1:00pm: Cron will make a base salary of $2MM if on the roster and could unlock another $500K via incentives, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe.
10:05am: The Red Sox and first baseman C.J. Cron are in agreement on a minor league deal, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive (X links). The client of Moye Sports Associates will presumably receive an invite to major league camp.
It was reported yesterday that the Sox were looking to bring in a veteran to compete for a bench spot, with Cron floated as once such possibility. The 34-year-old has served as a potent bat in the big leagues for many years but is coming a frustrating 2023 season.
He began the year with the Rockies for the second season of a two-year, $14.5MM extension he signed late in 2021. But he made multiple trips to the injured list last year due to issues with his back. He was traded to the Angels midseason and only got into 71 games on the year between the two clubs. He still showed a bit of pop with his 12 home runs but only walked in 6.1% of his plate appearances. His .248/.295/.434 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 82.
Cron doesn’t really steal bases, just 10 in his career, and can only play first base. His glovework has generally been solid in his career, as he has 12 Defensive Runs Saved and 13 Outs Above Average. But it’s still a position where the offensive expectations are high, making last season’s struggles stand out.
The Sox will be hoping for a bounceback to his previous form. He came into last year with 175 career home runs and a slash line of .261/.322/.474, which leads to a wRC+ of 111. He had a really strong run from 2018 to 2022, hitting between 25 and 30 home runs in each full season of that stretch, though a knee sprain limited him to just 13 games in the shortened 2020 campaign.
If his contract is selected, he likely wouldn’t be looking at an everyday role in Boston. The club has Triston Casas as its regular first baseman and will likely use the designated hitter slot to rotate in various defensively-limited players like Masataka Yoshida and Rafael Devers. But they do have a number of left-handed hitters who project for either full-time or part-time roles, including Devers, Yoshida, Casas, Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu and Reese McGuire.
Cron has pretty even splits in his career, having hit .266/.324/.489 against lefties for a 113 wRC+ and .257/.318/.463 against righties for a wRC+ of 107. But he could nonetheless help the Sox shield some of those lefties from tough southpaw pitchers, either by serving as a pinch hitter late in games or taking a few starts.
He will first have to crack a spot on the roster. The club’s bench will have McGuire as the backup catcher while Rob Refsnyder should be present as a reserve outfielder, as he has over five years of service time and cannot be optioned to the minors. That leaves two spots for depth infielders, with Bobby Dalbec, Enmanuel Valdéz, Pablo Reyes, David Hamilton and Romy González already on the 40-man roster. Reyes is the only one of that group without options, so the Sox could theoretically run with a bench of McGuire, Refsnyder, Reyes and Cron while sending the rest of those infielders to the minors in order to preserve depth. The club would need to open a 40-man roster spot but could easily do so by transferring Liam Hendriks to the 60-day IL, since he’s rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and won’t be back until the trade deadline at the earliest.
There’s no real risk in signing Cron to a minor league deal to get a close-up look for a few weeks, assessing his health and current form. If he were to crack the roster, perhaps a part-time role would help him stay healthy and effective throughout the campaign.
In before the salty “full throttle” comments
FULL THROTTLE AHAHAHAHAAHHA
Oh man, it’s so funny.
Does Boston even have any MLB contracts? “Yea, we’re fresh out of big league contracts, just sign this.” Ahahaha!
This dude can hit the ball out of any part of Coors Field!
are you insinuating that you think the red sox signed cron with the intention of using him as a weapon aimed at coors in a 2024 red sox-rockies world series matchup??
Hey yeah maybe if the teams with worst records face off ha.
Finishing last in the al east by no means relates to having the worst record in baseball..
No, but it does mean they have the worst record in the AL East which is likely the point.
Dumb point
Dumb comment
Surprised he couldn’t get a major league deal, but I do understand that he finished slowly and doesn’t have a skillset that ages well.
tell that to Nelson Cruz, JD Martinez, David Ortiz.
This is the one skillset that DOES age well.
