The Red Sox made waves on Saturday afternoon, trading seven-time All-Star and 2018 World Series champion Chris Sale to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for young infielder Vaughn Grissom. Boston needed a second baseman, and Grissom can fill that role right away – and potentially for years to come. Still, as talented as Grissom very well may be, it’s hard not to view the trade as something of a salary dump for the Red Sox. Although Sale has spent significant time on the injured list over the past several years, he has flashed great stuff when healthy, and the Red Sox need all the upside they can get if they’re going to compete in the fearsome AL East. By trading the veteran starter to the Braves, along with $17MM in cash, the Red Sox reduced their total payroll commitments by $10.5MM and their luxury tax payroll by approximately $7MM for 2024 (per Roster Resource).
This is not the only trade chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has made to decrease payroll this winter. He flipped Luis Urías to the Mariners just before the non-tender deadline, sacrificing the infielder’s upside to avoid his estimated $4.7MM arbitration salary. He also dealt Alex Verdugo to the Yankees and essentially replaced him with former Cardinals outfielder Tyler O’Neill, saving an estimated $3.7MM in the process. Those sound like relatively inconsequential numbers for a large-market team like Boston, but for what it’s worth, the money the team saved by trading Urías, Verdugo, and Sale adds up to just under $19MM; newly signed starter Lucas Giolito will earn $18MM in 2024.
Indeed, while the Red Sox typically run one of the higher payrolls in the sport, it seems they’ll be operating under a tighter budget this offseason. As reported by Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com, the team has informed at least one free agent that they have to “shed more payroll” before they can pursue him “as aggressively as they want to.”
The Red Sox have shed significantly more payroll than they’ve added this winter. In addition to their various trades, the team let Justin Turner, Corey Kluber, Adam Duvall, James Paxton, and Joely Rodríguez reach free agency; those five accounted for just over $34MM in luxury tax payroll last season. Boston’s estimated luxury tax payroll now sits below $200MM for the first time since 2020. That being the case, it’s rather surprising to hear that ownership is tightening the purse strings. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that chairman Tom Werner claimed the team would be competitive in 2024, vowing to go “full throttle in every possible way” (per Sean McAdam of MassLive.com).
Of course, this rumor may be little more than a negotiation tactic, with the Red Sox playing hard to get to drive down a free agent target’s price. However, if Breslow is serious about reducing payroll, he might look to deal Kenley Jansen or Chris Martin in the coming weeks. The veteran relievers are set to hit free agency following the 2024 season, and they’d surely draw plenty of interest on the trading block. Jansen, who is owed $16MM next year, made his fourth career All-Star team last season, while Martin, who is set to make $9.5MM, led qualified MLB relievers in ERA. Losing Jansen or Martin would be a tough blow for Boston’s bullpen, but at least one could argue the Red Sox would be selling high on either arm. Jansen will be 36 next season, and he’s no longer the dominant closer he once was. Meanwhile, Martin will be 37, and it’s highly unlikely he’ll be able to maintain an ERA below 2.00.
Breslow could also dangle Nick Pivetta, who is set to earn approximately $6.9MM in his final year of arbitration eligibility, but then again, the team’s rotation looks thin enough as it is. Finally, the chief baseball officer would surely wish to be freed of the $95MM remaining on Trevor Story’s contract, but it’s hard to imagine the Red Sox could find a trade partner willing to take on the injury-prone shortstop.
It should also be said that it’s unclear which player Cotillo’s report refers to, as the Red Sox has been connected with no shortage of top free agents. The list includes frontline starting pitchers Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, high-end relievers Jordan Hicks and Robert Stephenson, and slugging outfielder Teoscar Hernández. All five of those free agents will be rewarded handsomely this winter, but needless to say, some will command a much higher salary than others. Perhaps the Red Sox would need to shed payroll before signing any of these players, but it’s possible they would only need to cut back to sign Snell or Montgomery to a nine-figure deal.
Full throttle
I think if this is true its safe to say ownership has been caught red handed in a lie
“”ownership has been caught red handed in a lie””
That’s nothing new.
You know what though, I’m getting sick and tired of all the drama about money with this team.
Anyone else notice this trend? I mean it used to be that they just came out of nowhere and would sign major deals to improve the team.
Now it’s like constant drama and rumors for…..nothing.
This team hasn’t improved at all in fact right now the rotation is worse than last season and that’s saying something.
They better be clearing payroll to sign Montgomery that’s all I know.
Agree its getting old ..its like its more of a burdon for henry at this point and the accountants have too much input..yet they make money hand over fist so wont sell
Someone needs to take Boston ownership to the shed…
Box – I’m holding my fire until the dust settles. Remember this is the same team that gave a ridiculously bloated contract to Devers right after going cheap on Xander, JD and Nate.
Patience my friend ….
Agreed. Ownership delivered many rings, they gave a long leash as far as I’m concerned. Trading Jansen would be fine, but keep Martin. If they trade both, that’s a red flag for sure. Signing Montgomery would be a great add.
I believe John Henry is losing big-time money on his racing, soccer, and Boston Globe acquisitions. Hiring Bloom was a HUGE hint he took on too much, too soon.
I can understand Henry’s apprehension toward pitchers long term. While Sale gave us some good years, Price was a ridiculous overpay, courtesy of Dumbo’s love.
Totally disagree. They should have dropped below the threshold two years ago and didn’t. I believe they are trying to restock the farm, get the international picks/$ in line, and reset the tax. I truly don’t see anything wrong with that.
Lucky – They dropped below the threshold this year and also in 2021 and 2020.. Yeah they botched it badly in 2022, but now there’s no excuse for not spending.
Curly that was the best response yet
Agree, but they should have in 22 if he was so desperate for $, which was my point, and if they were 100% in on their strategy. A strategy I agree with. They pandered that year, inappropriately so.
They already reset the tax last year, which we assumed was for the purpose of spending big this year (hard not to assume when they say they’re gonna go full throttle) with the like of Ohtani and Yamamoto available. Turns out it was all one big lie.
As a Yankee fan, I too hope you sign Monty
@Dynasty
Whilst it would a nice fix for Monty & his good lady wife to be united in Boston, I don’t see the Sox shelling out 6/180.
Right now I’d see Marcus Stroman on some kind of pillow contract parallel to the Giolito deal. I don’t see the Sox investing heavily when the rest of the roster is not being ready to compete.
And the idea of being able to trade Story – without swallowing megabucks – is laughable. It amazes me that somehow both Sox & the Yankees have worked themselves behind the 8 ball….
There is no way Stroman could survive in Boston …
Also, Cora hates Stroman.
@TBaggins
Cora hates Stroman… sorry remind me why?
Dumbo??? What do you call Bloom then–GENIUS ??
Henry doesn’t give a poop about the luxury tax. He will NEVER spend past it again. Glory days for th Red sox are gone
No love for John Henry at all, but I believe that Liverpool FC is still a profitable entity, despite not qualifying for the Champions League this season and having construction-related issue with addition to Ansfield stadium stands.
when the rest of the roster is not being ready to compete.
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We were 6 over .500 as late as 9/4. We don’t have far to go.
Joe – Every year we will look better on 9/4 than year end because the new schedules load up with division game in September and the AL East is not an easy group of teams when they are all fighting to make the playoffs.
This team is FARTHER from winning right now than at the end of the season.
1 – They have less pitching unless Giolito returnes to his form from 3 years ago or longer.
2 – They have Devers at 3B and Cora as manager so that is still the worst combination of 3B and Manager in baseball.
3 – They added an outfielder who will take time from one of the three young outfielders who earned more playing time with excellent performances in 2023
The potential for more wins come from new coaches but they work for Cora so that negates a lot of their value since Cora’s ego won’t allow them to have the final say.
Right now, the team is at best a .500 team and more likely a .450 team.. 73 to 81 wins if things go well for the current roster. and they will fade again in Sep due to the schedule.
StRoman seems like a delicate flower. Don’t want him in Boston.
Trollfree9 hours ago
Right now, the team is at best a .500 team and more likely a .450 team.. 73 to 81 wins if things go well for the current roster.
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The average of 73-81 is 77 So I guess now is the time for me to offer you my annual wage that the RS will more than you projecting?
LMK if you (or anyone else) is interested.
Why does anyone acknowledge this dude? He doesn’t mean anything he says.
Bloom did as he was ordered to. Find bargain basement deals to give the impression of being competitive. Ownership hoping post-pandemic that their other investments turned the corner so they could once again spend money on the Sox.
Bloom was expected to work the same magic he did in Tampa Bay, only with a large market team. Only that didn’t pan out. So he became the scapegoat.
Without the pandemic, the Liverpool FC investment would have worked out. Instead, Henry overpaid, and not by a little. The racing and Globe investments followed the same MO.
Fever Pitch Guy is always right. Just like his favorite manager, Dusty Baker.
Fever Pitch Guy is always right, just like his favorite manager, Dusty Baker.
TF – Post of the Year! Great job!
Ghost – Great post! It is very true, Sox are just part of a portfolio now and other entities in the portfolio impact them.
Joe – With all due respect and the best of New Year wishes, how could you possibly make a prediction now when you haven’t a clue what the team will look like on Opening Day?
That’s like trying to predict the gender, length and weight of a baby before it’s even conceived.
Ghost – Did John Henry tell Bloom to lie about the trade deadline?
Did he tell Bloom to call the team “underdogs”?
Did he tell Bloom to give Xander a lowball offer?
Did he tell Bloom to waste $140M on Story?
Did he tell Bloom to go just a tiny bit over the 2022 CBT threshold?
Bloom didn’t work any magic in Tampa, it was all Neander. Hence the reason why Neander stayed to run baseball ops and Bloom was allowed to walk.
Red Sox over/under 81…..I’m willing to take the under I haven’t seen enough to convince me they will be over. I seen Soto go to New York, that’s a couple L’s. I just seen the Sox give up and trade the starting pitcher with the most upside on the team to save pennies on a contract. Clear signal from Breslow they are taking 2024 off from really competing. Tampa might be weaker without Glasnow and Franco but Baltimore should be better and the Blue Jays are dying to make a splash. If you are serious about a bet LMK we can work something out. I’m willing to wait until the first day pitchers and catchers report dm me @kingbud365 on X. A reasonable bet I’m not rich lol….
Yeah Henry bought too much too fast, Pittsburgh Penguins, Liverpool FC, some kind of golf thing with Naomi Osaka, another golf investment with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, Rousch-Fenway racing in Nascar, NESN, and Boston Globe…..Hell there’s probably even more in the portfolio. FSG tried buying the Broncos and Commanders. FSG is lobbying the NBA for a team in Vegas. He also is an investor in LeBron James’s media company and has a lifetime partnership agreement with LeBron James and Maverick Carter
“It’s the same thing with him every day. He competes a certain way and people don’t like it,” Cora told reporters about Stroman while the starter was with the Toronto Blue Jays. “It seems like whenever a team comes in, somebody screams at him. I don’t know, that’s the way he acts.”
Bag – I fully support Cora on this! Stroman would make Price look like a saint.
how could you possibly make a prediction now when you haven’t a clue what the team will look like on Opening Day?
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Thank you. I didn’t expect KD to get my point, but at least you did. KD is predicting 73-81 wins without knowing what the final roster is.
From my perspective, the floor is 77 wins. If they sign Monty and trade for Cease, Luzardo, etc., we are probably looking at 85-90 wins.
It’s like moving all-in on the turn with 26 outs. You’re probably favored even if you get called, and your fold equity is huge.
Everyone should spend a year of their lives in The Bronx.
A reasonable bet I’m not rich lol….
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I like to keep it simple and honorable. Under 81, you win, and over 81, I win, and 81 is a push.
Whoever loses has to acknowledge that the other guy is smarter for say, the first week after the WS, in every post. Sound good?
I am not sure what the ideal spending level is, but as long as the Rays win division titles and make the playoffs spending far less than the Red Sox, I have to think John Henry is going to think the Red So should be very competitive if they are spending significantly more than the Rays.
suit – The Rays haven’t even played in a legit ALCS since 2008.
But as I said before, if Henry truly wanted to emulate Tampa then he needs to completely overhaul his front office, scouting, player development, coaching staff, all of it.
Because the Rays are excellent at identifying and maximizing talent, especially pitchers. While the Sox have sucked at it since Dombrowski left.
Fever: I think John Henry wants and expects to be better than the Rays when he significantly outspends them. Hopefully, Breslow improves the organization. He may be in the process of doing that. I guess the question is: Is a $200M – $237M player payroll enough? Seems like it should be. I’m guessing John Henry thinks it should be enough.
suit – I think Breslow will, but he will need time. He’s a rookie with nobody good to mentor him.
Top Ten in payroll should be enough, no need to go over the CBT threshold.
Three organizations that I really admire, in order, are Braves, Astros and Rangers.
They were ranked 8th, 10th and 9th in payroll this year.
Their payrolls were between $193M-$203M.
