The Red Sox locked up another budding star, signing outfielder Roman Anthony to an eight-year extension covering the 2026-33 seasons with a club option for 2034. The Frontline Athlete Management is reportedly guaranteed $130MM on a deal that also includes significant escalators based on Rookie of the Year, MVP and All-Star voting.
Anthony receives a $5MM signing bonus. The salary breaks down as follows:
- $2MM in 2026
- $4MM in 2027
- $8MM in 2028
- $15MM in 2029
- $19MM in 2030
- $23MM in 2031
- $25MM in 2032
- $29MM in 2033
- $30MM club option (no buyout) in 2034
The escalators apply to the 2032 and 2033 seasons. They would also apply to the 2031 season if he finishes top two in Rookie of the Year voting in 2025. Anthony’s salaries will increase by $1MM if he comes first or second in Rookie of the Year voting. The salaries would also increase by $2MM for each MVP win in any previous year, $1MM for coming second or third in MVP voting, $750K for a fourth or fifth in MVP voting, $500K for finishing sixth through tenth in MVP voting and $200K for any All-Star appearance. Those same escalators would apply to the club option except the top-two ROY finish would add $2MM instead of $1MM.
As things stand, the deal buys out all six of Anthony’s initial seasons of club control, plus two free-agent years with an option over a third free-agent season. However, if Anthony finishes top two in American League Rookie of the Year voting, he’d receive a full year of service for the current season, thus meaning the deal would lock in three free-agent years with a club option over a fourth.
Regardless of the exact number of free-agent years being bought out, the Sox now control Anthony all the way through 2034 — what will be his age-30 season. He’ll still be able to become a free agent ahead of his age-31 campaign, positioning him for another potential nine-figure contract down the road.
Anthony’s deal draws plenty of parallels to the eight-year, $111MM extension Corbin Carroll signed with the D-backs in January of 2023. Both outfielders were regarded as the top prospect in the sport when they debuted in their age-21 seasons. Both found immediate success and quickly signed eight-year deals beginning with their age-22 seasons.
As can be seen in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, Anthony’s contract becomes the third-largest guarantee ever given out to a player with under one year of major league service time. Julio Rodriguez’s $210MM deal with the Mariners currently tops the list, though that agreement came when Rodriguez was much further into what would eventually be a Rookie of the Year-winning campaign in 2022.
Selected with the No. 79 overall pick in the 2022 draft, Anthony stormed through the minor leagues, breaking out with a huge performance in High-A as a 19-year-old and never looking back. By measure of wRC+, he was at least 40% better than league-average with the bat at every stop from High-A through Triple-A, and he’s carried over his outstanding production through his first 46 major league games.
In 190 plate appearances as a big leaguer, Anthony is hitting .283/.400/.428 with a pair of homers, 15 doubles, a triple, two stolen bases, a 13.7% walk rate and a 24.7% strikeout rate. He’s averaged a scorching 94.1 mph off the bat and seen a whopping 58% of his batted balls exit the bat traveling at least 95 mph. His overall power output has been muted by a 55.4% ground-ball rate, but Anthony elevated the ball more in the minors and figures to do so as he continues to acclimate to big league pitching, at which point he’ll get to more of his plus-plus power. For now, the walk-heavy approach and plethora of doubles is getting the job done just fine; Anthony has been 33% better than average in the batter’s box since arriving in the big leagues.
Anthony doesn’t possess elite contact skills but does make excellent swing decisions. His 73.1% overall contact rate and 81.6% contact rate on pitches within the zone are both four points below league-average, but Anthony’s chase rate on balls off the plate (just 20.1%) is eight percentage points lower than average. Among the 292 hitters with at least 190 plate appearances in the majors this year, he’s tied for the 19th-lowest chase percentage, per Statcast.
On the defensive side of things, Anthony has split his time between the two outfield corners but spent more time in right. He’s seen time in center field in the minors, but scouting reports on Anthony typically pegged him for a long-term home in one of the corners. His arm isn’t elite but is at least average, if not a tick better. Anthony has drawn strong defensive grades for his work thus far (+5 Defensive Runs Saved, +4 Outs Above Average). He gives the Sox another talented defender to join the trio of Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu, all of whom are plus defenders in their own right.
That glut of outfield talent — plus Masataka Yoshida’s presence at DH — has long prompted speculation about a potential trade from the group. Duran and Abreu have seen their names kicked around the rumor mill dating back to the offseason. Boston would surely welcome the opportunity to escape some of the final two-plus years on Yoshida’s five-year contract, which runs through 2027, but with $18.5MM salaries in each of the next two seasons, doing so is a tall order. Anthony was never going to be traded, and this new long-term arrangement only further solidifies him as a foundational piece for the Red Sox.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Red Sox and Anthony were finalizing an eight-year, $130MM deal with a club option for 2034. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported the $30MM option value. Alex Speier of The Boston Globe had the specific salary and escalator structure.
This contract goes…back to the future!!!
This is great news!!!
This is how you sign a long term contract.
Campbell,Rafaella and Anthony now signed.I would see if Mayer and Narvaez would too.
TB – I wouldn’t go all Dippity-Do over Narvaez just yet. See how things go next season. Mayer? Possibly if he can avoid injury.
Great way to build the team for the long term and seems very reasonable to both player and team.
Dickie – Yes it’s a fantastic compromise, not 12 years like Wander but 9 years is still very good.
Finally the Red Sox are starting to realize they need to spend and do it wisely, which they did here.
Good for Roman and good for the Red Sox!!
Perhaps an interesting tidbit that I’m not sure has been reported, or if it even will be, but his agent as well as his father both advised him against signing the deal at this time.
Lord – It does make me a little nervous when a player accepts less than what most expected him to accept, especially after he rejected earlier contract offers.
Hopefully it’s not a situation where he secretly has concerns about his health, the timing with the back issue seemed odd. Perhaps Mayer’s injury was also a factor.
But no matter, this is a risk the Sox should take because if by chance it doesn’t work out, they can afford to absorb the financial loss.
The news about the escalators changes things somewhat… if he keeps playing at a high level he’d be paid MUCH more than his salary at signing.
GaSox – Yep I really think the only thing that could possibly slow him down is an unexpected injury, just like Crochet …. otherwise the talent is off the charts.
Hey you at the game right now? I know you said you were thinking about going this week.
Unfortunately no. Today was oncology, and, visit left me wicked tired. Just relaxing tonight in the hilltowns in western mass…
GaSox – Oh sorry to hear man. Well you’re probably better off, not a good game tonight …. Bregman & Rafaela each with another error, and the two new guys (May & Hicks) have been brutal.
However Duran made a STELLAR catch in the triangle!
Royals batters have been hit 4 times, one more HBP and we could see a brawl …. I’d love to see Crochet run out there and swat everyone aside like Andre The Giant!
Not a coincidence May working with a new catcher hes got no familiarity with, and, its wong at that…
My guess is the guys spent more time getting to know navarez
GaSox – I’m really praying Narvaez is gonna be okay, it would be a true nightmare to have Wong & Tromp/Hernandez as the catchers for the rest of the season.
Don’t worry, Fever. No concerns about his health at all. If there was, his family and agent would have told him to take it. It was his decision. He gets a ton of money locked in case of injury, or underperformance, and he can still be a free agent at 30.
Isn’t that just an agent being an agent? Especially with the bad taste in everyone’s mouth about the NFLPA holding back their own?
Lord – I’m very happy with the contract, no matter the reason he changed his mind about going year to year.
Regardless of what his agent and family think, the decision of course is ultimately his. Perhaps he experienced some anxiety, or simply has an aversion to risk. He’s a unique guy, doesn’t show a lot of emotion, has a mature demeanor that’s well beyond his years. So I’m not surprised his thinking is different from others.
navy – Agents are paid on commission, his agent wouldn’t recommend not signing if he felt there was a high risk of losing millions by doing so.
Fever- it certainly is good for Roman and the Red Sox. Congratulations! I wish the Yankees could do a similar deal with Jasson Dominguez. But sad to say it goes against the Yankees way, which is totally ridiculous. We will probably eventually risk losing him by not signing him long-term now. 🤦♂️
Cap – Yeah and I still think back how Judge was willing to accept much less about 8 months before filing for free agency. That was a huge mistake by the Yanks, the penalties for huge spending are a lot worse now than when George was running the team.
Fever- you are right. Judge originally wanted a long term right away. And what happened? He didn’t get one. And Aaron’s price kept higher and higher, as his play kept getting better. I definitely remember when his price tag would of been around $220-250 million for about 5-6 years, we definitely see how that worked out. Lol. Got to sign these type of guys quickly before they hit stardom.
Cap – I really think the quick extensions to Hicks and Severino soured the Yankees on extensions, they were both disasters.
But Judge was a different animal, never should have let him become a free agent.
Dominguez seems like risky player to extend.
The wander deal really worked out
that was because Wander was a was hooking up with teenagers. There’s a difference between underperforming a contract and getting busted for sex with a minor.
andrew – I agree, it really did! They got 3 prime years, sold a ton of merchandise, and then was able to get out from under the contract before it ballooned to $8.5M this year and then $15.5M-$25.5M starting next year.
That’s why greedy owners heavily backload these longterm contracts, they don’t intend to keep the player for the length of the contract.
Marlins heavily backloaded Stanton’s contract too, just like Raffy’s contract and early reports indicate Roman’s contract is also heavily backloaded.
It’s funny, some casuals think the Sox will extend Roman again into his early 40’s and he will retire with the Red Sox.
Not a chance if the same people are still running the team.
By then there will be younger, cheaper options for the outfield.
Roman will report to ST one year and learn he’s been demoted to DH, or he’ll be told the contract extension he’s seeking does not align with what they are willing to pay him. It may not happen for another 5-7 years, but it will likely happen.
And a certain portion of the fanbase will turn on Roman, just like they’ve turned on every other Red Sox superstar.
Rinse and repeat.
FPG makes things up to try to bash the Red Sox. Rinse and repeat.
Hope it works out for them. But contracts like this are going to be a huge gamble with such a small sample size.
given some contracts are having guys sign for 2-3x this much it’s not really a gamble if you can afford it which all teams should be able to afford.
“Given some contracts..it’s not really a gamble”…promising a 1st year player(or anyone really)$130M+ is always a “gamble”.
It’s just a matter of a good gamble worth taking or a bad gamble you should leave alone and walk away.
Lots of players with big sample sizes dont work out either (Pujols, P Sandoval, G Stanton, Bogaerts and so many more). Very smart move.
Those guys all worked out exactly how I thought they would.
Fever Pitch Guy sounding more and more like a bandwagon fan
Nah Fever is truly just the opposite, he’s totally a legit diehard Red Sox fan which I totally respect.
You haven’t heard hom trash the Red Sox, have you?
Of course a Yankee fan respects him, all FPG does is stroke the Yankees and dump on the Sox.
Captain Judge are you being sarcastic? because that’s the only way what you said makes any sense.
He’s a troll.
He’s a disingenuous troll.
You must be new here.
Contracts like this almost always end up favoring the team not the player.
Lonnie – In the past I’ve posted examples of the many players who went through similar, accepting a huge extension this early if not earlier, and ended up being busts.
Still, I support this extension because Roman IMO is the best Sox rookie I’ve seen since Pedroia …… oh, bad example. LOL! Well at least they got a couple good years out of that contract.
But Pedey was knocked out of baseball by Machados dirty play.
At least mlb cracks down on that and won’t be a worry these days
GaSox – That’s a great point, a rule change that makes sense.
The report initially stated “the deal will cover the 26-23 seasons”, hence the back to the future line in my first response.
Or it’s a 97-year contract. The Dodgers do this all the time.
Way to go!
They signed him for negative 3 years!!!!
Very good for both as he’s already shown he can play in Boston.
Anthony is a loser in his 3rd year and is leaving 100s of millions on the table. Players are always better to bet on themselves. Foolish move just to put a few mil in his pocket in the short term
1) He’s not in his 3rd year.
2) This deal includes 3 years that otherwise would be league minimum salaries before arb. then 3 years of arbitration. Assuming a total of around $25-$30M for those 6 years or even $50M if he really dominated arbitration, he’s still getting min $80M more and potentially $230M with escalators
3) Even with the option he’ll be a free agent again at 30!