Heck even, the guy you are named after. The Big Hurt. played until 40.
Appetite for spending seems to be down across baseball this year outside of the Yankees and Dodgers.
FULL THROTTLE
Yep. For a riding mower (debatable).
In other news, Felipe Vazquez signed with a Venezuelan team today.
AHHHH HORSE SPIT
Why do I always feel dumber after reading your unchanging posts, Tom?
Yeah I was little surprised he could only get a minor league deal also
Another reason why it’s laughable that some expect Pete Alonzo to sign an extension for 200 million. Defensively average 1B are a dime a dozen. Not that Pete isn’t better than Cron, but not by $200 million…..
These 1B guys got massive payday: Ryan Howard, Prince Fielder, Chris Davis, ……
It may not be a good idea to build a roster with extremely high paid 1B or DH.
Those contracts were all signed years ago. And none of them worked out for varying reasons.
Or they could wind up being closer to Votto, Feeeman, Goldschmidt, Konerko, Jim Thome. Moral of the story is you could say that every position has guys that fall off a cliff for one reason or another but it doesn’t mean you don’t invest in elite talent.
Back issues can be tricky. Needs good PT to keep strength and flexibility. If he gets regular at bats in AAA he could be a useful bench player. Low risk $.
These 1B guys got massive payday”…And that was a lifetime ago in MLB. Since then guys like Houston’s Chris Carter hit 40+(25 in 2nd half) homeruns one year and then got DFA’d. All the guys you listed aged horribly and their contracts became an albatross around the team’s neck.
Sid,
87 and 34 vs 136 and 29.
50% better hitting and 5 years younger.
No comparison.
I guarantee you Alonso gets a 200 million dollar contract. You can complain all you want but he’s the most prolific power hitter in baseball history over his first five years taking into account of the covid season. If Alonso gets to free agency there will be a bidding war between 7-10 teals.
What do 87 and 136 represent?
He has the 17th best slugging out of the list of most HR in the first 5 years. 2020 didn’t affect that. 17th in WRC+. 19th on OPS. 15th on XBH. 7th most K’s. 12th most RBI. He’s also not a very good defensive 1B. Average-ish at best. He’s not getting $200 million and it will be the Mets either bidding against themselves as usual or a couple of teams in on him. Be realistic.
So your argument is his slugging percentage was only 17th in the history of Major League Baseball over his first five years? The history that his back 160 years.The record for hrs over the first five seasons is Ralph Kiner with 215. Then Albert Pujols with 201. Third is Alonso with 196. You’re saying with the 100 extra games he wouldn’t have toppled that mark easily? He continuously ranks in the top 20-30 players in baseball and 200 million is what stars like them get paid or more.
OPS+.
He is top 20 in the history of MLB in all those offensive categories? As well as 3rd in HR?
You just justified the $200 million deal he will get.
He’s a slightly upgraded Mark Reynolds in most stats. You said power hitter, so slugging percentage is the more accurate stat, where he is 17th. HR are fun and all, but his BA is also down in the lower 200’s. He is almost 30 years old, and a known dbag. If he’s so wonderful, why hasn’t your super-wealthy owner extended him. He will be lucky to get 3/90 with opt outs. His body type won’t age well either.
Top 20 in history for players in their first 5 years. I didn’t say he sucks or anything, but he’s never won anything, doesn’t play good defense, his power is all he has and the market has been brutal for one dimensional players with zero positional versatility.
17th in the history of MLB. Think about what you are saying. 17th out of 23,000 MLB players.
17th in history. Oh yeah. He’s getting paid.
Back problems and 34-year old power hitters do not often provide a great outcome.
Why? He’s eclipsed 2 fWAR only twice in his career. Managed only scrub level play in 2022 with 1.2 fWAR and had negative WAR last year.
Pretty good fit for Fenway, I’d think. I imagine he’ll get major league plate appearances for them at some point.
He could definitely put a few dents in the green monster. As well as put few into the parking lot.
Depth in case Casas has a manicure injury.