I don’t think many people here realize how big a role The Corners plays into all that’s going on. It needs to be funded, which means the Sox probably won’t be Top Five in payroll for the next decade and certainly won’t be FSG’s primary focus.
When it’s done, the new revenue stream will be gigantic and a big bump in payroll spending will follow. But not focusing on championships for a decade is a tough pill to swallow.
Fever: Good post. John Henry also sees other successful teams besides the Rays spending in the $200M range on player payroll and being quite successful.
All and Fever – John Henry isn’t the type of guy who gives a rat’s petootie about what others spend.
He sits on a board and approves requests. The ONLY request that I’ve heard he denied was the Mookie request for a fair market value in 2019. Otherwise, I’ve never heard any rumblings of him saying no. Things don’t happen because the GMs fail to submit the requests needed to acquire real talent.
Think about it. If he’s such a hard nosed Owner then why the heck did he say yes to Story, Devers and Yoshida for Bloom or Giolito and Grissom for Breslow.
I believe he trusts his GMs (right or wrong) except when it came to DD wanting to pay Mookie his full value. Then he stepped in and fired DD and told Bloom to dump Mookie and Price for their insubordination.
TF – When I give my wife her $500 weekly allowance, I don’t tell her how to use the money. That’s her choice.
Same with Henry, he gave Bloom a certain budget amount each year and Bloom decided how to use it. Henry gave his input in rare instances, usually for contracts of $100M+
This sounds like…the Padres.
Private Equity is ruining baseball.
Haha!! Well said
Duran, Houck, Yorke plus Blaze Jordan for Famber Valdez
Okay fine but now let’s scale back ticket price then too
No one is taking Story who hopefully rebound to resurrect his career in Boston or to then be traded. It seems like both a tactic with Montgomery who I think is waiting for a Sox better offer since his wife is working in Boston. Trading Jansen would allow Houck to be an 8th or 9th inning guy. He will be dealt now or at the deadline.
dewey – Leo’s headline can be interpreted multiple ways.
When I read Cotillo’s article this morning, I took it as the team has a certain amount of money budgeted for pitching help and they obviously need to get at least one more big bat to replace the Turner/Duvall production from last season.
So if they are gonna be the top bidder on Snell or Monty, they need to save in another area to keep from going over the team payroll budget.
There are a lot of moving pieces that could involve more signings, trades or both. We don’t have that inside knowledge, so trying to judge every individual statement or transaction is kinda pointless.
In other words, ignore the noise. Actions speak louder than words.
I hear Garciaparra is as good as gone…
Coop – Mia finally had enough of the nose, eh?
That’s a Mrs Nomar/misnomer
Agree Fever on ignoring the noise. I’m actually wondering if Montgomery and the team already have an informal agreement but the team “needs” to fix other areas first. It makes no sense though to get your fan base upset like they continue to do. Had they not got everyone going with the “full throttle” comment, many might be more patient. Last year’s rebellion gave Devers the leverage that might have cost the team $35m or substantially more. If there’s a market for Jansen, that’s a move that makes sense because an injury means they get nothing. I do believe Houck is the one to replace him. Finally, I do understand the reasoning of not exceeding the threshold when the team is not expected to win. Wait until the team is ready and for the right player.
Fever – When I read Cotillo’s article I say the same thing I always say BULL CRAP.
A bad writer guesses badly at what’s going to happen and everyone over reacts. The guy is a putz.
Yes, dumping one of the two DHs is necessary and trading away Story’s massive over-pay would be wonderful but it’s highly unlikely. Nobody would take Devers, even a St. Bernard if you put a big turkey leg around his neck.
So what can be fixed:
3B, SP1, SP2, Lefty relievers
Current spending:
The CAP is $237MM
Breslow now has $29.94MM being paid to players we don’t have so
Available money is reduced from $237MM to $207.6MM
SPOTRAC says current obligations are as follows:
Active AAV = $138.664MM
Estimated Arbitration Salaries = $15.8MM
Estimated Pre-Arb Salaaries = $10.01MM
Estimated Benefits = $17MM
Minor League signings and bonuses = $3.917MM
TOTALING – $185.39MM
Normally that would leave $51.61 available to spend but $29.94MM is committed to players we don’t have so that leaves $21.67MM!!!
As you can see. Buy downs KILL PAYROLL!!!!
Breslow will need to exceed the CAP in 2024 to get what he needs.
This should never have been the case but when you throw away over $29MM on players you don’t have you severely mess with the books.
Without the Giolito deal Boston would have nearly double what it has now under the CAP. That would allow for an expensive SP as your number 1 starter but instead we got a 3/4/5 starter for $20MM.
If Bloom oops Breslow can deal Yoshida and get that $18MM back he’d have almost $40MM to get a SP1 and a lefty reliever or two. The 3B spot will need to be filled by either Story or Rafaela so Devers can go to DH. The pitching won’t be as good as hoped for unless Giolito suddenly gets lots better and Bello, Houck and Crawford don’t takes steps backward.
What’s most important to note is that we have $79.7MM wrapped up in 4 players in 2024:
1 – Devers who can’t field and refuses to move to DH
2 – Yoshida a left fielder who can’t field and probably will be the DH
3 – Story a solid fielder who can’t hit any more
4 – Giolito a SP3 that hasn’t been good in 3 years
Add $29.94MM to the $79.7MM and you have $109.64MM wasted on bad contracts for players who can’t play their best positions or are no longer on the team. That means 46.3% of our available CAP money is wasted on 4 guys and guys NOT ON THE ROSTER!!!
Wasn’t Breslow supposed to be a bright finance guy too? I’m not seeing based on him wasting critical money on Giolito and not dumping the Yoshida, Story and Devers contracts. Or dumping Cora.
Lots of shortcomings as of today. He still has time to dump these guys and improve his performance but the Giolito and Sale deals were financial disasters!!
Tf you are delusional if you think they are moving devers off 3b in 2024. Just stop trying to factor that into all of your calculations since its a non starter and it being in there makes people think you are off your rocker..the cora hate as well ..come back to reality hes the manager for 2024 learn to accept it
Pool – No offense but your opinion on Devers is irrelevant. I’m writing about what’s best for the team not what pleases you.
Oh yeah,, did I mention your opinion doesn’t matter so suggesting to me to think like you is like asking me to shoot myself in the head. It’s not going to happen.
What you are doing is commonly considered bullying but since I ignore you it’s irrelevant. Stop telling people how to think. Act like an adult and present logical data derived comments that actually show you have facts not just misguided opinions.
Seriously, never tell anyone that they must think like you. That’s an act of oppression. Let people have their views and simply respond like an adult and present your arguments for why you disagree. That’ shows maturity. Your last response does NOT.
They will not move Devers from third no matter how loud his glove and arm scream at them to do exactly that. They keep thinking he is another Boggs and will vastly improve. More a Guerrero.
Tf no offense but you keep saying cora needs to go abd devers moved off 3b in 2024 im not bullying you
.i assume you are grown and can think for yourself but please for the benefit of all that read your comments provide at least some actual evidence you have that they are considering moving devers off 3b or firing cora in the 2024 season..to this point you have not that i have read.
TF – We just don’t know what Breslow is like. Yes he’s intelligent, but is he strong? If the rest of the front office is saying they should sign a certain player or trade a certain player, does he have the intestinal fortitude to go against their wishes if he disagrees?
I think you need to cut him some slack. He’s in a new position with a new organization, it will probably be at least a year before he starts making his own decisions.
Fever Pitch Guy is always right, just like his favorite manager, Dusty Baker.
C’mon, we need to give this guy more likes.
Dump everyone, take this team to Oakland
Another nothing burger. There is, imo, a -0- chance of them signing Giolito if they were cutting payroll. That should be self-evident.
They signed Giolito but then got rid of Sale. They traded Verdugo and picked up a cheaper ONeill. Their moves seem to be ones with payroll in mind. If Giolito bounces back they can trade him at the deadline.
I don’t know what the Red Sox are doing. Seems like they should trade some guys and reload for a year or 2 down the road but they aren’t really doing that.
Joel – Can you please explain to me how Giolito’s $19.25M CBT hit for 2024 plus Sale’s $17M CBT hit for 2024 saves the Red Sox money?
So instead of a $25.6M hit for keeping Sale, they have a $36.25M CBT hit for Sale’s replacement.
$36.25M is not less than $25.6M no matter how you look at it.
It saves them the money they would have had to spend on a 2b in 2024 and beyond. And if Giolito bounces back the Red Sox can trade him at the deadline and not have to pay all of his 2024 salary.
Acquiring starting 2B Vaughn Grissom and a much lower salary than Chris Sale offsets that money you just referenced. It’s pretty much common sense with the overall roster. Not one player compared to another in its own vacuum.
Joel – They are paying Sale $17M to NOT pitch for them.
That means to break even or save, they’d have to replace him with a SP that earns $8.6M or less. Obviously that didn’t happen with Giolito.
Even if they don’t want to go with internal options for 2B such as Rafaela or Valdez, it’s not that hard to find an adequate 2B for one year at cheap money.
And like I mentioned earlier, when Yorke and/or Mayer are promoted ….. then what? Somebody has to go.
I think the Sale trade had more to do with accumulating future trade chips than anything else.
Again Fever they can trade Giolito and save the money for the rest of 2024 and also get something back in return. And that also gives the impression to fans right now that the team is trying to compete which helps sell tickets.
You never know for sure what the offsesson will end up like until it’s April. But as of now this looks like a team who is concerned with payroll.
The Sox could trade Yoshida straight up for Ronald Acuna Jr and some would be convinced the sole reason for the move would be the $6.5M CBT savings.
My problem with the fans is that they complain when the Red Sox don’t spend any money, and then they complain that they spent too much money when they acquire players. The fans feel that they’ve set the price on each one of these players. Don’t understand it’s the market and if the Red Sox don’t feel that they can get the best value for the money they’re putting out that’s why they’re making these decisions. Now I like every other fan. Would love to see the big splash but I also understand the concept of moving money and players around for the best value. Don’t worry if we pay 300 million for Montgomery everybody will say it was an overpay if we offer him 225 million any signs for 250 million everybody will say that we were too cheap
Soxtwo – You’re right, some fans just can’t be pleased.
FVP…. That is the same math from 2020 election…. 81 mill “voted” for the fake Joey Hiden, 75 Mill voted for the Orange man, yet their are only 133 Mill registered voters…. yeah ok,
Joel P – Fever is 100% right. The two moves by Breslow to acquire Giolito and Vaughn were financial disasters. They now have roughly $20MM left to get the SP1 they never got, the SP2 they never got, the 3B to replace Devers when he moves to DH and two lefty relievers to get power lefties out late in the game.
Breslow has a choice now. Be satisfied with a distant 5th place finish or grossly exceed the CAP. If he doesn’t want to do either then he must deal Yoshida, Story and Devers.
The problem is NOBODY is dumb enough to trade for Devers without a BUY DOWN and BUY DOWNS need to be forbidden going forward. Story needs to prove he can hit before anyone can hope to unload his horrendous contract. Only Yoshida has enough value to not have to do a buy down in a trade. Trade him with prospects to get a true #1 SP and Breslow can stay under the CAP and improve the team.
Move Story or Rafaela to 3B and the other to SS and Devers stops misplaying 50 balls a year and the team defense jumps from 29th to top 10.
The current shuffling of the deck by Breslow has been incredibly expensive and most folks haven’t figured out our payroll went UP with these moves not down. Giolito is an over-pay, $17MM for Grissom is an over pay. And most importantly the high impact items haven’t happened so non essential items could be completed.
Did we really need a 2B more than SP1 or SP2? NOPE
Did we need Giolito instead of a SP1 or SP2? NOPE
With roughly $20MM left under the cap, what hole can Breslow fill? SP1 = NOPE. SP2 – NOPE 3B-Nope
Lefty relievers – YEP. That’s it. Unless he’s willing to exceed the CAP or trade Yoshida/Devers/Story Breslow has shot his wad on a risky SP3 and a young 2B when our biggest need was for TWO top of the rotation pitchers. We now have 1 less than we had when he was hired!!
Tf you are looking at this only in the context of the 2024 season And its only the start of moves ..you are basically judging the movie based on the trailor and opening credits…thats short sighted
Pool – What you say isn’t exactly accurate but since Breslow hasn’t come forward with his plan fans can comment on each move as they happen.
For example, DD came in and made an immediate impact and significantly improved the team and won Division Titles and a ring. That’s often considered a BIG MARKET approach.
Bloom had a vision and tried to implement it and kept telling folks to trust him that sustained winning would happen. It didn’t so fan trust has eroded over the last four years.
Breslow must work within the confines of the job so he starts with $237MM as a CAP and he can do pay downs that shrink that CAP. Right now with the Sale deal he’s lowered the CAP significantly and it’s current value is no longer $237 but rather $212. Sale will play for ATL and provide no value to Boston but Boston will pay $1MM more than the did for Price back in 2020 to 2022. Pay downs are bad business.