I understand he’s not in his 3rd year, it’s that year when he really starts loosing money as his arbitration money will be much greater than his salary. To say he’s only going to get 25-30 mil in arb money or even 50 is projecting him to be injured as he would break through minimum salary before his 3 years are up and be making 30 mil+ his last two years if his trajectory holds up.
And you are Right about being 30 ! He gave away the prime of his career for a 100 million dollars when the going rate is 500 million.
Plus you are saying he’s going to hit all his bonuses since he signed the contract yet going to be injured if he doesn’t by your arb projections which is a ridiculous claim.
Anthony took 7 million dollars today and sacrificed 100s of millions potentially long term if he would have bet on himself. Only a Red Sox homer can see this otherwise.
Foolish post whiffa…
Big whiffa
Anthony is a loser in his 3rd year and is leaving 100s of millions on the table. Players are always better to bet on themselves.
===========================
That’s not remotely close to being accurate. I took a look at BA’s top-10 for 2013-2018. It’s not a precise science, since some signed extensions later, that might’ve mimicked an early-career extension, but a whole lot have done no better than what Anthony just did.
I started with 2018. That list included Eloy Jiminez, Robles, Senzel, Whiteley and Kopech. All would’ve been better off with the Anthony deal, and you could probably throw in Gleyber as well.
Come on Joe. None of those guys are getting Anthony money. He got sure fire super star money. Only way he don’t pan out to be worth thrice that contract is if he spends 1/2 of it hurt.
His #1 comp for contract is Acuna and that’s the worst contract in mlb history from a players perspective. Less so do to his own injuries but coming off that mvp season, he left 100s of millions on the table and that was before the Soto contract
Why is Acuna the #1 comp? Because that worked out for Atlanta? Gallo was ranked as high as #6. Why isn’t he a good comp? Kelenic #4. Robles #5.
With very little effort, I can probably find 20 top-5 prospects that failed. Sometimes taking the guaranteed money is the right thing.
Joe,
Bc they have the same profile and signed nearly the same contract. You can list all 20 of those guys and none of them are in the same class as Anthony or Acuna. Furthermore, Atlanta and Boston are two of the smartest franchises in baseball. They ain’t gonna miss on a 130 million dollar investment (barring injury).
I’m happy for Anthony, he did what’s right by him. But Boston fans calling it a win/win is a ridiculous claim. There’s no way that the MLBPA like this move though and no way they consider it a win/win especially after the Soto contract
De La Cruz will get 500 million bc he didn’t take the same offer from reds. And tatis signed for 300 mill+ from the same position. Anthony sold himself short.
Tatis was already one of the best players in BB at the time. He had 6.8 bWAR in 558 ABs, a 158 OPS+ at SS, and had at least one more service year.
He also signed for 14 years, thru age 35. Assuming the RS pick up the option, then Anthony gets $160M The extra 5 years, if Anthony is as good as you project, could easily be another $150M.
All things considered, for comparison reasons, Anthony has a better deal that Tatis.
OMG. That is hilarious whiffa. You seriously whiffed on that one. Anthony will make a guaranteed $130 million or about $100.000 per game over the next 8 years. Just $129.9 million more than you will make at your minimum wage job. He may make more than $220 million over the next 9 years depending on the escalators he hits and the option year.
One injury and that payday would have been gone if he bet on himself. Now his great grandkids will be wealthy.
Good for them. Locking your young players up is a great idea but beyond the concept of some teams.
@This one belongs 2 reds……..I know this stings to see Boston do this, Cincinnati should of locked up Elly De La Cruz in 2023, now they got no shot.
Life changing money and he can still go back to FA for another go at it while still in his prime. Win-win.
Soto just signed a 500 million dollar contract bc he didn’t take a deal like this. Anthony potentially cost himself 100s of millions. Win win ??
You’re comparing Soto, a guy who has been in the league 7 years to a guy who has been in the league a cuppa months.
Think harder
Anthony’s pedigree is higher than sotos at this point in their career. Soto was never the number 1 prospect. Plus Soto is the main comp to all major contracts for hitters. He changed the game. So He’s the only comparison
Soto made $80M in his first 7 years, Anthony will hit FA 3 years older than Soto with $50-150 million more in career earnings.. If he performs as well as Soto has he will get a monster contract and not lose anything close to 100’s of millions.
Those 3 years are the prime of an MLB players career. Mets paid Soto all that money so they’ll have him from 26-30 years old. No way Anthony signs a 350 million dollar contract at age 30 to make up the difference
How many player have done like Soto? I’ll help ya….None! He can Still cash in later and well 130 million is not bad after 46 games. Soto won a world series and played 417 games before he was offered his contract he turned down. Big difference and its a gamble on both sides and only time will tell!
Any sane person would take a 100% chance at a hundred and thirty million dollars over a 70% chance of five hundred million dollars in 6 years. The former has you set for life with your money growing from investments faster than you can spend it, the latter leaves you potentially broke and seeking another job (or at best, a larger fleet of yachts that makes no appreciable difference to your life). Countless players who looked like superstars a few months into their MLB career were retired or worthless by the time they hit free agency.
They’ll sign him to the extension and then trade him in three years. It’s what they do there,
Sure, because Devers got traded because “that’s what Boston does” and not because he was stubborn about changing positions and then petulant and even toxic about helping the team at 1B once he became unhappy. Definitely Boston’s fault that a bad defensive third baseman was selfishly possessive about where he played. You nailed it, good work!
Hey he’s not just a bad defensive third baseman, he’s a bad defensive first baseman as well.
Sure can hit though jeez
Wasn’t referring to just Devers – do you remember some guys named Xander and Mookie? Great job by you, mark.
To be fair to Henry and the front office (which I haven’t always been, but I’m in a good mood right now), they forced themselves into a corner with Devers twice.
I think all along, Xander Bogaerts was the guy of the Betts/Bogey/Raffy trio who was going to be the one to get the “lifetime” contract extension. But they botched it horrifically and San Diego was able to swoop in and steal him at the last moment right before they were about to push it across the finish line. With Bogey gone and Betts already traded, they had no choice but to make Devers the face of the franchise or there would’ve been pitchforks. Clearly, it was the wrong move.
I love Raffy, but he has demonstrated beyond a doubt that he just isn’t quite that guy. He needed to be moved off third base, and yes the front office handled that about as poorly as humanly possible, but for his part he also handled it very poorly too. So 3 years after being forced to give him the contract they honestly probably never should have, they once again were forced into a corner where the only way out was to find him a new home.
Front office was absolutely not blameless in that mess, but it was the one misstep over the past 5 years that was not financially motivated.
I can’t see why so many Sox fans continue to cry over Bogaerts leaving. The Sox got the vast majority of the best seasons he’s ever going to have. Ducking out of paying his declining years is a good thing, not something to bemoan.
I was sad on a personal level when Bogaerts left, because he was part of two big WS teams, but I would not have liked the Sox to match what San Diego gave him on the contract. Great guy, fun player, seems to play hard and give it his all, clearly willing to play wherever he’s needed, but those late-30s years on that deal are going to be rough.
Because we care about the player, Ken, they are more than just numbers in a spreadsheet to some of us. He was a great player developed by our own farm system that many of us had plenty of fond memories watching him blossom from a young 20 year old into a star shortstop and face of the franchise. He had a lot of great moments with us and was a great player and leader. He should’ve been a Red Sox lifer and had his number 2 hung up in the right field corner one day.
Not to mention, we were not going to pay him nearly as ridiculously as San Diego did. Of course his production is never going to not be disappointing when they gave him basically Bryce Harper money. Boston was poised to give him something in the neighborhood of 6 years and $140 million. For a guy who has been worth 3 WAR per year despite dealing with some nagging injuries and the discomfort of adjusting to a pitcher’s park in a tough division, that would’ve been perfectly reasonable money. If he had stayed, there is no reason to think that contract would be significantly underwater at the moment.
My issue is not that we didn’t match San Diego’s offer. Their offer was insane and they were smart not to try and top it. My issue is that they wasted over a year pitching him stupid lowball offers he was never going to seriously entertain, which is what allowed San Diego to start talking to him and blow him away with that proposal right as Boy Wonder finally made him a serious offer he was actually about to agree to.
So answer this: would you rather have Bogaerts in year 3 of that hypothetical deal right now in Boston this year or Bregman this year? Because you don’t get both.
How do you figure? We have absolutely no idea what subsequent moves would and would not have still happened in the 3 years to follow. It is absurd to draw a line and pretend those two transactions would be the only things to change in that alternate reality.
Meow – late 30’s deal on Bog surely will be underwater but if the first few can come close to evening it out, it’s the way of the world these days.
Paid a premium for a guy they thought would be a difference maker for the year the owner was dying.
I mean, at least he should still be playing in late 30’s as opposed to a few guys in blue that will he sitting on a beach collecting checks in old age (or Bobby Bonilla until he is 72).
Acceptable situation / risk is how I’d call Bog contract. Can’t do too many of these but 1 is ok.
Even though a long term extensions for young players. Looks good today, but what if they are injured all the time or in jail (won’t get the bonus back even if saved the salary). Risk / reward all day every day.
Just be prepared for alternative endings.
They had already signed Story the year before Bogaerts opted out and left so he’d still be here. He and Bogaerts covers the left side of the IF. That leaves no room for Bregman. I’m sure you’ll try and come up with all sorts of mental gymnastics to say otherwise but with those 2 covering a significant portion of the team’s overall salary and covering that side of the IF there would have been zero pursuit of Bregman.
Lol. Mental gymnastics like the fact that Story played second base the year they were teammates? Why does this mean they suddenly have to both be on the left side?
How about the part where if they have both Xander and Story locked up, they never give Devers a 13 year contract? Maybe they would have traded him far sooner than they ended up doing. Maybe they just let him leave after 2023.
You have no idea whatsoever what would’ve happened, yet here you are pretending anyway, and you want to talk about mental gymnastics? That’s rich, man.
“Acceptable situation/risk” is an interesting take. Worst contract in the game by all reports. Seems to me that the Padres would be much better positioned without it. Those tied up dollars spent elsewhere would have them much stronger. I’m betting it’s not acceptable to Preller and he would ditch that deal in a heartbeat.
Wasn’t Preller’s call. Like in business everywhere, owners decide how and when to spend their money.
I didn’t say it had to be an acceptable risk for you. It was for the owner and he had his reasons (and his money to back it up) so he did what he wanted.
He was a smart man with money and spent it the way it worked for him.
Who are you to criticize that?
As to how they would have been better off – take it back to the moment the contract was offered and diagram how you think they should have done it.
Of course, you want to use the crystal ball and hindsight neither of which PS had available. He knew his future and he knew it was short. He took a shot with his money.
It was his risk and he knew and accepted it.
Fop – and just because I can, how about X having a higher WAR than Mookie in 2025, while getting paid about 5 mil less at same age withe Mookie is going to 39 at end of his contract (X will heb40) at 35 and 30 mil every year while X is only 25 mil.
If X is going to crap for not being as good as when he was 28-30, why isn’t the same argument for Mookie sitting in your face?
It’s all good. I’m saying Preller has to work around that contract like a magician. Which he does. He is awesome at it. But it would be beneficial if he didn’t have too. Would you be selling the farm if you had financial room to move ? I don’t think you would.
I get the motivation from Seidler and respect that,
but I don’t think you should sugarcoat the problems it’s created. I think you would be much stronger and much better positioned if you had that cash invested elsewhere.
Then there’s the age situation. When he is 36 it’s still got 5 years to go. That’s crazy. Devers contract gets panned and it ends at 36 ! Understandable…. yes. Acceptable…..maybe not. It looks like a detriment.
If you win in the next 3, all good. I’d be surprised if it’s on the back of Bogaerts though.
I haven’t thought about Mookie. Don’t know the situation.
Fop – Mookie just having a really down year but hey, the first down year can easily be the decline or it could just be something going on – who knows, but a valid comp for the conversation.
I think your point about if they win (even if not on his back but, he is hot right now), is the premise of my whole point. You take the shots to get what you want when the opportunity is there. It works or it doesn’t can only be validly graded after the fact.
Still have those 3 years or so before you can come down on the “they would be better off” statements.
Wait it out and when we know, we will know. Won’t change his reasons for taking the shot though.
Sellouts for the last 3 years – weeknights even – so many other elements to the question though.
If you know SD history, even with some over pay years for a couple of guys coming, it’s been a heck of time to be a SD fan as opposed to the 10-15 years prior to acquiring Bogie.