Red Sox making all the right minor moves, starting off hot in spring training, will ownership finally invest ??
That’s what happens when several teams are content to put glorified minor league players on the field this year for “rebuilding” instead of actually trying to field a competitive team.
Let’s take the Astros as an example. I cannot stand that franchise and it has absolutely nothing to do with trash cans. I couldn’t care less about that. But intentionally trading away every player that fans ever heard of so they could lose from 2011-2013 is unforgivable to me. Just because it worked for the Astros doesn’t mean it was the right thing to do. But I guess the integrity of the game no longer matters to some people.
The Orioles are exactly the same now. Even if they win 5 world Series titles in a row, it doesn’t excuse making fans pay to watch front offices not giving an effort for 5 years.
I say this as a Rockies fan watching them lose 100 games for the first time ever and then deciding that the team they had last year didn’t really need to improve over the offseason. Let’s run it back. Oh by the way, your bill from MLB.com is now $10 higher. Just because we don’t spend money, doesn’t mean you won’t spend money.
Or you could be an Angels fan and keep signing turds trying to win but still losing.
As an Angels fan I wish they would have sold players the last couple of years and maybe have a chance to compete by 2025.
All teams sign turds.There are only so many superstars and 30 teams.
The difference with the Angels this year is they are not overpaying for the turds! As in the past, Hamilton, Blanton, Teheran, Allen, Cahill, Upton, Harvey, Rendon, Syndergaard, Anderson, Etc… Now, Lots of minor league deals. They finally wised up to the fact that these guys need to earn their money!
I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I have ZERO problem with teams that try and fail. Someone has to be the worst team in the league even if all 30 teams are giving 100%. My problem is with the teams that fail to try or at least don’t try as hard as others.
In fairness, the reason things are so rough for the Rox right now is that ownership doesn’t even seem to believe they’re tanking. If they’d spent a couple years rebuilding their farm instead of signing Bryant, Diaz, and Cron to multi-year deals and declaring that they’re a “competitive team” because they opened their wallets, things might look a lot different in Denver.
I do agree that the sport would probably be more interesting if it didn’t incentivize tanking (imagine if every team was truly attempting to compete each year!), but I don’t think you can fault Astros or Orioles ownership for working within that system to build a winning product. Something something don’t hate the player, hate the game.
Hiflew, what is the goal of teams in professional sports: to be competitive, or to seriously contend (and win championships)? That’s not a rhetorical question; some people will answer one way, some another.
But, without question, some will firmly pound the table that the goal is the latter. With that mindset, your complaint is utterly incompatible. There is no sense in bashing teams for not burning money and/or slots on short term boosts that at best would lead to being competitive IF alternative approaches would boost the future odds of contention. It’s one thing to seem content to lose for a long time as long as it brings in profits, but a temporary focus on conserving cash and seeing what can be found among young players is perfectly sensible.
Because there is no way you can “prove” it’s misguided for people to prioritize championships over competitiveness, there is no logical way to outright bash this kind of approach. Maybe it isn’t ideal or necessary, but you go too far.
The goal of professional sports teams is to sell tickets and maintain a fanbase. Because without the fans, pro sports would not exist. Trophies are nice and all, but putting a quality product for the fans paying for it should be the #1 priority. Because I would rather be entertained every time I pay for something instead of paying for garbage in the hopes that it might get better in a few years.
Would you keep going to movies if they charged you full price for garbage movie after garbage movie because the actors should get better and put together an Oscar winner? After a few more bad ones that is. Would you keep buying a meal from someone if it was slop just because they might serve great food in five years or so?
hiflew
The goal of professional sports teams is to sell tickets and maintain a fanbase.
============================
IMO, you are projecting what **you** would like to see, which is basically a consistent .500 team. I doubt very much that anyone agrees with you.
Is there even a single Astro fan that would like to do it all over again, and sacrifice their WSC so that their 2011-2013 could play .450 instead of .350?