Could the financial situation change as Breslow does more? Sure but the $24.94MM that is being paid for Sale, Turner, Hosmer and Rodriguez will not change. It’s fair to judge him on his action in the Sale give away because it’s financial suicide to do buy downs.
Will the team be great by opening day? Maybe. If the first ten minutes of the movie has played I think you are suggesting that we can’t comment on the first 10 minutes and say whether we liked it or not. Why not? Every minute of that movie could be good, bad or otherwise and the reviewer of the movie has the right to segment the movie into component parts for evaluation and then provide an overall view AFTER THEY FINISH THE MOVIE.
That’s exactly what EVERYONE is doing and you are trying to force them into staying quiet and waiting. That’s not in the nature of being a fan. Too much blind faith is involved and after Bloom there is no way anyone should ever have blind faith in the GM. Had ownership read my views in February 2020 about the future under Bloom and acted on them the Boston organization would be far better off today.
You assume I’m going to be wrong after being right the entire time about Bloom. Maybe if you have spent a lifetime observing an organization like the Red Sox and have come to realize good and bad moves it’s not a stretch to present views of the future that might have merit. I’m lucky because I was spot on about Bloom the entire time and the same about Cora. Maybe I’ll get lucky again and be right about Breslow.
Trollfree15 hours ago
They now have roughly $20MM left
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They have $46M left.
Joel, remember that Fever Pitch Guy is always right. Like his posts.
Joe – Just curious, where you get your number?
I’m showing $52M left and I have the breakdown.
$138M Active Payroll
$17M Player Benefits
$2M Minor League Contracts
$2M Pre-Arb Bonus Pool
$16M Est Arbitration Players
$10M Est Pre-Arbitration Players
That’s $185M against a $237M CBT First Threshold
$52M left to spend
The Red Sox simply being tired of Verdugo and wanting to move him has been public information since before the end of last season. Any attempt to frame that move as anything other than their being done with the player is a transparent attempt to force a desired narrative.
As the article noted, the Sale trade only saves Boston $7M of luxury tax out of a $24M commitment. Given how he pitched after April, you don’t “salary dump” such a guy (at a position of need) when it only amounts to a 30% savings. Very obviously, that move is some combination of cashing out on Sale (Boston has a rotation full of low-inning, volatile guys, and appears to be targeting innings and/or reliability) and liking the return of Grissom.
I wouldn’t at all dismiss the possibility of the team wanting to control or even reduce spending, but there is precious little that allows us to deduce that either of these moves was about savings. The clickbaiters in the media love to present inductive reasoning (“could be possible”) as deductive truth; don’t let them mislead you. There are plenty of alternative explanations for each of these moves that has more support than the “salary dump” thinking one.
Why are you so defensive about the teams payroll? That’s weird.
Why are you so defensive about the teams payroll?
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I’m not defensive about the payroll. But the concept is insane. You don’t spend $19-20M on an SP if you looking to cut payroll.
If the RS were looking to cut spending, they wouldn’t sign anyone. Signing guys is the exact OPPOSITE of cutting.
So what is the issue with Verdugo? From a Boston fan perspective please
I liked him on the Dodgers so I don’t see it.
If the Red Sox were looking to compete why would they trade Sale?
If the Red Sox were looking to compete why would they trade Sale?
==========================
Some of it is speculative, but here it is.
1-They need a 2B no matter what. A low-end FA like Merrifield is probably still about $10M. Add to that the $8.6M they save with Sale, and now you have almost $19M to spend on an SP.
2-The addition of Grissom makes Yorke available. Yorke + an OF prospect = Cease. Simple Bradyian algebra.
Cora is pretty old school in terms of baseball etiquette. Being at the park on time and running out a ground ball or pop-up is expected of any ballplayer. Especially on a professional level.
Verdugo didn’t always toe the line. A clash of personalities. In this instance, the manager won.
Joe – They still have to field a team and pretend to want to compete. If they trade Devers, Yoshida and Story they will need to sign or trade for cheaper replacements no? Can’t have a bunch of rookies filling every roster spot.
Joe Brady I agree with you you’re either cutting payroll or you’re just real allocating funds to different areas so that it works better I think they’re just moving money around to get the best possible players for the right amount of money.
Joe – I think potential trade partners will dictate who goes. If for instance Milwaukee likes Grissom more than Yorke, you give them Grissom if it lands you Burnes.
D-Fan, he had mental lapses, lack of hustle on one occasion, arrived late on another. There were probably other things that never got leaked and It was clear it was going to be either him or Cora leaving. At this point, many are hoping both by this time next year.
Algebra champ. Agree Joe. If not Cease, another pitcher.
No one is taking Devers at that money without the team paying it down AND his commitment to DH.
This was just another opinion based article, without any actual facts.
Joe – Adding to what you said. Paying $17MM for Grissom when you need pitching seems like a very bad idea unless the owners are prepared to exceed the CAP.
D-fan – Verdugo was sold to Boston as a future all-star when in fact he was a slightly above league average outfielder who was clubhouse cancer. Bloom jacked up his pay by over paying each of his arbitration years by making high offers to avoid arbitration. So Verdugo priced himself out of a roster spot. You should not pay $9.2MM for a slightly above league average player because you could replace that player with someone who costs less than $1MM like Abreu, Rafaela or Duran.
NY and LA are good places for Verdugo because he seeks the limelight.
If they trade Devers, Yoshida and Story they will need to sign or trade for cheaper replacements no?
======================
We’re not trading any of them, so I am not sure what the point is.
Joe – Your information for Joel is not correct.
Boston paid $17MM of Sale’s payroll in 2024 which originally was $25.6MM. That means we DON’T have him play for us and we pay $17MM and ATL gets to use him at a cost of $8.6MM. Nobody in their right mind does this deal because you lower your available money under the CAP by $17MM. Yes, Boston got Grissom for a ONE TIME cost of $17MM but did they need Grissom more than TWO top of the rotation SPs? NOPE. Valdez and others could have played in 2024 and the team could have used the $17MM to get real SP1 and SP2 instead of a guy like Giolito.
Yorke has always been available for trade as is Mayer since both have badly under-performed for the spots they were drafted.at. Whether it’s Cease or Burnes or any established SP1 we go after with our pretenders (prospects who aren’t going to be more than league average at the MLB level) there will need to be more in the deal and that more should be Yoshida so we only carry ONE DH.
Cease, Burnes and other quality starters won’t be traded for by using a schmuck like Yorke as the big piece of the deal. He’s not as respected outside Red Sox fandom as you think of him . He’s not a future all-star. He’s a cheap league average 2B for his controllable years. That’s all. He’s not even at Grissom’s level. The outfielders we have are not people we should deal unless you are talking about Abreu or Beiss. The rest are our future. Controllable until 2030 except for Duran who is 2028, the big three of Duran, Rafaela and Anthony should not be touched in deals. The under achievers need to be the ones dealt. Mayer, Yorke, Jordan and so many others.
I think potential trade partners will dictate who goes.
=========================
I agree. I have no dog in the Grissom/Yorke thing other than thinking that if Mil wanted Grissom, they mught have already made the move.
And I think Crease is more in line with what we’re doing.
Cora is a cheater. He’s not old school, he embarrasses old school guys by being present on a baseball field. Cora is a power monger who probably got insulted by an outspoken player and chose to show his power by having him moved to another team. Cora deserves no respect so the one thing I like about Verdugo is that he didn’t like Cora. The enemy of my enemy is an ally. Verdugo’s one redeeming value was that he hated Cora like most ex-players do. His hate was more personal, ours is because he shamed the game we love.
Fever – Lets be fair. Devers’ bat would be missed but his defense wouldn’t be. Story could be replaced with the $23.3MM we saved and two more guys could be picked up. Yoshida as a DH is not terrible but if it means Devers plays third base then he’s killing the team by being on it. The $18MM could get you Hader. I’d swap Hader for Yoshida in a heart beat..
Honestly, if Breslow traded without any buy downs Devers, Yoshida and Story the team would be in a far stronger position to rebound to being competitive. I’d even suggest throwing in Giolito into the trades. He’s grossly over-paid too.
soxintwo – Actually they jacked up their spending during the two deals. It’s not shuffling money it’s wasting money on not so critical items.
The Giolito and Grissom deals cost Boston $37MM in 2024 and lowered the available money under the CAP by $17MM.
That’s not shuffling money, that’s wasting it on a SP3 and a very young 2B who isn’t significantly better than what we have AND it is diverting money away from our biggest financial need – TWO TOP FLIGHT SPs.
The grissom move was not ONLY for 2024 see the bigger picture man
redsoxu571 – I think you are confused about the financials. The team isn’t over the CAP so there is no luxury tax associated with Sale’s original $25.6MM AAV vs the luxury tax. That amount was lowered by $8.6MM during the deal so that money is paid by ATL. Boston is still on the hook for $17MM for Sale and since he’s not playing for Boston that $17MM is added to the money owed Hosmer, Turner and Rodriguez so the team has wasted $24.94MM of it’s $237MM available under the cap.
This was not a salary dump this was Boston paying $17MM to get Grissom. That’s an expense that lowers the available money for other players like new Starting Pitchers, a new 3B or lefty relievers. Basically, Breslow threw away close to $37MM to swap out Sale for Giolito and add Grissom.
Is that smart money management? Not to me. That’s a guy building a team full of guys he wants regardless of what is currently needed. Will he finally get what is needed before the 2024 season? Hard to say. Each move has been highly unpredictable because “his guys” aren’t known publicly.
We have to wait and see who else he likes. But lets be clear, this has absolutely NOTHING to do with money and has EVERYTHING to do with Breslow getting players he can call HIS GUYS.
Fever Pitch Guy is always right, just like his favorite manager, Dusty Baker.
What kind of username is Trollfree?
Remember, that Fever Pitch Guy is always right, just like his favorite manager, Dusty Baker.
Joe – You’re forgetting what you wrote?
“If the RS were looking to cut spending, they wouldn’t sign anyone.”
They could easily get rid of several players, sign a bunch of lower salary replacements, and therefore cut spending.
Corporations do it all the time. Fire, lay off or force into retirement older highly paid workers …. then replace them with low paid kids shortly after college. Instant payroll reduction.
Joe – If the Sox get Crease, they will fold.
TF – Several Red Sox players, including Sale, disliked Cora ever since he bragged to the team about stealing the 2017 WS.
Sale especially, he was lit up like a Christmas Tree in the 2017 ALDS because of Cora’s cheating. Just because he was professional when discussing Cora, doesn’t mean he didn’t despise the guy.
TF – Hader will never, ever happen! No chance in hell the Sox give him a $110M contract!!
How about trading Jansen and then signing YRod?
What have you got against YRod?
I say do it! Starter or reliever, I don’t care.
Pool – I don’t think anybody is against Grissom. He’s got the potential to be a decent 2B or corner OF, and hit for average. He’s young enough that he could develop power too.
If his presence means Yorke can get traded for a #1 starting pitcher, I’m all for it.
I don’t think the Red Sox know what they’re doing. Directionless and rudderless. Utter buffoonery.
4 years of useless Bloom to move up a few notches in Mil rankings meanwhile the ML roster got totally f****d. Then they scapegoat Bloom bring in Breslow to what? Who the eff knows!
They have 12 weeks to start of the 2024 season to right the ship and right now their taking on water so they need to get busy. Chop chop!!
Box – I fully endorse your post!
And I fully endorse yours, Fever Pitch Guy.
They traded Verdugo and picked up a cheaper ONeill. Their moves seem to be ones with payroll in mind.
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Verdugo was both a clubhouse issue, and a L/R issue.
But there is no way you add someone like Gio unless you want to compete. None. Unless Breslow is insane, which I doubt.
ONeill had some clubhouse issues too. They were overblown but the manager wanted ONeill gone and that’s a big reason why he was dealt.
I will say it AGAIN the Red Sox can give the impression they are trying to compete by signing Giolito and they can trade him in July if he’s playing well and the team isn’t.
Joe – Did you see the pic of clean shaven Dugie? Not saying he is, but he sure looks like a total dou**e.
As for Giolito, I disagree. All I’ve heard is that he’s an “innings eater”, which is code for “let’s get through this game, who cares if we win”.
Verdugo continues to rub me the wrong way. He is looking to forward to playing under Boone. Like him or hate him, does anyone consider Boone better than Cora?
IRT Giolito, I see it as a straight gamble. He is either a #2 of a weak #5.
Just because someone’s clean shaven means that they’re trouble?
You’re too funny, Fever Pitch Guy. We should all vote him president of MLB Trade Rumors
Always Right – I’m really digging your posts, you’re my Flavor Flav !!
I agree. This article is written with even less conviction than the numerous ones talking about the Sox being “interested in” various free agents.
I don’t think this is a cutting payroll thing either. I see it as they gave a budget in mind for next season and they’re just reallocating the money in different areas.
They could spend the same as last season or even a little more. Difference being spending more money on SP that will give them more innings.
yewed – Great post, I totally agree!!
