade wasn't very surprising (other than the poor return). Of course stories about a star player aren't going to come out when he's on the team.That doesn't mean none of the stories are true. Completely agree on them needing to spend the Devers money.
Call them stories all you like, if they are true, then what? Timing doesn’t change that. Yeah, teams will cover up a dick heads issues when they are trying to win with them and will leak those frustrations out when they are moving on from them. Kind of happens everywhere, not just baseball. A company middle manager everyone likes is suddenly fired? Most the time people are going to, all of a sudden, know the persons issues from rumors that weren’t there before. This is just always going to happen.
well I’m sad goddamit!!
Who cares if the Sox “made the playoffs” they did not even get passed the wild card. In the end they are still in the same boat as the giants, not World Series winners. Plus Giants are higher in draft selection so there’s that. The Sox would have went farther if devers was in the lineup.
You are the village idiot
I love sports fans who have it all figured out. lol Yeah he watched us make the playoffs only to get beat by the yankees in the first round, yeah we really showed him. We still traded away Devers and replaced him with a 3rd basemen that played 114 games and now is gone
Eat that slop John Henry throws at your feet up little simp. Eat it all up. Uhoh he spilled some on his boots better lick that off too.
I wasn’t pro Devers trade, but I also understood it at the time. I figured that they would keep Bregman and add another piece to replace Devers. I guess not, they are cheap.
Thanks Bres, you fucking stiff.
I never defended the Devers trade cos I don’t have the memory of a goldfish. 😎 Talent wins games, not vibes.
I fully expect that FSG will waste Roman Anthony's prime because they refuse to spend money on free agents
Not even his prime. He needs protection in the lineup now. I can’t say I feel comfortable relying on players who were injured most of last season. Or someone like Story where last season feels like an outlier.
We’re gonna give him the Paul Skenes treatment at this rate
Just trade him to the Yankees and get it over with, he'll end up there eventually anyway.
See Mike Trout, that's what Roman Anthony is going to become...
I was defending them, but not any more. They are cheap. You have to overpay for free agents. Fuck Henry, Kennedy, maybe Breslow. All they had to do was bring back Bregman and this would have been an ok offseason. They would have objectively been a better team than last year. Devers trade is officially on par with the Betts trade
It started out Bregman and another big signing then we gave up legit prospects for a middle of the pack 1st baseman so it became Bregman and cheaper alternative now it's far less talent than last year with no Devers OR Bregman and the plan is now which borderline starting bat will take a short deal. Btw serious question, what are we paying Theo Epstein for?
They never deserved to be defended, this is now almost a decade in the making. Mookie and Xander, now Devers, Sale and Bregman
5/175 is not some massive overpay. It's not like a Boegarts deal. Letting Bregman walk for that is just pathetic.
It's the same Bloominati with the same tired line about contract values. As if winning the World Series means less when you have an overpaid third baseman.
There's no "overpaid veteran" penalty on your GM score here. It's virtually impossible to put together a perennial contender full of value contracts.
The gatekeepers of this sub will not stand for this blasphemy. LOL
Lmao I forgot we traded Devers just to rent Bregman for a year. Fuck me we are so bad lol
To rent bregman for half a year in effect 🙃
So bad. Team is a fucking joke. Gave up one of the best hitters for 1 year of bregman. Whos not even a difference maker. Fucking jokes
Money in baseball is fake. Just pay dudes. Sell the fucking team
The owner does not care about your or the team. He’s a Bozo.
Do you guys not watch soccer? Did you see Liverpools off season spending this year?
Really getting tired of this every offseason. They want to recreate the magic they had with the power of friendship team, but that’s just not a thing that can be relied on. Now we’re gonna get some bullshit presser on how they still feel they’re a playoff bound team without Bregman
You could defend the trade IF we user that money to get someone else. They decided they didn't want to spend. Just another case of this ownership fucking over the product for financial savings.
If every single free agent signs for more money than we're willing to pay them, it's no longer an overpay by the rest of the league, it's just market value that our cheap owners are unwilling to pay.
