As the calendar flips to December here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world:
1. Imai heading stateside:
Right-hander Tatsuya Imai is coming over from Nippon Professional Baseball to MLB this winter, and in doing so he’s made himself one of the top free agent starters available. The righty will be just 28 years old next season and is coming off a banner year in Japan, where he pitched to a 1.92 ERA across 163 2/3 innings of work. His combination of youth and a high-octane fastball should make him enticing to the majority of clubs hunting for rotation help this winter, and (as reported by Francys Romero of BeisbolFR) Imai is expected to come to the United States in the first few days of December to meet with MLB teams. An early-December deal can’t be entirely ruled out, though many NPB players wait until closer to the end of their posting window to make a decision; Imai’s posting window began on Nov. 19 and runs through Jan. 2.
2. What’s next for the Orioles after their first splash?
The Orioles will be without Felix Bautista next year, and as a result entered the offseason with a hole at the back of their bullpen. Baltimore wasted little time filling that vacancy, inking right-hander Ryan Helsley to a two-year, $28MM deal that gives Helsley an opt-out opportunity after the 2026 season. Helsley will slide into the closer role with his new club, joining righty Andrew Kittredge and lefty Keegan Akin as late-inning options. Helsley and outfielder Taylor Ward are both notable additions to the Orioles’ roster, but their biggest need remains unaddressed. The club floundered last year without Corbin Burnes leading the rotation, and at least one front-end arm to pair with Kyle Bradish and Trevor Rogers seems necessary if the O’s hope to get back into contention in 2026.
3. Red Sox facing a tight budget?
The Red Sox have been connected to a lot of free agency’s top bats after strengthening the rotation with their Sonny Gray acquisition. Reports have indicated that the club is not only in on the likes of Kyle Schwarber, Pete Alonso, and Alex Bregman but also interested in signing multiple well-regarded free agent bats. Despite all of that buzz, however, financial realities could make that difficult. Reporting over the weekend suggests that the team might not be willing to spend much farther than the first luxury tax threshold this winter, which would leave them with a roughly similar payroll to 2025. Barring a change of heart from ownership, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow will either need to use the trade market to add some lower-cost bats and/or shed some salary via trade. Boston is currently about $21MM shy of the first tax threshold, per RosterResource.
I’m so sick of this ownership. Big market owners used to do whatever it took to win it all. Henry, et al want to win it on their terms. They think they know more than other owners and are now content with profits over championships. There used to be a correlation with the two and still is at least for the Dodgers…
@deweybelongsinthehall
Ownership treats the team primarily as an investment vehicle rather than a competitive enterprise.
York – Can’t really blame them. John Henry has 8 WS rings already, he doesn’t give a crap about winning anymore.
And he has lots of investors/shareholders who are pushing for higher profits. Those investors couldn’t care less about winning, they have no emotional attachment to the Red Sox or Boston. You think LeBron gives a damn about a Boston team?
@Fever Pitch Guy
Honestly, if I’m an owner today, I wouldn’t care about winning either, because the value of the team continues to rise. Just look at the Cowboys. They are the highest valued team in sports right now and they haven’t’ done much of anything in recent memory. Yankees similar story, being the highest valued MLB team but they haven’t done much in recent memory, although, somewhat better than the Cowboys.
The curse of the Rays and Brewers and Guardians. They’ve shown it’s possible to get in the playoffs regularly without spending, so the big market owners say “why not me?”
Those big market guys have to have the leadership to pull that off too. Not all of them do.
Obviously a lot of small markets don’t.
The Yankees spend a lot on the team, they have one of the highest payrolls every year, if not the highest.
I don’t know if that applies to the Cowboys. Hal wants to win, he is spending, but they just can’t get it done. In the end, the Yankees’ front office is doing a job that simply isn’t good enough.
seamaholic – True, but Tampa, Cleveland and Milwaukee are hardly hotbeds of baseball. Big market areas are “expected” to spend.
let – Exactly, it’s a lot more expensive to attend or simply watch Sox games …. that’s the difference with Tampa, Cleveland and Milwaukee.
Cleveland and Milwaukee are baseball towns though.
8 WS rings?? How are you counting?
Those years we beat the Yankees in the playoffs count for two.
Old York: It’s been 30 years since the Cowboys have done anything. That’s beyond recent memory.