Full throttle up the fans —
This is such an odd post. All season the Sox have been talking about how they would be involved in all the top free agent starters. It was also reported widely that they made a $300M+ offer for ‘moto and now they need to shed payroll to sign the defending Cy Young Award winner? Sounds like a negotiating technique to me and it is shocking if Boras and Co. fall for it
They never made an offer to Yamamoto, the reports of a $300 million offer were retracted within a day.
Only fools believe anything out of the Athletic. Total rag.
prolly were embarrassed by how little interest their pitches worked for top guys.
Why? We aren’t a big market team anymore.
We became the Pittsburgh Pirates. Somehow.
Perplexing for a team that once led the sport in payroll.
Ancient history.
Box – They will again, when the Corners are done …. give it another decade.
Poverty franchise
Cal – Doesn’t help when some fans are willing to punt year after year.
Third largest revenue in MLB, and fans with a small market mentality. It’s so weird.
I just want a reason as to why we are cutting payroll. I think we deserve the reason as fans.
Fans are too obsessed with the payroll. The team spends a lot one year and suddenly the fans think that’s the new normal and they act entitled. Is that really what sports are supposed to be about?
In the large markets, it seems to be.
I always wondered how they would like it if they had to deal with what two thirds of baseball fans do every year.
I think we are seeing from Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, and one year spending wonder Padres fans this offseason how they are reacting.
Boston is at a $200MM payroll. Many teams are envious of that. If you can’t compete at that level, its not the payroll that’s the problem.
“Fans are too obsessed with the payroll” nicest way to say fans like shiny objects
No we want good baseball and last years team was one the worst and boring that I’ve experienced. Bad pitching, Bad defense. Disappearing offense for big stretches. Ugly. No mas!!
I’ll see your bad defense, bad pitching and disappearing offense for long stretches and raise you humiliating and unnecessary press conferences by management and the front office.
That is BUSINESS. I can tell you’ve neither owned or managed one. Yes, once you’ve established a precedent, it is EXPECTED. For example, your company has a first-ever Christmas party. The next year (and every year thereafter), you will expect it.
When John Henry goes from Diamond Jim Brady to Eb Scrooge, there’s a reason. I’m of the opinion his other sports ventures and his Globe investment took him down more than a little. Henry went “full throttle” elsewhere, and is now getting throttled.
You have a good point but when we are a big market team and aren’t even ranked 12 in team revenue, you want to know why the Yankees go the extra mile to pay more and not us. I understand the reason to cut costs, I just wish they were straightforward about it.
I think it is 1 of 2 things. Either Breslow has decided to take a couple of years to restructure the franchise with an eye on 2026 or the rumors of shredding payroll to sell the team are true.
Well ok, 3 things… ownership could just be getting in the way again lol. FO, “Full throttle!!”… stock holders, “Erm..NO!!!”
Maybe Breslow recognizes that this offseason isn’t right time to push all-in. See what you can get out of the young guys, Grissom, and how Story rebounds. Payroll reduction is all speculation at this point as the offseason isn’t done yet.
I think that is the case, and I agree. Even if the Sox had landed a true ace, wild card still would have been best case hopes. They are not going to the show this year, no need rush the evaluations. Make adjustments at the deadline.
Also need to see if Story comes back to his old levels and if Yoshi rebounds from his freshman year. If both do well, they could be moved at the deadline for some prospects and payroll shredding.
You went that much on a tirade for one player, didn’t you?
I don’t disagree that the story contract looks pretty rough right now. But let’s not confuse your tirade with actual facts. 31 years old is not mid 30s. Though his last year in Colorado was not a superstar platform season he had 20 homers 20 stolen bases and OPS over 800. He plays all accounts, gold glove, Caliber defense with a slightly below average arm from shortstop. I’m not a fan of WAR but for all you fanboys so good with the glove and on the base paths that, even with his total lack of offense, he still managed to put up 0.8 bWAR in his limited playing time in 2023. While, I’m excited with the prospect of Marcelo eventually making an impact at the major league level he played a a partial season at AA last year. Promoting him to the majors for opening day would be a huge disservice to his overall development
How’d that big payroll work out last year?
At least you got to watch very famous and expensive players fail.
I just want a reason as to why we are cutting payroll.
=======================
We’re not. No one cuts payroll by spending big money on FAs.
Investing in bounce back candidates is not “spending big money on FAs” its a gamble to either get a prospect at the deadline or a QO next off season. Your obsession with trying to convince every comment they are spending big is just laughable. Get a life.
Investing in bounce back candidates is not “spending big money on FAs”
=====================================
No matter what the reason for spending the $19M+, it qualifies as spending. There is no way around that.
Only in RS discussions can someone spend $19M and then be told that they didn’t spend anything.
“”Only in RS discussions can someone spend $19M and then be told that they didn’t spend anything.””
That’s a straw man. Nobody is saying they “didn’t spend anything.”
Knock it off.
Where did I say they didn’t spend anything? You’re pathetic. Get a life.
The entire article, and half the responses, are about the RS :shedding salary”.
The part of the post I responded to says: “I just want a reason as to why we are cutting payroll.”.
You quoted me clown, and then responded to something I didn’t say. Spending 19 mil on Giolito is not “spending big in FA” as you stated.
I quoted Chaim Breslow’s Pocketbook.
If anyone wants to make a wager on whether the RS spend more or less than last year, I’d be glad to make a friendly honor bet.
Because this fool says they are cutting payroll, you believe it???? SMH
I am actually glad if this is true, I just wish Werner hadn’t lied about it. I really got excited and was very hopeful that Yamamoto would be signed. Why didn’t he just say, “we are going to give Breslow a year to restructure?” Instead of lie AGAIN.
Anyway, Sox aren’t a contender this year so shedding payroll make sense. Build for next year.
I can ride a year of watching the young guns prove themselves and be excited about it. I trust Breslow with building pitching far more than I did Bloom!
Seriously. Kennedy and Werner need to go!
You really thought they would sign Yamamoto?
I imagine that they would have eagerly signed him, if they’d had the choice. They didn’t pass on him.
DBH – Werner is the top minority owner of FSG, he’s not going anywhere.
But perhaps my earlier suggestion of Werner joining forces with the other minority owners to oust Henry? It will never happen, but it should.
I think the opposite, actually. Remember late last season that I posted that i think Henry is ready run Kennedy out of town the way he did LL?
That vibe is only getting stronger with me.
Also, unless the team is up for sale, Henry isn’t going anywhere. The big money stake holders didn’t buy in because of Werner. Henry’s issue is that he isn’t as involved as he was in the beginning. Like I said, FSG is like Walmart now. Kennedy is the store manager, Breslow the deli manager. Henry is district manager watching all of his other stores.
We need the Henry who used to call in to radio shows, or even show up at a station to argue his point.
We need Henry to make the Sox his number one priority again.
DBH – I appreciate your thoughts on Kennedy. I hardly ever read about him, why do you have that vibe?
Yeah that ship has sailed when it comes to Henry. He’s got too much else going on, with The Corners being his top priority. Not only has he lost interest in the Sox, he has developed a healthy disdain for the fans.
Winter Weekend is only a couple weeks away, it’s not even close to being sold out. In the past it was always a fantastic turnout, every big name player showed up. This year’s list thus far is pathetic and shows the dysfunction within the organization from top to bottom:
You know what’s interesting? Sale wasn’t included in the player appearances, now he’s gone. Jansen isn’t included, maybe he realizes he’s gone too? And this will make KD happy …. Devers is a no-show too. Perhaps because …. ?
On the alumni side, no Youk or Papelbon despite connections with NESN? No Pedroia? Only the usual 9 are scheduled to appear.
There is no one thing really. What sparked the thought was when Henry deflected blame by stating, Kennedy runs the Red Sox” last year. It was a similar statement to what he said after the LL/Theo drama.
If you are correct that Henry is close to being pushed aside, then it only strengthens my thought on this… any CEO in that position is breaking out a battle ax and beheading underlings before they get pushed out.
Kennedy has been CEO of the Sox since 2017. His tenure isn’t a bright time for Sox Nation.
Again, I have no one thing to present and I could be way off. Just a gut feeling. Then again, I thought Yamamoto would be our ace lol
Trade Devers and Yoshida. Rebuild around pitching, speed and defense.
As lovely as this would be, Devers and Yoshida aren’t going anywhere. No team in the league is going to take on those contracts unless they’re significantly paid down. Same goes for Story.
Boston plays in Fenway. You build around pitching and Bats!
Whats wrong with Yoshida? His deal is a bargain if he performs like he did last year for the next 4 years.
Yoshida’s counting stats look gaudy (sort of), but he’s a defensively limited corner outfielder who posted only slightly above-average offensive numbers (109 WRC+) and contributed only 1.4 WAR in 2023, which is well outside the range of the top 200 in terms of player value. I’m optimistic that there’s some room for improvement as he adjusts more to MLB, but at $15 million a year those numbers are pretty clearly an underperformance. As I said in another comment elsewhere, any team looking for lineup help could get a lot more for a lot less.
Sorry, if a team is going to compete, there needs to be some predictable talent on the field. That comes in the shape of, unfortunately, high priced FAs. The QO this year was around $20m. Thats become the average market entry when buying talent. Just the way its become in MLB.
Who else besides Raffy has that predictable talent? Honestly, not one player has any dependable track record. If every position on the field is a lotto ticket, the fan base gets squirrely.
Signing Teo and Monty puts Boston back in the conversation in the AL east.
I wouldn’t call Teo as being predictable talent going forward. He’s BAD in the field, and he doesn’t walk. His best days are in the rearview.
Not gonna argue he doesn’t have warts (211 Ks!!), but the games played and HRs have been steady enough. 3/60 wouldn’t be a terrible thing for a LF of his ilk.
swanhenge – Who sits? The three top outfielders all have far better upsides than Hernandez and are controllable until 2030 and 2028.
One maybe two of them are packaged in a trade for Luzardo.
TF – It was announced that multiple OF’ers were likely to be traded, so don’t get too attached to any of them.
Yoshida is not showing up for Winter Weekend, but he likely doesn’t want to make the trip from Japan for just a weekend.
You don’t build a team through FA…
You do if you are the Red Sox
Not saying you need to build w FAs. It’s just comforting to be able to plug in a guy knowing what you’ll get. +/- 10-15% either way.
May want to tell the WS Champion Rangers that.
Web – Just like DD did in Boston Chris did in Texas. He had a great young core group of players and got the key missing pieces as expensive adds. It’s a proven formula which got torn up in the front offices in Boston so the clown Bloom could experiment with his better way and now Breslow can experiment with his better way.
Most people that are good at being a GM look for the holes and fix them. The whole idea of making a team “your team” is egocentric thinking by bad GMs. Looks like Breslow is heading down that path since he hasn’t fixed the obvious problems. He hasn’t fired Cora and he has move Devers to DH. Until he fixes those issues, the team will be mediocre and the roster will be filled with “his guys” not the guys we need.
You obviously learned that Bloom’s a clown from our leader and our master, Fever Pitch Clown… I mean, Fever Pitch Guy.
web – All four championship Red Sox teams had a core of free agents. Sox don’t win without free agents like Uehara, Foulke, Damon, Manny, JD, Ortiz, Okajima, Timlin, etc.
I did after hearind, “full throttle”. At 25 I viewed him as a big piece for adding to a blossom young team. I never believed Ohtani was target
That was a reply to Joel P. Guess I forgot to hit the reply button lol
DBH – I don’t think anybody should feel ashamed for believing the Sox would target either of those two, because it made too much sense.
Third largest revenue in MLB.
Plenty of payroll flexibility.
Desperate need for a superstar player.
Consecutive last place finishes.
Desperate need to re-engage a deteriorating and unhappy fanbase.
I am still convinced the Sox will land at least one big name player, because another last place finish and another year of missing the postseason despite a new ops leader would have everyone pointing the finger at one person – John Henry.
Fever – The problem now is to land the guy or guys we need Breslow will need to exceed the CAP significantly unless he can successfully dump Yoshida, Devers or Story. There is roughly $20MM left under the cap after Breslow spent $37MM on Giolito and Grissom.
We still have a need for a SP1, SP2, 3B and two lefty relievers. $20MM won’t cover those needs so we either need to trade the expensive guys, go over the cap or remain mediocre for at least another year if not another half decade. The Story deal has 4 years left, the Yoshida deal has 5 years left and the Devers deal has all 10 years left. Bloom screwed the next GM with his insane contracts.
If Yoshida was on a team that needed a DH he would not be a big over-pay but for him to be a $18MM DH which keeps the Butcher of Boston on 3B he’s not an asset, he’s a liability. The entire organization is on it’s head because of Devers. One guy shouldn’t dictate the future of the team. Give him away because the team would be better off within a couple of years if Breslow is any good at his job. $30MM a year could be shuffled to needs areas and the team defense improves exponentially.
Wow, you should be the president of baseball operations for the Red Sox, Fever Pitch Guy. I think we all could learn a thing or two from you, especially when it comes to making factual allegations.
