I'm not doubting what Imanoga can do over here. I really wish the Sox signed him to that contract. I just thought that particular tweet wasn't convincing. Using one year of a player in Japan seems like a small sample. And it was a player that had sat for awhile, going through some self induced shit and pitching in a new league and foreign country.
Dodgers.... always the Dodgers. They could have an 8 man rotation. In all seriousness, what about the Giants?
I will say this more plainly.
I think Breslow is trying hard. It is not a sellers market. I do think realistically they should be going to Florida with Roman Anthony, a grab bag of second tier prospects, and cash to pay the contract of player not named Casas, Devers, Grissom, Houck, Giolito, or Bello for Avisail Garcia and Luzardo. It wouldn't be my first offer but that is probably where you need to go. I would add Houck if they give you Sandy rehabbing from TJ. They would probably try to get Grissom for Arrez or Mayer for Jazz but I wouldn't go there with them.
I still think the plan is to survive a couple of seasons the best they can and hope to hit with the prospects. I think the team as currently constructed is a last place team, and I think the current roster is pretty close to what we will have on opening day. I think ownership sees the situation for what it is and has decided to ride out the storm and hope for the best. The Bloom strategy dug the franchise in a deep hole and they have to stop digging at some point. Yes, Bloom did restore the farm system as far as positional players. But, he also left the franchise in a situation where most everything else is in shambles. That is just my opinion. I think they will get this thing fixed longer term, but I just don't see any quick fixes. I don't want to be this negative about the short term. Maybe they get better than expected production and can compete, which I am sure everyone would be thrilled with. But, with the pitching and defense as it is, it is going to be tough. Bloom is gone, and I think the moves made this offseason were logical. So, I have some faith this ship will turn around.
That can't mean twice the money, right? Has to be guaranteed years I would think.
FWIW, my own personal take is not so far off from yours but is a bit more nuanced. Most of their resources/assets are locked in a development cycle in the minor leagues. Some of that is maturing into front line talent (Casas, Bello, Crawford, Houck, etc.) Some is coming in now. Some is due to arrive in 25 and 26 and so forth. Assuming all stays as is, they will have a multi-year window where they still control the players with more service time while younger players are coming into the majors.
We don't know and probably never will know for sure if this is true, but it certainly points to the likelihood that Imanaga based his decision either on wanting to go to the Cubs or liking the particular structure of the contract they offered. I hope (but I doubt it) that this might quell some of the continuing talk here about the Red Sox being cheap and unwilling to commit to yet another free agent - it certainly appears that Imanaga wasn't coming here regardless.
I hope they target and add Stroman. He had made it clear he disliked that team. He will cost cash. Is he enough to get Boston into the playoffs, not by hi.self. I hope any trade does not involve our young minor league starters, Anthony or Teel. If we trade Mayer we need a big arm with years of control.
Maybe the strategy became get another high draft pick in the 2025 draft as well. It makes no sense to trade our best minor leaguers if we did not acquire significant fa pieces. Better to let the us suffer through another bad year with the hope of a brighter future in a year or 3. At least we can hope for that. We have too many holes and question marks to do much else at this point. I think our rookie class mat need a tear of seasoning, Teel, Mayer, Gonzalez and Anthony, once it hits the bigs. Bleis and Perales probably come up later.
I was intrigued by Imanaga so a little disappointed that they didn't't get him, but have to admit it was a bit of a gamble so can't really find fault with this. And I agree with others who have said that they shouldn't pay Boras rates for Snell or Montgomery - Snell scares me with all the walks, and Montgomery is solid but not spectacular and will probably not be worth the dollars and years he gets, but I'd stay connected on him just in case his market collapses (not likely but not impossible). If they can get him for 3-5 years at 25-30, that'd probably be ok.
I also think trading prospects for a SP was always part of the plan. But the trade market has been slow to develop, in part because the prospective sellers (CWS, Miami, Brewers, Mariners, Cleveland) are under no real pressure or deadline to trade any of these guys, and they can be patient and hope potential buyers bid the price up. And with Snell and Montgomery still on the FA market, they have all the more reason to be patient and hope buyers meet their asking price. I see the value of the prospects they'd have to give up as being directly tied to years of control - they may not have to give up their best prospects for someone with only a year or two of control, as compared to those with 3 or more.