All those teams stranded in the bottom have fans that wish the owner would risk his dollars for a shot. SD was one of those teams for many years!
Definitely, no doubting the Padres gave him absolutely insane terms. The extension he was on the verge of agreeing to with the Red Sox was perfectly reasonable in length and dollars, and he had such a comfort hitting at Fenway I think had he stayed he would’ve put up slightly better numbers than he has with the Padres – though he hasn’t been bad with SD at all.. Think we’d probably be looking at a guy who was worth something in the range of 10-12 WAR over 3 years, looking at only 3 years and ~$70 million to go. Almost a certainty of getting what you paid for, even accounting for the fact he’s starting to decline. As long as he doesn’t completely fall off a cliff this year or next year, that would’ve been a very successful 6 year deal. I can say for sure I am not jealous of having another 5 years beyond that with the deal he actually signed. That’s going to be an albatross for San Diego for a while.
In Mookie’s case, I haven’t paid much attention to the Dodgers this year but I recall hearing he was pretty sick at one point and lost a bunch of weight, so between that and playing shortstop every day I’m sure have taken their toll and made it a very tough year for him. I do think that’s more of a one-off than a sign of him abruptly going from superstar production to already hitting the age cliff.
Ok. I can’t get there though.A couple of years in and you would already be better off without it is what I see. It’s limiting what Preller can do. But if he hits you to a WS, all good. Seidler can rise up and give me the middle finger !
Fop – fair enough. Reminds of seeing a glass half full and someone corrected me by saying it was half empty.
Then another guy came along and said you are both wrong – it’s half full of liquid and half full of oxygen.
Who knew?
The King has spoken – TRUTH!!
The Bogaerts contract is already underwater. Nothing close to his numbers in Boston so far and that’s not to say he would be any more productive if he stayed.
Many wanted Tyler O’Neill to be re-signed and he’s been a disaster for the O’s so far. Same with Adam Duvall, who is currently out of Baseball.
So far the Sox have made the right call on all three
7.5 WAR plus the rest of 2025 for 75 mil (he had wrist injury in 2024 and missed time).
At current $$ to WAR there has been no harm done here. Maybe no bargain but still. Trending back up in 2025 so, a couple more 3.5 ish years and this isn’t nearly as bad as the haters say any to make it.
Those last years aren’t good but they knew it going in so measured business decision.
@meow
Clearly willing to play where he’s needed?! Really? Bogaerts refused to move off SS when they acquired Story, because of his ego. Story was the better fielder, but Bogaerts was in his showcase year for FA, so they left him at SS and moved Story to 2B so his ego would be appeased.
Longtimecoming
Meow – late 30’s deal on Bog surely will be underwater but if the first few can come close to evening it out,
======================
To my reckoning, you need as many above-water seasons as below-water, which typically come earlier.
Any time I see a player just barely scraping by in his first couple of seasons, it bodes ill for the second half of the contract. A guy like Harper, even with the injuries, has provided ~ 4.4-4.5 bWAR. When he eventually slumps to 2.5-3.0, you’ve already banked a lot of value.
My problem with Bogaerts, much like almost all of LAA’s FA signings, is that when you sign a guy that is already 30 or older, there is very little room for upside.
I enjoyed the back and forth with Fop. A good baseball discussion without turning into a flame war.
Yes, the Padres became underwater on the Bogaerts contract the moment they agreed to pay him $280 million. Bogey is a great player and clubhouse presence but he was never going to be worth that much.
I was saying the Red Sox would not be underwater on an extension for him at the moment because had they handled his negotiations properly, they would have been paying him far, far less than San Diego is. It wouldn’t qualify as “cheap’ (but how many 9 figure contracts do?) but if he had stayed healthy they would’ve at worst gotten what they paid for, and they would only be facing 3 years left so they wouldn’t have had to endure whatever his late 30’s look like, presuming he doesn’t hold up that long.
Dirty – They wanted to get out from under Raffy’s contract and they did just that, now it’s time for everyone to move on.
Getting back to Roman, I just hope Cora and the Red Sox don’t put unfair expectations on him to eventually be the team leader. Roman has a ton of qualities, but he does seem like the quiet reserved type that probably won’t be firing up the clubhouse like Pedroia or Papi used to do ….. and that’s okay, he can lead the same way Tek did.
Roman is gonna get one helluva ovation tonight when he returns!
Absolutely. I am ready to move on from the Devers fiasco but people keep bringing it up so I addressed it. It happened, it could’ve been avoided, but whatever, it’s over. Hope he finds success in San Fran. That’s all I’ve really got left to say about it.
Agreed on Anthony. Bogey was kind of a quiet leader too, he was never the biggest personality in the room and that was okay. Just let him be. That’s another role I think Duran is perfect for and feeds into why I hope they don’t trade him. I think he can be that heart and soul guy who wears it more on his sleeve. Hope they just let him play and be himself, he’ll be worth every penny.
Rafaela and Anthony have good “Energetic hype man”/”Cool collected serious guy” duo dynamic potential honestly
Everyone in SD will tell you the Padres overpaid for Bogaerts.
steal him at the last moment right before they were about to push it across the finish line.
====================
SD ‘stole’ him? For a mere $280M. That’s likely $100M more than the RS were willing to pay, and about $120M than I’d have paid, and I thought I was being generous.
That said, I’m pretty sure SD would be open to trading him.
Stole him? Yes, stole him. Xander was about to agree to a 6 year deal with the Sox, the agreement was literally on the verge of being announced. San Diego came in late and pretty much doubled Boston’s offer and that was it. From a Red Sox perspective, that is the exact definition of what it means to have our guy stolen away by another team. But I’m all ears if you would like to suggest a different meaning?
1-I never heard that. Kindly supply some support.
2-While Preller has a noble disregard for the dollar, I still don’t see him talking to Boras and saying ‘we’ll double whatever the RS are paying you’.
12/6/2022: “Padres Not Pursuing Other Shortstops After Missing Out on Trea Turner”.
Zero indication up to this point that the Friars were in on Bogaerts or that they had been in touch beyond the standard cursory check-in.
mlbtraderumors.com/2022/12/padres-rumors-xander-bo…
12/7/2022: “Red Sox have ‘momentum’ with Bogaerts”
mlbtraderumors.com/2022/12/red-sox-meeting-with-xa…
Pete Abraham reported that ownership was involved, Jon Heyman reported that the sides were in “heavy discussion” The Boston Globe reported the Sox were actually offering a higher AAV than the Padres ultimately gave him (6 yrs, $162 million – I think I previously mistakenly said $140M). The Sox had not made Bogey a competitive offer prior to that one but all signs in the media were pointing towards an indication that they had finally gotten serious and were on the verge of sitting down and getting it done.
Not 12 hours later, the deal with San Diego was broken by Heyman. 11 years, $280 M. Not quite double 6/162, but pretty close!
Your selective memory on this one is pretty funny, ironic given you commented on the post I linked to above lamenting that “RS fans have astonishingly short memories.” Pot, meet kettle, huh?
It’s not really stealing the player when you literally offer 5 more years at $100 million more than the other team in a last minute desperation play after being rejected by Aaron Judge and Trea Turner.
If you want to talk about stealing a player go back to December 1998 when the Sox were close to signing Bernie Williams to a 7 year $90 million dollar contract and Boras gave the Yankees one last chance to match, which they didn’t, but Bernie still returned to the Bronx for just north of $87 million for the same 7 years
You guys are taking the word “steal” in way too literal of a sense. I am not alleging that anything was not on the up and up, so can you please stop trying to construe it that way?
Are none of you people familiar with the idiom to “steal away”? I am not referring to literal thievery, it refers to slipping away in a subtle, even sneaky way.
A team that had not previously been connected to making any serious pursuit of Bogaerts suddenly and unexpectedly signing him to a mega deal right when it looked like he was about to stay in Boston after all (as he repeatedly said was his wish) fits the bill perfectly for proper usage of that phrasing.
Read a GD book once in a while, people, Jesus.
DirtyWater04
12/6/2022: “Padres Not Pursuing Other Shortstops After Missing Out on Trea Turner”.
Not 12 hours later, the deal with San Diego was broken by Heyman. 11 years, $280
==========================
Again, this makes no sense to me. I don’t think anyone in the world goes from no interest to signing a guy to a humongous contract. Not even Preller is that erratic.
The more likely scenario is that he told Boras to come back when the RS had made their best offer, and Boras made the ‘1’ on the $162M into a ‘2’.
Giants have the worst record in baseball since acquiring Devers…
Meanwhile, the exact opposite is true for the Red Sox.
Are Red Sox fans still whining about not having to pay Devers 300M to be a headache?
Beg – Agreed. I’m hoping at least some of the people bringing up Raffy are not Sox fans, because they are acting like the guy who ten years later still isn’t over being dumped by the ex-girlfriend. You don’t need to crap all over EVERY ex-Sox superstar …. but they haven’t realized that yet apparently, and it’s sad.
Lol unfortunately i think some of them are Sox fans. I remember the day of the trade there was a comment thread under the article here where somebody was insisting their GM do more in person/public press conferences, suggesting or hoping that it would increase the chances that somebody would do something to the guy.
It was understandably deleted by the admins here i would assume but my understanding is that theres a good amount of sox fans outraged by it
Beg – Yep, and the origin of the word “fan” is “fanatic”.
FPG is the guy who rips the ex-GM every time he gets a chance now wants everyone to take the high-road on Devers
Too funny.
Block him. Things get better.
Look, that was only a couple months ago
Icon – Sorry I couldn’t get back to you until today, I’ve been busy.
Yeah I’m both honored and creeped out that you’ve created yet another account to get my attention and to continue spamming anti-FPG posts. And you think being a subscriber gives you protection …. well it doesn’t, kid.
So obviously you are muted, again.
it’s funny how overly narcissistic you are that you believe that icon or whomever is continuing to make more accounts just to spam you.
Unless Roman becomes a petulant man-baby i think they’ll be ok
winning the most chips in baseball this century is also what they do there.
They have done that exactly 1 time..ever
Great they signed him now instead of after he gets mvp votes
sad – He probably will finish Top 2 in ROY, which is a big reason why the Sox did what they had to do to get him locked up now. And they owed it to him after keeping him in the minors half the year.
Probably unlikely considering Kurtz and Wilson.
Cleve – Roman already has an almost identical WAR to Wilson despite having 206 fewer PA’s, and Wilson is on the IL with a fracture forearm thanks to Diddy so it’s very likely Roman moves into the Top 2.
He’s already got the 2nd-best odds in sportsbooks, behind only Kurtz.
Fever Pitch Guy — Wilson has just under 1.0 WAR above Anthony according to Fangraphs rookie board.
Cleve – Yeah I usually go with BR for WAR, not that it’s perfect but I think it’s more reasonable.
Fever Pitch Guy — Yeah? I don’t use Bref much. What’s makes it more reasonable?
Cleve – The short answer because I’ve already typed way too much today (haha) I’ve done extensive comparisons of bWAR and fWAR for specific players, and bWAR was usually more in line with my own valuation methodologies.
Unless he goes on a massive power streak to finish out the season i don’t know if gets top 2. Kurtz and Wilson of the A’s, Jasson Dominguez, Chandler Simpson, Carlos Narvaez. Roman could finish in the middle if he cracks the top 5
Rsox – Even if Narvaez doesn’t go on the IL, his offense has cratered for a while now.
He’s a complete hitter. Very good discipline. Gonna be good for a long time. Glove still developing. Good deal for both.
He should be the Red Sox first baseman in 2026. Showcase Casas during SP and trade him.
I’ve been in that camp since he started killing it in Worcester. Fills a void and helps with the OF logjam. He could handle 1B for sure.
I would still stick with Campbell as 1B of future. Even Devers can’t miss a target that big lol!
Oh wow. I just turned Devers into a punch line!
wow.
OKAY Sox Nation… We can now officially wash our hands of Devers! Let the punchlines flow!
He’s actually already putting up very impressive defensive runs saved metrics. Pretty shockingly comparable to Duran and even Abreu.
LETS GOOOOOOOOOO
Are you paying attention Baltimore? Lock up your young talent.
Rubenstein is going to cry more about the cost of running a team and let everyone leave
Holy crap. Can’t believe he’s signing early
Incredible news, I was not expecting this! I love to see them having success in getting the kids locked up. Roman in particular has been worth the wait. Kudos to Bres & Co. for getting this done. I’ve been ragging on some of their moves & non-moves lately but this absolutely buys them some goodwill with me. Not that they care about me individually anyways, but still.