Like this man’s posts.
I could see Yoshida on the block. Duran and O’Neil are both better off in left.
They just signed Yoshida he’s not going anywhere.
They’d have to eat some of the contract for sure but he could be moved.
Joel P – Bloom signed Yoshida not Breslow. Yoshida is justifying Devers being at 3B and that needs to stop. Yoshida being traded would be the biggest move of the off season if it means Devers goes to DH.
No sensible team would be willing to take on Yoshida’s contract unless the Sox were willing to pay for most or all of it. Highly doubt he’s going anywhere. It’s more likely that Duran, Abreu, or Rafaela will be flipped for controllable pitching.
You think Yoshida has zero positive playing value?
Didn’t say that. I’m also curious to see if he’ll perform better over a full season now that he’s adjusted to the league and the schedule. But 15 million for 1.4 WAR and 109 OPS+ is a steep overpay for a guy who didn’t come close to cracking the top 200 in terms of player value last season. Based on what he’s contributed so far, any team in need of lineup help could get a lot more for a lot less.
thecroc – Yoshida has a couple of key things going for him as far as perceived value is concerned.
1 – He’s a famous Japanese outfielder which sells big in some markets
2 – His bad performance can be rationalized with the number of games he played in 2023. It’s not true but a good salesman could justify his greatness by pointing to the long long season.
3 – As a high OBP DH he can bat 2nd and add base runners before the power hitters on any team. The fact that Cora is too stupid to use him properly doesn’t mean an intelligent manger couldn’t gain great production from his high OBP.
Yoshida has value and would remove the Devers at 3B rationalization. There is no excuse for playing the worst defensive 3B or all time yet another year.
An “intelligent manger.” That’s good English skills, troll guy. Maybe you learned from Fever Pitch Guy.
Someone is looking for attention.
Pathetic. This has to be a bottom 5 ownership group.
Did the Red Sox get sold since they won 3 ws ?
The way they are operating right now is pathetic smart guy. You know it and I know it.
But his point is still correct. The RS have had the best ownership group in BB since Henry took over.
JoeBrady – Nice claim but there is no way to back that up with facts that relate directly to the end result.
I think it’s safe to say they have provided the needed money to win multiple rings. To suggest a comparison is too Fangraphs/Statcast like thinking. Go with facts not estimations.
Nice claim but there is no way to back that up with facts that relate directly to the end result.
=========================
No evidence? Besides the four WSC?
Joe – I’m not gonna fall in the trap you set, but I’ll gladly point out since Henry took over the team has missed the postseason half the time (11 out of 22 years) and finished last more times (6) than they finished first (5). Even with the 4 championships, that’s unacceptable to most fans.
Now compare that to the Giants who have made the WS 4 times, winning 3 of them, and have finished last only twice.
Or to the Astros, who have made the WS 5 times, winning twice (yes cheating), and have finished last only 3 times.
Or to my personal favorite, the Braves who have made the playoffs 13 times and finished last only ONCE while winning the division title 11 times.
But I know you’re gonna say the 4 titles are all that matters, and you’re certainly entitled to your opinion.
Joe – You often calculate a player’s salary divided by WAR to get their value.
How about doing something similar with the Red Sox team payroll?
Take the total payroll spending from 2002-2023 and divide by the 11 postseason appearances.
Now do the same for the Braves, total payroll spending from 2002-2023 and divide by the 13 postseason appearances.
Do the same exercise for division titles.
Or how about this, find another team with at least 6 last place finishes that has spent at least as much as the Red Sox have since 2002.
After all, it’s all about bank for your buck … right?
So you’re saying the Red Sox have gotten the most bang for their buck since Henry took over? Prove it!
I am guessing that people don’t like the fact that since Henry took over the Red Sox have won the WS 4 times. That is the best in MLB over that period.
The last few years have been bad, but overall no team has done better.
Face it Red Sox fans, In the eyes of Sox brass You guys are simply not worth the expenditure anymore. You guys have become the Jake’s of state farm.
Sucks man!
There’s nothing dumber than spending for the sake of spending. Pay for the players whom you like for the price, and if there aren’t any other willing guys who fit don’t force the issue when you’re not already a top contender. All the AL East teams already have a tough road to haul, so a step back in the now (or even just holding place) in such a situation can make a lot of sense.
BOS in a tough situation with the other 4 division clubs just better right now – “on paper.” Unloading bad contracts not a terrible idea
10centBeerNight – There is a right way to unload bad contracts and there is a wrong way to unload bad contracts.
Bloom the idiot did it the wrong way with Price. He cost Boston $16MM per year of available money under the CAP. Always send prospects and never do a buy down. It’s financial suicide.
Breslow repeated Bloom’s mistake with the Sale dump which doesn’t qualify as a dump since Boston eats $17MM of the $25.6MM and gets to watch Sale rebound for another team paying just $8.6MM for him. That’s pure stupidy. Yes, they got Grissom for $17MM but is he that much better than what they have in the minors to take a one time hit of $17MM?
If you dump payroll always include farm hands with more hype than talent like Mayer, Yorke or in the old days Moncada and Kopech. There should NEVER be Retained Payroll on your books because it reduces the amount of money you have available UNDER the CAP. Right now thanks to the Sale trade Boston now has $24.94MM less than other teams to spend under the CAP.. So other teams can spend 10.5% more money without going over the CAP than Boston can. In return, we have Grissom!!
Keep in mind that Sale has $10M+ of deferred revenue on his contract above and beyond his 2024 annual salary. Atlanta most likely picked up those future financial obligations for Sale in addition to the $8.7M salary for this year. Plus, Boston gets 6 years of control over Grissom now. I hate losing Sale as I feel like he has another great season or two left in him but his injury history is too lengthy to count on his next great year being 2024.
Boston should trade Jansen for a LH RP and a prospect, freeing up another $14M or so. They can then use that money to add an impact bat and another starting pitcher. Imanaga might be their ceiling though. Otherwise it may be Manea, Paxton or another mid-tier talent on a one year deal.
If fans want Boston to compete for a playoff spot in 2024, they will have to rely on a major bounce back from Trevor Story. If Story can stay healthy and hit 25-30 doubles and 20+ HRs then they may have a chance, so long as their pitching can hold up. Boston’s competitive window really starts to open up in 2025, where multiple rookies will be counted on (Teel, Mayer, etc..) and the 2025 FA pitching market will be as good if not better than this years. This is one reason why they signed Giolito to basically a one year deal and will probably sign another pitcher to a one year deal as well. They can do much better next year when they are ready to start competing and commit real money to a Burns, Woodruff, Fried, Wheeler, etc.
Dorothy – I believe you are confusing cash flow and AAV. Sale has $25.6MM AAV for his last contract but he has worked with the front office to change the cash flow significantly into the future. All that cash is still owed Sale. The AAV for ATL is $8.6MM and the AAV for Boston in 2024 is $17MM.
So you can look at the deal as Grissom cost Boston a one time fee of $17MM and Sale’s performances for 1 year.
Boston should never have invested money in Jansen and Martin because the team wasn’t more than a .500 team so dealing both of them would generate more available payroll to get starting pitching. Story and Yoshida could do the same and even Devers (if it were possible) would be a great player to deal to get back $300MM on a guy who probably won’t provide $150MM in value over the next decade.
The big problem with waiting for Free Agents after the 2024 season is the competition will drive up the prices so ideally Boston needs to trade Yoshida, Story Devers or whoever it will take to get 2 experienced top of the rotation pitchers. Much like DD got Price and Sale, Breslow needs to get two comparable pitchers and he needs to fire Cora so he can’t hurt the pitchers like he did Sale and Price.
With all the all-star level players gone except Devers this team needs both pitching and hitting. Devers must go to DH and a new power hitting 3B needs to be added. Story could be traded for a younger SS like Adames or the team can roll the dice on the under performing Mayer. Grissom is in place as is Casas, Rafeala, Duran and Anthony will be soon. Abreu give the outfield much needed depth and Rafaela gives the team flexibility in emergencies to move him to the infield.
The team definitely needs guys like you mentioned above but the other problem with them is Fried will likely be re-signed by ATL and Wheeler by DD so that just leaves MIL SPs. Personally, I would love to see both Burnes and Woodruff and Adames come to Boston for Yoshida, Mayer, Yorke, Jordan and Pivetta. Milwaukee won’t be able to afford the three players in 2025 and Boston could offer them extensions as part of the trade. It would solidify the 2024 team a bit but it would give Boston two all-star level SPs along with a SS better than Story or Mayer..
Somehow this whiny entry manages to omit the actual figures on the Red Sox’s payroll. For 2024 they are looking at a luxury tax payroll of $193 million and an actual payroll of $177 million. Those are hardly poverty-level numbers, especially compared to a number of teams that made the playoffs last year, such as the Rays, Orioles and Marlins.
But MLBTR is pursuing a narrative that the Red Sox are cheapskates who won’t spend a dime. In fact, they’re spending a helluva lot of dimes, though maybe not too wisely.
@Casey, there is a huge difference between ‘spend’ and ‘waste’. Sox payroll is a story of wasted money
I would say that it wasn’t spent wisely by the previous group in charge. The new guy is moving pieces around to build a more sustainable, long term solution.
The only people framing this as some sort of problem are the majority of fans on this site. I roll my eyes at half these posts. “Spend money so I can complain about how you spent it.”
Boy, that’s an unfair dig against MLBTR. The article was written objectively and almost entirely reporting on the facts, and any speculation only comes from media sources (not the author) and is presented as being speculation. You seem to be confusing some of the thoughts in the comments for what the article says.
The MassLive article cites one RS baseball source. Could be a Fenway parking lot attendant for all we know.
Cotillo never says its a RS source. Only a “baseball source”. It could be a Yankee Stadium beer vendor.
I agree it would have been good for the article to include the Red Sox current payroll.
The writers on this site definitely fall into that group of people that has a really easy time spending other people’s money.
Casey – Wouldn’t you think a team’s payroll should be in direction proportion to their revenue?
Third highest revenue in MLB does NOT equate to 13th-highest payroll.
The Top Two revenue teams in MLB are also the two highest spenders, go figure.
The replies are about half-and-half, which I figured would be the case on my critical comment. Seriously, though, I can understand why the entry doesn’t mention the Red Sox’s payroll. It looks a little weird complaining about a team being cheap when it’s bumping up close in $200 million in luxury tax payroll. And I doubt that the Sox are done spending in this offseason.
At least half of the 2023 playoff teams had payrolls less than the Red Sox. There may a couple more such teams but I haven’t looked at their figures. Boston is spending plenty enough to put a playoff team on the field. Look at the Orioles and and Rays in their own division. For a horrible example in the other direction, look at all the money the Yankees wasted on a non-playoff team. And don’t get me started on the Mets, though I do enjoy the sight of Cohen losing his shirt on a lousy team.
The Red Sox just have to spend more wisely. That’s a skill which has eluded the franchise for a while now.
Casey – The financials of the Red Sox are grossly misunderstood.
First – There is no luxury tax unless you exceed $237MM in 2024. Boston is $20MM shy of that right now.
Second – Revenue numbers are published but profits aren’t. If you apply standard return rates to the revenue you find that Boston profits by roughly $300MM a year or more when you count all aspects of the enterprise. Operating profits is nowhere near that number because it doesn’t include many of the most profitable areas.
Third – AAV is the ONLY number that matters but people often get confused by the cash=flow agreements that a team makes with the individual player. Cash=flow can very as best fits the player and organization but the AAV dictates if there are Luxury Taxes to be paid. The $237 in 2024 is impacted by retained payroll. This is money like Sale’s that is paid for another team to play one of our ex players. When DD came to Boston Cherington had built up over $40MM in dead contracts and ownership agreed to let DD spend what he needed to put a winner on the field. He spent $286MM in 2018 BUT with the retained payroll from Cherington the total payroll was over $230MM and was ranked first in the MLB despite DD only using $286MM to build the best team in baseball. He got blamed for the overage but it had nothing to do with him.
Breslow inherits a very different roster than Bloom. Bloom had at least six all-star quality players and a team that won a ring. Breslow inherits a grossly over paid 3B, SS and LF and a team lacking a SP1 or SP2. That’s a lot of damage done by Bloom. For all the Bloom supporters who were in favor of his one year extension, it cost you four all-star caliber players that now have to be replaced.
The reason Boston is in bad shape isn’t about the money as you pointed out. It’s about the talent acquired and developed internally. In 2024 Boston will have the best set of young players they’ve had in a decade thanks to some excellent draft choices by DD. What they lack is all-star quality veterans. That commodity was eradicated by Bloom.
How long does it take to get great players to come to Boston to have an immediate impact? DD got Price one year, Sale the next year and JD the third year and won it all. Texas got Semien and Seager then Scherzer and Montgomery and won it all. Boston needs an all-star 3B, an upgrade at SS, and two all-star SPs. The rest can be handled by the farm system players developing into all-stars. The outfield is set as is the right side of the infield and catcher should be set within a year. That means Boston can rebound if the GM can fire Cora to avoid the knives in the back that DD and Bloom experienced, move Devers to DH to avoid 50 misplayed balls a year and sign four very expensive players at 3B/SS/SP1/SP2 while divesting themselves of Story, Yoshida and some over -rated prospects.