We'te not going to finish in the top four for Bichette so time to clean out the farm system for Nolan Arenado and fight it out for third place.
The "I'm glad we didn't overpay" angle is so weird to me. Find a competitive team that doesn't have an overpaid player on their roster. It's the nature of the game to have that as a competitive team.
The pathetic thing is Devers could be productive for the majority of his remaining contract but then have a <100 OPS+ in the final year of his deal and we'll see those Red Sox fans going "See? Trading him was a good idea because he wasn't super awesome during the entirety of his contract!"
The Devers issue has never been about money; it's about communication problems between the players and the entire coaching and management team
Furthermore, Devers is destined for a 1B or DH role, and with such poor 3B defense, his career won't last long
Henry deserves all of the blame IMO. By accounts from SF, Henry is the one who pushed Breslow to take a lesser package for Devers to get the deal done. Henry is the one who refuses to spend big, which means Breslow can’t overpay in the name of getting a guy. The Cubs deal for Bregman is almost certainly going to age horribly, but that’s what it takes to get a premier player in free agency.
Maybe I’m wrong and they sign Bichette (or Tucker) tomorrow. But until Henry sells the team or decides to spend aggressively again, no GM is going to be successful here and we’re all going to stay pissed pff.
Sell the team
I’m glad Devers is gone. I00%.
I am happy we didn't overpay Bregman or Alonso tbh... But we should go all out for Bichette now, defense be damned. Or failing that, go get Tucker and trade Duran and Abreu and get a guy at a different position who's great, unrealistic as fuck as that scenario is.
And of course the Devers trade was shit. I'm not against the idea of trading him if you thought he was that much of a diva but a) given he was okay immediately in San Francisco learning first, I feel if you approached the situation better and didn't spend all winter saying he wasn't going to move off of third he might have been more receptive to the position changes. And b) you got a prospect who you then traded for Dustin May, a massive contract that is hurting you from signing a Devers replacement in Hicks...
The only chance this deal has of working is Kyle Harrison becoming a superstar. And I like Kyle Harrison, but even if he does somehow develop into that which doesn't seem all that likely at this point, it would still be stupid because him becoming that kind of player is a 99th percentile outcome. If you absolutely had to trade him, then either retain a little salary and get us a haul, or wait for the goddamn offseason and make the move then when teams actually have cap space.
Tucker would definitely be the play, but we currently have a logjam of mediocre outfielders. It’s not happening.
I’d still be pissed but the only consolation is if they sign Bichette. You’d have a full infield and a full outfield with decent pitching. Then go after Skubal and throw the house at him next offseason (they won’t but that’s the only way I’d forgive Henry and Breslow at this point.) Plus they still haven’t signed anyone so if they don’t do that who are you even putting at second, and like who is there even left to trade? I’d be pissed if we gave up any of Tolle, Early, Campbell, Mayer, etc. for someone like Marte because at this point at least let us enjoy the prospects. Don’t they dare take those from us too. You could have solved this without giving anyone up months ago and now you have to rely on signing bichette or rolling out fucking Campbell (Who sucks at second and should be in the OF) or Eaton (Who I like but is he really who we want starting at 2B?) They have had multiple chances to sign better players without having to give up assets. I hate what this team has become.
But the last couple years of the contract wouldn’t be team friendly waaaaaaah. I said this in the first weekend when they were playing cutesy with contracts. This team WILL NOT give a contract to a player if they think there is a single year in it that is not good value. Fuckin every free agent contract has years tacked on that are poor value to the team, THATS HOW YOU LURE FREE AGENTS!!!!!
THEYRE NOT THE GOD DAMNED KANSAS CITY ROYALS OR OAKLAND A’S. THEY CAN AFFORD SOME TEAM UNFRIENDLY YEARS BUT JUST REFUSE TO BECAUSE THEY ARE CHEAP FUCKS.
Stop spending your money with this ownership. Please I beg you. Don’t be sheep.
