Starting pitching is a clear priority for the Red Sox. Boston’s new chief baseball officer Craig Breslow acknowledged as much last week, although they’re certainly not alone in that pursuit.
That could extend to the top end of the market. Jeff Passan of ESPN wrote on Tuesday that the Sox were targeting front-line starting pitching. Jon Heyman of the New York Post suggests Boston is looking to add multiple starters this offseason. It stands to reason Breslow and his staff could look to pair an impact acquisition with a more affordable, if lower ceiling, addition.
Free agency offers a few possibilities. The Red Sox surely have some level of interest in Shohei Ohtani, but he wouldn’t be a factor in the 2024 rotation after his elbow procedure. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Aaron Nola and Jordan Montgomery are generally regarded as the next tier of free agent starters. AL Cy Young runner-up Sonny Gray is probably below that group in earning power because he’s 34 years old but fits in terms of short-term impact.
This afternoon, Ian Browne of MLB.com suggested in an appearance on the ITM podcast that the Boston front office prefers Montgomery to Snell or Nola (Twitter link via Steve Perrault). Sox executives chatted with Montgomery’s representatives at the Boras Corporation during last week’s GM Meetings, although they’re presumably targeting multiple Boras clients to varying degrees. (Snell is also represented by the Boras Corp.)
Montgomery turned in a 3.20 ERA through 188 2/3 innings between the Cardinals and Rangers. It was third straight sub-4.00 showing over 30+ starts. Montgomery chipped in 31 frames of 2.90 ERA ball during Texas’ run to a World Series. During the regular season, the 30-year-old southpaw struck out a near-average 21.4% of opponents while keeping his walks to a tidy 6.2% clip.
He may not have the upside of Nola or Snell, each of whom misses more bats. Montgomery has better control than Snell and hasn’t had the spotty ERA or home run issues that have troubled Nola in two of the past three seasons, however. He also has the advantage of not requiring a signing team to surrender draft compensation. The midseason trade rendered Montgomery ineligible for the qualifying offer. Snell, Nola and Gray all received the QO. Yamamoto, of course, is not subject to the QO as a foreign professional.
Roster Resource projects the Sox for roughly $189MM in luxury tax commitments. That’s well below the $237MM base threshold, leaving plenty of potential spending room for Breslow and his staff. It’s also possible the Sox look to the trade market for rotation help. It’s difficult to envision the Rays trading Tyler Glasnow in division. Players like Corbin Burnes or Shane Bieber could be available as they enter their final seasons of arbitration eligibility.
Boston’s current rotation mix is a high-variance unit. Nick Pivetta, Chris Sale, Brayan Bello, Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock have all shown substantial upside.They also come with uncertainty to varying degrees. Houck and Whitlock might be better suited for relief. That could also be true of Pivetta, although he finished the 2023 season pitching very well over multiple innings. Sale has battled injuries and Bello seemed to wear down in the second half of his first full MLB season.
Shane Bieber for Rafael Devers is equal value.
Cy Young winner for an average hitter
Yeah a 124OPS+, career 18.8 WAR, .280/.343/.510 hitter who is 26 and signed for the next 10 years is an average player.
Troll much?
ellisburks – The numbers put up by Devers reflect him playing on a Red Sox team that doesn’t have Mookie, Benny, JD, Bogey and others who always protected him in the order. The protection is minimal now so his new normal could be an OPS+ less than 130. His $30MM a year was outrageous when he was putting up OPS+ numbers over 135 because he’s the worst fielding 3B in history.
While OIC2021 was being sarcastic, his comments about Devers may be the normal for Devers. You can quote his history all you want but he counted on the guys around him to produce those numbers. That’s why quoting WAR means nothing. His .280/.343/.510 career numbers are meaningful but so are his 2023 numbers now that Bloom stripped away all the other all-stars. Devers 2023 numbers of .271/.351/.500 is NOT much different from his career numbers BUT his WAR dropped to 3.5 from 4.4. If you consider his weight, his conditioning and his horrendous defense things will only go downhill as he ages. So at age 27 in 2024 he might have 5 or 6 years like 2023. Is that worth $300MM?
Bieber had his first bad season in 2023 and costs $12.2MM. That’s very little for a SP of his stature. So you dump a guy who will never live up to his contract for an inexpensive outstanding SP who could be extended to be a big part of the future rotation.
I hate Devers defense and his contract so much I think it’s in the best interest of the Red Sox to swap Bieber for Devers BUT Cleveland can’t afford him so Devers must be swapped to another big market team to unload the albatross contract. NYM would be a great target since they have no track record of making smart decisions. Swap Devers for McNeil, Baty and Francisco Alvarez. The Red Sox shed nearly $20MM in payroll and fill their 2B needs, their 3B needs and their C needs. This allows Yoshida to go to DH and the defense is fixed plus you have $20MM to get more pitching.
Lol. The Mets are going to be in on the same SP the RS want. Just bc you don’t like Devers doesn’t mean the Mets want to give away three core players away. And I want to trade Stanton for Juan Soto.
SB fastball velocity in 21 – 92.4mph. SB velocity in 23 – 89.2mph. SB exit velocity 21 – 89.7, 23 – 91.6. Bieber is trending down and has been the last 2 years. He is also 2 years older and only 2 more years of control. I will take 10 years of .852 OPS and 126 OPS+ over an obviously downward trending pitcher.
TF – Did you hunt down and email the writer who gave Devers the MVP vote yet? Haha!
His WAR dropped from 3.5 to 4.4? Whaaat?
Trading Devers to Cleveland will never happen unless they have another deal pending. He’s a DH sooner or later. That deal was for the fans so let’s enjoy his bat knowing the contract will eventually hurt. What got me in the story is the tax issue. This team will need to go over the first tier in the short term if they want to compete in 24.
Yankees should go hard after Nola and Montgomery. Nice RH/LH balance, plus both are very solid #2 starting pitchers who have shown flashes on occasion of being an ace.
Stanton? Nobody wants him and nobody will want to pay his salary. The Yankees are stuck with him being on the roster unless they opt to eat all his cheese and release him.
Troll- Devers isn’t getting traded or moved off of 3B no matter how many times you say it. I generally agree with most of what you have to offer, but this just isn’t a realistic move right now. Maybe in a couple of years.
Cleveland can afford Devers, but won’t even consider your proposal for Bieber. Cleveland has better 3B hitter and defender long-term already. They have 2 LH DH 1B guys, in their plans. No fit whatsoever for Devers.
Shop around. Maybe White Sox. or Milwaukee.