Dirty – That’s exactly what fans SHOULD do ….. point out the team’s mistakes, and compliment them when they make good decisions.
And without question, pointing out the mistakes motivates the team to make better decisions. It’s just like raising kids.
FPG…. I love the fact my “Kids” bought me shirt last Christmas that says.. “In my defense I was left unsupervised “…..
olm – Mine bought me a shirt last year that says “You can’t tell me what to do, you’re not my kids”. LOL!!
Does Jim Rice know about this?
Lefty – I’m not getting your comment, what do you mean?
Well, Jim Rice never came off the bench and he never got a contract like this
Maybe, if you adjust for inflation… but still … other than that,… I mean nothing by it
Lefty – Yeah it’s a different world, MLB makes more money than they know what to do with …. so they take risks like this. It’s a good time to be a MLB player.
BTW – Not sure what you mean by off the bench? Roman starts every day.
BTW – Not sure what you mean by off the bench?
Hahaha, all these questions
A few Memorial Days ago.. the Orioles had a weekend series with the Red Sox… I didn’t know it was Jim Rice originally, but on the Pre-game….somehow it came up and Jim Rice stated…. Jim Rice never came off the bench…. I couldn’t stop laughing, I love his confidence
Lefty – Yes Jim Ed is still the same way when doing pre-game and post-game commentary. I’ve never heard him go third person though, I guess that’s something he had in common with Ricky.
The stability of a long term extension worked out great for Devers too
Totally different situation
Tang – Agreed, this is buying out 3 or 4 free agent years instead of 10.
Let’s hope management and ownership have learned from their past mistakes, and treat Roman with dignity and respect as he gets older. Because he won’t tolerate anything different.
I’m just glad we won’t have the arbitration bad blood along the way
Huge news!! Wow.
Thank you Red Sox management.
This is the kid you lock up!!
“the deal can max out at $230MM.”
he’ll never live up to it
I wouldn’t take that bet
too much too soon
After watching him for just a few months I would give him double that in FA, in a heartbeat.
He’s 21 with the kind of poise at the plate that already rivals Soto.
Your turn, Jed.
Meanwhile back in NY, Hal and Cashman live in the archaic world of non extensions. Good signing for the Sox.
Who won the Yankee team? Would you consider for long term extensions.
“Meanwhile back in NY, Hal and Cashman”…So, when one team does something all the teams that don’t do the same thing are now “archaic”?
No, just the Yankees.
Which pre-arb player should they lock up? Dominguez? Wells? Rice? Volpe? Warren? None of them have performances which warrant a significant extension.
Volpe. Strike while the iron is cold. I thought he was one of the best prospects I’ve seen in a long time. You sign him now or wait until he becomes more expensive.
All just to likely get traded in a couple years like Betts and Devers.
Devers is a man child and Betts didn’t have a contract. The point of signing guys early is to avoid the Betts situation
Betts was a pending free agent and turned down $300 million refusing to negotiate a deal in Boston.
Devers was a blatant locker room cancer and removing him instantly made the Red Sox one of the best teams in baseball, and the Giants the worst.
Two very different scenarios.
Also, Trevor Story has a significantly higher WAR than Betts this season. Both are 32yo.
To be fair Betts has been battling illness and a bunch of personal stuff this year. He will rebound. Spot on with the rest.
I don’t think Devers contributed to the Giants’ collapse so much as he didn’t rescue the team from an inevitable decline they were going to have anyway with a weak offense. According to MLB.com he’s hitting (5-20-.226) as of yesterday for San Francisco. Their hitting is so weak they would have had trouble even getting that level of production from in-house options.
Is he the problem or does the team just stink ? Unless you can show me some articles showing that SF is having problems with his attitude as well, I’m inclined to believe his slide coincided with the collapse; it didn’t directly cause it.
“All just to likely get traded..Betts and Devers”…I think you missed your freeway exit.
The Redsox are NOT the Minnesota Twins and the “Depressed Twins Fan” exit is two exits north of here.
Meanwhile Hoyer is twiddling his fingers with PCA…
If I’m PCA I ask for 230,000,001….. he’s that good…
Price is only going up, Hoyer had a chance to get it done and still does. PCA has all the leverage. But Hoyer has his extension, job security is assured so he’s in no rush and it shows.
Acoss… my guess is your in Chi-town also( maybe) I haven’t seen Cubs fans so stoked about a young Cub player since Tarzan Joe Wallis!!!lol
Olmtiant,
Yes indeed I live in Chicago! Also I am a fan of both baseball teams, so I’m considered an outlier here haha!
@Acoss1331
We’ll never know. They might have thought about extending him or even offered it but it wasn’t made public.
So you’re saying this semi old man can get a new jersey for Christmas?? And possibly hang up his C- 33???
This is a good call. My mom has been sad that all the player jerseys she owns are gone or retired. Anthony jersey inbound this December….
You are a good child!!! Great if you buy it for her!!!
Meow – I just hope you don’t give her a white home jersey with his name on it. Sox players don’t have their name on their white jerseys.
I already have a #19 home white jersey ….. first it represented Lynn, then Beckett, then Koji, and now Roman … four of my all-time favorites!
FPG
Was it Tampa Bay that started the trend of locking up young players with limited service time? Evan Longoria…
cdc – Great question, you’re correct …. it was indeed the Rays!
Not just Evan, they also later on signed Matt Moore and Chris Archer to longterm deals despite very little service time.
The first team to follow the Rays was the Royals, who extended Salvador Perez in 2012.
FPG
Archer and Moore, it looked like Tampa was going to be set up for awhile. Perez is a H.o F. catcher. Heard the list of the 5 players who signed $100 million contracts at age 21. R.Acuna,,Wander Franco , Jackson Merrill and R. Anthony. someone else not sure who . nteresting list .
Can anyone fix J. Hicks??? The kids arm is fire
Corbin Carroll ,I believe.
cdc – Tatis Jr signed 6 weeks after turning 22, so it wasn’t him.
It was JRod, he signed about 4 months before turning 22.
I try not to fall under the lure of the 100MPH flamethrowers. The last time I got excited about a flamethrower was Daniel Bard many years ago. LOL
FPG
Couple hits aand couple misses on the list. I feel it’s a great contract for both parties. Massive security for Anthony and saving massive $$ if he becomes the player we all hope.
Hey Bard had a couple good seasons with the Sox. Wasn’t there some issues with his personal problems with Bard? Trying to be respectful of his situation. I know he came back with Colorado for a great season after some time away from the game.
Just looked at Bards history. 6 years/ seasons away from the MLB . 2013 to 2020 , Wow.
cdc – Yeah his comeback with Colorado was amazing.
Who do you like in the big Dodgers/Jays series this weekend?
I’m hoping the Dodgers take at least 2 of 3, they’ve got Yama and Snell going. Jays annihilated Colorado 20-1 yesterday.
Extensions like this are the ultimate win, win, win.
Players get life changing money and a sense of security.
Teams get cost control and usually save vs. actual production.
But just as importantly, fans get to buy in. Your kid’s favorite player can be with him for a while. You can buy a jersey and expect to wear it next year.
MLB’s economics need to change so the smaller market teams can afford more extensions like these.
Plus, signing this early gives the team 2 years of his free agency, but he still gets to hit free agency and look for a market-setting mega deal during his athletic prime. Literally everybody wins.
Yes, another win. The player still gets a good run at free agency.
Dirty – If I recall correctly, you’ve got experience in this area …. what do you make of Roman’s personality? Seems like 90% of the time he looks like his dog just died or something, even in official pictures from when he was in high school. Would you consider that to possibly be a form of depression, or is he just someone who doesn’t express emotions very often?
Ha ha, I am not an expert in the mental health profession, there are some things I know just because you learn certain things about others as you go through life but I am in no position to diagnose Roman of anything. Maybe he just looks like that! Lol.
You hit the nail on the head. I like players who I get to know over a period of years, so as a fan knowing a player will be around is a big win.
That’s part of why the Devers trade was such a blow. It looks good right now, but if any player can be cut loose at any moment it’s harder for a fan to get invested.
What’s preventing smaller market teams to offer similar contracts to their young talent right now? Pirates gave Keller and Hayes one. Rays signed Franco. Padres signed Tatis, Jr. Brewers signed Witt, Jr.
Risk aversion, if I had to guess.
Don’t get me wrong I think these are by far the best types of contracts in baseball. But there is still risk in it, if the kid doesn’t pan out. If you’re a cheap/poorly-run team and give out an early extension to a kid who never turns into anything useful, that could cripple them for several seasons. Some of them naturally would prefer to wait and see if the player pans out and then face the risk of having to replace him.
Not to mention, not every player is going to want to sign one of these. Some are more than happy to bet on themselves and go year to year to try and get every single dollar they can. Those guys will never agree to a payment structure that potentially leaves significant money on the table.
Exactly. A $130 million mistake by the Brewers hurts a lot less than a $130 million mistake by the Red Sox.
Halo – I think you wrote that backwards ;O)
But your intended point is 100% correct, it’s easier to gamble with 9-figure extensions when you have the money to gamble with.
Yes, I did. Exactly backwards.
I had the same thought, Halos. Teams need to do more contracts like this. I can still name the players on my favorite boyhood Red Sox teams, their batting order, etc. It was easy to remember because it was basically the same team every year.
Baseball needs to get back to that, it would be great for the fans. And as you said, Win, Win, WIn.
This contract can max out around 230 mils PLUS close to a BILLION in endorsements.
The kid is SET! Good for him!
Lovin’ my Sox today. I’ll find a reason to throw shade at the FO and Cora tomorrow. For today I am GOOD!
Smaller markets can do one of these, two at the outside. The Red Sox could do several. The Dodgers can do a whole team and defer most money until 2099.
That’s the difference.
That being said, the Reds should have done this with Elly over a year ago. He is the meal ticket for the franchise.
Now it’s too late. He is gone in two years when they deal him for a load of suspects along with probably several of his teammates.
lol. We feel your pain in 1 word… Mookie.
But back to your point. I think ALL teams could do this. There isn’t a team out there that can’t afford 16 mils a year. It is just a matter of willingness.
I just don’t think Mookie wanted to play in Boston. He signed an extension about 5 minutes after landing in LA.
Halo – That’s what players do when a team meets their asking price.
Mookie is a great guy who loved Boston and was very active in the community. He was drafted by the Sox, his entire professional career was with the organization, he was very close to his teammates.
Bottom line, if the Red Sox had offered him what the Dodgers offered him, he would still be in Boston …. unless of course they were to disrespect him.
DBH – Don’t have to look too hard for shade. If the Narvaez injury is serious, Sox are screwed with a catching duo of Wong and Tromp. But they felt no need to get a real catcher at the deadline…. yeah, good call there Breslow.
so the smaller market teams can afford more extensions like these.
======================
TB extended Franco, KC extended Witt, MN extended Mauer and Bruxton, Mil with Chourio, and the As extended a couple of guys. It can be done, but ownership has to make a commitment.
Why do this? You have complete control for several years. Why make a commitment you don’t need to make? These don’t make sense to me.
The free agent years they’re buying out will be at a significant discount if he shows any sort of normal career trajectory based on his early results. It’s a calculated risk.
Not to mention that it gives them cost control over Anthony’s arbitration years, which would have been a platform for the eventual free agent price. It’s worth making an investment like that in an extraordinary talent.
Jum – Trying to project the overall impact is very difficult because it depends on so many other pieces of the puzzle.
Let’s say the contract maxes out at $230M over 9 years, that’s a $25.5M CBT hit annually (I have no idea how it gets allocated over the years).
If the Sox suddenly decide to spend like they should, the CBT penalties driven by Roman’s contract could add up quickly.
And if they decide to continue going cheap, that’s a big chunk of money that cannot be spent on other areas of the team.
I’m sure that’s what the braves thought with Albies too.
Pretty sure they’re happy with the Albies and Acuna contracts.
Because if he continues to play like an mvp, it will save them over a hundred million dollars or more over the course of this deal.
If…I’m seeing lots of ifs.
Those three arbitration years likely cost about 40% of this extension on their own.
Redmatt, at $16 mil a year, this is a very friendly team deal by the time Roman hits free agency even if he ended up league average. And he is projected to be a star player. He’s already almost there.