Longinus, would you rather be a Marlins or Braves fan for the last 35 years? Marlins won more titles but the Braves have been more successful imo
Long, to make money.
Braves and Marlins both have 2 titles in the last 35 years smart guy.
The Braves sell ‘hope’.
Yeah no, it was the right thing to do. They’ve won 2 World Series since then. Could care less what they had to do to get to that point
Thanks Machiavelli. To me the ends do not justify the means.
To me the ends do not justify the means.
========================
So you will be happy with the Rockies playing a consistent .500, instead alternating .450-.550 periods, even though that .500 will never allow you to see even a single playoff game?
in baseball, there are 29 losers. if your smartest minds decide you are more than likely to be one of the biggest ones, it makes sense to play younger players in hopes that any of them step forward into a larger role, in lieu of trying your hardest to convince top names to play for a non-top contender, moves that (which we will likely witness with the royals this year), will not really improve the team by more than five games, ten at most. i support competitiveness at all costs, the cardinals’ way is a respectable one, but if you have the tools to tear down the house and build a better one, why wouldnt you?
I do not believe the ‘Stros did not donate their best players in order to have the worst record in MLB during those seasons that they were the worst team in MLB. They made some good trades, a couple dud trades but certainly not give away trades. Also, two out of three draft picks were skunk which is not uncommon in the history of MLB.
They shouldn’t get credit for not drafting well with the overall #1. That would be like not punishing a bank robber because he spent the money on mostly poor investments. Still committed the infraction.
BTW, they got Bregman with the compensation pick for not signing Aiken, so they really went 2 for 3.)
Completely miss the point.
I had to miss the point, because you never made one. Just rambled off a bunch of gibberish that I foolishly responded to. So I guess it is my fault. Oh well, have a nice day.
A good FO group will recognize the 3-5 year window that most productive players will have, and will try to stagger free agent signings with drafting and development to sustainably field a team around that window.
You’re mistaking the Rockies FO to be such a group. Bill Schmidt is clueless and incompetent. His literal reason for signing Kris Bryant was that “they missed picking him in the draft many years ago, so they’re making up for it now”.
You’re better off following the Mariners. Their FO has been on the record of saying that they are not interested in an “all-in” approach, but would rather conserve resources so as to ensure that they can reliably compete every year and make the playoffs.
I have never had any illusions of the Rockies FO being good. But I am never giving up on my team. Or at least I will not be following another team. Although I will say that the Mariners have always been in my top 10, so if there was a team I could follow if the Rockies were contracted or something, the M’s would be on the short list. Jerry DiPoto is a former Rockies closer after all.
Looks like Bobby is going to be looking for a new team
Yep. Sounds like management is seeing something in Dalbec that they dont like.
“seeing something in Dalbec that they dont like”
Perhaps it is his OBP, SLG, and (of course) OPS, all of which have gotten worse every year.
.938 OPS last year at Triple A, yet you want to look at the his entire 2023 season based on his 49 AB at ML level. — LOL!
There’s a lot to like and a lot to dislike in Dalbec. What Im saying is they arent seeing the development they hoped to see this spring and may be giving up.
35% k rate in AAA is something to dislike a lot.
Dalbec has an option left and can spend the whole year in AAA.
He has a minor league option
This is a great signing, and it costs them basically nothing. It’s fun to knock the Sox for bargain bin investments when those are the only ones they make, but it doesn’t mean bringing in guys on cheap minor league deals isn’t worthwhile. Cron was an all-star only two years ago and could make a huge difference in that lineup, especially against lefties. Hope he makes the squad, it’s always been fun to watch him mash.
Napoli, Gomes, Schwarber, all guys, Red Sox fans pissed on at the time of their signing that had an impact ultimately
Sorry for the punctuation
It’s, ok, it, happens,
Cron has had quite a nomadic, lingering career. Just when it appears he’s completely washed up, he falls into a situation where he pops off 20+ homers.
A 34 year old player limited to 1B/DH who had a down year in COL then cratered after being traded to LAA. Yea, that will get you taking a MiLB deal.