Lol, you’re utterly delusional!
ellisburks – I guess that’s why you aren’t a GM!!
Bobby Bonilla
sfes – English your second language?
his WAR dropped to 3.5 from 4.4. and you concluded what you wrote?
You might want to sit on the sidelines and watch this game.
dewey = I showed that what you said is not true. They have money to get $50MM in SPs, $18MM in lefty relief, $18MM for a 3B and $10MM for a 2B.
They still need to move Devers or Yoshida to fix the defense. That brings back contingency money.
Oops. Misread. And yes it is my second language. No need to be so butt hurt.
grnmtnyeti – WORST OF ALL TIME. That’s not easily achieved and it’s only going to get worse. Why in the world would you as a GM permit this to continue for the sake of the player and the detriment of the team, especially the pitchers? It makes no sense. Isn’t Breslow supposed to be a bright guy?
Any intelligent human being would observe the situation and fix it. No player should have the power to hurt his team for his ego’s sake.
westcasey – Someone mockingly suggested that Bieber should be traded for Devers and my point was that it wasn’t as unfair as they were suggesting. I know it’s not a deal that could happen but the whole point was that Bieber had ONE bad year and some of the stat nerds who don’t know jack about baseball concluded he’s done at age 28. Velocity dropping? Who cares!! It means the pitcher makes adjustments and goes back to being an ace.
That’s the problem with sites like fangraphs and statcast they turn non baseball guys into experts based on data they don’t comprehend in a game they don’t comprehend.
Then again, that Devers trade is bananas. Despite the Mets having “no track record of making smart decisions,” they have been holding on to their young controllable assets, and won’t trade 3 of their starters for Devers. That’s actually quite laughable.
Troll – bloom was supposedly a bright guy too, yet he made the deal. Personally, I think he gets one year to show marked improvement with his defense, if nothing changes he’s DH bound.
Regardless of what, you or I think, it’s just not realistic that he’s going to get traded or moved to DH this year. It’s just not going to happen, especially the trade.
sfes – Your comment came after a string of comments from Yankee fans so I was irritated at the time because I did write it correctly. It came across as yet another sarcastic comment because someone disagreed with what I wrote. Yankee trolls come in many forms. Mistakes are completely acceptable and knowing that I apologize for the harshness..
sfes – So you think Devers isn’t worth the players mentioned? That’s laughable. Sound logic would be to turn down the deal based on money not talent. I guess you do still have lots to learn other than the language.
grnmtnyeti – So 7 years in the majors and 4 additonal bad years in the minors isn’t conclusive enough? The all time record for most seasons leading the majors in errors at 3B in 6 full seasons isn’t conclusive enough? EVERY YEAR the same old crap about him improving. It’s ridiculous.
In 2022 I dug into Baseball Reference and recorded the misplays by Devers and it turned out to be 52 and he got credit for 14 of them according to the score keepers. The other 38 sill put runners on base. The other 38 added earned runs to the pitching staff. The other 38 made pitchers throw hundreds of additional pitches throughout the season.
You can’t be serious about thinking an 8th MLB year will change his over a decade long trend of being the worst in baseball!!
He should have been made a DH in the minors and definitely by the time he hit the roster in 2017 or worst case, 2018.
Last point… Bloom a bright guy? We have conclusive proof over the past four years that he was far from it.
Bieber is trending down and has been the last 2 years.
=========================
I was going to mention something similar. His K9:
14.2
12.5
8.9
7.5
His K9-W9
11.8
9.4
7.3
5.1
In my brief studies, consecutive three year declines for an SP predicts arm trouble.
@trollfree I don’t hate any fan base including you ::hugs::
Swap Devers for McNeil, Baty and Francisco Alvarez.
============================
McNeil is a very interesting target.
Not trading a great hit/bad glove 3B for a bad hit/bad glove 3B.
IRT Alvarez, there is no way he is involved on either side. He’s a fine prospect, but:
A) The NYMs aren’t trading their only catcher for almost anyone, and
B) The RS have a good young catcher in Wong, and a top-tier prospect in Teel. They aren’t adding a 3rd good catcher.
grnmtn – Totally agree! As for the Devers extension, I have always maintained Bloom backed himself in a corner. He had just let JD, Xander, and The Great Nate walk and the only remaining “star” was Devers. I wouldn’t be surprised if Henry and Kennedy told Bloom “Hey our revenue projections are going way down, we literally can’t afford to lose Devers”.
As for TF’s demand to trade or move Devers, he can be a little impatient at times. Haha!
TF – In 2022 Devers had a positive defensive rating, in fact he was rated the 9th best defensive 3B in MLB (min 1,000 innings).
And in 2019 he was ranked the 3rd-best in MLB! So there’s still hope!
Troll- you can yell and scream until you’re blue in the face but he’s not getting traded or moved off of third this year. Ain’t happening…
Fever- you get it. If the traded Devers ownership would be crucified by everyone but Troll lol
Nope not in the midst of a rebuild. For a team on the cusp of contention sure.
And when did I say he wasn’t worth those players? I didn’t. There’s several reasons why they wouldn’t do that, one being their rebuilding status, 2 being the money. You go right back to insulting people after “apologizing” and put words in their mouth?
grnmtn – It’s not just a matter of fan backlash, if they were to feel compelled to move him now they would most certainly have to eat a good portion of his contract. As long as he continues to be an elite hitter, there is no reason to treat him like a salary dump.
“You go right back to insulting people after “apologizing” and put words in their mouth?”
Is this your first time debating with TrollFree, formerly KD17, and the most ironic name in history of posting. Dont waste your the wear on your keyboard.
Fever – Devers led the league in errors in each of those years. Defensive metrics are completely inaccurate because they are built on false assumptions.
There is ABSOLUTELY NO HOPE and I can’t believe you would make such an erroneous statement. He played like crap at 16, he played like crap all through the minors and now he’s ended his 7th season in the majors and he still plays like crap.
You take those facts, not my opinion because the data not me says he plays like crap and you have the nerve to suggest ANYTHING positive about his defense? Seriously. Too many Bud Lights?
I refuse to believe you were in your right mind when you tried to argue there is still hope after over a decade of being the worst at his position.
What possesses baseball fans to ignore the worst player of all time at a position? It’s a team sport. ROOT FOR THE TEAM. The team NEEDS defense and DEVERS is all out when it comes to providing defense and has been for a DECADE!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES A DECADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow… You are now a Devers apologist!!! Next thing you are going to do is start believing Bloom and Cora are good at their jobs.
