I'm pretty close to you on this. I was concerned that they'd split the recent two series (TEX/OAK) by having too many grab-bag start games. And while they almost fumbled a couple of games, they ultimately got the job done.The last 3 weeks have gone pretty well, all things considered. 14-8, now just 2 games back of the playoffs.
My minimum expectation for this season is that we be plausibly in the playoff hunt through Labor Day weekend, and we seem to be on track for that.
I don’t think we should be parting with anything meaningful at the trade deadline *unless* it’s for a player that can be a legit contributor in 2024 as well.
At the same time I really don’t want to be a seller unless this team collapses in the 2-3 weeks post ASB.
Let’s get guys back and see how it goes.
The way I see it, at the end of the season, you're either in the playoffs or not. If you're there, you've either got a team that can win a bunch of short series or you don't. I think the Sox have enough spread of quality talent on the 40 man, that if healthy, translates to a legitimately contending post-season team. (E.g., Trevor Story being healthy enough and non-rusty enough to hit in Sept./October. Houck/Sale the same on the pitching end.)
The 40 man talent isn't a just a bunch of over-achievers who are almost guaranteed to be wiped out in a short post-season series. Nor is it a '98 type team with a couple of isolatable giants surrounded by average players.
I think the real challenge will be getting to the playoffs, particularly:
a) the willingness to jettison the "name" guys while keeping the actual good ones, and
b) folding in rehabbing players so they don't contribute to sinking the team while maybe getting back on track.
Not that these can't be closely related. But as an example, I have no desire to watch Cora spend six more weeks trying to shoe-horn in the corpse of Enrique Hernandez because of some bullshit argument of "We can really turn it on in late August and early September if we have to," fueled by the fantasy of, "because when he's hitting he's so good, like he was that one time in his career."
(Not that I wouldn't be perfectly happy to see Hernandez immediately hit his way back to relevance, because. . .well, I would. But he's already had 300 at-bats to do so this year: he started adequate and has gotten worse and worse.)