This article guesses 3/$45 million, and this one says 5/$80. In my mind it’s been something like 4/$64 — so yeah, essentially the Ozuna deal. I don’t think they go five, but I see him as essentially the same asset as JDM when we signed him so I wouldn’t hate it either.
I realize that only about 1 in 10 guys historically takes the QO, but there are 4-5 on that list who should seriously consider it this offseason, imo, including E-Rod.
I'm kinda shocked that the Athletic allows Bowden to continue to write. He is, pound-for-pound, the worst national columnist writing today. His advice to the Yankees on improving their team--sign every good free agent, trade all of your bad players to other teams for their good ones--was so insane that I thought that it was a satire.
I couldn't agree more. Other than actual knowledge inside a front office, I would trust the opinion of most of the members of this board over him. He comes off like a stereotypical talk radio caller.
No surprise that JD opted in: but we can kiss Schwarber goodbye unless Martinez, accompanied by some cash, is traded - a prospect I would welcome.
Semien makes a lot of sense, and his crowdsourced Fangraphs contract estimates (between 4/$92 and 4/$120) are pretty doable, I think.
I think E-Rod is in a really interesting spot. One hand, the QO is A LOT of money in an offseason where we don't really know what is about to happen.
Maybe someone who watched more A's games than I did should chime in, but my view is that Semien was a pretty good defensive shortstop from 2016-19. He had a lot of trouble with throwing errors early in his career — 35 in 2015 — but he got his footwork straightened out and cut those numbers in half. His range has generally looked good to me, but OOA places it a few outs below par.
Good call, I remember those stories about his improvement at short too. I read somewhere in the last week or so that the industry views him more as a second baseman now, but of course I’ve forgotten where. I’ll try to dig it up, but I should have qualified that a bit more.
I know Rizzo is a superior defender to Dalbec, but Dalbec is already Rizzo's (rough) equivalent offensively (better OPS, lesser oWAR) and Rizzo's defensive skills, while better than Dalbec's, are declining. And then there's Casas. And the money. Anyway, what was said above about Bowden. He's a lazy doofus.
As great as Castillo is for us, he's also great for 29 other teams. Anything we offer could be easily topped - and I'm not sure I'd want to part with the players necessary to get him. Houck/Verdugo would probably be the baseline.
Agreed. But if I'm E-Rod, and my agent tells me this is the kind of deal that's reasonable to expect in this offseason, then I'm taking the QO and letting the dust settle. If he pitches next year like he did this year, and the BABIP gods and Lady Luck smile upon him, he's looking at something closer to a Corbin-like deal.
That makes sense. Would be a perfect scenario for the Sox IMO and would provide them with basically the same rotation that ended the season- Sale, Eovaldi, ERod, Pivetta and Houck. Likely one of them goes down and Whitlock can step in. Seabold plays the Whitlock role ‘22.
The Reds have been open about needing to trim payroll; I would entertain letting Cincinnati staple Mike Moustakas to Castillo rather than giving up good prospects. He's got a $16 million luxury tax hit the next two seasons and was awful in 2021, but the Red Sox could actually use a guy who can play 1B and 2B hitting from the left side.
Does Seabold have the stuff for relief ace? I didn't see much promise of that in his brief major league appearances. Velocity unimpressive, fastball topping out in the low 90s, and limited movement on the slider.
I’m meaning it more in the old style “long relief” type that can spot start or just eat innings. I should probably remove the Whitlock connection
Andrew Heaney just let up a home run basically every 4 innings he pitched and got a deal for $8 mil+. Eduardo may take the QO (it's a lot of money to say no to), but I really think if he goes to free agency he is going to get PAID.
I’d be very surprised if any team would give up a draft pick to find out what this guy has left in the tank, and even more surprised if that team were the Red Sox.
I can't imagine the Sox being in on Rizzo this winter. Signing a 32 year old 1B to a multi-year deal makes no sense with Dalbec in house and Casas knocking on the door.
I would add Brad Miller to that list, who has the added benefit of MI experience.
Verlander representing the Red Sox at off-season player workouts while also attempting his own comeback. Nobody works harder than this guy.
FWIW, the Sox Prospects guys felt that Seabold’s stuff had diminished considerably by the time he made that appearance for the Sox in September. He missed a large part of the season because of an injury, had a couple of very-good-to-excellent starts when he came back, and wound up with OK stats overall in 54 IP across 11 minor league appearances for Worcester:
This is helpful background, since he looked extremely average in his appearance with the Sox. It probably isn't fair to anticipate another breakout like Whitlock, but I'm hoping one or two of this list will contribute meaningful innings next year: Brayan Bello, Josh Winckowski, Kutter Crawford, Eduard Bazardo, Durbin Feltman, Kaleb Ort, Frank German.
If the Sox are mostly going the stand pat route with the roster, I think Eduardo Escobar would be a perfect fit. Switch hitter that plays 2B, 3B, and even covered 1B for 18 games last year. He has played SS in the past as well so might be a short term solution in the event X just needs a couple days off.
That's how I read it the first 5 times as well. It took me a while to figure out what that tweet was actually trying to say.
Fangraphs has a pretty good article about the top 50 free agents and what their folks are expecting contract-wise. Their consensus is 4/60 for Taylor.
I was also scanning the thread and realized 4/60 was the general consensus when it was discussed earlier, or else let LA have him if the bidding goes higher. I disagree; this guy fills a lot of holes in our roster, and I think he's got the track record to justify a bigger contract. I'd go 4/65 or 4/70 for him easily.