PERSPECTIVE – Bloom and Cora are better at their jobs than Devers is on defense!!!! I can’t make a bolder statement than that about how incredibly bad Devers is on defense. He should be embarrass and humiliated that he can’t field a ground ball and throw out the runner. His ego is so off the charts that he simply doesn’t care how much he hurts the team and specifically the pitching staff. He lacks character to behave the way he does. I say trade the selfish wanker asap and take a bath on Bloom’s contract just to raise the integrity of the clubhouse without Cora and Devers..
Troll – Of course there’s still hope for Devers. Just look at Wade Boggs, he was a terrible fielding third baseman for years, but he worked at it and eventually won his first GG at age 36!!!
You obviously have an excellent understanding of the game, but when it comes to Devers getting traded or moved to DH, your hatred for him clearly clouds your judgement.
TF – I love your passion! I’m not an apologist at all, just pointing out for a guy with a massive contract it benefits everyone if he can turn around his defense. That means staying healthy, working at it, and focusing on it. I’ve gone on record as advocating one more year with him at 3B with a new POBO and new coach, if he doesn’t improve then the team should seriously consider making a change of some sort.
Xander greatly improved his defense last year, other players have improved their defense tremendously, it happens. This is a guy who has played literally over 10,000 innings during his 10-year professional career – all at third base. If there was no hope of him improving, he would have played another position or DH’ed a long time ago. Some years he was definitely better defensively than other years, this year was probably his worst.
Think about all the coaches, managers, and front office staff that stayed with him at 3B … including Farrell and Dombrowski … they can’t ALL be wrong!
I think if Devers doesn’t improve next year and Casas fizzles out or gets traded, then Devers moves to 1B. Otherwise he becomes the DH in 2025.
As for errors, they are just as flawed as every other defensive stat. Errors are a judgement call by one person only, of course that one person could be wrong in giving or not giving an error.
This year the stats say Devers was the worst defensive 3B in MLB, I doubt you would dispute those numbers!! Haha!
And who is inexorably heading toward eating himself out of MLB. By age 28 he will look like Rick Reuschel with a bat. Typical red socks player. LOL.
“eating himself out of mlb”
At any given time last year, wasnt 60% of the stars of the Yankees on the IL. Sorry but, I’d rather my players be fat, than broken.
I think their window to trade Bieber for anything of value is quite closed. Dude isnt totally washed but he is in clear decline.
gvo
FWIW, BTV has Beiber’s value at $5.7 million ($17.9 million in performance with $12.2 million in salary)
good vibes only – Your name is not being reflected in your thoughts.
Bieber had ONE bad year after many good years.
2023 – Bad Year – ERA 3.84 and WHIP 1.234
2022 – Good Year – ERA 2.88 and WHIP 1.040 7th in CY YOUNG
2021 – Good Year – ERA 3.17 and WHIP 1.21
2020 COVID YEAR – Great year – ERA 1.63 and WHIP 0.866 CY YOUNG WINNER
2019 – Good Year – ERA 3.28 and WHIP 1.054 4th in CY YOUNG
I get that recent history should be weighed heavier than prior to that but seriously, the guy is done?
Boston should seek Bieber if they can. His estimated $12.2MM salary in his final arbitration year is a big upgrade at a low cost. I know lets give Cleveland Verdugo, Wong and Downs…. oh wait Downs is gone. Verdugo, Wong and Cora!!! Tito is gone. They need Cora!! hahaha
Seriously, trading for Bieber would be a smart move. He needs a change and a good pitching coach.
That’s about as rational as the Padres expecting Boston to trade Mookie Betts for Brad Hand a few years back.
No. Bieber’s stuff has deteriorated over last three seasons.
Boxscore – I respect your opinion so can you define stuff?
1 – Velocity
2 – Control
3 – Break on his off speed pitches
4 – Ability to throw as effectively out of the stretch
See, pitchers have varying degrees of success for many, many reasons. Maybe the catcher calling the game is worse now compared to before. Maybe the metrics team has suggested the wrong pitches to be effective against the opposition.
Stuff is just a bit vague. The guy has been great his entire life until 2023.
CY YOUNG top 7 finish in 3 of the previous 4 years prior to 2023.
He was an outstanding pitcher at UC Santa Barbara through 2016.
He put up monster numbers in 2017 at three levels of the minors.
He had a rough 2018 as a rookie.
Then he made the All-Star team and finished fourth in the Cy Young.
During COVID he actually won a Cy Young.
In 2021 he was an all-star.
In 2022 he finished 7th in the Cy Young and won a gold glove
Then in 2023 he had a bad year for him which was better than all of the Boston pitchers with a 3.80 ERA and 1.234 WHIP.
That’s his ONLY bad year since he broke into the bigs in 2018 and like I mentioned our best starting pitcher ranked behind him in performance in 2023!!
So rather than his stuff deteriorated maybe he had his first career year 3 years ago at age 25 during the shortened season. Since then, he’s pitched better than anyone on Boston’s roster by a wide margin.
So I refuse to believe he is over the hill at 28 because he had a less stellar year than the many prior to 2023.
Velocity and missing bats. I’m not saying anything that can’t be found from other sources
Boxscore – It’s ONE year after a career of greatness. That’s a pretty short leash. A guy has a bad year whether it’s with velocity and missing bats or something else the first thing most people do is find someone who can fix the sudden bump in the road. You are suggesting the guy should be put down. That’s harsh.
Joker
Bieber is nowhere near Devers right now, and he’s obviously trending down plus recent injury issues. Wouldn’t touch him if i were any team.
Ma4170 – He’s trending down yet ranks above all Boston pitchers. Two years ago he was FAR above all Boston pitchers. We have a new pitching coach and as soon as they fire Cora we’ll have a quality manager who can work with Breslow and his staff to bring back Bieber to his old self.
Some times it’s about knowing when an issue is permanent or temporary. Sale was washed up completely according to many then he came back and looked like Sale for a while. His demise was greatly exaggerated by folks who made off the cuff comments like yours. Bieber is in the same boat. Too good to throw out with the bath water.
Its an informed off the cuff comment though. His underlying numbers arent very good. He still gets ground balls but doesnt get swings and misses anymore, and gets hit fairly hard. Dealt w injuries two of the last three years. He may be better than Boston’s best, but to mention devers in a deal for him is unrealistic in my opinion.
