Dave Dombrowski has never shied away from free agent splashes, but he’s really made his bones with trades. Now, with the GM Meetings on the horizon, it will be interesting to see how the new Red Sox president of baseball operations knows his new farm system, Brian MacPherson of The Providence Journal writes. Dombrowski has indicated that he might deal from the team’s organizational outfield depth, but deciding who to move and who to hold can be tricky. DD will have to evaluate outfielders from the majors like Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. down to minor leaguers Manuel Margot and Andrew Benintendi.
Here’s more out of the AL East:
- When asked if he could eventually return to the Blue Jays as GM, Alex Anthopoulos told Jim Bowden and Jim Duquette of SiriusXM (via Twitter links) that there is “no chance.” When asked if he’d seek out another GM job, AA said, “Certainly not in the near term. Going forward, I would be open to it. I don’t know I need to do it again.” Anthopoulos also refuted reports that new Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro was critical of his summer trades. Shapiro himself shot those rumors down in a press conference last week.
- There’s a lot of pressure on Dombrowski to acquire an ace, but ultimately any big ticket move will be the call of Red Sox owner John Henry, Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald writes. It is well known that Henry is against long-term, high-priced deals for aging pitchers, but one industry insider speculates that he will defer to Dombrowski’s judgment “on one big fish” this winter. Last year, the Red Sox went into April without a true ace and while there were other factors holding them back, they wound up with a second consecutive last-place finish.
- Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com looked at MLBTR’s projection of a six-year, $144MM deal for Orioles slugger Chris Davis and gave his own take.