When teams are tossing around 30-40 million per year contracts, they can’t afford to give decent players more than a sub-10 million or minor league contract. Salary cap badly needed in this sport
No one is forcing owners to part with their cash. In fact, they’re falling over each other to empty the coffers. Players are never going to allow a salary cap.
A cap will never happen and likely my suggestion of limiting the amount a contract is guaranteed, but something has to be done with dead weight contracts that kill a team’s roster. IE Pujols and Anthony Rendon basically the anchors pulling the Angels down for years.
A nice low risk signing. Basically they are hoping he works his way onto the big club and rebounds so they can trade him. If they were in the hunt he would be a nice depth bat.
Take a win with this team where you can, even a really LOW win.
Throttle down
Not sure the Red Sox intent here, but teams regularly give minor league contracts at this time of year to recent major league players with the full intent of having the player make the MLB roster. It allows them to push off the 40- and 26-man roster moves until Opening Day knowing injuries and other roster moves will need to be made by then.
He’s an alternative to Dalbec.
RHH to boot!
Better than Dalbec.
At this point, who isn’t?
Went to see Sox/Cardinals game earlier this week. Dalbec stuck (struck) out with some of the worse rusty-gate swings ever. As long as he isn’t blocking someone more worthy in Worcester ok, but I see a ticket off the roster in his future.
Bobby is gripping it, closing his eyes, and then swinging as hard as he can.
Don’t discount the possibility that Breslow is doing an old-school good deed for a vet, getting him into camp at low cost so said player can tune up & showcase his wares for potential employment. Teams use to do that quite frequently…
Popping in for my obligatory service time check in.
Cron has a slice over 9yrs in officially. Whether it be this yr or maybe (? part of ) next he’ll fly over that 10th year.
Hitting 10 years of service time is worth $262,500 per year to him starting at 62 years old I think. I would hang on any way I could to get to that milestone.
Cron has made over 30 million dollars.
Minus taxes, agent fees etc.
Yes still a huge amount of dough, but just like to check in when they hit that milestone. It’s money earned for sure.
Bye bye Bobby D. Hope you find a happy home (Cleveland? Washington?) and live out your career either striking out or hitting the bejesus out of the ball.
Michael Chavis and Blake Swihart send their regards.
Swing away Merrill!
Is that 2022 Cy Young Award-winning C.J. Cron??? He threw a no-hitter at Coors Field!
Would rather have a 21 year old Mike Trout.
So would the Angels because 32 year old Mike Trout has aged about as horribly as a 32 year old Trout would…
I’d rather have a 19 year old Jennifer Connelly.
Wouldn’t we all
Castillo, Diego. That is all.
This could either flop and Cron gets cut before opening day or this could go down as one of the seasons most underrated signings anywhere
Or he ends up being an average bench bat. It never has to be one extreme or the other.
At this point an average bench bat would be an upgrade.
For perspective on why this could be a nice underrated pickup, in the very small sample size of AB’s in Fenway Cron has gone 21 for 64 with 6 Home Runs and 3 doubles. He seems to see the ball well at Fenway and could enjoy a nice rebound season aiming for the Monster as so many hitters have before him
Anything to avoid adding to the rotation
Nothing is stopping the Red Sox from adding Cron to the rotation. 🙂
He couldn’t possibly pitch worse than their current options
I see you craig breslow…this guy reminds me of mike napoli circa 2013
Napoli is closer to being Trout. Than Garbage Time Cron is to being Napoli.
I only watched napoli in boston but looking at the stats they are really similar..
You would think that somebody that could Wack. 25 home runs plus and 90 RBI’s plus could get a major league contract? Regardless of his short comings
I’m sure his back trouble is scaring teams off. Last year after he came back from the IL he was moving gingerly like a guy who couldn’t bend over to tie his shoes. That stuff seldom improves with age.
hh
teams are not looking at home runs and RBI
1B/DH’s over 30 tend to not do well in free agency, especially right handed hitting one’s. Probably why he jumped at the Rockies extension offer a couple of years ago
Guy’s gonna rake…
…in AAA.