Ma4170 – I’ll remind you how this started. Someone else mentioned it and when someone scoffed at it I pointed out it would be good for Boston because Devers contract isn’t going to be traded in the future and wasting $300MM on a DH with a 125 OPS+ is an expensive mistake. If you can dump it and get something back in return, especially a former CY YOUNG winner who has been top 7 in the voting 4 of the last 5 years…..DO IT!!!!
It frees up future money AND it moves your team defense up 10 to 15 spots without Devers errors. If Bieber comes back to form it’s a monster steal and if he doesn’t you simply fixed the payroll for a decade.
Please no on Blake Snell. Guy barely gets out of 5 innings on most years. He was good on 2023 but I don’t expect him to be of the same value
In his career, Snell has started 191 games and only pitched 993 innings.
That’s only 5.19 innings per start. If a team is gonna pay big bucks for a supposed ace, he had better be a lock to get his team at least into the seventh inning.
Starting pitching prices are going through the roof this year with every major market team in drastic need of it.
For real. Lots of big market teams desperate for arms. Snell and Nola are going to get overpaid big time
Mets – Nope. For instance the Yanks already have $63M a year committed to Rodon and Cole. Rangers have $103M committed to 5 SP’s next year. And this is the deepest free agent SP pool in decades.
Fever – Loved the amount of money invested in pitching BUT what’s actually more relevant is money available under the CAP. Now the Yanks and Mets might not care about that number but Texas does but they are $49MM under right now so ONE big time player (Ohtani) fits their budget. If they don’t get him I wouldn’t be surprised to see Monty back in Texas. You can never have too much pitching. The past 4 years we’ve always had too little pitching so Breslow needs to get in gear and start building the war chest of pitchers. We have lots of young bottom of the rotation guys who could easily improve to top of the rotation guys in the coming years but for now we need top of the rotation to jump past the Bloom .500 winning percentage team.
I disagree. Supply is quite high, and across all levels of the market.
Too many DH types for Ohtani to make sense without a major shift in the roster.
Don’t like Snell as he just is too volatile, and it will probably be another few years before he managed to get this lucky again.
Like Montgomery, but don’t think he’s that high-end. SP3 at best. I think a trade is necessary for the Sox to grab a pitcher of noteworthy. Only one worth doing is with the Brewers for Burnes.
I expect the Sox to make some moves that shift around some of the wealth of quantity they can’t capitalize on. Duran and Verdugo seem like obvious candidates. For whom is not obvious.
Cleveland – Montgomery was the #2 on the world champs. Shouldn’t that make him a number 2? Rather than a SP 3 at best? You must really dislike the guy. He’s already above your at best level and he’s sticking his ring in your face for showing such disrespect!!
TF – Totally agree on Monty! Next year on the Rangers he’d be a #4 behind deGrom, Scherzer and the Great Nate but pretty much anywhere else he’d be a #1 or #2 and he will get a $150M contract.
His stats the past two seasons have been awesome!
64 starts
3.30 ERA
1.14 WHIP
367 IP
Fever – I think you will find that the pecking order in Texas in 2023 will be deGrom when he returns, then Montgomery, then Nate, then Scherzer (he looked really rough late in the year), then Dunning.
Your point is valid. TEXAS is loaded with pitching. Hopefully, both deGrom and Scherzer can come back to form and not be an injury waiting to happen like Sale. Monty can eat innings like Nate and all teams need that.
TF – My order was based on good health for all. If Nate and Scherzer remain healthy they are definitely ahead of Monty.
For $150M I think more will be expected of Monty than just eating innings. Haha!
Fever – Nate and Monty are fairly comparable and both did well down the stretch so it’s hard to say who would get the nod in 2024. Scherzer isn’t the Scherzer we’ve loved for years. He is at that stage in his career that he’s trying to hang onto his greatness and it’s no coincidence his hands were sticky a couple of times last year. It reminds me of Major League and the guy that had hid all kinds of substances inside his uniform, belt and glove. Scherzer is hittable now even when healthy. My guess is 2024 will be his last year if he continues his downhill slide. I know you aren’t a big Monty fan but his stuff is better than Scherzer now that he’s working with Maddux.
You mention a $150MM contract. Six years at $25MM? I think Monty gets $100 for 4 years since he’s 31 in 2024.
Gray stands out to me for the Sox. A short term pact for a top of rotation arm seems intriguing.
Yeah I’d love to get Gray. Maybe 3-4 years at something around 20M per year seems like a very solid investment
Redsoxx_62 – Gray? You mean Sonny Gray who failed miserably last time he was in the AL East. That Sonny Gray?
No thanks. His best year was last year because it was his highest innings pitched since 2015 when he was 25. He’ll be 34 in 2024.
So many better pitchers are available. Bloom would like signing Sonny Gray for more than his worth expecting him to throw about 110 to 130 innings like he did when he was younger. NOPE, Gray would be a step backwards.
Agreed, Gray would be an awful choice. If he’s Breslow’s only “tor” starter we’re in trouble. Abloom type trouble…
Pitching in the AL Central isn’t anywhere near as hard as pitching in the AL East. I’d pass on Gray.
grnmt – Totally agree with you to stay away from Gray!!
I give up, what is a “tor” starter?
Fever – top of rotation starter. Sorry, it was too early for me to spell it out lol
grnmtn – No worries, now I know going forward ;O)
Keep reading and hearing of Gray at 20m and 2-3, my 4y contract wise. I’m not so sure he’s not the best available SP, other than Yamamoto of the guys that will pitch in 2024. Think Gray, after bidding could maybe top out at 3..Maybe 4y and slightly less than 25m aav now.
As for Gray previously having issues in the AL East? NY specificially should have been by that particular poster. Some players just don’t enjoy certain places and HOF Randy Johnson was awful with the NYY as well a pair of seasons before rebounding after getting out.
Sonny Gray couldn’t handle the pressure of pitching in NY.
Why would anyone think he could handle the pressure of pitching in Boston?
John – No love for Nola? Montgomery? Or do you believe like me that their old clubs will re-sign them?
NY is a tough place to pitch for many. So is Boston. Add Cora to the mix and who knows how Gray will perform. In fact, the same can be said for all pitchers considering Boston as their future home. On the one hand, there is a pitcher friendly GM, on the other hand, there is a clueless Manager with respect to managing a pitching staff..
Think about this –
Why would a good pitcher sign in Boston right now?
1 – NO DEFENSE (Bottom 2 in baseball)
2 – Cora
The money will have to be significantly better to sign SPs OR Breslow could fire Cora and move the Butcher of Boston to DH and trade Yoshida jumping the defense from bottom 2 to top 10.
