Trade Deadline Approach
- Thread starter tims4wins
- Start date
The only real spot is second base. I don't really believe in this Turner at 2B experiment & even after the great play yesterday he was limping around.
If the right opportunity comes up, I think they take it, but if it doesn't, I'm sure they're prepared to roll with what they have.
If the right opportunity comes up, I think they take it, but if it doesn't, I'm sure they're prepared to roll with what they have.
If Edman's bat picks back up he would be a very nice upgrade over Arroyo, who can also play SS and OF. I know we have that in Reyes, but Edman has been an everyday type of guy having played 153 games last season and 159 in '21. He's also not a FA until '26 so would serve as a place holder until Mayer is ready and his remaining control might be attractive should it then be time for him to move on.
I think just like the buy/sell absolute discussion misses way too much nuance so to does the “Bloom sucks / Bloom is awesome” discussion. There is a lot of middle ground.
I don’t think of myself as a detractor or an apologist for Bloom’s front office, more that I have questioned (and still do) if he is the right GM for the Boston Red Sox. To be clear, I do think and have always thought he is in the top half of execs in the game. I still don’t know if he’s in the top quarter (call it top 7) that I think a team with the resources of the Red Sox should have.
As of now, I equate Bloom to someone like Antonelli or Jerry DiPoto. I think he’s proven he can build an ALCS team (clearly) and a nice cost controlled core. I think there is still a question of if he can evaluate other team’s prospects, and his own prospects, well enough to move up to Cherington level. Can he do it long enough and consistently enough to move up to DDski or Alex A level. We don’t know yet. (I refuse to talk Epstein bc asking him to be that is like asking Bello to be Pedro, it’s entirely unfair and unrealistic).
To the deadline, I like to grade things, so his 2020 deadline I give an A+ to. That was handled absolutely brilliantly.
2021 I’d give a B to. Schwarber was a master stroke, Robles was a good add. Davis was a shot that was fine to take. I thought that team needed another SP, and I do think not adding one was a miss. I’m not calling it a “mistake” because we don’t know what was offered. If he could have gotten Scherzer for Downs and Jimenez, it was a mistake. If he turned down Kyle Gibson for Bello it obv was not. I do think it was a missed opportunity not to add a Rich Hill / JA Happ type. Would they have won a WS, prob not. But if you add that stability to a team that was around 1 game back of the best record in the AL do they have a better Aug and Sept and get Houston with HFA and win the pennant - possibly. It’s obv unknowable.
2022 was an F for me. He should have sold and gotten under the tax then. He didn’t. But I think the 2022 team and 2023 team are nearly polar opposites. That was a team with tons of expiring deals leading the way, this is a team with a young core leading the way.
So far, getting anything for Kike was a win. I like swapping out a single A ~150 system prospect (per @JM3) for a bullpen shot. Since the off season, I’ve thought this team needed a stabilizing rotation presence and a starting middle infielder. I still do. (To be fair, I thought they needed a middle of the order bat in the off season and Turner has been one.) If we make no other moves, I’ll be upset, if we make other moves (buy or sell) I’ll likely be pleased.
So 2023 is “incomplete.”
I will say, I’m VERY interested to see what he does the next few days. Giolito was never a real option. Robertson would’ve helped - but I admittedly have no idea on what Miami gave up. I thought Lynn could’ve been.
I really hope that moves ARE made to add to the core. If that isn’t possible, I really hope for a 3/4 starter and an upgrade to the non-Story IF position. If those are both impossible, I hope they sell… but I think he will do one of the former in some capacity.
If he does, I’m going to praise him for it, but I will be upset if he doesn’t; I think this team is worth investing at least something in.
I don’t think of myself as a detractor or an apologist for Bloom’s front office, more that I have questioned (and still do) if he is the right GM for the Boston Red Sox. To be clear, I do think and have always thought he is in the top half of execs in the game. I still don’t know if he’s in the top quarter (call it top 7) that I think a team with the resources of the Red Sox should have.
As of now, I equate Bloom to someone like Antonelli or Jerry DiPoto. I think he’s proven he can build an ALCS team (clearly) and a nice cost controlled core. I think there is still a question of if he can evaluate other team’s prospects, and his own prospects, well enough to move up to Cherington level. Can he do it long enough and consistently enough to move up to DDski or Alex A level. We don’t know yet. (I refuse to talk Epstein bc asking him to be that is like asking Bello to be Pedro, it’s entirely unfair and unrealistic).