Not sure why the Mets wouldn’t pick him up as a DH/ backup 1b.
Because they have better options
If you mean Luke Voit, Ji-Man Choi, Matt Baty and Mark Vientos than sure they do (though they did carry Vogelbach on the roster all last season so “better” is subjective)
You as a Redsox fan wouldn’t want the Redsox to give Vientos abs if they had him? Why would they not give the young guys a shot? Voit and Choi are not in my thought process at all.
So far I’ve seen nothing that distinguishes him from Bobby Dalbec and they don’t want to give Dalbec AB’s
Vogelbach ended up with an above average OPS+ while Cron had an 87 OPS+. Both have extreme platoon splits.
Just what we need. In Breslow we trust. Lol
This is better than Montgomery! Rock on, John Henry!
Does MLB need a AAAA level for guys who are better than AAA but not good enough for MLB?
Well, to make a joke at the expense out of one of the teams I root for, that’s what teams such as the White Sox are for!
@acoss13
I get it. The Expos were the farm system for the MLB many years back. I guess that makes sense. I’ll warm up to the idea of keeping some of the smaller market teams pumping out stars so they can be sold off and signed by other teams. Thanks for putting a positive spin on all of this.
Enter the Cron Zone! He’s getting older now so it’ll be interesting to see how much he has left in the tank.
You won’t figure it out.
Mmmmtyol. Irwtsmgktya, aotnsfly. Mlhbaoocjamhinfboi!
Dude’s got some guns!
Cron is an enigma. wrapped in a riddle. The first round pick in 2011 (college player) made the majors by 2014 with the Angels as a slightly above league average hitter, a league average fielding 1B with modest power. By 2018 he was in TB for a year where he broke though and hit 30 home runs. The next year he was in Minnesota hit around .250 again with 25 home runs. The following year he was in DET for the Covid season and only played 13 games. In 2021 he arrived in COL where he had two solid years with nearly 30 home runs and a slightly elevated batting average. Last year was a disaster BUT he will make Dalbec obsolete if he can regain his form and be a .250 hitter with over 25 home runs. He can back-up Casas at 1B,and be a late inning PH. He is similar to O’Neill except he only had one bad year not two.
Probably the best DEPTH acquisition by Breslow so far. He needs to hit .250 to .270 with 25 plus home runs which isn’t as big a stretch as O’Neill needs to return to his old numbers or Giolito. Time will tell, but not a bad move.
Someone get Dierkes on the line! Let’s get this kid a job on the site.
Seriously, well done
swanhenge – Retired but thanks for the offer.
I’ve got mixed feelings about this deal.
I’ve been saying the Sox needed more corner infield depth than they currently had on the 40-man roster. BUT, I really wanted someone who could competently spell Devers at 3B, and, Casas at 1B – especially late in games if they had a lead.
It’s somewhat up in the air what is going on in the OF. But, thinking through what it takes to build a winner I’d be inclined towards this roster as far as position players go, as of right now. (Preface: id rather some of these guys werent on the club, im just going with what currently exists):
C1 – Wong
C2 – Spanky Mcguire
1B – Casas
2B – Grissom
SS – Story
3B – Devers
LF – O’Neill
CF – Duran
RF – Abreu
4th OF – Yoshida
Left side utility – Reyes
Right side utility – Cron
PR specialist – Hamilton
Option to minors: valdez, dalbec, Gonzalez.
You’ll notice Refsnyder is missing. He just doesn’t fit. Between Reyes having proven quality defense in LF, and, Yoshida on the roster you’re already at 5 OF capable guys, and, I think you could slide guys around to have one of those two move to the OF even if it was Abreu/Duran who went down. Rafaela is knocking on the door anyways.
There’s no dedicated DH, but, it gives you that missing piece, Hamilton’s plus-speed, the type of bench piece you need to PR for your slow guys if the game was on the line. Then use your DH slot to rotate guys in and out.