DrCox: It’s sad that posting a winning record for more than 30 consecutive seasons, playing in eight World Series while winning five, and qualifying for the postseason almost every year “simply isn’t good enough.”
Other teams would love to experience that kind of failure.
Is it possible that fans like you have ridiculously unrealistic expectations?
Ph – Using my fingers ;O)
1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2018
Gary – Haha …. they should!
I never did quite understand how MLB forced him to sell his stake in the Yankees back in January 2002, yet they allowed him to continue being a Yankees limited partner for more than one additional year.
That’s MLB for you, no such thing as rules when you’re an insider.
Doesn’t apply to the Cowboys as the NFL actually has a salary cap.
This one belongs to the Reds: I’m not sure why that matters, but it’s interesting that the Cowboys haven’t been successful since the NFL adopted the salary cap.
He doesn’t deserve any credit for Yankees world series wins, LOL…
He was the sole owner of the Florida Marlins from 1999 to 2001. You’re not allowed to own more than one team in MLB at the same time which is why he was forced to sell the Marlins before FSG.
Lets take a look at the major acquistions since Henry took over the team:
Major FAs:
Edgar Renteria
JD Drew
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Adrian Beltre
John Lackey
Hanley Ramirez
David Price
Panda Sandoval
Masataka Yoshida
Trevor Story
Major Trades:
Curt Schilling
Josh Beckett
Mike Lowell
Jake Peavy
John Lackey
Nathan Eovaldi
Chris Sale
Garrett Crochett
How isnt it obvious what the Red Sox need to do?
Invest in the drafting and development, Then, make trades to improve team, supplement this home-built team with mid-tier/short-term contract FAs. So many were begging for Juan Soto last year, what did he do for the Mets this year? Why so many “Red Sox Fans” here, dont see it, I dont understand.
Soto posted 6 WAR and a 160 OPS+. The Mets have problems, but Soto isn’t one of them.
I never said he wasnt a good hitter. But, it didnt work did it? And now the Mets are talking about reducing payroll and have him until 2039. He blew the pay structure up. It generally doesnt work if youre not the Yankees and Dodgers who have enough money to both sign players and develop. Most other teams have to make a choice, and a strong farm is far more important than one player you need to sign for the next 15 years.
How did it not “work”? Single players don’t determine a team getting to the playoffs or not. He did what he was paid to do. The Mets missed the playoffs because they built an unnecessarily thrifty rotation.
Actually the Padres did make the playoffs in 2022 with Soto.
How are you not seeing the “thrifty rotation” is a direct result of signing Soto. His contract ruined their pay structure. An okay OFer plus two pitchers wouldve costed the same and given the same War without the 15 year commitment.
My bad on pads playoff then. I thought they missed out.
The Mets have virtually unlimited money. Soto was irrespective of that. Watch them sign a premium starter this offseason, thus disproving the “pay structure” argument.
“The Mets have virtually unlimited money”
No they dont, no team does. Ridiculous comments like that ruin a good debate.
Wait and see. I believe your POV will be proven wrong within the next 2 or 3 years.
Reggie – That list leads me to believe that Crochet will be traded for a utility infielder and a .224 hitting AA “prospect” by 2027.
Then you very clearly don’t understand Steve Cohen, their owner.
letitbe:
If he’s injured for the next 4 years, youre probably right.
hitting 260 with 43 homers isn’t exactly worth 50 million in my opinion. add being below average on defense and it’s a terrible contract
99 problems?
Not making the playoffs means the year was a failure. It wouldn’t matter if Soto was MVP.
soxfan:
Did I miss something, was Soto an MVP?
Besides that, IMO, when talking about team building (which I am, no matter how hard everyone wants to make it about Soto): YES, playoffs is the STARTING POINT for any team’s success or failure. In the case of the Mets, who had a $342M payroll in 2025, they shouldve gone much further than making the playoffs. As a watermark to consider the team a success, I’d say National League Championship Series as a minimum.
$50 million? Depends on how many years.
LeBron James owns 1% of FSG.
That’s what it is regardless of what anyone thinks
INFINITE businesses to own strictly for profit sake.
FINITE 30 MLB teams to own strictly for winning sake.
Owners should just take the 2 to 5 billion dollars to sell their team to a Cohen type owner or ownership group like the Dodgers…
I am sure there are 28 other billionaires out there willing to spend a bit closer to profit margins.