He’ll make more by the time arbitration is over. Plus there will be no Broadway production like with Betts and Bogarts.
Just a drama free deal for the next 8 for a fan favorite.
Take the win, bro. It’s a good day to be a Sox fan!
You assume it’ll be drama free. Everyone always points out the examples when these extensions work but conveniently forget those that don’t. Louis Robert, Evan White, Eloy Jiminez. Scott Kingery. Jon Singleton. Should we add Kristian Campbell?
LETS GO!!!!
Somebody… Anybody… say those two famous words I long to hear!!!! Hint..Jerry Jones also likes to say them!!!!(NOT!!!!)
Let’s just say that Breslow is being truthful about the trade deadline and everyone was indeed asking for Duran/Aberu/Rafaela. That takes stones to keep saying NO when he knows he’s gonna get roasted for not making a big move for Ryan/Keller/Alcantara. He held his ground and kept key parts of the roster intact, There’s that.
In the off season, he sacrificed a group of nice prospects to acquire Crochet. Then he got sort of creative/aggressive with the contract for Bregman which closed up a very successful off season.
Since then he has locked up Rafaela, Crochet, Campbell (!) and now Anthony for long, team friendly deals. The core of this team is coming together. And don’t forget the Devers saga where he removed a clubhouse issue along with a boatload of salary.
I don’t know man… maybe this Breslow guy has an idea of what he’s doing.
Swan, I am agreeing with you begrudgingly. It did take stones to keep all 4 outfielders. And it was smart. I didn’t WANT to see Duran or Abreu moved but I though one would NEED to go.
I will give him credit for that. I’ve been screaming ‘Let the kids play’ for 3 years. Guess I got my wish.
Sooo…A 7 game win steak later (going for 8), I will once again say with a smile, “Let the kids play!”
I keep pessimistically waiting for someone to drop into a long slump, but these OFers have been pretty great all year. They’ve each had their dry spells, but each has rebounded just fine. Young players are hard to project/predict, but this group has shown nice consistency.
It’s been nice to watch Rafaela mature. He’s no longer afraid to be behind in the count so he doesn’t need to swing at the first pitch EVERY TIME.
Not to worry. They’ll trade Anthony in 2 years when a new POBO comes in again, and Ownership sours in the deal. The Red Sox eat-thier-own all the time. It’s a great move…but, that always seems to be followed by a collosial blunder, somehow.
Besides, Boras Boras, Boras. Gunnar, Adley, Jackson Holliday all rep’d by Boras, so it was always a longer shot than most to get extensions done early. Maybe Basallo!?….
Even the Red Sox wouldn’t trade Anthony, that salary will be impossible to sour on
sad – They said the same thing about Nomar, Beckett, Lester, AGon, Mookie, Devers etc …. inevitably if they don’t leave as free agents, they get traded.
Maybe if there’s new ownership before things go bad with Roman, the new ownership will respect it’s superstars and treat them with dignity and respect.
It’s widely believed Henry will sell after Fenway Corners is completed, who knows.
Getting rid of:
Nomar – Smart move, turned to dust
Beckett – Smart move, wasnt a homegrown talent
Lester – One bad move
AGon – Wasnt a homegrown talent. Necessary to unload Beckett and Crawford
Mookie- Wasnt staying, get what you can
Devers – Smartest move of them all
Bogaerts – Smart Move
Benintendi – Smart Move
7 out of 8 of the moves worked out. So whats the problem?
Reggie – I 100% agree regarding most of your observations, but I put Lester in the Betts category. Theo wooed him over to the Cubs, so Lester was bolting. The guy sold his house right after the season. He had zero intention of remaining in Boston.
letit, as I recall Lester was not offered reasonable money, like Mookie. I personally misvalued both and each time thought ownership was right. Mookie though was never staying whereas Lester I believe did want to but was traded at the deadline for Cespered. It worked out with the subsequent trade for Porcillo but after being traded, there was no way Lester was then coming back.
dewey – You are 100% correct. Lester openly stated he didn’t want to go anywhere else, and the Red Sox tried to take advantage of that by lowballing him. It was a horrifically low offer, so insulting that no man with at least a shred of self respect would consider accepting.
The Red Sox quickly realized they screwed up bad, and when Jon was a free agent John Henry himself flew out to try and convince Lester to re-sign. But it was too late, Theo capitalized with a much bigger offer.
Later John Henry admitted it was a huge mistake lowballing Lester, one of the very few times he’s ever admitted screwing up. But it was shortly after the 2013 WS championship, and the Sox thought they could get away with it because of the 5-year title window. Obviously they were wrong.
I’m reading this, and torturing myself: If the Red Sox never lowball Lester, and sign him long term, do they still trade for Chris Sale? If they hold only Moncada, do they sign Story? If they don’t sign Story, does Bogaerts end up staying? If Bogaerts stays, is Devers not signed long term??
The colors, Duke! The colors!!
yeah – As a big Back To The Future fan, I absolutely love analyzing alternate outcomes!!!
At the time of the Lester trade the Sox were 48-60, if he extended with them it wouldn’t have made a difference on the 2014 season.
2015 is the pivotal year though. Substitute Porcello and his 4.92 ERA in 172 innings with Lester and his 3.34 ERA in 205 innings, are the Sox good enough to contend for the final WC spot? Probably yes, which means Cherington keeps his job, which means Dombrowski goes elsewhere.
Does Cherington trade for Sale if Lester is still on the team? Probably not … but Dave would have.
Not sure why you bring Moncada into it, he has never been a shortstop. In his entire professional career he’s played only 39 innings there, at Age 18 before signing with the Sox. They never projected him as a shortstop.
Story was signed for one reason only, to replace Xander.
If Xander stayed after 2022, Raffy probably doesn’t get extended.
That was fun!!!
You have a very selective memory.
Reggie the haters are going to hate everything…you know that…
Fans live in a delusional reality where they think signing their favourite players to blank cheques will not only lead the team to long term success but the player will ride out his career and be a hall of fame player and retire on top. When in reality it hamstrings the team with a terrible contract and fans turn on the player because he’s a shell of his former self.
Story was signed as a 2B, but heir-apparent/backup option for Bogaerts leaving, was my thinking with Moncada.
(btw I meant hold onto Moncada, not “hold only”)
I disagreed with several of these moves at the time they happened (except Mookie & Devers funny enough).
But you’re correct. Except for Betts & Lester, the Sox have a good track record of dumping players and contracts before they become more problematic.
There is one other guy you forgot about, because he was still in the minors. Anthony Rizzo. Another bad deal that I hated at the time it happened. They traded him to the Padres in the AGon deal.
Rizzo turned out to be almost as good as AGon in the following years at a lesser contract. Finishing in the top 17 in MVP voting in 5 consecutive years and as high as 4th twice. On top of 4 gold gloves and a silver slugger.
I’d argue Sox would have been in a better position holding onto Rizzo than the trade for AGon in his later years, but hindsight is 20/20.
That was after the Red Sox really pissed him off in all fairness…
The best offer they floated him was like 3 years 60 million. They may as well have just told him get lost.
Fen – And Casey Kelly is pitching well for the DBacks at age 35, he was part of that Rizzo/AGon trade.
How is 10/$300m unreasonable?
but hindsight is 20/20.
=======================
But even at the time, it made no sense to me. We had Youk at 1st. The 20/20 move would’ve been to extend Beltre. A good move would’ve been to target Headley. He’d have still cost us, but maybe we could’ve kept Rizzo and have him line up to take Youk’s place at some point.
Yeah, so many blunders. 4 world series championships this decade, the most in baseball,
Were you alive in 83 when the Orioles last won?
GTH – You are probably too young to know this, but Breslow had nothing to do with putting together those 4 championship teams.
Look up the names Lucchino and Dombrowski, then get back to me.
FPG…..Roman is smarter than his agent and his father. At age 30 he will still get a bite at the free agent apple. He should be around until somewhere between 37-40 health willing of course. This raise is enough for him to change his life now, not later. He’s going to want to start his family well before this contract is up and can now do so comfortably. He has enough escalators that double the value of the contract if he meets everything giving him financial incentives. This is beautifully done, ya never know if an injury does happen it’s nice to be secure.
4 what ?
King – Yeah we will not know for at least 5 years if it was the right choice for him, but odds are it was.
He could have been a free agent in 5 years, might have been the first billion dollar contract then. It’s hard to fathom.
This decade? Is that Boston math?
Huh? The Red Sox won the WS in ’04, ’07, ’13, and ’17. That is 1 in the last decade. 4 in the last 24 years which make up this century which started in 2001.
The sox have now locked up two young phenomenal outfielders for the next eight years.
File this under “things rich teams can do that non-rich teams cannot”. This is one of the big ones. If he bombs or blows up physically, no biggee for the Sox. Big big biggee for a small payroll team.
Brewers signed Christian Yelich and then extended Bobby Witt, Jr. as a “non-rich” team.
^Royals
Chourio
TB extended Franco, KC extended Witt, MN extended Mauer and Bruxton, Mil with Chourio, and the As extended a couple of guys.
I see the appeal of early extensions, but as a White Sox fan, I also got a front row seat to the risk. Eloy, Moncada, and Robert all failed to live up to their deals, which were highly lauded at the time.
Brewers did a lot less for Chourios extension correct?
“Brewers did a lot less”…No two markets are the same and no two situations are the very same. History has shown us many times that two players are never really exactly the same.
But the Rogers twins are identical.
Choruio aslo signed his extension before he reached the majors.
I’ll go on record as giving this deal a thumbs up.
🙂
This is an aggressive and good deal for all parties. A smart deal. Let’s go Sox.
Realizing Boras is mostly repping O’s guys you don’t need to ask if the O’s front office is paying attention. They know who reps those guys and they will all go to FA. I think they are paying attention.
Boras is too smart to advise his clients to sign deals this.
@Lonniemac…..Roman signed against his agent’s wishes, he traded future earnings for current security.
@longtime I think teams are paying attention to player representatives going back to getting drafted. A player represented by Boras in the future might wait a couple rounds first.
Kurtz is going to be difficult to unseat in that RoY contest. Jacob Wilson will probably miss most of the second half and will fall out of contention but one of Noah Cameron, Jack Leiter and Jacob could but Anthony out of the top three depending on how they litch and how their innings are limited. Chandler Simpson could also be in the running for runner up. Id have to give runner up to Leiter at the moment.
*Jacob Lopez, I tried to edit the post, I got timed out! I am back and forth between browsers with one hand on a Juicy Hazy IPA and the other fumbling this damn telephone.
If the system gives you 6 years of control so teams can watch develop players as a hole (athletic and human), see the ups and downs in a large sample size, why not take it?.
But my main concern is how much damage is done to the player when suddenly they don’t have to fight to get it done, players say the hardest thing is not to get to the big leagues but to maintain for long time.
Pepe
“the system gives you 6 years of control so teams can watch develop players as a hole (athletic and human), see the ups and downs in a large sample size, why not take it?.”
The system gives teams control for 6 years so they can avoid paying players, not so they can observe them.
It’s that way because baseball started out with the players being basically indentured servants to the teams.
It’s an absurd system that should be done away with. Of course, that’s much easier said than done. In part because shifting hundreds of millions in salary from older players to younger ones would leave a bunch of the older players out in the cold.
Juan – If a team invests time, effort and money scouting, drafting and developing a young prospect, why should that prospect be allowed to leave as a free after making the majors? That makes no sense. Think about it, players are getting PAID to learn.
Have you ever heard of a college that pays students to learn?
FPG
“If a team invests time, effort and money scouting, drafting and developing a young prospect, why should that prospect be allowed to leave as a free after making the majors?”
Why shouldn’t they?
Let’s try this
If a company invests time, effort and money scouting, drafting and developing a young employee, why should that employee be allowed to leave work when they want?
MLB isn’t a college. It’s a billion dollar company. And companies train their employees all the time.
Baseball should be like any other job. When an employee decides to work for the company (no draft – that’s just a way to restrict player salaries), they agree to a contract and both parties fulfill that contract until completion.
A player comes out of college or school. They negotiate contracts with interested teams and sign the one that they like best. It might be for a year or two or ten. It might be for tens of thousands or hundreds of millions. Let the market determine what players are worth.
There also needs to be a massive increase in revenue sharing to even out team payrolls so teams can compete more equally.
Juan – Inexperienced workers are on the low end of the payscale for a reason.