I’ve wracked my brain on this. The only thing I can honestly come up with is that they want to see what young guys pan out and plug holes from there. You haven’t had a full season of Anthony, Mayer, Campbell, Arias, Tolle, Early at the big league level yet. What if 2 of these guys end up being 3b and now you’re locked into Bergman?
I’m in no way defending them, I think it’s gross that they’re putting profit over performance in one of the greatest sports markets globally. It’s the only strategic angle left, although I don’t entirely believe there’s a baseball strategy left beyond “make money”. I’m one of those people who thought the sale of the Penguins might at least mean they sign a middle reliever.
I wanted Alonso. I can’t defend not making that happen. Devers is a complicated case. I think they had a lot of concerns about his body, clubhouse vibe, etc. They didn’t want him in his 30s. I think their comp was Prince Fielder who fell off a cliff. Sometimes trading a guy snaps some sense into him and attitude wise at least Devers improved post-trade. When the owner flew out on the road for a face to face and Devers still gave him the middle finger that was probably the straw that broke the camels back. And…you can’t ignore that SF absolutely tanked after that trade. Not saying it was his fault but point is there’s a lot to a winning baseball team.
So I didn’t mind the trade in a vacuum. And I am perfectly happy to let Bregman walk. But I do want more offense.
If they don’t sign Bichette, that FO is going to feel the pressure because the fans are going to be more pissed than they are now. They constantly screw us every offseason. I don’t see how they can build a team to compete but be afraid to spend money to do so. We’re supposed to be a big market team and attract big talent but we sure don’t act like it with the offers we make.
It’s a sad day. Our beloved Sox have become a side project I’ve never believed we need to buy a team. Our championships have proved that. They have come from the collective whole of good talent. Not a manufacturer all star team like so many others have done this last decade But cmon. Seriously have some pride. Have some commitment to the fans that give their good swear and tears to this team Time to put your damn money where your mouth is and sign someone !!!!
I just want to know what the plan is… there’s literally no sense of direction. At this rate we’re going to be bottom of the division this year.
Liverpool is struggling this season and needs to reload….
Cause these same rich fucks gets tax breaks for stuff like this and with one of the highest ticket prices in baseball why should I spend my money on a team that isn’t willing to spend theirs. When they have billions more than I do
Spot on
Sorry for the book that's coming. Yes, I root for laundry. We all do. That's why we come on here and complain. If not, we would root for the Dodgers. Let's face it. They spend money. As much as they want. John Henry isn't allowing that anymore. Yes it sucks. Especially if you rooted for them your entire life. We got a little spoiled. We were in on every free agent. Teixeira. Rodriguez. Manny. We traded for Schilling. Got Damon. Foulke. Even the bad ones. Price. Panda. Didn't matter. We went for it. Traded for Sale. Dombrowski got shit for emptying the system. I can't think of one prospect that made it that he traded though. Life was good. 4 titles in 15 years.
Now we have Breslow. I like him. Is he what I wanted? No. He's better than Bloom in my eyes. We'll see how Bloom does in St Loius. Breslow can navigate the current waters though. He is still giving us a team we are excited about while being handcuffed by Henry. He is the one that has to find a way to stand in front of the media and give the fan base hope while knowing he can't spend to fix. And he's done it. When is the last time you actually looked at what is in the cupboard? When the hell have the Red Sox had this much pitching? Home grown? We needed an ace. We got one. Maybe the best one in the league. We needed a great every day player. We got one. Both are locked up long term. We have 2 gold glove out fielders. A catcher that looks like a leader in the field like another catcher we all loved. Got him for nothing. We have young talent up and down the lineup. What happened to letting them play? They keep getting better. Can Duran be more like 24 than 25? He could. Or he could be right in the middle. That's still damn good production. Could Abreu hit 30 bombs this year and make everyone forget that we didn't sign 2 imperfect players(Bregman & Alonzo) to long term contracts that will not age well. And let's face it, we will be the first to chirp when they get injured. Or don't produce. See, that's why we didn't sign em...