Red Sox and especially the Cubs are two of the cheapest ownership groups in baseball.
Once the Cubs won it all in 2016, it’s been about spending just enough to get a competitive team on the field, but not go all-in and go the extra mile to get a championship team.
@Jersey So you seriously think that the Mets and Dodgers primary goal isn’t to make money?
The Dodgers invested heavily and are now raking in the money. Cohen saw what the Dodgers did and is trying to do the same. Their assets have both appreciated tremendously.
Also: you’re talking about the, by far, two largest media markets in the country. They should be spending more than everyone else.
You are making wild assumptions that every team is worth 2 to 5 billion, not to mention that there would be interest in all 30 teams.
Two teams recently couldn’t find a buyer and were pulled off the market.
Reds – Great points!
In fact only 16 teams are worth at least $2B.
Least valuable of course are the two Florida teams, both worth $1B.
At least you’re not the orioles who had and have billionaire owners who won’t do what it takes. And don’t mention Chris Davis. They were idiots to give that contract bidding against themselves
If they don’t make an effort to put together a team that can compete for a title, all fans should boycott buying tickets and watching games on t v.
So I guess John Henry won the World Series a few times and has determined that the juice is not worth the squeeze?
But I’ll wait and see how it plays out. Can’t trust all reporting nowadays. Let’s see what happens this winter.
Agree Gary..this article at least the red sox part should be met with a dont automatically believe everything you read online caveat.. interestingly what is left unsaid is that yes they are only 20 million under the first threshold and willing to pass it . There is no mention of how close to the second threshold they are willing to go which leaves a ton of room
Gary – It’s like most anything, if you do it a lot it becomes less enjoyable. Like Tom Brady hooking up with supermodels, been there done that. Add to the fact Henry is 76 now, and he’s got a lot more people to answer to now, I can understand how winning isn’t a priority anymore. Actually was it ever? Lucchino was the driving force when it came to spending enough to win.
I don’t think we can blame reporting this time. The Red Sox know what they are doing, they have used press releases and interviews and leaks to get out the message they want to get out. Funny thing is they openly talked about landing a front of the rotation guy and a middle of the lineup guy, why tip your hand like that? Oh yeah …. because they want you to think they are trying hard, when they are clearly not …. at least not yet. If they acquire and extend Skubal or even Peralta, I’ll know they mean business. Ditto if they sign two of Bregman, Schwarber, Alonso, Suarez, Diaz.
Trading for and extending Peralta instead of the Gray deal would’ve been the right move.
Why trade a bunch of good prospects, including probably one of more of their best pitching prospects, for Peralta when they can sign him or Skubal as a free agent next offseason?
Because the point is to win now, not in some undefined future scenario, and Peralta (or Skubal, certainly) give them a better chance to do that than Gray does.
If you think the Red Sox are going to break the bank to sign Skubal who will be 30 and command the largest free agent deal for a pitcher (excluding Ohtani because he’s also a hitter), boy do I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Also there’s no guarantee that Peralta or Skubal actually hit FA….
Depends on whether you want to win next year or the year after (assuming there is one).
I’m not sold on Peralta he had a good year last year but I’m not convinced he can repeat it and I think the Brewers should sell high on him. I also think you are undervaluing Sonny Gray. He was really good in the first half of the season then cratered in the 2nd half. I guess it depends on what side of the fence you fall on in Sonny’s case. If you feel the second half of the season is what he is now and his age decline is in full force then he’s probably a #4 starter moving forward. If you think the first half is more indicative of who he is and that he lost interest being on a bad team in the second half with poor defense then you have a #2. I guess we will find out. The point is we have recency bias with Peralta and he had a great defense behind him which probably helped him get the untenable 85.5% lob factor which is by far the best of his career.
Skubal otoh is a true game changer and it’s why Detroit is not trading Skubal imo unless they fall out of it at the deadline.
“Because the point is to win now, not in some undefined future scenario”
It isnt some undefined future, its is one year later and at a far lower cost.
There is also no guarantee they sign Peralta to an extension after giving up a boatload of prospects likely including Tolle and/or Early.
I think the point is to win as much as possible in a window of contention which covers multiple years, not just now. Toward the end of the window of contention, which is just starting in Boston, it will be about winning now at all costs without a lot of regard for the future. I think this is what we see lately with the Yankees – win now at all costs – as Judge and Cole don’t have many good years left.