I think it’s likely we will miss out or grossly over pay for SPs if Breslow sits on his hands with respect to his two largest problems.
Sox could go big and trade Mayer, Houck, Duran + other prospects for Burnes & Adames.
I’m pretty sure Mayer alone would get at least Burnes, if not more
I hope Not Mayer… i rather b Yorke
Burnes and Adames each only have 1 year left on their contracts. I dont think so.
Do a Mookie and have them agree to a new 2-3 year contract with Boston before pushing the button on the trade, Story to second solves a lot of problems.
1) These players arent Mookie.
2) I doubt either of those players would agree to a 2 or 3 year deal. Certainly not a 2 year deal.
3) Why trade 3 or 4 quality prospects, when you can sign the equivalent value on the FA market. You’d just be throwing away prospects, and in Duran’s case, a starter.
4) The amount of talent given up isn’t in the same reality as whats received back.
The Sox need to go all in for Yamamoto. He’s the best option out there and only costs money & years which Boston has plenty of.
Is there any team that ISN’T looking for starting pitching help? What a year to be a free agent SP. Some random dudes are gonna bring home a serious bag this year.
Boston needs two stud starting pitchers and they need to hope Sale can give them at least 20 decent starts in 2024. Bello, Houck and Crawford are solid but with the bad defense and dwindling hitting the team can’t rise above the .500 mark without two top of the line starting pitchers and fixing the defense.
Devers must go to DH to be above a .500 team. You can’t be a bottom two defense and attract quality pitchers to come to Boston. I’m sure Breslow understands that and has a plan in place to fix the defense. If not, ownership just screwed the pooch one more time.and Red Sox Nation will pay for their errors yet again. Maybe, if he’s bad, they won’t take FOUR LONG FRUSTRATING YEARS to figure it out!!!
TF – So true! Need one stud SP and one #2. Sale, Crawford, Bello, Houck or Pivetta, that’s a darn good starting rotation.
Fever – If Sale is healthy and Cora stays out of his face he could be very salvageable in his last year of his contract. We know injuries happen and I was hoping for 2 studs so the young depth keeps us from bringing up guys from AAA by mid-season. You know, the Bloom way!!
For me it’s the match-ups. When Nate came to Boston it was supposed to be Sale, Price, Nate, EROD and Porcello. When Sale and Price went down and Price got traded Nate got bumped to #2 then #1 so rather than matching up with #3 SPs who he would have a significant advantage over, he faced the aces of the other team. That hurt his wins significantly.
Now we have Sale at #1 but he’s so iffy it’s really hard to know if he will be healthy and be the #1. Then we have Bello at #2 which might need to be #1 and he’s a #3 not a 2 or 1. If he faces the aces of the other team or even the SP2s he’ll struggle to win games. So the stack of SPs needs to start at the top so we need a #1 and a #2 SP so Bello can be the #3, Houck the #4 and Crawford the #5 with Pivetta in long relief like last year. Then we keep games close when the starters fail by bringing in Whitlock to prevent runners from scoring allowing the manager to plan the subsequent innings with available relief pitchers.
If it turns out Pivetta is more effective than Bello, Houck or Crawford then he can move into the rotation and the odd man out becomes the long relief. It’s really hard to predict how each of our young pitchers will mature under Breslow’s pitching coaches.
We have quality depth if SPs get hurt but that only happens with TWO new top of the rotation SPs. Sale could make this rotation incredible if TWO other aces are added and he pitches back to form.
I don’t see much urgency from Henry and Co. Their making plenty of loot from just coasting I predict the firing of Bloom and hiring of Breslow is a head fake to appease the hard-core fans.
Boxscore – Interesting take on the situation. To me, ownership has only done a few things wrong. They exiled Mookie and Price, our two best black players. They fired DD after winning the Division an unprecedented 3 times in a row and having one less productive season. They hired Cora and practically apologized as they fired him for cheating. That was bizarre. Then they hired him back knowing he completely lacks integrity. That was disturbing.
During all that time they never cut back on funding the payroll. In fact, Bloom got a $30MM bump in CAP space and overshot it without a word from ownership so they have banked the annual profits and provided them to all the GMs for years.
The dismissal of DD seems related to the Mookie situation and I’m sure they must be regretting their choices as they saw four years of poor performance after dismissing DD followed by him having great success in Philly.
Who knows!! Maybe they are so removed from the emotions of winning that they don’t care that the winning stopped when they let go DD but I’d like to think there is some regret for hurting their product for the people of Boston.
Houck is in no way a “solid” starter. He has as many or more games where he goes less than 5 innings as he does where he goes 6 or more. He should have been relegated to relief a while ago. His short starts were one of the main contributing factors to the Sox pen getting burnt out last year.
King – Let’s see how Houck does with an injury-free year and a real pitching coach (hopefully Bailey, if Cora signs off on him).
Houck is a DD draftee, certain posters are going to automatically love the guy, even though he’s done nothing to prove his worth.
Same for Casas. See all the complaining about Devers defense (-6 Def Runs Value) and never about Casas (-8 DRV). Get a new firstbaseman and Devers’ defense probably improves. But, you’ll never hear that from them. Casas is a DD draftee and Devers isnt.
RSmith
Houck is a DD draftee, certain posters are going to automatically love the guy,
=======================
It’s insane to judge guys based on who added them. The reason they do this is they hope it will show that DD left a more robust farm than he did.
Past that, I like Houck, but imo, it is time to give up on them starting.
Houck’s career start/relief splits are 4.17/2.68, and Whitlock’s are 4.76/2.65. The league overall was 4.45/4.17 in 2023. The disparity is too great. Same with Winckowski.
Joe – The reason the data is presented is so the bias that you and others have don’t get in the way of the facts. Houck was our best pitcher in 2021 and got sent to the bull pen in 2022. His mishandling is typical of Cora. He’s not qualified to be a manager.
DD’s additions to the farm are what they are, young players proving themselves at the MLB level. That is something Bloom never contributed to the team but hopefully will some day.
People have long improperly characterized DD by suggesting he stripped the farm system when in fact he did just the opposite. He pruned the pretenders, kept the stars and now they are developing into starters on the MLB team. He did his job exactly as any fan should have wanted him to. Dump the pretenders like Moncada and Kopech to get parts we needed and hang on to the young talent in the majors and those on the cusp like Duran, Houck, Casas and others.
Joe, if you knew anything about pitching, there are very few people who have successfully bounced back and forth between starting and relieving in a season and have been successful, let alone had a better starting ERA than relieving ERA. Your fact about the pitchers is nearly a universal fact for all pitchers so why should they have been different?