Employers who are willing to pay top dollar want experienced workers, they don’t want to pay top dollar to train someone and then have that someone take their knowledge and skills to a competitor.
It’s the same with MLB, you work your way up the ladder by starting in the minors making little money.
It’s like caring for a plant, when it finally begins to bear fruit are you really gonna let someone else enjoy literally the fruits of your labor?
FPG
“Inexperienced workers are on the low end of the payscale for a reason.”
That’s not exactly how MLB works though.
Plenty of less experienced players make more than more experienced ones.
“Employers who are willing to pay top dollar want experienced workers”
No, they don’t. They want the best workers. We’ve seen that MLB will shell out millions for inexperienced players when their salaries aren’t artificially restricted.
Puig got $42 million from the Dodgers – and earned every penny and much more
Rusney Castillo got $72 million – he didn’t live up to it. He also got railroaded by his team.
Teams would have given Skeenes tens if not hundreds of millions if they could.
They don’t care about “experience”, they care about talent.
“they don’t want to pay top dollar to train someone and then have that someone take their knowledge and skills to a competitor.”
Sign them to a longer contract.
“It’s like caring for a plant, when it finally begins to bear fruit are you really gonna let someone else enjoy literally the fruits of your labor?”
1) If you want the fruit, pay more than the other guy
2) It’s not like a plant. It’s a human. The plant doesn’t get [anything] in return for producing that fruit. THAT’S what we’re talking about this plant analogy completely ignores. It also ignores that the team gets all the fruit for the first 6 years and then is free to bid on the open for the rest of the fruit.
Anyone who thinks that Skenes couldn’t have gotten at least $150-200 million out of the gate when similar pitchers like Yamamoto got that after coming from the Nippon league don’t understand how baseball economics or baseball general work.
acell
“Anyone who thinks that Skenes couldn’t have gotten at least $150-200 million out of the gate when similar pitchers like Yamamoto got that after coming from the Nippon league don’t understand how baseball economics or baseball general work.”
The people who don’t understand it, I can deal with
The people who think he doesn’t deserve it, are the ones I don’t get
Juan, they generally go hand in hand especially FPG
acell
Are they going to try and tell me that the Pirates deserve 6 discounted seasons of Skenes because they made him into what he is and he wouldn’t be anything if not for those 34 innings working with Pirate’s coaches? Skenes really owes his life, or at least $100 million in career earnings to them.
I wouldn’t but I’m sure a few people here would. Heck just tried to..
Juan – What I don’t get is how you don’t see if every star rookie would immediately become a free agent, it would destroy MLB.
1) The 30 MLB teams form a partnership. They are competitors only on the field, not off it.
2) What is the point of a team like Pittsburgh drafting and developing a star like Skenes if he’s allowed to leave for the highest bidder right after being promoted.
3) How could there be any semblance of fair competition if the biggest spenders were allowed to poach 21-22 year old stars from small market teams
So what exactly are you proposing? That MLB gets reduced to 10 teams, in which case 520 non-stars would be out of jobs?
You’re simply not thinking this through, you’re just laser-focused on allowing young stars to get paid for performance and you’re totally disregarding how MLB revenue would dry up and kill baseball in more than a dozen cities.
In a perfect world EVERYONE should be paid based solely on their current value. The world isn’t perfect, and it never will be.
Juan – And for every Skenes who is getting paid far less than their production, there’s hundreds of MLB players who are underperforming or not even playing due to injury ….. and they are all making at least $760K annually for basically 7 months of employment …. only because rosters need to be filled for 30 franchises.
But apparently you’re not concerned about them, you’re concerned only about the few stars who God forbid have to live on “only” $50M-$60M or so over the first 6 years of their MLB career.
And BTW are you actually saying young stars like Skenes don’t make millions with corporate sponsorships, which BTW wouldn’t be possible without MLB?
FPG
“What I don’t get is how you don’t see if every star rookie would immediately become a free agent, it would destroy MLB
…
2) What is the point of a team like Pittsburgh drafting and developing a star like Skenes if he’s allowed to leave for the highest bidder right after being promoted.”
I never said that that should happen.
I said
1) the draft should be eliminated. Every player should be a free agent able to have a say in their employment – like most other people in the world. They get to market themselves to teams and choose where they play and for how much from among the offers they receive/negotiate.
When they graduate HS (or whatever age is agreed upon that they can sign with MLB teams) they are free to sign with a team, go to college, play independent baseball, whatever.
If they with with a team, they negotiate a contract and that’s their contact. If it’s 15 years, $200 million (or whatever) for a Bryce Harper type – that’s what it is. If it’s 5 years and 250K for some lower level prospect, that’s what it is – though, there would need to be a MLB differential pay to meet whatever the major league minimum is.
“1) The 30 MLB teams form a partnership. They are competitors only on the field, not off it.”
Right. Which is why…
2) Revenue sharing needs to be massively increased to bring more financial parity to the teams to prevent the richest teams from hording all of the talent.
“3) How could there be any semblance of fair competition if the biggest spenders were allowed to poach 21-22 year old stars from small market teams”
They shouldn’t be allowed to and I didn’t say that they should.
“So what exactly are you proposing? That MLB gets reduced to 10 teams, in which case 520 non-stars would be out of jobs?”
No. I’m for expansion. And roster expansion to allow for more specialized players to be in MLB. Defensive specialists and base running specialists, mostly. Why should these MLB caliber players be in the minors when they could be increasing the overall level of play in MLB?
“You’re simply not thinking this through”
Incorrect. I’ve given this a lot of thought. You’ve completely misunderstood what I’m saying.
“In a perfect world EVERYONE should be paid based solely on their current value. The world isn’t perfect, and it never will be.”
Agreed. And we should always be taking steps towards making the world better and more just. Letting the Pirates underpay Skenes doesn’t do that. My proposal does.
FPG
“And for every Skenes who is getting paid far less than their production, there’s hundreds of MLB players who are underperforming or not even playing due to injury ….. and they are all making at least $760K annually for basically 7 months of employment …. only because rosters need to be filled for 30 franchises.
But apparently you’re not concerned about them”
I’m concerned about them. What are you taking about? They would have been free to sell their services on the open market just like every other player.
The current system rips off players to protect the billionaire owners
If my proposal flips that and puts a bit more risk into the owners, I’m very content with that.
“But apparently you’re not concerned about them, you’re concerned only about the few stars who God forbid have to live on “only” $50M-$60M or so over the first 6 years of their MLB career.”
What are you talking about? I want EVERY player to have the same rights that you and I have to choose their employer and negotiate their contract. You are advocating for the current system that takes that right away. Why?
“And BTW are you actually saying young stars like Skenes don’t make millions with corporate sponsorships, which BTW wouldn’t be possible without MLB?”
Did I say anything like that? Has the topic of corporate sponsorships even been brought up before this? It hasn’t, so why [on earth] are you asking me if I’m saying that?
If players can get corporate sponsorships – AWESOME for them. But just because Shohei Ohtani gets paid millions to take some photos wearing a Seiko watch doesn’t mean that the Dodgers shouldn’t have to pay him. Do you disagree?
Juan – I appreciate the conversation. I didn’t know your proposal to remove the 6 years of team control comes with several other drastic changes proposed.
To briefly touch on a couple things, the main problem with revenue sharing is there’s no requirement to spend a certain portion of it on player payroll. It is absolutely insane that revenue sharing recipients are generating sizable profits, that should never happen. It reminds me of when ODB got out of a stretch limo to collect his food stamps.
And increasing revenue sharing even more is not a good idea because then you remove the incentive for teams to put in a lot of time, effort, money and intelligent decisions to generate profits. Some form of capitalism must remain with MLB.
Think about it, if you work and study very hard graduating from Harvard at the top of your class and it leads to you getting a $500K job, does it make sense to have most of that salary taken away and given to some who don’t have the intelligence, work ethic or skills to land a similar job?
Anyway I do want to focus mostly on the games right now, but I look forward to your future posts.
FPG
“I didn’t know your proposal to remove the 6 years of team control comes with several other drastic changes proposed.”
No worries. This format isn’t ideal for discussion.
“And increasing revenue sharing even more is not a good idea because then you remove the incentive for teams to put in a lot of time, effort, money and intelligent decisions to generate profits. Some form of capitalism must remain with MLB.”
No, it doesn’t.
I HATE this idea. It comes up a lot from people defending greed. “Why will people work if they have to share?”.
“Think about it, if you work and study very hard graduating from Harvard at the top of your class and it leads to you getting a $500K job, does it make sense to have most of that salary taken away and given to some who don’t have the intelligence, work ethic or skills to land a similar job?”
I don’t understand what you’re talking about here. The best players will still be the biggest contracts.
All teams will still earn more money if they increase profit or decrease costs.
Yes, I agree that teams should be forced to spend money on the team.
As to your question, yes, I believe in higher tax rates on people making 500K a year.
During covid we saw how important low wage earners are to the economy and to all of our lives. We need to compensate them and quit freeloading off of them. The best way I know to do that without inflating the prices of everything is taxation on high wage earners.
“Some form of capitalism must remain with MLB.”
Reminder. The current pay structure is very much not capitalist. Limiting markets (which is what the draft, team control, arbitration, etc do) is anti-capitalist.
Man an outfield of Anthony / Rafaela / (Duran/Abreu/Garcia) for the next few years is going to be exciting to watch. Reminds me of the 2017/2018 killer B’s
Yep, it’s awesome to see young talent locked up.
Wonder who’s going to be “asked” to learn 1B. I think I read something recently that Garcia is taking some reps already. If he’s supposedly the second coming of Manny, they need to find him a spot.
swan – It sure sounds like KC will have first crack at first base, but don’t count out Casas just yet.
Boston and the A’s are going to square off soon.
A’s will have Soderstrom, Butler and Colby Thomas in the OF. Not as prolific on paper but I think Soderstrom is as good of a player as Anthony. Butler can play with Duran and Thomas can slug with Abreu. Rafaella at second until Boston unloads some of their OF depth.
A’s dont have the depth in the OF but they have it in spades on the diamond with Hernaiz and Gelof, Wilson and Kurtz and Leo De Vries.
miller – Yep they play 6 games over a 9 game stretch in September, I think the A’s will come hard at them because non-contenders like to be a factor in the playoff races …. it’s kinda like their version of being in the postseason.
I still can’t believe they traded Mason.
Fever – they can score runs, pitching isn’t all that good. Langeliers has been tanking the ball since he returned from the IR. Will be fun games.
Affirming young studs with early big money deals is double-edged. I suspect Anthony will be good, just like a lot of guys who got the arbitration buyouts; however, I don’t expect him to be the best version of himself. At least the earning money aspect, the motivation to keep improving doesn’t have that in the tool-shed. The motivation will have to come from somewhere else.
Anthony looks like the type that cares more about his numbers on the field than he does his bankroll, I think he’s the type who plays for the records and not so much for the Mercedes. He looks like a ball player to me.
Speaking of ball players, saw Devers playing in a Giants uniform he is looking svelt. He is going to tank a few into the cove before the season is over. If 1B prospect Bryce Eldridge doesn’t pan out, and I think he will, they should move Chapman to first and let Devers play 3B. Likely wont be an issue, likely that Devers is at DH until Chapman’s deal expires, but could move Eldridge for an ace and Chapman would be a gold glove 1B.
“Anthony looks like the type that cares more about his numbers on the field than he does his bankroll, I think he’s the type who plays for the records and not so much for the Mercedes. He looks like a ball player to me.”
You must have godly eyesight then.
I could be wrong. Some people exude certain character traits in their demeanor.
I’m not special, just observant. My perception isn’t always accurate. I make my judgments based on what my eye and gut tells me.
Truth is almost all of the players, if the prevailing wages were significantly lower, and there were no riches, I’d say almost everyone of them would still play ball if they could make a living at it. The money follows the success on the field but it also has the ability to change a player.
My point mainly was that it doesn’t seem to me that Anthony is the type of guy to get paid and get lazy, he seems like the type of player who is into the competition and into remaining at the top of his game. He wants to be better than the competition. Wants to win. If that makes any sense.
I’ve watched Anthony in the Minors since 2022 when he hit Salem and he’s a gamer. There is no way to guarantee anything in baseball he could get injured you never know or god forbid sick. I will say this I’d bet everything I own that this kid, despite getting the big contract, will not tail off on his future effort. I don’t think this is in his nature from everything I’ve seen over the last few years. I expect very big things from Roman Anthony.