Anyway, this is how I see the lineup currently. Might change. Maybe Bichette's price drops. Probably not. I'm ok with Romy at 2nd. He has been a league average 2B since he's been in the league. He hit 305 last year with 53 RBI. 340 OBP in about 300 at bats. He's fine. Campbell and Rafaela can play there too. I'm fine with Meyer getting a full year at 3rd. Let him get comfortable and focus on getting better. There are alot of ifs. Can Story, Meyer, Abreu and hell even Anthony stay healthy? Can the kids keep getting better? Is the pitching as good as they think? If things just break our way a little, I think we are a top 5 team.
Lineup
Duran Story Anthony Contreras Abreu Narvaez Meyer Gonzalez Rafaela
Covers r/l and has pretty good balance. I like Duran for 280, 110rs, 40 doubles, 10 triples, 20HR and 40 steals. Story if healthy is good for 20 and 80. We are all hoping Anthony is 30 and 100. Contreras is 20 and 80. Abreu is 30 and 100. Mark it down. Narvaez is 10 and 60. Meyer gives us 15 and 75 I think. Romy gives us 10 and 60 and hits 280-300 while playing a serviceable 2B. Rafaela plays gold glove defense while hitting 20 and 80 and stealing 20. Eaton, Campbell, Wong, Yoshida, Hamilton and hell maybe Casas will all see time I'm sure. Is it the 27 Yankees? Or even the 2004/2018 Sox? No. Is it a good lineup? I think so. Better than 2013. We will score runs. I think it's a top 10 offense. Which is fine because I think we have a top 5 staff.
SP1 - Crochet SP2 - Gray SP3 - Bello SP4 - Crawford SP5 - Tolle/Early/Sandoval/Oviedo/Bennett/Harrison
Chapman, Whitlock and Slaton are high leverage relievers. Complimented by whoever isn't in the rotation. Maybe Early makes the rotation and Tolle after tearing up Worcester comes in mid season and is lights out. Bottom line, we have so many pitching options, we will be fine. And we have more in the minors. I trust these guys to draft right. We may become the Braves. Young pitching followed by more young pitching. We don't always have to spend. It's nice. It just isn't necessary. If I'm wrong, I'll bitch about it too. Return for Devers sucked. If Hicks has any substantial role on this team I will be pissed. Unless they spent the off-season stripping him down and rebuilding him. The arm is there. The head, not so much. And the control is terrible. It is what it is. Try to get excited. I think we have a really great season coming. And if not, then we can all come on here and bitch about it.
Stopped buying tickets for Sox games after Mookie Betts.
There is so much we DON’T know it makes it hard for me to pass judgment. We weren’t even supposed to be in the playoffs last season. It’s January. Long way to go to Opening Day.
Do I need to capitalize every word to have an opinion here?
Look, I've defended the Devers trade and I'll try to provide some rational explanation of how I see all of this broken down by the main events that have transpired.
Bregman is signed and Devers gets moved off 3B. The front office handles it poorly and Devers also handles it poorly -- we'll never know everything that transpired. I just remember last offseason that there were comments that suggested to me that it could have been handled bettter.
Casas gets hurt and Devers refuses to move to 1B and makes his displeasure public. This is why he was traded. If he agrees to play 1B or if he is unhappy but at least doesn't go public, he probably stays. Even with Bregman still there.
Bregman has now signed elsewhere. Frankly, I think they should have paid him the 5/175 because it can't be that much more than they offered him (and if it was, they weren't serious about him).
The issue with "if you're still defending the Devers trade" is that it makes it sound like all three of these things happened at the same time, or like they planned for Casas to get hurt, or like they expected Devers to be a selfish brat. That's just how it played out. They only had control over some of the events in the sequence, and Devers was not traded for Bregman.
They could potentially argue that they made a whole bunch of decisions that are rational in a vacuum, but at some point you need to work towards the big picture of actually putting together a winning baseball team.
and stop pretending you're the Royals or Reds GM when you have money close to the Blue Jays and Yankees but are being embarrassed by them. Does anyone think the Sox are coming away with more firepower than either from now till Opening Day?