Cora should have established and stuck with specific roles for the young pitchers and they would be in a better place now that they are. We have more question marks in pitching because Cora was clueless. He never pitched. He actually seldom played during his career. He’s most qualified for his job because managers sit on the bench just like he did throughout his entire pathetic career.
Tell me Joe why is the Farm System inherited by Bloom not robust enough for your liking so you criticize it? Will we end up with more farm players from Cherington’s or Bloom’s years being starters than DD’s years? Go back through and count the number of Farm Players who were kept during Cherington’s era and ended up starters with the Red Sox then lets compare that to the number of Farm Players who were kept during Dombrowski’s era and ended up starters with the Red Sox. I’ll leave you the Cherington part, here is the Dombrowski and Bloom part:
Dombrowski
C – Vazquez (2015 season in the minors and DD promoted him in 2016)
1B – Casas (Drafted but didn’t play until Bloom)
2B – Valdez (Drafted but didn’t play until Bloom)
SS – Nobody
3B – Chavis and Dalbec (should have beaten out DH Devers)
LF – Benny (In the farm system when DD arrived)
CF – Duran (Drafted but didn’t play until Bloom)
RF – Rafaela, Abreu (Acquired by DD but didn’t play until Bloom)
DH – Nobody
Bloom –
C – Teel
1B – Nobody
2B – Yorke (maybe)
SS – Mayer (maybe)
3B – nobody
LF – Nobody
CF – Nobody
RF – Anthony
DH – Nobody
It’s too early to suggest any of Bloom’s guys will make the majors or become stars but if you consider strength of the farm system at two separate points in time ( DD era and Bloom era) you’ll see the farm system was quite a bit stronger under DD despite using several parts to win 3 Division championships and a RING. Bloom’s farm system thrived mostly because he failed miserably at the MLB level improving his draft picks.
Joe – I love Casas now because he proved himself. I had doubts about him last year. Your suggestion that I only like him because of DD is unfounded. I evaluate players, managers, coaches, owners and other writers on this website based on their performance without prejudice. When you write something inaccurate I follow it with the facts. When you write something accurate I give a thumbs up or agree with you.
There was no reason to take a cheap shot in this response.
RSmith – Do you realize how incredibly obtuse it is to suggest Casas is as bad as Devers. Devers is on the Mount Olympus of ERROR MAKERS in the history of baseball.
Casas made 5 errors in 958 total chances. That’s a fielding percentage of .995 which happens to be league average for 1Bs..
Devers made 19 errors in 370 total chances. That’s a fielding percentage of .949 with league average being .962 for 3Bs or 13 points higher than Devers.
For their careers Devers has 129 errors in 812 starts at 3B for a career fielding percentage of .942!!! He’s led the league in errors at 3B EVERY full year he has played and almost led it the year he came up and only played a couple of months!!! WORST OF ALL TIME. BUTCHER OF BOSTON.
The reason you won’t see me introducing fake stats into these discussions is that the numbers are so incredibly inaccurate the provider of the data should be embarrassed at how badly they misrepresent the facts.
If you can’t understand why the fielding metrics are completely inaccurate when the guy with 5 errors in 958 chances is suggested to be worse than the guy with 19 errors in 370 chances then you belong on those sites. Ignorance is bliss and you should keep reading those bogus stats and thinking you know something about baseball!!! hahahaha
KingKen – Still singing the same old song about Houck. He’s just fine and what he experienced was experienced by all the young pitchers to different degrees. He is pitching for a Manager who has no clue. He now has a good pitching coach like Fever pointed out so who knows how that will change things. Also, being healthy, another of Fever’s points could return him to form. Or maybe he just needs to be told he’s going to be a starter before Spring Training so he can focus on his job unlike last year and the year before when Cora completely mismanaged everything.
Right. Cora’s to blame for any shortcoming by players you like. It’s a great out for them in your kind and an easy way to dismiss any issues they exhibit.
Sorry but I’m not buying that. I’ve seen nothing from Houck over the past 3 seasons to convince me he has what it takes to make it as a starter full time. He wastes too many pitches, driving up his pitch count to the point where a “good” start from him is 5 full innings. No thanks. Put him in the pen and try and leverage his stuff there as a potential closer going forward. They did that with Papelbon, and he actually had more promise as a potential starter than Houck does.
KingKen – Nothing from Houck for 3 years? Seriously?? Do you follow the Red Sox at all?? Are you a NY TROLL?
2021 – Houck led the 6 starting pitchers in ERA with a 3.52 and a 1.13 WHIP. His ERA+ was 133 the highest of all the starters and that was the CLOSEST BOSTON GOT TO DOING ANYTHING OF VALUE DURING THE BLOOM ERA!
So best on the team 3 years ago and you said he did NOTHING for 3 years.
This is why guys like you should just read and not write things.
In 2022 the MORON manager moved the best starting pitcher from 2021 into the bullpen. A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF CORA BEING CORA. The man needs to have been fired years ago.
In 2023 he struggled as he was bounced back and forth from the bullpen and starting. Many young pitchers have been ruined by Cora’s handling of Houck. Fire the jackass and put in a real manager who works with the new pitching coach and Houck (who has the best stuff of the young guys) will be a #3 starter fighting with Bello for climbing to #2.
I think Nola would do well in Boston. Pitching his whole career in Philly the environment probably wouldn’t phase him. Sonny Gray should be a hard pass, same for Snell. Montgomery is interesting if Mike Maddux truly turned him around. He’s always struggled against the Sox but maybe the old adage “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” could pay off here
Rsox – Couldn’t agree with you more. Unfortunately, I think DD will keep Nola who would have fit well in Boston and Texas probably won’t let Montgomery walk. That’s why it’s so critical to take Yamamoto off the market early with a high bid. We overpaid for Yoshida last year and nobody seemed to mind so why not overpay for a SP which is a TRUE NEED unlike a 2nd DH like Yoshida.
Watching the Rangers daily, Maddux had a huge impact to this team. The scary part is they are really deep in their minors with arms as well. Jack Leiter, Kumar Rocker and Brock Porter to name a few. So maybe we can steal the new and improved Montgomery to go with Yamamoto.
How much better is Breslow going to be compared to Bloom.
Theo – If he doesn’t fire Cora, he can’t be considered a top flight GM because he doesn’t have the clout to do his job as he should.