To the deadline, I like to grade things, so his 2020 deadline I give an A+ to. That was handled absolutely brilliantly.
2021 I’d give a B to. Schwarber was a master stroke, Robles was a good add. Davis was a shot that was fine to take. I thought that team needed another SP, and I do think not adding one was a miss. I’m not calling it a “mistake” because we don’t know what was offered. If he could have gotten Scherzer for Downs and Jimenez, it was a mistake. If he turned down Kyle Gibson for Bello it obv was not. I do think it was a missed opportunity not to add a Rich Hill / JA Happ type. Would they have won a WS, prob not. But if you add that stability to a team that was around 1 game back of the best record in the AL do they have a better Aug and Sept and get Houston with HFA and win the pennant - possibly. It’s obv unknowable.
2022 was an F for me. He should have sold and gotten under the tax then. He didn’t. But I think the 2022 team and 2023 team are nearly polar opposites. That was a team with tons of expiring deals leading the way, this is a team with a young core leading the way.
So far, getting anything for Kike was a win. I like swapping out a single A ~150 system prospect (per @JM3) for a bullpen shot. Since the off season, I’ve thought this team needed a stabilizing rotation presence and a starting middle infielder. I still do. (To be fair, I thought they needed a middle of the order bat in the off season and Turner has been one.) If we make no other moves, I’ll be upset, if we make other moves (buy or sell) I’ll likely be pleased.
So 2023 is “incomplete.”
I will say, I’m VERY interested to see what he does the next few days. Giolito was never a real option. Robertson would’ve helped - but I admittedly have no idea on what Miami gave up. I thought Lynn could’ve been.
I really hope that moves ARE made to add to the core. If that isn’t possible, I really hope for a 3/4 starter and an upgrade to the non-Story IF position. If those are both impossible, I hope they sell… but I think he will do one of the former in some capacity.
If he does, I’m going to praise him for it, but I will be upset if he doesn’t; I think this team is worth investing at least something in.
I have a hard time taking an opinion that the '22 trade deadline was an F as serious when you consider he added 3 quality prospects & McGuire while giving up nothing.
Especially considering they planned on being under the tax this year anyway & everything is still progressing along nicely for them to be big buyers this off-season as a result.
But we've relitigated this 8k times. & if you think adding a platoon catcher & 3 prospects for nothing is an F just because they didn't salary dump JD in the midst of the worst slump of his career, it is what it is.
Especially considering they planned on being under the tax this year anyway & everything is still progressing along nicely for them to be big buyers this off-season as a result.
But we've relitigated this 8k times. & if you think adding a platoon catcher & 3 prospects for nothing is an F just because they didn't salary dump JD in the midst of the worst slump of his career, it is what it is.
Thats fine. I think they missed a golden opportunity to get under the tax in a season that was going nowhere. That team wasn’t worth investing in and wasn’t worth just holding. They should have moved JD, and Eovaldi, Wacha and they probably could’ve even gotten something for Strahm.
But more so, they could be under the tax AND now not be as concerned about the tax for a team that IS worth investing in. I mean, I’d love to see one of Scherzer or Verlander added to this team. If they had reset the cap AND maybe even netted some prospects for the three pitchers, it’d have been much easier to do that.
Doesn‘t mean I think Bloom sucks, and overall I give his 3 deadlines a B/B- as of now, but I think it’s a massive mark against him (like 2014 was against Cherington).
Anyway, I’m really hoping for one of Edman, Donovan or Gorman like Britton suggested. They’d all help for this year and all have term. Adding Montgomery or Flaherty to them would be even better.
Making it Donovan (capable of many positions) while simultaneously moving either Verdugo or Duvall for prospects to replenish what acquiring Donovan would cost would be a brilliant example of buying, selling, trying to make the playoffs this year while building for the future and would be an absolutely Machiavellian A+ move.
And I agree totally with you below regarding Paxton, but that isn’t worth a separate post, @JM3.
But more so, they could be under the tax AND now not be as concerned about the tax for a team that IS worth investing in. I mean, I’d love to see one of Scherzer or Verlander added to this team. If they had reset the cap AND maybe even netted some prospects for the three pitchers, it’d have been much easier to do that.
Doesn‘t mean I think Bloom sucks, and overall I give his 3 deadlines a B/B- as of now, but I think it’s a massive mark against him (like 2014 was against Cherington).
Anyway, I’m really hoping for one of Edman, Donovan or Gorman like Britton suggested. They’d all help for this year and all have term. Adding Montgomery or Flaherty to them would be even better.