The Giants moving Matt Chapman to 1B so that Raffy can play 3B is just about the worst take I have ever seen on this site. And that is saying a lot.
Considering what drive these young men have, it isn’t a surprise to believe in it. No one has said contrary. You are not wrong to assume so.
My point is that money changes things. Anthony, his family, his friends, his relationships, his peers, etc are shifting. How he approaches life shifts. These young guys have remarkable characters till now. Overcoming this isn’t easy. It is another challenge to their character. Some don’t succeed, some lose steam, some fall down. This is why giving money to young guy is a double-edged. Older guys have figured out themselves or are more familar with themselves. They have had more time for things to change, and even they fall victim.
Just remember, playing baseball isn’t the same as the love of the game, they’ve added so many things to why players play. It may be there but it isn’t the sole focus of players. It is a tiny portion in the seas of money, pensions, connections, clout, and fame.
Wow you think Bob Nutting will do the same for Paul Skenes? Lol
Too late for that
Brilliant organization
Rick – I get what you’re saying, you are mocking the Red Sox for trading Teel and not getting a real catcher at the trade deadline.
I agree with you, if Narvaez is out for a while the Sox are screwed. Just stay positive, maybe it’s not that serious …. maybe it’s just a sprain.
I get what you’re saying, you’re here to troll Red Sox fans.
FPG just spreading his own agenda and putting words in people’s mouths….
So the nickname Romin’ Roman will never be a thing.
Where is the lol button??
Wait, a 21 year old left fielder with the Red Sox.
Hmmm.
Great day for the Sox and Anthony! If the rumors are true that Breslow turned down the Twin’s offer for one of Duran/Abreu to get Ryan then he made a huge mistake
The rumors I hear said that wanted one of duran/abreu… PLUS the top tier prospects from the system.
If it was abreu/duran plus one good prospect and a couple lottery tickets, that’s one thing…
But it sounds like it was they wanted 3 or so of the org top 5 prospects, plus duran/abreu
King and cease will be available purely for cash this winter, among others like Kelly. I’d think the losers in the FA bidding come calling on PIT and MIN in the offseason
Outstanding. I love these contracts with young players that are good for both the player and the club. Both are taking on a little risk but both get cost certainty.
If I were Roman I would have pushed for either 6 or 7 years instead of 8, but no matter what happens, he’s set for life now.
big – Red Sox got 9 years with the team option, not 8.
Why would the Sox agree to only 6 years, so they could buy out at most one year of free agency? No that would be pointless.
Great for both sides. People are going to call me crazy, but I’m kind of optimistic the A’s are going to do something like this with Kurtz.
But John Fisher!!!…. I know, I’ve rooted for the A’s for awhile and know how they operate. But it makes sense from a business standpoint to have a superstar moving to a new city, and the A’s have given out long term contracts this year already. I’m not saying it’s going to have a no trade clause or anything, but I think it might happen. You don’t have to agree with me just remember I said it in a few months.
There is recent precedence with Brent Rooker.
A’s have to pay four players: Kurtz, Langeliers, Soderstrom and Wilson. That gives them a solid six into the 2030 season. Gelof, Hernaiz and Thomas also will be with the team to 2030. And DeVries will be too. They will have a great team in place for many years.
I know he’s legit and prob will be legit… but this deal seems a little dumb. That said couldn’t be the smartest investment of all time lol
Did you say the same thing about Ronald Acuna, Jr.’s extension?
….or Freddie Freeman’s when the Braves decided to extend him and trade Jason Heyward?
My thoughts are, what do they do with Duran and Abreu. Both very good players.
Rafaela could play 2nd, but is better in the outfield.
This is a very good dilemma going forward.
Yoshido at best for a DH
I see in the off season Duran or Abreu plus Yoshido plus minor leaguers going for a controllable front end starter like Ryan from the Twins One could only hope. .
Don’t like to lose Duran or Abreu. But the math isn’t working with 4 outfielders plus back ups
Would take Tolle, Arias, Abreu or Duran and another young pitcher to get Ryan—even though I think trading Tolle would be a huge mistake
I think the chance to get Tolle passed with the trade deadline can see him being called for the stretch run and being used out of the pen and dominating..at which point the twins etc will wish they grabbed him
100% Poolhall especially if, as I suspect, he deals in AAA. If the rumor is true that Breslow offered Garcia, Arias, Tolle and another prospect and the Twins balked they are going to regret that decision. I think Tolle is going to be a true TOR arm. He’s a monster of a dude his extension is second to none and it’s obvious that when they promoted him to AA they wanted him to work on his secondaries and not throw the fastball as much and low and behold he got a ton of swing and miss on his secondaries. I’m guessing they turn his fastball loose again at AAA. I think he competes for a rotation spot out of spring training and god help the league if he shows up throwing a couple of ticks higher in velocity and perfects that parachute change he’s working on. The downward movement when he lands is sick but it’s a work in progress.
I think the chance to get arias passed too. If the twins want a player like Abreu (I doubt very much they want Duran) they might get a secondary prospect out of it but not someone in the top 100.
Sox67 – Did you see Duran’s catch tonight in the triangle? I don’t understand why he gets disrespected so much here. The Red Sox do NOT lose any defense in CF when Duran plays there, he’s just as good if not better than Rafaela.
If you remember about 6 years ago the Red Sox had a similar situation. They had a guy in RF who could also play CF very well and also hit very well. They had a guy in CF who couldn’t hit well consistently, but did have some hot streaks.
If Rafaela can learn to play 2B and not make dumb mistakes like tonight throwing to first base when nobody was there, then they can keep both Duran and Abreu and that’s exactly what they should do.
Yes seen Duran’s catch was awesome to say the least.
Having 4 outfielders that need to play everyday is a good thing. But can’t play them everyday So put Rafaela at second and let the balance play the outfield.
I don’t want to see any of young players leave
That’s why we have prospects for trading for front end starter which the Sox need badly
Last nights game was brutal from a starter to relievers. Sox had to have a better opportunity to secure a better starter than May. Plus Hicks needs to go somewhere other than be available outta pen. Like DFA Campbell hasn’t improve. At all.
What I couldn’t believe was Cora putting in Hicks in a 1 run game The results were a forgone conclusion before he even threw his first pitch.
Anyways Betts , JBJ and Benni were awesome
Campbell just had a 15 game hit streak.
Sox – We see things the same way!
The team is what it is now, too late to acquire impact players so we have to ride with what we’ve got and hope for the best. I think a lot will ride on which starting pitchers they end up facing, that makes all the difference in the world.
Like with the Dodgers, they didn’t have to face Snell, Glasnow, Yamamoto or Ohtani on the mound. This weekend the Jays have to face Yamamoto and Snell, luck of the draw but good for the Sox.
Campbell the pitcher not the second baseman
And the orioles can’t seem to extend any one of their infield stars
gr8 – Maybe they can extend O’Neill.
If player is willing you have to do these. A+
He is from an infamous high school…..
Rizzo went there as well
Jesus Luzardo, too
A 21 year old left fielder who bats lefty.
Sounds familiar.
hayzee – Don’t forget NY Met Juan Soto is a left fielder who bats lefty, but he’s older than 21.
Win win for both player and team today
Hate to say it but this looks like a major discount on future production. Yoshida is probably untradeable at this point. Still, if he bounces back at all next season, Breslow should make every effort to trade him ASAP, regardless of how much salary the team needs to eat.
For those who want the Red Sox to spend big on FAs. Heres a comparison:
Juan Soto — $765M for 4.0 WAR so far
Anthony, Campbell and Rafaela — $240M for 5.0 WAR so far
Free Agents are overpriced, homegrown is the way to go.
It’s not a fair way to compare $/production as Soto doesn’t take up two additional roster spots.
A far broader and more important point is, how many of these young guys are going to reach free agency at the same time as Soto did now that teams are locking up their young players at an early age. Outside of Boras guys probably not too many.
“Soto doesnt take up two additional roster spots”
If the comparison had equal payroll you would be correct. But since, Soto is almost triple the Red Six costs, the Sox would have far more capital to offset any player with additional signings. Sorry, but iits completely fair to assume 0.0 WAR replacemenyt players are filling those spots
Better hope he continues to get better. That’s a lot of money to give someone on potential alone. It’s happened numerous times where a team gives out a big contract and the player flames out. I don’t think that will happen with Anthony though.
This is not a big contract though.
PCA next?
Scott Kingery approves!!!
At least it’s a really cool name, Roman Anthony. 2 HR in his first 160 AB. Wowser!
Number one prospect in baseball living up to the hype….WOWSERS!
He also has a .400 OBP through those first 160 ABs – as a 21 year old. The power will come. He clearly demonstrated in the minors that he has plenty of it.
Fire Craig Breslow!
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Poor bast!%@d!
He must be totally disappointed stuck playing for the Red Sox for millions of dollars…
When he should have been playing for the Detroit Tigers…..
I am not impressed with Corbin Carroll, 55 RBI is not impressive
Volpe has more and he is a shortstop
Corbin also proves WAR is BS
this must be sarcasm.
Not at all
I am solidly behind everything I said
Everything I said is what I believe
well thats unfortunate especially if you’re only judging a player off one stat. unless you’re just trolling
You also solidly wrong in your methodology in evaluating players. Carry on though with your ignorance.
His average is not impressive
I expect more for someone making as much as he does
I disagree with you
Corbin is a leadoff hitter…
So was Rickey Henderson
That didn’t stop him from being awesome
Waste of money. He was already under control for 6 more years. Better off just waiting till freeagency but thats just my opinion. Colt Keith and Scott Kingery are just two examples of how these contracts could destroy a team, guys who were extended barely into their major league career. You could say the same about Michael Harris, and to a lesser extent Spencer Strider
Neither of those guys compare to Roman Anthony’s production and impact in the time he’s played and both peaked as sub top 20 prospects, Roman is consensus #1.
What a moronic take and how fitting for your silly username. Keith is making less than $4M in year two of his Tigers contract. Kingery’s deal which didn’t work out for the Phillies is peanuts for a big market team.
are you seriously saying that the Kingery contract destroyed the Phillies? do you even the terms of the contract because it was hardly crippling.
It’s increasingly likely they would only have 5 more years of control.
If he gets in the top 2 ROY he gets a full year of service time. So, in that regard, they’re buying yet one more additional year of FA most likely
@GASoxFan he is not getting top 2 in ROY, he came up too late and his overall impact hasn’t been good enough to look past his lack of games played. Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson are far far ahead of Anthony
Wilson may be done for the year with his fractured forearm.
If he doesn’t come back, Anthony likely passes him in games played for the season.
If you like WAR, Anthony has put up almost the same total in half the games so far. It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for Anthony to accumulate double that of wilson, should that fracture keep him out.
Given Wilson’s talent, id hope for his sake the take it slow on bringing him back.
@GASoxFan I am not a fan of WAR. Anthony is batting .278 with 2hrs. Wilson made the allstar team as the starting shortstop, was leading the league in batting/2nd in the league for 70% of the season. and has 10hrs. Its not close in my opinion, WAR overvalues defense (in my opinion as well)
Mets – I’m not a huge fan of WAR either, but there’s really no better calculation that takes into account offense, defense and position than WAR.
Yes WAR overvalues defense, which hurts your case because Wilson’s WAR is inflated due to his being a shortstop whereas Roman is just a corner outfielder.
But one thing that’s not disputable is offense, Roman’s OPS and OPS+ are much better than Jacob’s. Those are real stats, not estimates.
BA and HR are just two components of offense, they are not the only components or even the most important components.
@Fever Pitch Guy I disagree about your take on Wilson’s WAR. Hes been average to slightly below average defensly at shortstop which is why his WAR isn’t around a 4 to 5 right now. If he was playing 2nd base his WAR would be twice as high as now. Defense matters but there isn’t a huge difference between average and above average
FPG – a big point for favoring WAR is when comparing same / similar positions it’s a good source.
A SP to a RP to a SS – not so much except maybe where you want to invest your $$’s per WAR but for player comps.
Like anything statistical just knowing its best usage and limits makes it work.
Some folks want to throw it out because it doesn’t fit their usage like it doesn’t work for what it does.
Mets – A team like the Red Sox with Top 4 Revenue won’t be destroyed by a $130M contract gone bad. They have the resources to protect themselves from huge financial blunders, God knows they’ve made plenty of them.
I’d much rather give Roman $130M-$230M than $200M to Bregman.