Agree. Also, we should never trade an established star like Chris Archer for a couple of nobodies like Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow
He specially said they have the luxury of Kenley Jansen and how it’s nice for a manager to have that luxury.
Got it. Agree it's a bit of a silly analysis but the fact that the numbers largely match what Steamer/ZiPS spit out makes me think this is just one more piece of evidence that his game will translate just fine. Certainly the Cubs think so.
Why does he see the need to use the F word? Totally unnecessary and unprofessional.
This is a good take on the situation. I think they will be fine in couple seasons. In 2024, my gut tells me they fall right through the trap door and hit rock bottom. Then we see improvements onward toward that next window. I just don't see this roster as competitive. But, I had big fears about last years roster as well, and they pushed it all the way to the deadline.
Trying to be cool, but comes off as totally unprofessional.
Feels like there had to be some injury concerns or some other thing that scared off soo many teams from pursing him.. The contract he ended up getting is way less than many predicted at the start of the offseason
I joked about Chicago being on the West Coast of Lake Michigan yesterday, but does Imanaga have some connection to Chicago as in he was a high school exchange student there or has relatives in Chicagoland? Is Suzuki his best bud from back in Japan?
Heyman dropping a neat little morsel that certainly doesn't hurt the Boras clients. Coincidence?
Double which number? The 2, 4 or 5 year? And over how many years? What an awful tweet.
So now that we know it's not actually 2/$30M, I don't think this is really true. The $100M rumors were mostly from the last week or so. Most predictions at the start of the offseason had him getting around Kodai Senga money (5/$75M), which is fairly close to what he received. The main reasoning was that even though Kodai Senga was universally thought of as a better pitcher than Imanaga, Senga's deal looks like such a steal that teams would overbid on Imanaga (basically what the MLBTR link said).
Plus talking with him and starting to get what management feels is necessary for him to getting back to being a better pitcher. He probably has his off season routine but not he has a new boss and just maybe the new boss has his plans for off season training. Just an idea. Waiting till pitcher/catcher report to me isn't the best plan for implememting a new pitching system.
It is becoming more and more apparent to me that Bloom just wasn’t very good at his job and Breslow inherited a roster disaster. I think there are major issues with this roster construction (starting with a $300 million DH) and Breslow is trying to figure out how to fix this dumpster fire. We all moan and groan about ownership not spending money, but good Lord we are paying a lot of money for a completely average team with serious limitations.
Agree. I think the old guys in the bullpen are completely unnecessary and it’s like they were building a fantasy team last year. (They performed well, but the team wasn’t really constructed to be contenders outside of “best case” scenario)
Yeah, I'm calling BS. Leaving the chance to double your 1st time MLB contract on the table, given that specific deal structure in question, doesn't pass the smell test for me. Although if anything doing a little damage control is a nice professional gesture towards at least one of his colleagues who I believe was calling this at over $100m less then a week ago (Passan, and who has come to his defense in past fwiw).
They don't think the roster is worth investing in right now. Why burn the best years of a long term contract on a team going nowhere?
If that’s true then they really should stop sending me emails every single day to buy tickets.
Not making a major investment in the roster is part of the appeal. It's a 2 year deal, and only longer if they want him around. Or basically the opposite of Giolito's deal. The latter which I still don't hate fwiw for the same core reason I would of liked to see Imanaga get done too.
Boston is a backwater. It isn't in LA and New York's league. If you are rich LA is damn near impossible to top (Why Lebron is there) and New York has all the glamor of arguably the greatest city in the world. And players now are so fricking rich that they can afford NY and LA. What Boston DOES have is a great place to play and a crowd that is in the game compared to other cities. That is what attracted Crawford and what I think attracted Price to some extent.
Right. I get those two locations but I don’t see Boston below other destinations. And it’s always been like that for LA and NY.