Making it Donovan (capable of many positions) while simultaneously moving either Verdugo or Duvall for prospects to replenish what acquiring Donovan would cost would be a brilliant example of buying, selling, trying to make the playoffs this year while building for the future and would be an absolutely Machiavellian A+ move.
And I agree totally with you below regarding Paxton, but that isn’t worth a separate post, @JM3.
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An F isn't a serious grade when he won every trade he made & every player you say they should have traded was injured or playing awfully.
If he did literally nothing, of course F. If you choose to ding him significantly because you really wanted to be under the tax no matter how meager the return, fine. & you disagree with the models that ascribed them a 20% chance of playoffing or whatever & think adding guys like Pham & Hosmer who filled holes was a waste of time & blah blah blah.
But a deadline that got them Enmanuel Valdez, Wilyer Abreu, Corey Rosier & Reese McGuire, while getting off Jake Diekman's contract, while giving up 2 months of Vaz, Jay Groome's corpse & Nick Northcutt, is good for the direction of the franchise.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion that it's not as good as whatever mystery trades you would have made instead & that the media fallout wouldn't have been CRAZY. So you are completely entitled to the opinion that it should have been a lot better. If you call it a D- I would think that's a silly opinion, but I could respect it's place as a serious opinion. But naw.
If you're looking to improve this season's team, I'm not following the logic of moving Verdugo to bring in Donovan.
Fine, D- (I admittedly forgot about Abreu in the trade as well).
Trading injured players is in fact possible; Bloom’s best acquisition in a trade to this point (at least in my opinion) was acquiring an injured player at the deadline.
Not resetting the tax was a massive failure. I hope it doesn’t become even worse by diminishing what is done at this deadline on a much more investment worthwhile team.
@YTF - This year, Donovan plays 2b. Verdugo or Duvall plays RF and the other brings in prospects. Yoshida, Duran, Duvall/Verdugo and Donovan >> Yoshida, Duran, Verdugo/Duvall and Arroyo (or Chang, or whatever).
Trading injured players is in fact possible; Bloom’s best acquisition in a trade to this point (at least in my opinion) was acquiring an injured player at the deadline.
Not resetting the tax was a massive failure. I hope it doesn’t become even worse by diminishing what is done at this deadline on a much more investment worthwhile team.
@YTF - This year, Donovan plays 2b. Verdugo or Duvall plays RF and the other brings in prospects. Yoshida, Duran, Duvall/Verdugo and Donovan >> Yoshida, Duran, Verdugo/Duvall and Arroyo (or Chang, or whatever).
There's a difference between trading for a hitter with a minor leg injury & pitchers with arm injuries. But now that you've given it a D- I can hopefully never engage in conversation about the '22 deadline again (adding it to the list with the Mookie Betts trade).
I'd much rather keep Verdugo and Duvall and see if Edman can be brought aboard.
Though I hesitate to find something else for us to disagree on @JM3, but I think Bloom did a very good job in the Mookie trade. Two good starters for one year of a(n elite stud but still…) guy that was never going to sign here with realistically maybe three places he could’ve been traded. That was a very solid job by Bloom.
Totally fair @YTF. I personally like Gorman the best, and think Donovan is right behind him, though possibly the better fit long term, but I’d be more than happy with Edman. He’s a good ballplayer and would cost much less. Adding any of these three would be a win, I think. All fill an immediate need, all of them would be under control at least 2.5 seasons. Sign me up for Edman if that’s what it is.
Seeing the Scherzer return makes me wonder what it would take to add Verlander? With all the money the Sox will have next year, I’d absolutely be fine with 1.5 for ~$60m and him as a rotation stabilizing presence since Bello, Crawford and Houck will all be dirt cheap in 2024.
He’d make it virtually impossible to reset the tax this year, so I don’t think there is any chance it’ll happen, but I’d feel really good about making the playoffs with Verlander, Bello, Paxton, Crawford and “Murpivetta” as the rotation the rest of the way, and even better in a playoff series to start those front 3 and go from there.
Totally fair @YTF. I personally like Gorman the best, and think Donovan is right behind him, though possibly the better fit long term, but I’d be more than happy with Edman. He’s a good ballplayer and would cost much less. Adding any of these three would be a win, I think. All fill an immediate need, all of them would be under control at least 2.5 seasons. Sign me up for Edman if that’s what it is.
Seeing the Scherzer return makes me wonder what it would take to add Verlander? With all the money the Sox will have next year, I’d absolutely be fine with 1.5 for ~$60m and him as a rotation stabilizing presence since Bello, Crawford and Houck will all be dirt cheap in 2024.