Man, I wish my Mariners were smart like this…
Spark – Are you saying you’re not happy with the JRod contract?
Damn, somehow I forgot all about that deal. The M’s got JRod and the Sox Anthony, so that’s a win for both.
That’s a good contract. I hope it plays out well
MSD Strong! Way to go fellow Stoneman Douglas alumni (Anthony, Cody Mayo, Jesus Lazardo, and Anthony Rizzo all went to the same high school as me… sadly one of the most infamous in America)
Scotty jet packs 2.0
Poor Yoshida. He has surgery and the front office message to him was consistently: “Now you take your time getting really healthy! Take ALL the time you need! Really!
No hurry! We want you good and ready! 110%!
Insane
Between May and Hicks the Sox lost a game
Plus why in bloody he$$ would Cora put in a relief pitcher who has totally sucked doing his job this year in a tight 1 run game.
Just brutal decision by Cora
How is the union allowing these contracts.
I think this was a bad signing for Roman. 8 years is a long contract and at 130m? His potential is more than that.
I’m glad that Red Sox fans on the whole seem happy with this. I was expecting a little more “what the heck” on the dollars. I was thinking that Jackson Chourio maybe 8 yrs 80 mil was a cool model more teams should approach. Have things changed that much in a year that the new rate on a top 5 prospect is 8 yrs 130M?
Or does it all shift dramatically when you see 190 ABs or so? I mean I get it if so. But I do think wow, for a guy without much of a track record 25M and 29M years locked in feels a little grand. I still think of Bryce and Manny being seen as incredible established players and getting 30M a year. It was a while back but still kind of wow. Then I mean he has the look and if he is outstanding wont be surprised but I felt the same about Benintendi. Still struggle with that decline. I would have paid him the moon.
But I get if this team could absorb it if it does not work out. Sometimes you just have to take a shot. My main concern on this was I was thinking the Os could do some Chourio style deal with Basallo and other non-Boras guys but losing hope now. This used to be tbe cheap way to sign a guy. 25M 29M completely shakes that up.
Maybe that completely ridiculous 700M Soto deal has just thrown the whole market out of whack?
It’s not just Soto. I mean, look at vladdy jr. There’s been a sharp wage inflation curve IMO since the winter Bogaerts left Boston. Since then, each offseason picks up momentum.
Lost in all this is I wonder what, if any, signing bonus structure there is.
Roman may be very smart by doing this, as, if there is a protracted lockout or strike in the next CBA, he will be in a much more secure position to wait it out.
Massachusetts isn’t cheap, and they love their taxes in beantown. At league minimum, he probably loses almost as much as he keeps in federal, state, and local taxes. Meanwhile, if he performs like he should believe he can, the value on this deal will be much higher.
Carcass – Look at it from an MLB front office POV …..
The Sox delayed free agency 3-4 years.
Without this extension, he’d be a free agent at Age 25 or 26 and would command in the ballpark of ONE BILLION DOLLARS (I held up my pinky as I wrote that).
Looking at it that way, the 3-4 year delay in free agency is well worth the amount of the extension.
Red Sox business plan for the last few decades had ‘TANKING” built into their long term strategy.
Boston became one of the better teams at manipulating the major league draft system: “tanking to get top 5 draft picks to build championship teams,
Then, the Red Sox traded/fire sale overpriced veterans in salary dumps to teams like the Dodgers.
Then, rinse, repeat with the Red Sox tanking for 4-5 years to stock up on “top 5 round draft picks” for all draft day rounds.
Then, when Red Sox players’ salaries peaked, the Red Sox would have another fire sale, slash payroll, tank the team and not really try to spend money and/or win for another 4-5 years and repeating the process.
And, fans and other teams would wonder why the Red Sox were not spending money on free agents and to keep their team competitive the entire time like the Dodgers and the Yankees?!
The Red Sox certainly had the revenues and a very rich ownership group to compete every year like the Dodgers and Yankees.
It was obvious that the Red Sox were manipulating the major league draft system for years if you study their yearly win/loss records over many years.
Other teams complained.
The Owners picked up on it.
MLB Owners and the Commissioner implemented changes to the system establishing a lottery so teams like the Red Sox could not manipulate the system to their advantage and get “Top 5” drafting position for all draft rounds every 4 or 5 years during their latest blatant tanking.
The Red Sox moving to extend young players early, buy out arbitration years and some of their early free agency years may be a response to the Red Sox getting caught red handed with their periodic tanking strategy.
Red Sox current wave of prospects from their “tanking era” may be the last they will get from their former “tanking” and manipulating the MLB draft model.
Red Sox will now have to play by the same rules as the Yankees, Dodgers and other ballclubs until they figure out a new way around the system to advantage their ballclub.
This is a complete fabrication of the highest order and veers into KD17 type of post.. The sox only had one top 5 pick and that was after the COVID year and never picked higher than that since the 60s. It was teams like the O’s and Astros that were tanking hard to get higher picks not the Red Sox.
How is possible to be a baseball fan and not realize just how wrong Sportsfan was. Here are the RS picks the past 20 years.
23
27
55
30
28
20
19
24
7 (Trey Ball)
26
7 (Benny)
12
24
26
43
17
4 (Covid)
24
14
12
15
Joe: He’s probably trolling because no is that blatantly wrong unless it’s on purpose
SportsFan0000: “Red Sox will now have to play by the same rules as the Yankees, Dodgers and other ballclubs”
=======================
They always have been playing by the same rules and always will.
Highlight just a few of the Red Sox MLB Draft Years:
2013 Pick #7 40 Rounds/Players
2015 Pick # 7 40 Rounds/Players
2016 Pick #12 40 Round/Players
2020 Pick# 17 5 Rounds/Players (Covid Year)
2021 Pick# 4 20 Rounds/Players
2023 Pick# 14 20 Rounds/Players
2024 Pick# 12 20 Rounds/Players
2025 Pick# 15 20 Rounds/Players
Why should one of the wealthiest franchises,
The Boston Red Sox, be drafting in the Top 10, and
top 15 so many years?!
Not sure that is equitable for many other teams with less resources that the Red Sox have been drafting ahead of all these years.
They have used the draft system to their advantage for many, many years.
They are very competitive and have the money to put a contender on the field every year.
Looked at similar teams to the Red Sox like the Dodgers and Yankees and their draft order is in the mid 20’s to 30 just about every year.
And, they field competitive teams every year
2013 Pick#7 X 40 Rounds/Players
2015 Pick#7 X 40 Round/Players
2016 Pick#12 X 40 Rounds/Players
2020 Pick#17 X 5 Rounds/Players (Covid Year)
2021 Pick#4 X 20 Rounds/Players
2023 Pick #14 X 20 Rounds/Players
2024 Pick#12 X 20 Rounds/Players
2025 Pick #15 X 20 Rounds/Players
You said the sox were tanking. Finishing with the picks in the 12-15 range isn’t tanking. You also said they had top five picks of which they had one. now you’re trying to move the goal posts sayin they had “so many” top ten picks of which they had 3 then tried to extend it to top 15 as if that would help your point because you crashed and burned with the first ones. instead of tripling down on your terrible take, admit you were wrong, take the L and move on.
Also notice how you didn’t mention the Mets who also have lots of resources and have had way more top 15 picks than the sox over a comparable period of time same with the Angels etc.
You are in the forest and cannot and cannot see the trees.
You are not even focusing on the issues that are obvious for all but the most biased fans who have turned off their critical thinking skills
So, I will try to explain it to you one last time since I am very busy and maybe your Red Sox fan hat and bias may be getting in the way of seeing my points.
Doesn’t matter that they drafted #4, #7(multiple times), top 16 multiple times etc. You are getting lost in the minutia and not seeing “the bigger picture”.
If you go back and re visit staunch Red Sox fans posts about the team winning, and then John Henry not spending money, multiple times, after winning titles and not staying competitive for Division titles every year when the team generates huge revenues you may find that many Red Sox fans were unhappy with those Front Office actions and inactions for years.
Red Sox Ownership is worth billions. The non biased fan with critical thinking skills may see some obvious patterns, and wonder whether the Red Sox manipulated the MLB Draft system to their advantage?!
It is a fair question open to a fair discussion.
If the Red Sox win a Championship and then fire sale expensive stars 1X, then that maybe something to look at and discuss.
If they do it multiple times, win Championship, fire sale players, draft higher than teams would have after championship years, then would non biased observers detect a pattern?! A Plan?!
Is the Red Sox win, then lose, then stock the farm with high draft picks just a coincidence??!
(when they could have just retooled like the Dodgers or the Yankees or the Astros and remained competitive for Division titles every year).
We may have to wait for the next baseball blockbuster book to come out to get the inside story.
your bias against the red sox is showing. What you are saying is in no way rooted in fact to the point where you had to change your argument no less than 4 times. When it was pointed out how factually incorrect it was you then said “where they actually picked doesn’t matter” and “your missing the forest for the trees” because ultimately your points failed. what you’re saying is conspiratorial nonsense that has been debunked by me and other several times.
There were teams that obviously did manipulate the draft process to their advantage but you conveniently ignore them to go after the red sox. In fact you just talked about the Astros re tooling when they obviously tanked for years to build their world series rosters. Lastly, where the sox picked does in fact matter quite a bit if the goal was to tank and get a high picks.
I’ve brought up numerous teams who had similar resources who also had draft picks that you ignore. Include the Chicago Cubs in that argument too who also had more top 10 and top five draft picks than the sox.
I’m sure your arms are tired from moving the goal posts around so much on your argument so admit you’re wrong, take the L and move on.
What about the video replay room that was allegedly used to steal the signs of other teams?!
What about it? You should read MLB’s report that failed to cite any evidence of wrongdoing. After many months of investigating the 2018 Red Sox, MLB admitted in their report that they have a “factual dispute”, “largely have no direct evidence” and “no written record, recording or other contemporaneous evidence of the underlying events”. There was no evidence and the conclusion of cheating “on at least some occasions” was clearly based on speculation as MLB’s investigation failed to document a single occasion of cheating. Nothing in The Athletic’s accusation article was confirmed during the investigation. JD Martinez was correct when he said they didn’t find anything. The fact is that not a single instance of cheating could be documented. If people are going to label someone a cheater, they need to identify at least one incident of cheating which MLB clearly failed to do. I can only guess that MLB based their conclusion on speculation instead of evidence in an attempt to not look dumb for having opened the investigation. This was very unfair to the Red Sox and Red Sox fans. The report is still available on mlb.com for all to read.
Ah now the whatboutism the tried and true plan of every commie and right wing nut who knows they’ve lost their argument and wants to deflect.
Weren’t the Red Sox were caught “red handed” using the scoreboard, Apple Watches and the video room to steal signs and relay them to the dugout?! Aren’t those the known facts as to what went down.?! Didn’t the MLB league let the Red Sox off easy in disciplining them?! Didn’t MLB just scape goat a few lower level people in the video room to take the fall for it and not punish all the alleged perpetrators?! And, wasn’t Cora, allegedly, actively involved Astros trash can banging, sign stealing scandal?! And didn’t the Red Sox hire Cora as Manager when some alleged that he was actively involved in the Astros sign stealing scandal?! Will baseball fandom will ever get the straight story in answers to these questions.?! Was the report a thorough and complete Investigation or did MLB and the Players Union cut off areas of inquiry, investigation, review and analysis?! No players were disciplined?! Continue to live in your alternated universe fantasy world, but many are not buying the explanations that some have alleged appear to not be the full and complete. Your line of argument has torched your credibility…
si.com/mlb/2020/04/22/red-sox-sign-stealing-scanda…. The Media is not buying it?!
????? Not sure what this is.
I have fully explained what MLB’s report about the 2018 Red Sox says. Regarding 2017 and the Apple watch incident, it was not illegal to use the video room to steal signs at that time. It was illegal to use electronics to transmit the stolen signs. In this case, the texted the signs to the Apple watch in the dugout from the video room right near the dugout. It was illegal, but I don’t think it was faster than walking to the dugout and relaying the signs verbally. Because of this and that it all failed to help the Red Sox win anything, I don’t worry about it. I hope you find something better to do than trying to bash the Red Sox. I don’t care about what happened with the Astros.
Google it. You might learn something.
*they texted
I also neglected to mention that it’s hilarious that you think the media’s opinion is important.
Awful lot of money for a little pnch-n-Judy with little production!
awfully bad job of trolling on your part