2027 might be a strike year and who knows what things will look like after that. Hence, “undefined”.
Bruin: You are not then first to say Sonny Gray fell off in the second half of last season. Looking at his game logs, it looks like he had a rough stretch in July and then righted the ship pretty well. What do you think? Actually, it looks like he had one bad start each month, but two bad starts in July.
baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=grayso01…
Wag,
2027 won’t be a *player-initiated* strike year, but there almost certainly will be an *owner-initiated* lockout.
What I think All, people are selling him short he has been a really good pitcher for a long time. I understand the worry since his second half was a lot worse than his first and he had a rough time when he was last in the AL East.
From an under the hood perspective might be time to ditch the four seam fastball that pitch got absolutely hammered. I’m guessing Bailey and Gray will have a serious conversation on just throwing the two seam sinker and scrapping the four seamer. I also believe he will be rejuvenated being in a potential playoff environment and he’s going to pitch well. Plus I think he has a chip on his shoulder and wants to show that it was the pitching coaches and the AL east why he pitched so poorly in NY. There is a lot of reasons for him to have a really good season this year.
Thanks Bruin. I’m optimistic too. How do you see Gray’s second half as much worse than his first half last season? Looking at the game logs, he didn’t fall off a cliff. Looks like his strikeout % didn’t drastically drop or his walk % drastically rise. He didn’t start giving up a lot of HRs. His ERA probably rose a bit.
Thank you for the correction, you’re spot on.
Bruin – Sonny’s ERA shot up more than a full run from 2023 to 2024, I don’t think you can blame it all on poor defense. I look for trends, it’s usually a good indicator. Hopefully it will improve this year. I get that his peripherals looked better, but results matter as well.
Peralta had a great year in 2021 too, and he was solid in 2022-2024. Sure he’s not at the same level as Skubal or Crochet, but who is? Very few. He’s got a 3.33 ERA since 2020, I’d take that in a heartbeat. I agree the defense helped him this year.
TWO of the highest valued FA’s? That’s not reasonable. Even if they wanted to, the players do have some say in where they go. But.no, not two of them, how about one and a good trade like Peralta or Ryan?
coop – Don’t forget they are losing Bregman, so replacing him doesn’t count as improvement.
Bottom line is they removed about $60M annually from the payroll when Bregman became a free agent and Raffy was traded …. there’s absolutely no excuse for not using that money to get two big bats.
And please don’t point to Sonny, his salary basically replaces Gio’s.
FPG
Did you see the proposed trade Jim Bowden had?
P.Tolle and #12 prospect Anthony Eyanson for Peralta? Very interesting. I would definitely have to consider this with a likely thumbs up. What do you think?
cdchi,
Bowden proposals generally are laughable.
cdc – hi !
No I didn’t hear that. I would make that trade although I admit I know nothing about Eyanson. Hey at least I’m honest. LOL
Pool, the linked article from yesterday mentioned the second luxury tax tier as a possible true max, though of course the team will never reveal its true self-imposed spending limit.
FPG, it’s highly unlikely the Tigers will move Skubal. Sure, there’s a trade offer they’d say yes to, but would Boston (or anyone) view it as reasonable?
gbs – Even if the Tigers have a slow start to next season?
FPG,
Teams infrequently deal players before the end of June, so (barring an incredibly bad start like 20-40), the Tigers probably wouldn’t look to deal Skubal until mid July, and even then, if they’re within 5-6 games of a playoff spot, I think they would keep him and hope for a strong finish to the year.
If they’re further out, they’d trade him for a nice package of players since the acquiring team would be getting a Game One playoff starter. That could be Boston but also could be several other teams.
gbs – There’s always exceptions if the talent is elite.
Considering Skubal is arguably the best SP in the game and is still in his 20’s, sure he’d command a sizable return for a one-year or less rental. An extension contingency would be a must IMO.
But we saw just that happen with Crochet last offseason, right? Chicago got a massive package. And the Red Sox still have plenty of good young talent in both the minors and on the major league roster.
As someone else pointed out, this could be a negotiating ploy by the Red Sox, if this is even true. We don’t have any quotes from Red Sox ownership.