There is no luxury tax unless you exceed $237MM in 2024. Boston is $20MM shy of that right now.
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$46M below.
Casey – I agree 100% with your last paragraph. They don’t have the intelligence other teams have, so they need to compensate by spending. That’s what Friedman and Cashman do.
“If you’re always rational about every free agent, you will finish third on every free agent.”
Trevor Story for Hanigar and Stripling. Saves Boston a bunch of money, Giants get a shortstop and clear up an outfield spot/DL spot. Maybe all three players bounce back and it’s a win/win.
I doubt any team would take on Story’s contract unless the payroll gap was completely covered by the Sox.
I’m fine with cutting payroll where they can. A team that’s probably destined for fourth or fifth place this year has no reason to keep carrying big-name relievers like Martin and Jansen at the back of the pen. It would make more sense to trade them, save some money, invest prospect capital in acquiring starting pitching, and allocate Houck and Whitlock to the spots vacated by Kenley + Martin.
If you can’t win this year, you might as well clear the books to build a better product down the road.
Excellent response!
Trade away guys who don’t have a chance to be here in 2 – 3 years for guys that do. Free up payroll to sign a guy like Montgomery who will be around for six plus years without exceeding the luxury tax.
Then spend big on guys in a couple of years when the prospects have proven who will make up the foundation for the future success of this team.
This roster could even potentially find success earlier than expected without sacrificing the future like Dombroski did.
teddyballgame – I was liking what you said until you said a very uninformed thing. Dombrowski NEVER sacrificed the future. That’s as far from the truth as you can get.
Who are the young players from the farm system today? Casas a DD guy, Houck a DD guy, Bello a DD guy, Duran a DD guy, Rafaela a DD guy and Abreu a DD guy. Who did he trade away? Moncada as the #1 prospect who has under performed for the last 5 years. Kopech who has under performed for the last 5 years. Espinoza a guy who has really under performed for the last 5 years.
The roster is FINDING SUCCESS right now thanks to DD not Bloom. NONE of Bloom’s guys have graduated to help the team and ONLY one Anthony has shown the potential to be an impact player like Duran, Rafaela, Houck, Bello and Casas.
So fundamentally I agree with your assessment of the process but your cheap shot at DD was way out of line. The guy did nothing but help this organization and he got crapped on by ownership so he went to Philly to prove that what he did in Boston wasn’t a fluke. It was repeatable.
More trades are coming, i love the idea of dumping salary, we arent contending yet, may be another bridge year, set us up for 25 by unloading sale, jansen, martin and maybe even story.
The reset button should have been pulled on this team a year or two ago, better late than never. Bloom didnt have the stones to make these kinds of moves, he played scared, i like how Breslow is the exact opposite. Keep those moves comin!
Trading Chris Martin after posting a miniscule 1.05 era and finishing top 15 for the cy young award would be a cold play by Boston. All jokes aside, this hasn’t felt like the same Red Sox team that I grew up rooting against since 2019. At least in terms of approach.
Beginning to worry their not bringing back Brais….. would take 3- 65 to get him back… and they just don’t pay beer vendors that much at Fenway…
olmtiant – They were showing a highlight reel of Sale’s greatest moments in a Sox uniform.
One of the best, a 7-inning 17-K, 0-walk gem against the Rockies.
Brasier came in and lost the game!
3-75 !!! Gonna be a lot of pissed off fans and Brais can take it!!! SIGN HIM NOW!!!
All hail Fever Pitch Guy and his favorite manager, Dusty Baker.
Always Right – Love the new handle, thank you! But where did you get the impression I like Dusty? I haven’t posted anything about him in more than a year. I don’t really have a favorite manager.
Two fever pitch guys ? Seems someone in someone’s head . See what the Sox do you . This is awesome
B dog – Just a couple days ago I mentioned how I had impersonators years ago. Apparently someone read it and got the idea to do the same. I’m fairly certain I know who it is, but haven’t taken the time to confirm it. The Dusty thing is just so weird though.
As long as they don’t go overboard, I’m cool with it. He’s my Flavor Flav. Haha!
Mini you
Need cash? Baez and a boatload of cash for Story and a good prospect like Yorke or Raffaella. Story plays SS or 3B in Detroit whenever he is healthy and Yorke (more likely) or Raffaella play where needed and Baez plays SS with good defense in Boston. Tigers buy a prospect and then Boston can use the cash towards signing Montgomery AND Imanaga. Both team trade their headache contracts and hope for a fresh start.
This is the most plausible Trevor Story trade I’ve seen anyone suggest this offseason. Although, if I’m being honest (with condolences to Detroit), I think Báez would wind up DFA’d in this scenario.
Couldn’t blame them if they did DFA him after his performance over the past two years. I don’t expect him to be as bad as last year but he’ll still likely be below average. Nothing more than a stopgap at best these days.
Im not 100% sure i believe this reporting..why any team disclose internal finances with a free agent?…doesnt add up
Looks more and more like Boston is hitting the RESET button.
move out the old and get younger and more fresh Giolito is under 30 and short contract fits team shakeup.
They may have to pay to move the aging players. Justin Turner has hit pretty well regardless of age, am surprised he is still available.
Looks more and more like Boston is hitting the RESET button.
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If they are hitting reset, then why Giolito?
To appease the fans. Act like they’re trying by throwing lil money around w/”significant” signing. All done for effect, to show fanbase they’re out there clawing n fighting to bring world series championship back 2boston. Smoke n mirrors. Pretend, what do the good teams do, pretend to be a good run team. PR baby, brought to u by the same folks who gave away Mookie cause they’d rather keep that money 4profit than produce ass kicking winning team.
To appease the fans.
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The reason doesn’t matter for this purpose. They are either resetting or they are not resetting.
The folks that think they are resetting still can’t come up with a rationale for a team to be resetting AND signing a $20M FA.
If they were resetting, they wouldn’t have signed him. This is a binary decision. Spending or not spending.
Joe – Is it binary? Maybe it’s Breslow getting “his guys”. It’s neither a reset or a non reset, it’s just Breslow evaluating players and deciding he wants them or doesn’t want them in the case of Sale.
He’s blown the budget with the Giolito deal and then he further blew the budget with the $17MM pay down so to me the most logical observation is Breslow is building a future team that he wants. He likes Giolito more than most Boston fans do so he over paid. He didn’t think Sale was adding value in his last year so he paid $17MM to acquire Grissom who he must like a lot.
At this point, it’s hard to guess his next move since the moves seem long term strategic not immediate impact fixes. That explains why he didn’t fire Cora or move Devers to DH. He’s building infrastructure so it will be interesting to see if he likes the young outfielders, Story, Casas, the catchers and the young pitchers.
Nothing would surprise me at this point. I hope he has good insights into O’Neill and Giolito so they actually do come back to their forms of 3 or more years ago because if they don’t, he’s going to be crucified by the fan base for wasting so much money on Giolito, Grissom and O’Neill.
Trollfree10 hours ago
Joe – Is it binary? Maybe it’s Breslow getting “his guys”. It’s neither a reset or a non reset, it’s just Breslow evaluating players and deciding he wants them or doesn’t want them in the case of Sale.
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That’s reasonable, but all the evidence points in the direction of the RS spending more.
And, as always, I’d be glad to make an honor bet on it.
Joe – Since you’re a betting man, maybe you’ll know the answer to this. How can I place a bet where I pick the two teams that play each other in the WS? I tried last year at Encore Boston Harbor but they weren’t taking the bets.
I don’t want to bet on just a team making the WS, I want to bet on specific matchups.
Boras wouldn’t be firing up a traditionally vocal base over payroll would be ?
Nah. The man has too much class for that.
The owners are liars it’s up the “we” the fans to hold them accountable
So in other words they’re bean counting?
Boston appears to be trying to present the image of a contender, while really planning to be a 500 team with an eye towards 2 season from now.
How realistic are the Sox’s chances in 2024? Fans wouldn’t accept a “full throttle” tear down, but it might be wise to look for 2025 and beyond.
spud – At what point will fans see it for what it is, the dangling carrot..
Every year since 2020 all we’ve heard is “Bridge year”.
The 7-Mile Bridge took a lot less time to build, sheesh!
John Henry is like Lucy with the football.
Welfare franchise
Mercy guys, maybe the for mentioned move for funds was the Sale trade. Patience seems to be paper thin here. Still a lot of help on the board so let’s give Breslow a chance here and let him play his cards, and my guess is with Sale gone he will now go after a lefty starting pitcher…. They are still on the board!
BadCo – Sorry but the Sale trade COST $17MM it wasn’t a money saver. We get to pay $17MM to watch him play in ATL. For that privilege we get Grissom, a 2B slightly better than what we have now and not the urgent need we have for a SP which we now have one less of.
Interesting strategy trading your most talented SP when you are hurting for top notch SPs! That’s a bold move Cotton! (quote from Dodgeball)
Good god I hate this team. Thankfully the Celtics exist
okbud – Yes, and the UConn Huskies exist as well.
AL East is looking pretty dire this year. Might be a cakewalk for the O’s given the Yankees, Sox and Jays have no interest in competing this year and the Rays’ pitching staff is all on the injury list.
But the Yankees are the mecca of baseball! And the Red Sox are going full throttle!
The “According to a baseball source” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that article by Cotillo.
Not an unnamed source within the Red Sox, or a source with knowledge of the Red Sox thinking (always love that one), or a trusted source. As dubious as those are. Just “a baseball source”.
That “baseball source” could be a guy he talked to at the bar down the street from his home or a caller to WEEI. We have no clue but are just supposed to believe that “baseball source”.
WTF happened to sports journalists? What happened to actual, real, honest to goodness sources? Verifiable information?
.
The same thing happened to sports journalists that happened to all journalists.
Boston has a history of completely retooling their roster as much as possible with trades, trying to end one era of roster construction and enter another with minimal transitional crossover and a budgetary reconstruction if not total reduction, while trying to maintain competitiveness or a facade of trying to remain competitive, between expensive deals they couldn’t trade that need to burn off and a couple of market value short term signings or trades to show they aren’t trying to be cheap, they’re just under construction.
This is SOP for Boston.
Trillion – Not sure what you are smoking but WOW what a bunch of horse crap!!! Politian? Philosophizer?
Boston had a champion. They tore it down with Bloom and called it a rebuild except nothing of value was added. Now Breslow is building his own thing regardless of the current pieces.
There is no rhyme nor reason to what he’s doing because it’s all in his head and he hasn’t shared his vision. There are abundantly clear holes that he’s not fixing while playing a long game with guys like Giolito, O’Neill and Grissom. We didn’t need Giolito or O’Neill but apparently he sees something in them worth wasting our limited money on. Grissom cost $17MM and our most talented starting pitcher at a time when we are short on good pitching. It’s completely illogical if you believe he’s trying to fix the team. If, however, you believe he has a vision of what the team can be in a few years and is assembling the pieces it makes more sense but it’s still very, very high risk since none of the new parts were really needed except Grissom and he wasn’t an urgency like quality starting pitchers.
So, this isn’t NORMAL Boston Red Sox behavior because that does not really exist any more. DD came in and fixed things quickly and won immediately. That was standard Big Market logic.
Bloom came in and tore down a championship roster in attempt to build his vision, which didn’t really apply to a big market team.
Breslow is now doing the same thing as Bloom but he’s using his own vision and not repairing the damages done by Bloom but rather systematically adding pieces he likes that are not priorities to an immediate fix. If he uses the phrases “trust me this process takes time” or “this system will create sustained winning” somebody needs to check to see if he’s pulling a Tom Cruise Mission Impossible move and it’s really Bloom wearing a Breslow face mask.
SOP in Boston should be fix immediately and be competitive as fast as possible. That’s NOT THE CASE now or during Bloom’s reign. So your theories are voluminous and incorrect!!
Boston had a champion. They tore it down with Bloom
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They had an 84-win team, the highest payroll in BB, and the #29/30 farm, depending on the publication.
Joe – It was at least a 95-win team that was grossly mismanaged down to 84 wins.
And the farm system rankings proved to be horribly rated, as those publications didn’t have a clue as to the greatness of Casas, Duran, Houck, Rafaela, Crawford and Bello to name a few.
This is starting to smell like the Buddy LeRoux era.
I miss the days of the Sox-Yanks rivalry. Now it seems they’re only rivalry is who can spend the most and be terrible that season.
The sports media can keep ignoring the elephant in the room all they want. The uncertainty of media income is having a chilling effect on this off season everywhere except the largest markets. I look for more one year contracts until people know what’s happening in 2025 and beyond.
So that is why we just saw a record contract for a pitcher and then the Ohtani $700 million deal?