GA – Lots of issues with suggesting this line-up from the crap we have.
C – Both suck so get someone that doesn’t
1B – Casas
2B – Grissom
SS – Story
3B – Devers sucks so get someone that doesn’t
LF – O’Neill
CF – Duran
RF – Rafaela (the 0 for 15 cost Rafaela all the respect he had built up by hitting .365 until mid September. Historically, Rafaela is the talent and Abreu should be the back-up. If O’Neill can’t hit then use Abreu until Anthony is ready.
DH – Yoshida until traded and Devers goes there
Utility
MI – Reyes
CI – Cron
C – Go get one
OF – Abreu not Refsnyder
HAMILTON SUCKS. His friendship with Cora is the only reason he’s on the roster because he can’t steal first base.
YOSHIDA MUST BE THE DEDICATED DH. Wow. That’s so obvious until they trade him and make DEVERS THE DEDICATED DH.
Rotating guys in and out of DH? The concept doesn’t match the personnel on this team. These are young guys and TWO guys CAN’T FIELD and must be permanent DHs.
Below league average players include:
C – WONG and McGUIRE
SS – Story
3B – Devers’ defense
OF – Yoshida’s defense, O’Neill’s offense, Abreu’s offense and apparently Duran’s arm.
SP1 – GIolito
SP2 – Bello
SP3 – Pivetta
The rest of the pitching is adequate for their slots. The top of the rotation will get killed against far better pitchers.
66 wins as it stands today
TF – I’d take the over on 66 wins.
Like many others here, and as I said above, there’s plenty of guys currently slated to play that I’d rather weren’t on the club.
At the same time, theres not much left on the vine for free agents, not much out there for trade upgrades at a reasonable cost for what you get, and, the pursestrings are triple knotted shut by Henry.
So, I’m looking ahead to what there is, and, trying to have some fun with what I can.
The biggest reason NOT to put Rafaela in the lineup to open the year is to get an entire extra year of control. For 2024 to be as bad as you claim it will be, you should prefer to keep him for an extra year at the expense of several weeks down on the farm, and, given Henry’s penchant for penny pinching, you’d want to both gain the extra year of control AND keep him from becoming a super-two.
Additionally, after a couple turns through the rotation, because teams don’t get equal off days equally spaced, and, injuries, skipped starts, short rest, canceled games, so on so forth, pitching staffs really don’t count on matching ace vs ace, #2 vs #2, so on so forth. Usually they’re mismatched for a few months, then realign out of the AS break, and one last time in the postseason. So while I don’t disagree Boston needed to bolster its SP the reason isn’t so much that you need to preserve some ace vs ace scheme, but more because you need to build your rotation over several offseasons and hopefully stagger the end of contract cycles as well.
Had some things played out differently, I could’ve seen 2024 more firmly as a near-WC team, with a legitimate chance at hosting a postseason series in 2025. That’s not as likely now, BUT, I’d like to see what kind of improvements are capable of coming from breslow’s changes to coaching and strategic partnerships.
GA – Nothing wrong with being optimistic to a fault.
Your thinking on Rafaela is misguided. The whole get an extra year of eligibility by keeping him down went away with the new CBA. He may be the second best player in the minors next to Anthony and if that is the case the sooner he arrives the better. Abreu fooled a lot of people with his grossly misleading average. He had 3 big days when bad pitchers had bad days and he got more than half his hits. He’s the weak link not Rafaela in the outfield unless of course O’Neill doesn’t improve then he is.
I’m ok with people not wanting to admit how incredibly bad the roster is right now. I’ve observed the phenomenon for 4 years. It’s part of being a fan, over estimating the abilities of your team.
I think people don’t realize how critical JT was to producing runs and how much he will be missed. I don’t think people understand that Cora’s line-up makes it even harder to score runs than it should be. I don’t think fans realize how many of the 162 games Boston will start the weaker starter in each game. I don’t think fans realize how badly this team lacks leadership in the clubhouse and on the field.
