I think what is being lost here is the finite number of both roster spots and the remaining budget.
We’ve heard from plenty of reliable sources (at least they’re reliable in my opinion) of the team sticking with that $227m budget (well $225m last year was approximately 97% of $LTT, and I’m using the same percentage, just with this year‘s number).
Haven’t seen RSP updated yet, but I believe O’Neill’s settlement was around $500k more than his projected arb (at least on Spotrac) which puts the Sox at $201.5m (and $25.5m below).
Adding Soler, almost by definition means Duran back to CF, another year of horrible d in LF (which is fine if the bat is good enough), but you’ve weakened your OF defense because Duran is should almost assuredly be better in LF than Yoshida or Soler AND the double edged sword is you’ve made your D worse in CF going from Rafaela to Duran.
The lineup might be a little better, but you’ve still committed to a year of DH/OF situation of let’s say Soler/Duran/O’Neill/Yoshida/Refsnyder and we again go into next year having no better idea of if Rafaela or Abreu can handle MLB pitching.
Plus, the bigger thing is, I believe
@Rovin Romine was just picking a low number to make a point, but I’ll go with it. That means the payroll is $206.5m and you’ve ensured not landing Montgomery or Snell.
So, in summation, the pitching hasn’t improved, the OF defense has gotten worse, you’ve made O’Neill and Refsnyder even more redundant than they already are (and we have to pay Refsnyder, even though I agree Soler is obv a far better offensive player) and the line up is probably a bit better.
Soler only makes sense after a) the starting pitching has been addressed or b) with a trade of other OF. Otherwise, it doesn’t do nearly enough to fix the biggest problems on the team and only uses up finite resources (the $25.5m left to spend). I also would wager he’s likely to cost at least $10m per year, if not more.