But I'm not saying all the decisions they made are rational. I specifically said otherwise: they handled Devers poorly and should have signed Bregman this year.
What they did NOT do was trade Devers for Bregman, like people keep saying.
And what if you never sign Bregman?
Every major baseball writer disagrees with you and has the team ranked somehwere between 5-10 in power rankings. Their rotation is vastly underrated by most of this sub. Pitching wins games. Now If they sign one more bat they are legit contenders. You guys and your negativity are the actual clowns…you should all become Mets fans, it’s about the team and fanbase you all deserve
The irony is when you figure out they are good you’ll be one of the first back on the bandwagon
They’re relying on a 36 year old pitching in a much harder division now. Then it’s Oviedo (also now in a much better division), Bello and a lot of young guns. That’s exciting. Truly. It’s also far from a sure thing.
Sign one more bat? Who did they sign again? Who is left?
I mentioned in another thread yesterday that even if they resigned Bregman, they’re still probably second in the division behind the Blue Jays. Now they have zero depth. If anyone goes down for some time the lineup is fucked. You also have to rely on Abreu going back to smashing the ball and staying healthy. And the key bat in the lineup, Anthony, is much easier to pitch around now. Again, this is IF everyone stays relatively healthy.
For the last five years I’ve been told to be patient because of the young core. Once the young core is established, they’ll add and improve the team. When’s that going to start?
I mean Contreras, gray and Oviedo are all vast improvements over the guys they replaced from last year. If you have Anthony and Mayer develop further and houck comes back, signing a guy like bichette or even Kyle Tucker or bellinger and I’m not sure how that’s not a drastic improvement over last season.
Yes. Contreras, Gray, and Oviedo are vast improvements over corpses. That’s not exactly the best argument.
Everything you wrote after that relies very heavily on the word IF.
Every single thing you write is “yes, but… doom”
And every single thing you write is “yes, but…flowers sprouting from Henry’s ass”. See how easy that is instead of trying to defend your point?
Say a split down the middle happens. That means they’re worse than last year or as good. Yay?…
They were one Rob refsnyder not stopping at third base for no reason, away from the Divisional round of the playoffs with a far worse rotation, last year.
Imagine IF he hadn’t done that.
I know you would’ve had to admit the Red Sox didn’t suck. It may have killed you. Thank God he stopped.
Maybe if they had had a legitimate starter in there…No, that’d be me wanting too much.
Also, when did I say they suck? The goal is to improve from the previous season. They’ve regressed.
Meanwhile you’re thanking god he stopped. Some fan. /s
I agree with you. Crochet, Gray, Bello, Houck, Tolle/Early is, in my own opinion, an elite rotation. Then, Mayer and Anthony are future stars I believe the RS aren't that bad. Is the owner cheap, maybe, but the team will be competitive and will probably play in the playoffs.
Houck is injured.
After you make the playoffs the hope shouldn’t be to probably be in the playoffs again. It should be improving.
FSG does not care, just sell tickets baby sell out that’s all that matters💰
I just simply don’t care about this topic, there’s one singular person who signs the check and determines what they’ll pay and he’s a 80 year old who doesn’t use social media, least of all reddit
It’s just a stupid fucking topic that is entirely meaningless to debate because whiny fans always ends up implicating dozens of people who have literally ZERO power over the total payroll size, such as the GM, assistant GM, manager, etc.
Everyone wishes John Henry spent all his money on the team, I sure do and sure would do that if I was him. He won’t. Your best option for things to change is to wait for him to die.
Apart from that, everyone else in the organization is working with a budget they’re given and when it comes to that budget, trading Devers and not massively overpaying guys over 30 is the only way to build a well-rounded roster.
When’s it getting well rounded?
I agree with you, but I still want to complain.