He’d make it virtually impossible to reset the tax this year, so I don’t think there is any chance it’ll happen, but I’d feel really good about making the playoffs with Verlander, Bello, Paxton, Crawford and “Murpivetta” as the rotation the rest of the way, and even better in a playoff series to start those front 3 and go from there.
Rather than waste my time with the other guy, I'll ask you:
Was there a particular advantage to getting under the tax -two years in a row-? It seems obvious they planned to be under the tax this year, so whether they were under the tax last year or not doesn't seem to be of any particular relevance.
That's about the only argument I'd buy where being under the tax might be worth something, but otherwise, as you say, everything else seems like very good GM'ing.
The main problem with being over last season is the comp picks we got for losing Eovaldi & X came after the 4th round instead of after the 2nd round, & as a result we got less of an overall budget to sign all our picks than we would have had with the 2nd round comp picks.
It also cost about $12m of John Henry's money but I doubt anyone is concerned about that.
His argument is that we also would have gotten good prospects for JD, Wacha, Eo & Strahm had we completely tanked the season, even though JD's contract was under water & all 3 pitchers were injured.
There is not a big advantage to being under 2 years in a row. His argument is that they could comfortably go over now if they wanted to if they were under last year, but I think that would be fairly silly right now, & that the next big spending era will start this off season.
As “the other guy”, no, there is no advantage to getting under two years in a row.
The damage is that had the Sox gotten under last year, they could have taken on more salary with fewer implications this year. And I think having the chance to add significant salary to this team would have been a better outcome.
If people think last year‘s team was a better playoff / October run bet than this year’s, I suppose that’s fine. I’d disagree, but to each their own.
The thing is, though, next year & each year after should be at least as good or better than this year.
Probably, though as pointed out I’m sure the ChiSox felt similarly.
I‘ll just say that I think this year’s team is worth investing in (like putting money into S&P index funds investing, not bet it all on black investing - or LAAing it, if you will).
I hope that the luxury tax penalty isn’t massively hampering that investment. I am not part of the FO, so I don’t know if it is or not.
(Really hope you’re right - Yamamoto or similar - in the off season.)
Yes... but then the actual well run organizations do make the playoffs every single year now.
& yes, by all means invest if the price is right. Just not over the luxury tax line.
I dunno, I don't think it was beyond unrealistic to hope all of those guys would bounce back the rest of the way. They DID bounce back, admittedly, but the NEXT season instead of during the season, which is sort of really exasperating.
Throw in that I'd think you'd want to have the young players playing -with- some experienced veterans would have helped their development more, (I'm thinking this is a big part of why Justin Turner, age 38, was signed), and I'm just going with a 'ehhhh, too many factors that I'm not sold that not trading off the veterans represents a big failure on Bloom's part.
The Red Sox did not exceed the tax in 2021, so it wouldn't be "resetting" as much as "not exceeding." In financial terms, it's only JWH's money and completely insignificant.
In baseball terms, the "massive failure" you refer to is like saying that the value of the gap between pick #68 and #132, and #71 and #133 is worth more than the value of a one-in-three chance of making the playoffs.
We can refer to to the "value of a draft pick" study from a few years ago. Pick #66 is "worth" an average of $4.2 million in future value (in 2019 money). Picks in the #132-33 range (Round 4) are worth about $2.5M. So across both Eovaldi and Bogaerts picks, that's about $3.5M worth of value.
So on one side, you've got $3.5M of baseball team-building value, plus whatever low-level, probably Rule 5-eligible picks (in a year we protected five players and were widely criticized for not protecting more) you might have received for a clearly hurt Eovaldi and a broken JDM, and on the other, the less quantifiable but real potential of a postseason run.
Somewhere in there too, you'd have to weigh the impact of a narrative that the Red Sox are a team that retreats from a one-in-three chance of making the postseason. I think that would have sent a terrible message to the fan base, and I'm glad my team doesn't do that.
Yeah, it's a big part of resigning Kiké & signing Kenley & Kluber, too. They're trying to build a winning culture.
Want to prove you’re a top quarter GM? Well, pal, you’re gonna have to do a hell of a lot better than prove you can build an ALCS team and a nice cost-controlled core. I mean, half the teams in baseball do that. Need to see a hell of a lot more.
The criticisms we appear to be left with at this point are all variations of, he should have added a starter! He should have added a hitter! LOL.
