Sorry, I didn't mean to not engage with this. I was just living my best Montgomery = starter Bernardino comp life.
But I'm not sure what the overarching thesis is. I do expect Kutter to have a better season than Montgomery this year (assuming health, but especially when adjusting for park factors), but it has almost nothing to do with what kind of pitcher Montgomery was 4 to 7 years ago.
& that also has almost nothing to do with whether signing other JM would be a good idea or not.
If the Red Sox end the year this far under the CBT line, I will be embarrassed for them. Even if they're cash poor, they can do more deals like the Bello deal where they increased their CBT # but it had almost no impact on their outgoing cash this year. Not using that buffer under the tax this year would be detrimental to future financial flexibility.
The Red Sox Payroll guy has the Sox just about exactly $25m under the tax line, so they probably couldn't really sign other JM & stay under the tax without moving a guy like Martin or Kenley, & then what's really the point?
View: https://twitter.com/redsoxpayroll/status/1772379007280939310
I just hope they get really creative with that space. Whether it means things are going badly & you trade a subsidized Kenley/Martin/etc., whether it means taking on someone's bad contract + a prospect, or whether it means extensions for Casas, C Note, Crawford, Houck, ATM, etc etc.
There are much more interesting uses for that space than Montgomery. But they better use it somehow.