I’m so fucking tired of people losing their fucking mind at every single signing that passes us by - if you’re so damn sure that the Red Sox are “cheap” anyway, why does any of this come as a surprise
The reality is for the last 25 years, we’ve spent in the same realm or more than almost every team that isn’t NY or LA based. We are a big market, we always have been and frankly, we still are.
It’s time to accept that we’re not gonna match the big guys and enjoy the team for what it is or stop watching.
Stop watching in the answer but there are too many sheep who don’t care enough to do that. They’ll still happily buy the team merch and the newest jersey and keep Henry happy.
It doesn’t come as a surprise. That’s the frustrating part. This team should be looking to improve now that the young core is established.
I think one of the point’s of this subreddit is for someone to vent frustration when the team does something frustrating. Another point of the subreddit (and Reddit in general) is that it’s also a place for someone to write seven paragraphs about a subject they don’t care about.
From an Breslow only perspective, working in the bounds he is given, I think both were good moves.
Does anyone think the Cubs will compete for a World Series championship over the course of this contract?
Do you think the Red Sox will compete for a championship in that same window? And not just in the barely get in win one Wild Card game kind of way, but actually win a round or two? Because I’d say the Cubs have just as much of a chance as we do. Neither are likely to happen.
Yes I believe the crochet and Anthony led team will compete. Is that really an outrageous statement? Who is the cubs top starter for the next 6 years?
Considering they need some sort of support…yeah, kind of. I mean if they think they can bring in Mayer and Campbell and not add a reliable bat, Anthony is going to get pitched around. Crochet looking at a potential W-L in the Skenes range of 10-10.
Sure. And Bregman is your answer to fix this. While assuming the Cubs are just as good without a top line starting pitcher? I really don’t see the logic here. Help me out.
No. He wasn’t the only answer to fix this. With him they still had problems with depth. Now it’s a major problem that they’re hoping young guys and often injured players will fix. I’m not holding my breath.
So whether the Cubs have an ace or not, neither are winning a title anytime soon. Bregman might as well get paid the most in Chicago doing so.
the teams are not comparable. I don’t understand this signing for the cubs. They need so much more and this will barely move the needle in terms of number of wins.
Red Sox make the Wild Card again in 2026 = not a championship
Cubs finishing third in the NL Central in 2026 = not a championship
Same result.
Nah, you can’t say all non-WS teams are the same. You don’t become a champion with one signing.
And you don’t become a champion with ZERO signings.
Think we’ll hang a Wild Card Runner-Up banner? It’ll be a proud moment at Fenway watching it wave in center.
still glad we have Wilson over pete.
Devers deal, yup its shit, hopefully the pitcher turns out good
bregman, thats an overpay, but unless they grab something its a huge loss. need a 2b to justify mayer there
John Henry right now
Fuck Breslow/Henry but Devers was a locker room cancer and Bregman a cheating POS.
I agree, we should’ve gotten way more for Devers but our chemistry went way up after he left. Bregman was great for the young guys but he would have never opted out if he really wanted to play on the Sox and we don’t need him until he’s 37.
If we don’t sign Bichette that’s another story but I would much rather have Bichette than Bregman. Not paying Alonso was a terrible move but Contreras is a solid option at 1st as well. I love Duran but if we get rid of him for a solid starter and sign Bichette and I think we’ll be good.
Henry needs to stop acting like the Sox are a mid market team and spend some damn money!
They didn't trade Devers for Bregman!
It's not that hard to follow.
Devers was the worst 3rd baseman in baseball, they were replacing him with either Bregman or Arenado. He was done on 3rd because he was terrible at it.
They still wanted him on the team. Their plan had him on the team. His shitty attitude and reported request for a trade is why he's not on the team.
If there plan was to move him off third they clearly didn’t communicate it to him well enough. Brining Bergman in pissed off their superstar player so much they up having to trade him at a discount not even half way through the season.
So while they didn’t trade Devers for Bregman they botched the situation in bringing him in so much they ended up with neither with verrrry little to show for it
Apparently it is.
I wasn’t a fan of Devers at all but really hate the way we spend these days