The teams that have seen their RSN go under have not lost money. It seems from comments from actual people like Greupner and Boras that the Padres increased their total TV revenue after DSG went bankrupt. We know from actual court records that MLB only made one payment to the Padres and Diamondbacks after committing to pay 80% of all lost revenue from any RSN going under.
So what uncertainty exactly?
The Dodgers are on a much higher revenue level than anyone. Even the Yankees don’t take in the money LA does. I think they just increased that gap considerably.
MLB has said they will no longer cover the missed RSN payments. That was a one time deal.
MLB has NOT said they will not cover missed RSN payments. In fact, Manfred has reiterated their commitment to cover 80% of lost revenue when it came out that the Rangers and 3 other teams may lose their RSN deals this offseason.
You also missed the key point. MLB didn’t have to make payments to the Padres or Diamondbacks after that 1st one because they didn’t LOSE any money.
So WHAT uncertainty?
Yankees are highest revenue team. Also, the highest team value. It’s not particularly close. Dodgers have the 2nd highest revenue.
Denial is not a path forward. Bally went bankrupt making those payments once cable cutting started. The model is not sustainable. Revenues are taking a hit now that people who don’t watch baseball are no longer subsidizing it through cable payments. No one knows what the future holds but MLB is not guaranteeing future local revenue. They can’t. No one knows what streaming revenue will be until things stabilize.
Not clear on how much the Braves are paying Sale. Yesterday it was reported that they only had to pay Sale 500K. But today it says that Red Sox reduced payroll commitment by 10.5M.
So are Braves paying 500K this year and 10M deferred for that 10.5 savings for Red Sox?
500k in 2024 and 10m deferred
Thanks, so Braves are on the hook for that 10M deferred. Lot of places kept reporting that Sale was only being paid 500K without clearly saying that was his 2024 salary only and failing to mention the 10M deferred the Braves would have to cover.
Lot of places kept reporting that Sale was only being paid 500K
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Expecting accurate reporting, particularly from RS writers, is a fool’s errand.
Joe – It’s not inaccurate as much as misleading.
Most folks discuss payroll by AAV not cashflow. Boston mutually agreed with Sale to spread his money ridiculously into the future to help Red Sox cash flow and benefit his family some how. That’s where the confusion comes from.
AAV – Boston pays $17MM and ATL pays $8.6MM vs the CAP.
Cashflow is a completely different story thanks to the agreements that were made by Sale and Boston’s front office.
If $ is an issue, expect that Teoscar talk to morph into a Joc Pederson or Brandon Belt signing… SP gaze goes from Montgomery to more affordable Clevinger or Turnbull…
as a yankee fan i advise red sox fans to ignore annoying ownership quotes and overheated media narratives. it will take another year but you guys are set up for a serious run as the young core develops and payroll commitments plummet. by contrast, the yankees are doomed to run in circles with no long term plan
ignore annoying ownership quotes and overheated media narratives.
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Spot-on correct. They should’ve never had said “full-throttle”. Just sign the players and shut up.
And RS writers are always in a race to say the most outrageous things possible.
I’m not sure it’s all about shedding payroll. It’s more about shedding dead weight and improving the team at the same time.
I’m betting Lucas Giolito has a better year than Chris Sale (more starts, innings, wins, similar era) and you get a second baseman at the same time.
I’m betting O’Neill has a better year than Alex Verdugo (more HRs, not quite the BA) and you’re picking up great young arms at the same time.
IMO, it is about re-allocating the payroll. Trading Sale and not having to sign a guy like Merrifield gives us almost $20M in spending money. If we don’t spend it, shame on us.
But it is way too early to make that call.
Red Sox should really go with a 100 million dollar payroll and completely start over.
Give Mookie away4nothing that’ll bring down payroll … that’s right already did that. When did bosox become lil sisters of the poor ?
Can you blame them? Small market team.
#8 tv market in the country control thier own cable channel.smallest ballpark yet still finish in top end of mlb in attendance every year…rabid fan base..billionaire owner .. yep real small
That Friends money had to run out eventually.
If the RedSox are trying to reduce payroll, I think they could trade Jansen and Yoshida to the Dodgers for Betts! That might save a bit of money, and it gets more Japanese players on the same team so the people of Japan can focus all their attention on one team!
Get Paul Blackburn from the A’s as your 4/5 starter. ERA should hang around the 4 mark, cheap and team control. Swap for one of the Sox young outfielders. Everyone’s happy
Blackburn would get killed in the AL East. That “around the 4 ERA” mark you speak of will balloon to 5.50 in the AL East….
Is this accurate? The AL East hasn’t been the “AL Beast” in a long, long time.
Red Sox aren’t trading Martin or Jansen. Their pen would be terrible if they lost either of those guys or they’d have to spend big bucks to replace which makes no sense.
Interesting predicament no doubt. They need Monty and Oscar to compete in the east but then they’d be committed to more long contracts. Yet how could they just go into full blown rebuild mode ? There’s not enough young talent on team and in minors to support a quick transition like that
If they’re willing to move Houck and/or Whitlock to the bullpen, Jansen and Martin are disposable. Say the money lets them sign Montgomery and they also swing a trade for, I don’t know, Cease. You’re looking at:
SP Jordan Montgomery
SP Brayan Bello
SP Lucas Giolito
SP Dylan Cease
SP Nick Pivetta
SP Kutter Crawford
CP Tanner Houck
RP Garrett Whitlock
RP John Schreiber
RP Josh Winckowski
RP Brennan Bernardino
RP Isaiah Campbell
RP Greg Weissert
RP Cooper Criswell
I’d much rather have that than what we have now. A good bullpen is useless if they’re all too gassed by August to make up for the fact that the rotation is horrible.
Martin costs 1/2 Kenley. Martin should be extended for another year with an option after that. Kenley seems ripe for trading, either now or at the TD (although I’m not sure you want to give him 2/3 of a season to lower his value). Sox may have to pay down $6MM, anyway. Houck has always looked to me like the closer-in-waiting, although I’d want 2023 Martin first, of course. The new pitching brain trust may be able to turn Luis Guerrero into a back-end power.
thecroc – Boston has $20MM left to spend thanks to the $17MM for Grissom and the $20MM for Giolito. Now explain how we get to the staff you listed with $20MM remaining under the CAP? Or are you suggesting they go way over the CAP?
Cease and Monty will cost roughly $50MM so they would be $30MM over the CAP.
If Jansen and Martin are traded it would (hypothetically) free up around $23 million worth of salary. That puts them in the ballpark of the cap. Also, your numbers are inflated. Cease is projected to make 8.8 million in 2024, and most estimates of Montgomery’s AAV were sitting around 20-25 million going into the offseason (though I’ll warrant that the zany pitching prices probably make that a conservative estimate). Even if we say Monty’s making 30/year, that puts their cost at around 35-40 million, which is just about what 20 million + $23 million comes out to.
Besides, you’re missing my point, which is that the money we’re paying Jansen + Martin would be better spent on reinforcing the rotation. I chose Montgomery and Cease as examples, not as end-all-be-alls.
thecroc – Yeah I was looking at the deal they would cut long term not just in 2024 for Cease and Monty or really any two elite SPs. The going rate is $25MM to $30MM a year. Both Cease and Monty probably won’t command Burnes numbers. I’d rather have Burnes.
You are right to consider dumping skills that are not adding long term value to the club. I never wanted Jansen or Martin because a .500 team does not need to spend that much for late relievers. A winning team does.
The $23.5MM for Martin and Jansen reallocated to starting pitching makes perfect sense. Just like adding Giolito at close to $20MM made no sense. We have SP3, SP4, SP5 type pitchers already. We simply need a SP1 and a SP2.
Don’t spend on things we don’t need like two DH’s, two SP3s, or expensive relievers. Maybe we could trade Jansen to the Cubs to improve their bullpen and ask for Cade Horton in return. A young SP that might be better than Bello and had TJ surgery already several years ago so that won’t be something on the immediate radar like so many other young SPs.
Trollfree9 hours ago
thecroc – Boston has $20MM left to spend
=======================
$46M.
Joe – There are a few items that are unclear as to whether they will be counted against the cap but I believe the money owed Turner and Rodriguez will be along with Sale and Hosmer.
The amount under the CAP is not as low as my estimate after the Sale deal. Here are the exact numbers as they stand today.
Devers – $29,152,686
Story – $23,333,333
Yoshida – $18,000,000
Giolito – $19,250,000
Jansen – $16,000,000
Martin – $7,500,000
Whitlock – $4,687,500
Refsnyder – $2,000,000
Criswell – $1,000,000
The currently signed Veteran Players cost $120,923,519
The Arbitrary eligible players are expected to cost:
Pivetta – $7,500,000
O’Neill – $5,400,000
McGuire – $1,600,000
Schreiber – $1,300,000
For a total of $15,800,000 bringing the total to $136,723,519.
The Pre-Arb players are projected to cost:$10,010,000
The Benefits are projected to cost $17,000,000
The Minor League Contracts and Bonuses are estimated to be $3,916,666.
These are all cost that count against the CAP so they must be included. That makes the total $167,650,185.
Now the fun part. The money spent on guys NOT playing for the team in 2024 which includes Sale, Turner, Hosmer and Rodriguez and totals $24,940,000.
The total becomes $192,590,185. I don’t believe the deferred money will count against the cap because it was included in the AAV of the players when they still played but it’s a cash flow amount that still must be paid. That makes it meaningless for the analysis.
$237,000,000 – $192,590,185 leaves $44,409,815 that can be spent without exceeding the CAP. You were much closer than my ball park number.
We still need:
2 SPs for the top of the rotation
1 3B to replace Devers
2 Lefty Relievers
Two SPs should cost more than $44MM. The team can finish .500 again in 2024 with Devers at 3B and push the need for a new 3B to 2025 but it means no playoffs in 2024 without moving Devers. The lefty relievers aren’t as critical if Devers isn’t going to be moved. They could also move to 2025 as future moves since the team won’t be in the playoffs.
In the end, the money is far less relevant if Devers stays at 3B. The chance of the playoffs evaporates if he isn’t moved.
In the end, all we care about is setting a new roster that is competitive so filling in key holes like 2B are good. Adding a SP3 doesn’t make much sense unless he bounces back and is a SP1 or SP2 in 2024 so the Giolito add is very risky. The O’Neill add only works if he rebounds as well. That allows Breslow to deal one of the young outfielders. Hopefully, it’s Abreu since he doesn’t have the speed of Rafaela and Duran and he doesn’t have upside of an Anthony.
Red Sox need to trim things down to the 100 million payroll mark and start over.
619 – Bloom screwed them with his deals with Devers, Story and Yoshida. The three players cost over $70MM a year. The other signed players cost $50MM and the wasted money for guys we don’t have is at $24.9MM. So, $144MM is what we have on the books before signing all our Pre-ARB and ARB players. Plus $17MM for benefits.
Bloom was in a position to clear the slate for the next guy but chose to screw him over instead. The ridiculous Devers deal makes Panda and Hanley Ramirez deals seem like small mistakes. The waste in Devers deal is more than double the Price deal. Add to it the over-pay to get a lesser SS than Bogey for $3.3MM more than Bogey and $18MM for an outfielder who like Devers can’t field and can’t share time at DH and you have a $70MM screw job by Bloom.
Yoshida or Devers or both need to be dumped if at all possible. Story too. And if we are being honest, Giolito too since he is the 4th worst contract on the books.
Boston at one point last summer was actually where you are suggesting they should be. They ONLY had a commitment in 2024 for $80MM plus ARB and PRE-ARB guys. If that payroll had been passed to Breslow, he might have a chance of fixing things quickly but to me he’s not trying to fix things quickly. Like any GM with a big ego and no experience, he’s trying to build “his team”.
MLB is going to end the sport.
You’d think they would learn after the strike season of ’94.
The steroid scandal.
Labor negotiations are bad for baseball.
The fan pays the price but votes with their feet in the long run.
So because 1 person claims that 1 free agent said people get all worked up. I will wait and see how it plays out.
The Red Sox are an absolute mess. The Story contract is an albatross.
the start of getting a younger team on the field in Boston. Full throttle on the reduction of payroll. We all should have seen this type of deal coming. There will be others departing in the future. House cleaning and let kids play. It won’t be boring.
Yes, it won’t be boring! You are right. 2023 was boring!
Who cares about the irrelevant team in Boston, or what they do, or what their payroll is?
I feel like John Henry & company like to talk it up about being competitive and fielding a decent team but they have failed to back it up. Seems like a lot of b.s.
Henry thinks the fans will still support the team and spend money? You have to spend money to make money. Nibble around looking for fringe players and 3rd tier and start trading those players who make “too much money”. What’s next – an eventual payroll rivalling KC, Oakland, Pittsburgh and other small-market teams? (Gotta save money for the NBA expansion team in Vegas). Many of those teams play in front of empty parks and do not have the sports networks to support them.