The reason you play the kids while the team sucks is to give them experience when making mistakes don’t hurt the team’s chances of making the playoffs. That’s why there was no need to get O’Neill because if he has a great year, he’ll be a free agent and the team was in the same boat as they were with grabbing two great relievers like Jansen and Martin. With the roster the way it is, the money on closers was completely wasted just like spending a one year contract or two on a guy like O’Neill or Giolito is completely wasted. IF they are bad yet again, it’s a waste and if they are good they file for free agency and are gone before the team improves so it’s also a waste. We needed impact players TODAY so the youngsters can learn and grow as they compete for a shot at the playoffs. Instead, they are going to learn and grow on a non competitive team with no signs of that improving since ownership/BRESLOW won’t provide greater talent through free agency or trades.
Think about 2025. What money rolls off that will significantly help this team financially? Devers money goes forever, Story’s wasted money has several more years, same for Yoshida, the $17MM wasted on Grissom will be gone so that’s a plus but a very small plus, Jansen and Martin will save us $23.5MM but we won’t have a bullpen in 2025 without them.
There is roughly $40MM sitting on the table not being used to get us to the 2023 payroll level which was publicly suggested by the owners. Whose fault is that? BRESLOW and ONLY BRESLOW.
So the hope for this year is Bello faces SP5 or SP4s from the other teams so we can win some games. 66 looks very accurate from where I’m standing and remember we start on the west coast like in the disastrous 2019 season. 10 games and only 4 are against a good opponent but they are still west coast games that must be won so we aren’t way behind in the AL East before our first home game.
The long game of lets improve the system is the same crap Bloom sold. Fool me once…… you know the saying. When are fans going to wake up and understand why DD is so successful? He acquires all-star level talent. Bloom dumped it and Breslow must have an allergy to it. Until all-stars come to Boston, it’s LAST PLACE every year.
TF: first off clue me in on what in the new CBA prohibits the extra year of control over Rafaela? The ONLY provision I’m aware of would be he finishes in top 2 ROY voting. Other than that, zip zilch nada. They put in incentives to encourage teams to call up guys early and hope to get some amateur draft incentives, but nothing compulsory, and, no rewards guaranteed.
Next up, you’re preaching to the choir halfway with saying the roster is still imbalanced and full of holes. BUT, you do lose me on blaming breslow for not spending to 2023 levels.
I haven’t seen any evidence Henry is OKing spending to 2023 levels, but, I DO see quotes and stories saying that spending would be expected to be held to LESS than last year.
I don’t think you can blame breslow for not spending money. Every source counts things a bit different, but, I see a current cbt of around $199m. By the time minor league invites fill out the roster, say if Cron breaks camp with the team, etc I could see that nudging up a few mil above 200.
Last year was 225m, and again, I point you to Kennedy and cronies saying to expect it to be somewhat below last year’s level.
So, you’re really looking at a 20m difference to start with between 23 and 24 cbt figures, and, you’ve got to leave some funds to cover the difference between Milb rates and MLB rates as you call extra guys up. Placing a player on the IL doesn’t mean you get to stop paying them… so, you’ve got to allow a little wiggle room for that too, never mind any in-season moves.
All said, I’d imagine absent a change of heart by Henry that Breslow has about $5-8m left to play with, and, thats being generous. It wouldn’t surprise me if Henry’s line was around $200m, reflecting a $20m reduction from last year.
If you have ANY evidence that Breslow is Ok’d to spend $40m on the table and its only his fault it isn’t spent, please provide it.
I was going to say full throttle but was beat to the punch. Maybe the Sox definition is different than everyone else’s
Boston looks to have caught Cron’s Disease
C.J. Cron was also Refsnyder’s teammate on the 2018 Rays !!
Boycott Redsox Nation until we get our 2 Aces. No Scott Snell nor Monty are Aces…sorry Charlie
so boycott the red sox nation now? you’re making less and less sense.
Can he pitch? Could probably make the team that way