Fishy1 said:
My bias about '24 and '25 is the Sox need to improve defensively and improve their power right handedness. I think the days of '13 and cheap opportunist acquisitions is gone. I just keep coming back to .....
Mike Trout.
Count me in for a Trout trade, paired with trades to move Duran and Yoshida (unless we need to keep Yoshida as Yamamoto bait -- hold off on the Trout trade, if possible, until the Yama situation is sorted out).
With Trout in and Yoshida/Duran out, the outfield in '24 looks like:
Trout (R) LF / CF / DH
Rafaela (R) CF / RF
Verdugo (L) RF
Abrue (L) LF / CF
Refsnyder (R) LF / RF
A left-center-right defense of Trout, Little Raffy and Dugie would be excellent. Don't know how often we'd want to see that, though, as Dugie should be sitting against lefties, and Little Raffy might should be sitting against righties. This collection of outfielders offers lots of platoon mix & match possibilities, with a defensive floor of solid.
Home vs RHP (left to right)
Trout, Abreu, Verdugo
Home vs LHP
Trout, Rafaela, Refsnyder (or flip Trout and Refy, or even push everybody over one spot, i.e. Refy, Trout, Lil Rafy, though I'd rather keep Trout away from the jutting bullpen in Fenway CF)
Road vs RHP
Abreu, Trout, Verdugo
Road vs LHP
Trout, Rafaela, Refsnyder
The key to trading for Trout is giving up enough prospect capital to bring back a lot of cash for that underwater contract. Preferably $12-17M per season to get his salary cost down to $20-25M. I start with Duran (I have no interest in an outfielder who can't make plays at the fence), offer one of York/Bleis, and one MiLB pitcher not named L Perales, W Gonzalez, or Y Monegro. If it takes one more player, they can pick anybody else from Sox Prospects #15 or lower (I'd even let them pick Zanatello or Y Cespedes, if necessary).
Why do the Angels do this? First, because Trout wants a chance to win and that chance is over with the Angels now. Duran provides an MLB-ready CF replacement for Trout and gets to go home to So Cal. And the Angels get a good farm system influx with two or three of the Sox system's top 30.
Why do the Sox do this? They keep their best three pitching prospects, best OF prospect (Anthony), best IF prospect (Mayer) and best C prospect (Teel). They get Trout, the greatest player of his generation, and he gets to close out his career in the shadow of the Green Monster, where a couple other decent players named Williams and Yastrzemski patrolled. Yes, Trout will likely miss time for injury. But as has been discussed in other threads, even playing 100 games a season Trout will put up 3 or 4 wins.
Looking ahead, hopefully in '25 Anthony (L) is ready to replace Verdugo in RF. If Refsnyder remains productive vs lefties re-sign him; if not, find another right-handed platoon option with good defense.