John Henry’s been checked out for years. Way more interested in his other pursuits. Lucchino was the one who cared about winning baseball games and he’s gone now. We might stumble onto success again (like when we won in 2013 in spite of Henry’s penny pinching, and 2018 when they actually had a league-leading payroll before tearing everything down), but there’s no way the Red Sox are a perennial contender like they were in the 00’s until he sells the team to someone who cares.
Meow:
“:2018 . . . before the tearing everything down”
That team by 2020 was DOA, no matter what they did. A good baseball team takes 20 or 30 players. They had the worst ranked prospect system in MLB, and were over the Threshold for 3 straight years. Their core of young players were fast heading into FA with none locked up (Betts, Benintendi, Bogaerts, Eovaldi, Porcello, etc.) and DD chose to sign the only player (Sale) who was broken down.
It was the team’s only choice.
It is insane to think this was the same ownership that was a well oiled machine that wanted to win titles. It is so weird to live in a world where the Red Sox and Yankees act like small market teams. The latter you can point to the kids not being like George. Cashman and Boone would have been fired long ago under George.
This tells me expect a average RH type bat and the Red Sox will call it a day.
Yankees have spent under Hal, but Cashman has done a poor job of managing the budget he gets. Not justifying them for crying poor at times, but 300m should get you a championship caliber team.
The Stanton trade has been brutal. He’s still a dangerous hitter, but he just can’t stay healthy long enough to be consistently effective.
George did not have to deal with tax levels with the team coughing up big bucks so others can get better. When he owned the club, not many clubs spent like him and the best came because it was NY AND for the money. In 95, the payroll was $55m and it led the majors. That equates to up to $155m today, Hal spends almost double today but the Dodgers spend more, the Mets do to and other clubs also spend.
@Goose
Yeah, I wouldn’t cry about the Yankees not spending, as they are usually one of the top spenders. The problem is they spend it wastefully. Give it a few more years and some deadwood contracts will be off the books and they can reset things.
The yanks and sox are both annually in the top10 for payroll. All teams have a budget yhat they have to follow. Its not the owners being cheap. Especially if the money is misplaced.
Look, the Red Sox weren’t far off the mark last season even with all the injuries. They had 89 freakin wins. Having Casas and Anthony all year will be huge. And I’m sure they will augment at the deadline. Maybe it’s not a catastrophe.
And that’s after the coach blew at least 10 games
Tardaddy: You make a great point. I am looking forward to Cora moving on. For $7 million, the Red Sox can add another bullpen arm.
When was the last time Casas didn’t miss a massive amount of time due to injury? Every year, we hear they should build up the team in free agency then augment at the deadline and every year they talk big about being buyers at the deadline and end up with a broken down starting pitcher who ends up injured or in the bullpen.
I would like the Cubs to go after Imai, he’s a realistic target. I never expected them to chase Cease and give a 200m contract, but Imai should definitely be on the table.
Sox should double their $75 bleacher seats
@noname617
Good idea. Keep the riff-raff out of the ballpark. I miss the days when civilized people wore suits and fancy dresses to the ballpark not slop pajamas and t-shirts…
York..what days were those? Every pic you see dating back to the 20s shows the majority of men not wearing suits in ballparks..unless you just think most people are uncivilized..which is an entirely different conversation lol
@Poolhalljunkies
Which period? A lot of them wore semi-formal clothing at the time because it was expected to dress up properly in public. That doesn’t happen anymore. Everyone going in their pajamas so they can go to bed right when they get home.
I only dress in my pajama pants and bed head when I go to Wal-Mart.
@Ignorant Son-of-a-b
I think you visit the one that I greet at. Next time, make sure to say Hi!
Ahh I see what you did there..lol youve been to an airport recently..but period makes no difference large portions of crowd pics in every period do not wear suits.sure you see better dress in some but I wouldn’t call it a suit just the casual fashion of the time in most cases…people weren’t going out of thier way to dress up imo.
I used to think Red Sox fans were spoiled. Well, I guess I still do, but I do agree now that John Henry is a grifter. That loser cares less and less about each of his assets the more he acquires.
The Red Sox need to retain Bregman and replace Devers. And that’s just to get them back to where they started 2025. Anything less is a regression in team-building that places all offensive hopes in:
– Story staying healthy and effective
– The kids taking a positive step
– Whoever the mid-tier bat is (Polanco/Okamoto/etc) hitting better than his contract suggests he should
Bregman is not worth the $
Tardaddy: That’s at least two things we agree on!