Like with Bloom, we can only evaluate each transaction. You may not remember but I was a huge fan of Bloom when they hired him because he preached player evaluation techniques that I believe in. Unfortunately, it was all talk. He didn’t actually use them. I still believe the brains in TB still sit in their player development room.
I’m sue Breslow will make good and bad moves and get compliments and harassment for each move. That’s part of his job. Just like a player gets criticized when he plays poorly and complimented when he plays well.
It should be no different for Breslow. Compliments for smart moves and insults for bad moves.
I think Cora has 1 more year to improve, then he will be moved to an executive position and I think they give Varitek a shot at manager.
Koolga – Seriously? Improve after so many bad years. Once again, insanity is observing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Cora is too stupid to improve. He’s too arrogant to improve. If anything were to improve you’d have to ask yourself how he cheated to make it happen.
Why would Breslow hire Varitek as manager? He should hire someone he is close to and knows the pitching coach. In fact, if Breslow was smart he would get that guy on board now and fire Cora. Cora will be a stain on the Boston Red Sox reputation until he is no longer associated with us. Then we’ll take some strong cleaner and try to remove anything Cora related but it will take years to remove the stench he brought to Boston.
Personally, I’d prefer Nola to Montgomery. Nola has been a bit less consistent over the past few years, but he still has near-ace upside and is a true workhorse. I feel like Montgomery is more of a rock solid #3 type.
Blake Snell just feels like a Red Sox signing
Dog – Nah, they don’t like giving up draft picks.
‘Moto is who the team sets their eyes on. He will cost a ton and I expect the Dodgers who are never mentioned as a landing spot (in NY) to be the biggest obstacle. Everyone hear talks about Cohen’s money and Yankee history but Boston has the resources too and needs to hit a HR in 24. NESN ratings, empty if sold seats and marketing are the obvious reasons why.
Dewey – Dodgers don’t get Yamamoto if they get Ohtani.
Fever – I think Ohtani goes to Texas. They have the money and they have the team to get him multiple rings in the next 5 years.
That’s why Breslow needs to press hard and get Yamamoto before Ohtani signs. Otherwise, the competition for him rises significantly as does the cost.
TF – Great minds think alike, all that you wrote is exactly what I’ve been saying since Bloom got canned! Haha!
Unfortunately it’s a 45-day posting window that hasn’t even begun yet, so no chance in hell that Yama signs before Ohtani.
I noticed you haven’t mentioned Shota at all, just curious as to why you are so down on him?
Fever – Shota first came on my radar 4 days ago. I haven’t developed an opinion yet because I’m studying his numbers.
It’s tough to know when a Japanese pitcher will succeed like Ohtani or fail miserably like Hideki Irabu. Good numbers in Japan don’t always translate to the MLB. Imanaga will be 30 and has thrown 1130 innings in his career. His ERA and WHIP are good by MLB standards but that really doesn’t mean much. He has averaged about 150 Innings per year and roughly 1 K per IP so to compare him to Shohei he pitched twice as many innings in Japan than Shohei and came to the US at 30 not 23. His numbers are good but Yamamoto’s are better. Yamamoto will be 25 vs 30 and has better numbers.
If we are going to take a big risk on a foreign SP I think Yamamoto is worth it. Shota at $12MM a year vs Yamamoto as $25MM a year seems reasonable. I don’t know if Yamamoto will drag Shota’s numbers upward or not. To me we need aces so Yamamoto has that upside but i don’t think Shota does.
Fever, can teams have any official contact with a Japanese player prior to him being posted? Somehow, I would guess that lots of unknown contacts have been made so if posted on Monday, it will be interesting to see how long before he decides.
If I were an advisor to Yamamoto I would wait to see where Ohtani signs if it was all about the money. If Yamamoto has other driving factors in his choice he might sign this coming week before Thanksgiving. I hope he loves baseball like Ohtani and isn’t just looking for a big payday. It opens up the possible teams that could get him.
‘Moto is who the team sets their eyes on. He will cost a ton and I expect the Dodgers who are never mentioned as a landing spot (in NY) to be the biggest obstacle. Everyone here talks about Cohen’s money and Yankee history but Boston has the resources too and needs to hit a HR in 24. NESN ratings, empty if sold seats and marketing are the obvious reasons why.
My Phillies need a LF. Sox need a SP. Verdugo for Ranger Suarez, anybody? Suarez is also one of the most athletic and best fielding pitchers in the game. I know Fenway is supposed to be a tough park for a LHP, but I believe that trade would help both teams.
Sounds great, get it done!
Backup – Heck we’ll throw in a bag of baseballs!!
BCttBC
BTV has Verdugo’s value at 5 million
They have Suarez at $27 million
That trade seems…unlikely
Unlikely is putting it kindly. It’ll never happen. Even if we upped the ante, I seriously doubt that Philly is trading away any pitching.
As it stands right now, rotation should be Sale, Bello, Pivetta, Houck, Crawford. Whitlock belongs in the bullpen. He could be a swingman. They aren’t getting Nola or Snell. Montgomery will be an overpay big time. Unfortunately, they’ll be reduced to pursuing Jack Flaherty or Michael Lorenzen. Which will just be a case of Tanner Houck 2.0
Montgomery an overpay? He has been the most consistent and best pitcher of the three you mentioned.
The drum beat continues.
Nola, Flaherty, Wacha’
Insane – I am 1,000% certain the Sox will be getting at least one of Yamamoto, Snell, Nola, Monty, Imanaga or Burnes.
Book(mark) it!
No one wants to play in bah-ston. Lousy, dilapidated park, cheater manager and dysfunctional upper mgmt. Sounds great! LOL.
Blasphemy! To speak of the Cathedral of Boston that way
Yeah, because players are flocking to the bronx to play with overpaid, injury prone players and for a cheating FO in a soulless little league “stadium”
I.M – That was pretty negative. You didn’t say why Nola and Snell won’t sign in Boston but you are probably right. Nola will probably sign in Philly. Snell will go to a high profile club like LAD or NYY and be a bust. Montgomery is likely to re-sign with Texas unless they get Ohtani.
Trading for players seems to be the next best route. Bieber has been mentioned and he would be a nice addition. Also, Milwaukee has 3 SPs who will be free agents by 2025. Offer Milwaukee Whitlock, Houck, Verdugo, Yohshida, Yorke and Blaze Jordan for Burnes and Woodruff. This gives Breslow a year to sign them longer term. He could offer both four year $100MM contracts beginning in 2025. Without Yoshida and Sale in 2025 most of their cost will be covered.
Breslow needs to prove he was a good choice by thinking out of the box and getting quality pitchers and fixing the defense. Let’s hope he is successful.