Dump Kenley Jansen
Who’d a thunk 1 day in a not so distant future that both the storied yanks n beantowns own bosox would be cutting coupons n sitting on their hands window shopping during big$ free agency.
Niekro – The profits are still above $300MM so they don’t cut coupons they simply turned their pockets inside out and pretend to be poor.
Why not? Sox next competitive window doesn’t open until the top prospects in high minors establish themselves over next two or three years to go with Devers, Casas, etc. Reset the payroll now to avoid tax penalties and focus on building a pitching staff
Sox should be running at a 99 million dollar total payroll and starting over from scratch…
Ramon – Reality check!!!!!!!!!!!! Their best prospects other than Anthony are already on their MLB roster. Bloom drafted crap and the sooner we deal with them the fewer we’ll have to DFA like the stud named Jeter Downs who Bloom hyped and then DFA’d.
Highest ticket prices in the league to sit in a mausoleum. Ownership says one thing does another. Zero apparent direction.
Red Sox are punch line to a bad joke
If that’s the case, why did they waste $39 million on Lucas?
Exactly my point. Some RS fans don’t understand that we are buying, right now, and not selling. They think that paying $20M per for Giolito means that we are reducing payroll.
It’s short term. Way different than the other deals.
Baseball – Do you know the answer to that because I’ve been asking the same question? WHY? He’s not a SP1 or SP2 so why get him if we don’t need him. Is this like Bloom getting Schwarber when we needed a SP? It makes no sense even after giving away Sale.
The Sale deal is a mini version of the Mookie deal. I’m guessing Grissom will end up contributing as much as Wong, Verdugo and Downs!!
C’mon and open up that pocketbook, Chaim Breslow.
The pocketbook belongs to Henry. I agree with the sentiment, but Breslow can only spend what Henry authorizes.
More or less a joke, but you’re right.
It’s become clear that the Red Sox are not the priority at FSG right now. If that is truly the case (which I believe it is) then it’s time for Henry to sell the team. Thanks for the four World Series trophies but if they aren’t committed to the Red Sox anymore then sell it to someone/someone’s that are.
That could be true. On the other hand then why is the sox owner so stuck in the middle with his team. If his priority is somewhere else he could easily do a 2 year mini rebuild, save a lot of money and then have a chance to be good again. But he isn’t even doing that, payrolls are lower but still very high. That stuck in the middle thing doesn’t make any sense. Either try to compete or try to acquire as many prospects as possible
Dom – Where have you been the past 4 years? That’s all they’ve done is try to hoard prospects!
Every trade has involved parting with a veteran to get a prospect, with the exception of Pivetta:
Mookie
Benintendi
Vazquez
Kike
Moreland
Pillar
Sale
Renfroe
Workman/Hembree
I suppose you could say the opposite with the Ramirez and Scherff trades, if you really considered them to be prospects.
And they also have this thing where they refuse to sign free agents with QO’s attached to them, because they don’t want to lose the draft pick. It’s insane!
I don’t quite understand the sox plan. Are they playing to win 87 games and finish 3rd to 4th?
They still have some hitting talent and good young guys but as always in the last 20 years their lack of ability to develop home grown pitchers is showing up.recently it got marginally better but still not nearly enough.
Still that approach worked well for them, only the giants match their 3 titles in the last 20 years but they also never really had a run like the dodgers or braves, it was always with their talented but top heavy staff that one year everyone is healthy and they win and next year 3 guys get injured, replaced by 6 era guys and then it’s 84 wins and 4th place.
But recently they didn’t even have the super top heavy staff, the last couple years they always sign the good but not great pitchers in the 80-120 mill range instead of the top guys. That can work if you develop pitchers like the rays or guardians but for the red Sox it doesn’t so they finish 4th.
Bloom tried to improve pitching development and had some success (at least unlike the last 15 years they developed some backend starters like Houck, Bello and crawford) but it is not enough to compete with pitching development powerhouses like the rays, guardians or astros.
In the past they could push past that by signing top FA pitchers so they had a really good 1,2 punch and closer but now neither really have the depth nor the top end talent.
The offense is still good with some good young talent coming up but not so dominant that it can outhit much better pitching teams who also hit decently.
That means like in the last 4-5 years the sox are kinda stuck in the middle.
Ceiling outcome when everyone is healthy and performing his best is like winning 92 and finish second, median outcome is like finish with 85 wins and finish 4th and floor outcome is like winning 77 and finish 5th ?which happened a couple times the last years.
It seems like they are selling the fans a fake competive team but there is no real plan to become a powerhouse again, it is always the same good offense with shaky pitching thing.
I’d like them to pick a direction.
1) sign the top pitching free agents again (which is 250+ m unfortunately nowadays for top starters).
2) kinda rebuild the next 2 seasons and really load up on pitching prospects (and some more hitting prospects) to really attack in 2026
Right now there is really no vision for the sox fans on how to get really good again.
But of course for ticket sales in that market a fake competive team already might be enough to sell out the place …
Domingo111 – How to get good again should be approached from a big market perspective like DD did.
1 – Fix the defense by moving Devers to DH
2 – Sign a all-star quality 3B through FA or Trade
3 – Sign TWO all-star quality SPs
4 – Trade Yoshida since they already traded Verdugo
5 – Try to trade Story without doing a buy down.
6 – Let the kids play in the outfield in 2024 when the team is average
7 – Fire Cora and get a REAL manager who preferably has a pitching background.
The team has holes at 3B, SS, SP1 and SP2. They have youngsters at C, 1B, 2B, LF, CF and RF. They should have Devers at DH.
This team doesn’t need much fixing just 2 key moves. Fire Cora and get the planned guy who knows your new pitching coaches and move Devers to DH to fix most of the defensive problems. Should raise the team defense at least 15 to 20 slots.
I disagree. Breslowhas defined the direction he is going in. Trading Sale for a young controllable player with high upside who fills a position of need. Trading Verdugo and others, again for young controllable players. Signing Giolito is a move to use money for a short term bounce back candidate who has trade value if the team isn’t competitive.
IMHO this has been a refreshing offseason compared to the Bloom era who seemed paralyzed with fear of making a bad move.
Teddy – Agreed! Verdugo had 1 year remains on his contract! Sale had 1 year remaining.
If Jansen or Martin are traded it is because they have one year remaining, and the Red Sox can gain valuable prospects/controllable players, and it is not because the Red Sox are trying to dump salary. If Breslow does not trade them, he is missing a valuable opportunity to build the team for NOW and the future.
Breslow is amassing young controllable players with upside to create a new core. Jansen and Martin late 30s and can easily replaced by pitchers the Red Sox already have. Pivetta has one year remaining, but I believe the Red Sox will extend him between now and the end of spring training. He was one of their best pitchers the last 4 months of the season.
Teddy – Agree on it being better than Bloom but it’s hard to imagine worse than Bloom.
Grissom is NOT a future all-star type prospect. He’s a good hitter with a decent OBP, little power and average defense. To spend $17MM to acquire him seems like an over pay but we needed a 2B for the future so the end result is fine but the cost is high.
I’m sure you realize the two deals cost $37MM and we got a SP3 and and slightly above league average 2B for that money when we really needed TWO big time starting pitchers. To me, that’s not a direction as much as it’s Breslow gambling on both O’Neill and Giolito. If they work out great but we are used to the GM being wrong from Bloom so having faith is not easy. We’ll see and we all hope Breslow is right but until it happens, it’s a bit too much like Bloom and not enough like DD who went big for guys like JD to replace Papi and it paid off.
JC – Breslow is amassing? Seriously? He’s picked up a couple of shaky young players. He’s not amassing young controllable players. He got one guy that has MLB experience and is controllable at a cost of $17MM and Sales performances in 2024. That’s a steep price for a slightly above league average young guy. When he’s no longer controllable he’s out the door.
Pivetta is projected to make $7.5MM as a long reliever. Extending him will cost more and that makes no sense if he’s not a starter. He’s not better than Bello, Crawford,Houck or Giolito and hopefully Breslow will get more pitching so why extend a long reliever for over $10MM a year? He’s gone after the 2024 season unless he steps into the rotation and proves to be worth what he’s going to want in salary.
Until Breslow starts targeting big needs areas like Defense and top of the rotation Starting Pitching, he’s not impacting wins in 2024. He needs to start making high impact moves to jump this team up from a .500 or worse team to a 95 win team. That means Devers to DH, fire Cora and get a 3B that can field and hit along with TWO top flight SPs that are much better than Giolito.
It’s impossible for you or me to predict what kind of player that Grissom will turn into. I won’t pretend that he could turn into a bust or at 6’3” with over an .850 ops in the minors his right handed bat could turn into an absolute masher. That chance is well worth the $17M and expiring Sale contract who we haven’t been able to count on.
What I’m really curious to know Troll, who are these top of the rotation starters you think are available for the Red Sox to acquire? What is the price in dollars or trade assets? Genuinely curious, no sarcasm, love the conversation.
I’m not a big DD fan, I think he burned through too much minor league talent to keep a sustainable contender. I feel that is supported by the state of the team and minor league system he left in place. I understand why and I’m thankful for the 2018 title. Certainly worth some patience for the next guy to rebuild.
teddy – I think you’re new here, so I don’t mind repeating this for you.
In the decade of 2010-2019 the Red Sox had the highest ranked farm system in MLB.
And Bloom inherited Bello, Crawford, Casas, Duran, Rafaela and Houck to name a few that were in the farm system at the time.
The “state of the team and minor league system” was fantastic when Dombrowski left. Don’t go by what some people *think* are going to be good MLB players, go by who actually BECOMES good MLB players.
And BTW right now the Astros, DBacks, Jays and Braves farm systems are all “ranked” among the 7 worst in MLB. Are you gonna tell us all THOSE front offices have done a bad job because of the meaningless farm system ranking?
In 2019 the Red Sox farm system was ranked 30th. This was the final year Dombrowski was with the team. He completely gutted the system for success in the bigs.
Casas and Duran have only had one successful season while others are still questionable. They could potentially pan out but there is now a four year gap in the development and success of any prospects.
I stand by my comments which are supported by expert evaluations from credible sources. DD was great for the majors, horrible for the long term success.
Almost half of the salary commitment is tied up in 3 individuals. Ugh.
Human – If you add Giolito in with Devers, Story and Yoshida you have two DHs, a SS who can’t hit and a SP3 that cost a total of $89.7MM. That’s about 38% of the money available under the CAP unless you subtract the Retained Payroll which is money being paid for guys to play on other teams like Sale. Then the 4 guys make up 43.3% of the available money under the CAP.
Personally, I never minded when the big salaries were for guys like Mookie, Bogey, JD, Sale, Price and Nate. To me they carried a lot more value than Devers, Story, Yoshida and Giolito.
Wait a couple weeks for the for the clearance items. That what’s they are and have been for a few years. It is embarrassing
Red Sox looking to shed additional fans as well as competitive balance.
How about sell the team if your desperate for money
Okay. Has anyone else seen the new Casas look? Cornrows and full beard!!!
LOL. The dude is a nutter like Spaceman. I love it!!!
He looks strong. Not muscle builder strong. He didn’t make the mistake many others have made of adding muscle mass in the off season. He looks like he is really in shape, that type of strong.
I hope this dude is going to be launching missiles this year!
Full throttle, after siphoning all the gas out and removing the seats to the car.
Trollful – Your 7 steps to a World Series may end up costing the Red Sox $350,000,000 per year. If you want to follow a team like that root for the Dodgers…. There fixed your problem….
Henry is not doing anything close to what you suggest, so I can GUARANTEE you will be disappointed !!! Again, go be a Dodger fan and stop being obtuse.
This is absolute garbage. No wonder nobody wants to come to Boston.
How about them Dodgers❓
Stir the pot MLBTR. This headline is misinformation. Some alternate angles to consider before foaming at the mouth…
1. Who cuts payroll by spending $18M and paying another $17.5M the next day?
2. Sale was getting paid $27.5M next yr regardless of him breaking something in June. It’s going to happen. When it does, that only will cost the Sox $17.5M instead of $27.5M.
3. 6 yrs of control for a high MLB ready prospect coming out of a winning environment. At a position that has been empty since DPs knee injury.
4. The rest of the Sox core/core-lite pieces are young. Grissom aligns with their timing.
5. What front office wld tell a player they need to cut spending. What competitive advantage does that give anyone? No team leverage. No player leverage.
6. If the front office did tell a player they were cutting payroll, the player could have been Giolitto before signing him and while working the Sale deal.
7. Breslow is limited in what he can do yr 1 as he learns the org, the player personalities, and figures out what is really under the hood of the car that Bloom left him.
8. Stop sleeping on the Andrew Bailey hire. Let him work with these young guys for a yr. Let him try to fix Gios fastball.
Still feels like there’s another SP move coming, and a lefty pen arm. Arbeu in RF seems more likely than another big bat signing with the available money.
Sox can claim they were “cutting payroll” to aggressively sign (the mystery free agent) then add nobody simply stating that they lost the competitive bidding over and over until spring hits…sad