Nah, but they’ll be within a handful of games of WC3 in the vast majority of them. So the well run teams will have to make tough decisions on occasion.
Or, who knows, maybe they’ll all make the easy call and do nothing while selling it to their fans as “competing.” I‘m honestly interested to see how that plays out. Will the goals shift from actual titles to the Jeremy Jacobs “just get the playoff gate” mindset. I am honestly curious. (I’m not talking about the Sox specifically, but owners in general).
Because it’s going to take some seriously awful luck or some seriously awful organizations to be “out of it” by around the ASG on any consistent basis.
My general thought is that teams “on the rise” or “in their window” should be the buyers and those short term deal teams “struggling” to get in WC3 contention should sell. Which is why I see a world of difference between last year’s Red Sox team and this version.
Or, to remove the Sox from it, I think LAA and SD should be selling whereas Baltimore and Houston should be buying.
Well-run teams make the playoffs every year nowadays.
Active Streaks:
Dodgers 10
Astros 6
Yankees 6
Braves 5
Cards 4
Rays 4
Of course, Cards are dropping out, & hopefully the Yankees, but yeah.
It would have been a neat trick to trade Eovaldi at the deadline and then get a comp pick for him after the season.
Sure would have.
Obviously it won't be clear for another few years as this year's draftees filter up through the various systems (or don't), but since the draft has now happened, is there still real angst about the extra couple million in bonus money they lost out on by being over the tax last year? By all accounts, the Sox had a good draft. Was there a magical player or two they missed out on due to the lower bonus pool and the later picks? Can we identify such candidates now? I feel like some want to treat it like Bloom did the equivalent of trading Bagwell for Anderson again, when it might be more like he traded Espinoza for Pomeranz...feels important initially but ultimately didn't do a whole lot of harm.
In this draft it wasn’t as much about the players available at those particular picks and moving up to get better players; because of the way their board fell with Teel and their (apparent) assessment of Zanetello and Anderson, it was about their bonus pool and paying 1-3. Better comp picks would’ve been nice, and nicer than normal, in such a deep draft, but it’s such a crap shoot anyway that there is no real way know. Any hypotheticals in the future are going to be entirely based on 20-20 hindsight and wishcasting.
I know it's about the money more than the placement of the picks, but having more money might have allowed them to draft different players with different money demands, right? I guess my question is about who those guys might have been more so than who they could have gotten with additional picks in the second as opposed to the fourth.
Ultimately an unanswerable question, of course. My main point is more that the concern about getting under the cap in 2022 is overblown relative to the tangible difference it might have made in the draft.
I think that maybe that starts with Anderson since they would’ve had supplemental pics before him at 3, but there were ‘t that many total pics between the supplemental round and the Sox’s 3rd rounder. The $ difference has been posted and definitely would’ve helped though - maybe they’re grabbing one more tough sign before starting to go under slot.
I think it’s more the unforced error not getting under represented, but I think that gets colored by anyone’s preconceptions about Bloom. They weren’t that far out of it, so I’m fine with not giving up on the team, but I also thought JD was in the middle of falling off a cliff and he should’ve been traded for just salary relief. Dumping him would’ve gotten them under the tax (and I won’t go into Pham).
I think we can also see the implications now, where they had no intention of re-signing X (managing a wrist injury for years?) and so a hedging buy/sell approach should definitely have kept them under the cap if they weren’t going to trade X or Eovaldi, the picks in a deep draft were all the compensation they were going to get.
this year is a bit different: the team is better (but in a tougher division) and the only guys they can deal for a haul are Paxton or Duval. I’m much less worried about last year’s strategy playing out this year.
Frustrating mostly to see how many of those guys bounced back this year. JD and Pham have been raking all year.
Oops, good catch. Wrote that distractedly and it’s muddily worded.
There were of course a few paths to getting under the tax, and my point is that either way we might’ve have handled Eovaldi, by trading him for prospects needing protection or trading JDM to get under and then QOing him, wasn’t worth the chance at the postseason.
I think if you operate in a literal vacuum, selling everything last year, even if it meant straight up salary dumping could have been the slightly better path.
The Red Sox don't operate in a literal vacuum, though. They operate in Boston & the blowback would have been insane. Not to mention the message it would have sent to the players.
The Red Sox don't operate in a literal vacuum, though. They operate in Boston & the blowback would have been insane. Not to mention the message it would have sent to the players.
The bottom line is the that the blowback in the Boston media market is always going to be histrionic, over the top, and not necessarily looking to what’s smartest long term for the team. Learning to ignore that is part of the job.