All will be huge over-pays.
With so many teams looking for meaningful starting pitching upgrades it’s unrealistic to think Boston is going to add more then 1 starter in free agency. Whoever that starter is is going to be overpaid. The bidding wars for top guys is going to get insane this off-season.
I’m hopeful that Breslow gets one non Snell guy out of the top guys and trades for another starter another publication suggested Keller and I could get behind that. I’m sure he’s going to cost a lot more then he’s worth but with so many teams out there looking for starters your going to have to pay to play.
It will be fascinating to see how Breslow navigates this and quite frankly based on supply versus way more demand wouldn’t be shocked if no TOR guy is signed. Highly doubt you can trade for one either and the price for 1 year of Burnes just keeps going up. I think every single prediction for the top pitchers is going to be significantly light in terms of money for free agents and prospects for pitchers. If you want one of these guys your going to have to pay and significantly.
How about signing Yamamoto and Montgomery or Giolito? What do you think? No loss of draft picks or prospects.
All that’s great but everyone else wants to that as well. It’s simple math and the numbers don’t add up. It’s looking like a lot of teams are going to miss out and the teams that win the bidding may regret it with the cost that I think it’s going to take to get those guys. They will all get substantially more then predicted imo.
I’m guessing that the Red Sox will most likely not be outbid for Yamamoto. It’s just a question of whether or not he wants to play in Boston.
Bruin1012 – I agree that prices will be higher than predicted but there is a lot of money available. I say overbid early on Yamamoto in hopes of stealing him and let the others bid up the price on Snell and others who are likely to bounce in 2024.
Give Yamamoto at age 25 a 6 year $150MM deal and if the price rises, stay in the hunt up to $168MM for 6 years. 25 to 28MM per year is high but acceptable based on money available and rolling off next year. Also because the core of the team is young and inexpensive.
I still would love to see Devers traded to a dumb big market GM. Devers for Starling Marte coming off a bad year so he’s under-valued and Brooks Raley would be about a $5MM salary dump but it would allow Boston to surround Marte with Duran and Rafaela so huge speed in the outfield and Raley is the left handed reliever we need to compliment Martin as the two primary set-up men for Jansen. What do you think?
suit – Realistically about 20 teams have the ability to outspend every other team for a star like Yama or Ohtani. It’s a matter of which team is willing to take the biggest risk, which team wants him the most, and of course what the player prioritizes the most.
I think the Jays are a sleeper for Ohtani, supposedly geography isn’t important to him like it was last time.
Fever – How do you say eh in Japanese? or hoser?
Toronto. Have not heard that from anyone.
I still have my money on Texas on November 21st!!
That way nobody talks about the Cowboy game on Thanksgiving!!
TF – I still have Texas but December 3rd at the earliest. Haha!
Here ya go! torontosun.com/sports/baseball/toronto-blue-jays/j…
The buzz around the Blue Jays’ purported pursuit of free-agent superstar Shohei Ohtani continues to grow with suggestions from a Major League Baseball executive that Toronto is very much in the mix.
Bruin – I’d rather sign two starting pitchers than give up talent for Burnes.
They can go over the threshold next year, then duck back under it in 2025 when Sale/Jansen and hopefully Story are off the books.
Fever – You need to ask yourself WWDDD? Dombrowski would sign TWO expensive SPs, trade Devers for other needs, use Yoshida as DH batting second ahead of the big boppers!! If we could swing a Devers for Marte and Raley deal we’d be set in the OF, 1B, SS, and RP. IF Breslow gets to SPs we are set there so the rest of the money can go for a 3B to replace Devers unless Rafaela can play there or Story could play there and the other at SS. Then Abreu moves in as the left fielder with Duran in center and Marte in right field. Actually, all three are versatilve so we don’t need to pick fields at this point.
We stay under, we fix the defense and beef up the SP and RP. Sounds like a 95 or more win team.
TF – Define expensive. Haha!
Dombrowski would trade for Soto.
The Red Sox surely have some level of interest in Shohei Ohtani,
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I seriously doubt it.
1-Don’t need a DH.
2-Don’t need someone who can’t pitch in 2024, and is on his 2nd TJS.
JB
Lol
The taeks are so bad
This is an annual rite of winter with the writers.
Writing “Sign Yamamoto, Ohtani & Snell” will grab a lot of clicks.
Writing “Trade for Cease or Glasnow, and trade for India” requires a lot more research with far fewer clicks.
Joe – Both your big click and small click headlines are unrealistic.
We have no idea what type of GM Breslow will be so we can’t assume he’s sharp like DD or dumb like Bloom. We have to wait and see.
I love Glasnow but no way TB lets him go to an AL East team. It would be a form of baseball suicide. India and Bohm were two great 3B prospects several years back and I drafted both on my fantasy team. Several years later I have neither because they didn’t develop as fast as expected.. I had to decide at the end of 2021 whether they would develop into annual keepers and at that point neither qualified. As I look at them for 2024 I think I’d rather have Bohm over India because Bohm is more reliable because he plays far more games per year.
Of the three suggested players, Glasnow is the only one I’d like to see in a Red Sox uniform but that is so unlikely I don’t even consider it.
As Thanksgiving approaches the number of sensationalized headlines will grow exponentially. I just hope Breslow proves he knows what he is doing and isn’t another bust like Bloom.
Sign Monty & Wacha. Use Pivetta and Crawford as 5th/6th SP. Make Houck & Whitlock multi -inn RP’s. Sign Candelario who bats both and can back up 1b/3b. Trade Duggie for RH 2b. Trade for or sign several RP’s with options left for pitching depth. Should be under the Lux Tax. A lot to do but all doable.
Valdez and Meyers for Schreiber, Casas, and Pivetta
Ideal is Yamamoto. The team will reap the rewards off marketing, and it will only cost money. The issue is that this is such a no brainer that in the end this will be the most competitive signing of the off season imho.
The second and third move is a solid 2-3 starter, lefty reliever. Those two moves fill out the rotation, keep the bullpen intact, and will only require tinkering with excess arms to try to make a lefty improvement in the pen.
The four and five moves must be a legit major league starting caliber righty or switch-hitting middle infielder that can hit, and a righty/switch power bat upgrade using excess pieces for one outfield position. Bottom line, just not lefty only hitters with offensive upside.
In all, it’s five moves. That is not daunting.
William – Well said. 5 simple choices and some shuffling of the defense to move us off the 29th spot.
Snell misses more bats because he misses the strike zone.