Oh Jesus Christ. The O’s did not flounder because they didn’t have Burnes. They floundered because every single hitter regressed and the club was torpedoed by injuries. The starters just exacerbated the problem, but they were not the driving cause.
….and Burnes had TJ surgery two months into the season.
I mostly agree and liked your comment, but having a stopper who eats innings and posts every 5th day certainly helps keep the wheels on the track. O’s didn’t have that and still don’t. Bradish and Wells fairly proven but didn’t pitch a full season and could be limited. Rogers about the same but probably due for some regression which is OK. Kremer is that guy to a degree but inconsistent and lower ceiling. Burnes had it all, but now injured and will fall into that first category once he’s back anyway.
Agree 100%. If there was a stopper in the rotation, they would have still been under .500. Until player development can get the players to consistently reach potential, the o’s will tread water. Management basically went all in on adley, gunnar, colten and the others to be the strengtb of the team and only added to augment what they thought was a developed core of talent. Morton, sugano and the others were never supposed to carry the team. The position players were.
Ideally Wells is a swingman and can default to long man out of the bullpen and spot starts. He has sustained injuries coming off his only 100 IP seasons. He’s 31, not on the upside, he is what he is and asking for more is asking for trouble.
Either a top line starter at the Burnes level plus a #3 or two guys at the Bradish level or so. Kremer is the #5, veteran innings eater. Trying last winter’s BS “build from the bottom” again will only produce a borderline WC team… IF the young core on offense turns it around.
l LOVE Jesus Christ!
That’s three!
Ownership is probably telling Breslow he can spend whatever salary they can shed from the Yoshida/Hicks contracts. That’s about $30M in salary that doesn’t exactly fit in the team’s on-field plans.
If Bres can get creative and clear those dollars off the payroll, he has a little more money to work with. Downside is If they were able to move either of them, they’d have to take on at least half of their contracts leaving only about $15M “gained” in FA money. This is all long-shot talk and many stars would have to align for him to trade either Yoshi or Hicks.
The only way they make any significant roster additions is through trades. Otherwise they’ll pluck a mid-FA for 2B, put Mayer at 3B and pray that Casas is healthy/effective at 1B.
Swan:
IMO, Yoshida is a much better fit as primary DH on Red Sox. Trading him could easily turn into another Chris Sale mistake. The guy can hit when healthy.
Your whole premise is based on “Ownership is probably”. I’d say Ownership is probably planning one more major acquisition between (Bregman, Murakami, Alonso and Schwaber). Then supplement the other positions through trade (IF, SP, RP).
You’re forgetting one key thing: nobody wants Hicks or Yoshida. It doesn’t matter how much they retain, the league doesn’t want them
Hard to disagree with your perspective.
Masa I can live with because he can be a decent LH platoon at DH (for $18M…!). Hicks has such a great arm, but has no clue where the ball is going. Maybe they can find something to adjust and turn him into a viable BP arm.
Either way, those two contracts are seriously limiting any FA pursuit this year. It isn’t dead money, but it’s not breathing very well.
Rumors. This is simply reporters looking for clicks. Could be real, could be utter bs. Let’s see what they do before piling on with our collective brilliance. Breslow signed Bregman and extended Crochet and Anthony (and Campbell) last year. He has re-signed Chapman and replaced Giolito with a sounder arm already.this year. If he adds only one bat and doesn’t get a #2 arm, pile on then.
The Red Sox revenue was estimated at $574MM for 2024. They were well below the average spend on player salaries vs revenue (42%). Their ticket price is among the highest in baseball and despite Fenway’s limited size, they were 10th in the league in attendance.
Definitely feels like the owner is cheaping out a bit.
martras:
Revenue is money coming in, not profit. Without the other half of the equation that number is just an “estimated” irrelevance. Also, who’s estimate, since the numbers are private?
Where did you get that 574M figure ?
A lot
Getting Imai would be interesting, but Elias is more likely gunning for a trade. Joe Ryan would certainly cost some prospect capital. Though I doubt anyone here would feel bad about acquiring a high-ceiling starter with some control left.
Yep, Peralta for one year would cost way too much but Ryan has 2 years left and would be worth one of top young pitchers plus
John Henry-SELL the team to someone who wants to win-you’re just wasting the youth movement and forsaking the upward mobility of the team. You’re worthless you penny pinching scoundrel