There’s the message to the players, which I agree is important, but there’s also properly assessing players, which they’ve shown themselves to be quite good at (and usually better than all of us here). They had the conviction to trade Vazquez and turn the catching duties over to McGuire & Wong. I thought you could dump JD to get under the tax without getting much else in return, but it’s reasonable to assume he wasn’t cooked (as evidenced by his performance this year, please see my first parenthetical).
this year the team is arguably better, with less to worry about in the players who are leaving. they’re also already under the cap, with very few possibilities to add someone who can push them over the threshold, so it’s really just about balancing competing this year vs adding to the long term core. Compared to last year, I think Duval can be traded for almost any pitching and keep the clubhouse (as opposed to doing that with JD), whereas dealing Paxton is as much a white flag move as dealing Eovaldi would’ve been (arguably more so, and absent a higher dimensional string-theory trade).
There’s the message to the players, which I agree is important, but there’s also properly assessing players, which they’ve shown themselves to be quite good at (and usually better than all of us here). They had the conviction to trade Vazquez and turn the catching duties over to McGuire & Wong. I thought you could dump JD to get under the tax without getting much else in return, but it’s reasonable to assume he wasn’t cooked (as evidenced by his performance this year, please see my first parenthetical).
this year the team is arguably better, with less to worry about in the players who are leaving. they’re also already under the cap, with very few possibilities to add someone who can push them over the threshold, so it’s really just about balancing competing this year vs adding to the long term core. Compared to last year, I think Duval can be traded for almost any pitching and keep the clubhouse (as opposed to doing that with JD), whereas dealing Paxton is as much a white flag move as dealing Eovaldi would’ve been (arguably more so, and absent a higher dimensional string-theory trade).
I don't know if I'd characterize the Yankees as 'poorly run', but their roster is a mess compared to the other AL East teams, with arguably less hope for short-term upgrades from the farm system.
Two less objective impacts of pushing to make the playoffs even with a flawed team (and every team is flawed):
-necessary experience for younger players like Casas, Duran, Wong, Bello, etc. that will benefit the team moving forward
-potentially being a more attractive destination for free agents (would Eovaldi or Efflin have chosen the Sox if the team had not finished in last place last year? I think Eovaldi wanted to play in TX and Efflin in FL, so, probably not, but I think some FAs would be less inclined to pick a team that failed to be competitive the prior year)
-necessary experience for younger players like Casas, Duran, Wong, Bello, etc. that will benefit the team moving forward
-potentially being a more attractive destination for free agents (would Eovaldi or Efflin have chosen the Sox if the team had not finished in last place last year? I think Eovaldi wanted to play in TX and Efflin in FL, so, probably not, but I think some FAs would be less inclined to pick a team that failed to be competitive the prior year)
Forgive the tangential nature of this, but in the assessment of the moves in the Chaim error above it's worth noting that it was not inevitable Mookie was going to leave Boston. From the Globe recently:
"During an appearance on the “Foul Territory” podcast, Mookie Betts reiterated that he never wanted to leave the Red Sox. “I know people don’t believe it, but I wanted to stay in Boston my whole career. That was my life, everybody there. It was perfect,” he said"
That doesn't mean they shouldn't have traded him necessarily (though I do wish if there could only have been one mega contract given, between Mookie, X, and Devers, it would have been given to Mookie).
I come in peace! Not Bloom bashing. Simply stating, Betts himself has denied - on more than one occasion - that he wanted to leave Boston (he was even shopping for new homes in the area). Let's take him at his word, and maybe include that fact in our analysis.
"During an appearance on the “Foul Territory” podcast, Mookie Betts reiterated that he never wanted to leave the Red Sox. “I know people don’t believe it, but I wanted to stay in Boston my whole career. That was my life, everybody there. It was perfect,” he said"
That doesn't mean they shouldn't have traded him necessarily (though I do wish if there could only have been one mega contract given, between Mookie, X, and Devers, it would have been given to Mookie).
I come in peace! Not Bloom bashing. Simply stating, Betts himself has denied - on more than one occasion - that he wanted to leave Boston (he was even shopping for new homes in the area). Let's take him at his word, and maybe include that fact in our analysis.
If there's one thing we should definitely do it's relitigate Mookie for the 800th time in the 23rd different place.
Starting to feel like they’re just gonna roll with what they have. Prices seem too high to pull anything off
Serious question...Does anyone know when was the last time the Red Sox made no moves at the deadline?