Here's your latest Montgomery rumbling, maybe straight crap from Boras as usual who knows:
View: https://twitter.com/AdamWeinrib/status/1765485983477186613?s=20
View: https://twitter.com/AdamWeinrib/status/1765485983477186613?s=20
Offseason rumors
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The Dallas/Ft Worth/Arlington Metroplex is the 4th largest metro in the US, way bigger than Boston. I wonder if here "small market" really means "relaxed atmosphere" or "low expectations".
One usually doesn't call a team "small market" while trying to extract maximum cash from it. More likely, it means things more appropriate for V&N.
That city would’ve traded the Rangers WS for one Cowboy playoff win. It’s a small baseball market.
I live three hours away from Dallas-Fort Worth. Last fall, there were more kids around campus (University of Oklahoma) wearing Rangers gear than I've ever seen.
I’m not sure it’s smart to start leaking preferred cities when you are still a free agent on March 6.
Beat me to it!
I think his aim with this info was to goad a larger-market team into a sweeter offer to overcome the player's preference for a smaller market.
One could interpret it as an attempt to get Texas involved again before accepting a bid somewhere else. Or trying to get somewhere else to raise the bid because he's still pining for Texas.
Breslow is playing eight dimensional 3D chess in a quantum superstate while others are playing checkers!
His comments make no sense unless he is negotiating among teams
in the cities he is referencing
I'm pretty sure if the Red Sox make a serious offer he'll consider it.
Wonder what they talked about at their famous Zoom meeting?
It doesn't really sound like anything but trying to negotiate through the press (a Boras specialty). At some point, beggars can't be choosers. If Boston has the highest/best/closest-to-his-desired-price offer, is he going to turn it down because the market is too big/intense for him?
The guy pitched for the Yankees for several years. That's part of the reason I like him for the Sox - he knows big market pressure.
Heck, he got traded at each of the last two deadlines and then was instrumental in winning a title. He seems pretty strong mentally to me.
Heck, he got traded at each of the last two deadlines and then was instrumental in winning a title. He seems pretty strong mentally to me.
And he doesn't seem to like it. It doesn't seem like a great idea to bring a guy in who knows he won't be comfortable.
He’s also right on the threshold of not being ready for Opening Day. He’s taking the best offer very soon.
Yes, but the noise (it seems) is coming from his side. The whole thing actually doesn't make any sense. You can't take Scott Boras as your agent to go after the most money, then suggest you prefer not to go to a big market. Who else is going to give you the most money?
Can't really argue with that. Which might be something the Sox are aware of (his preference for a smaller market) and why they haven't been more aggressive with him. I can see a scenario in which Breslow was told Montgomery would rather sign with team X or Y, and responded by saying something to the effect of give me a call if those teams aren't interested. And the reported check-ins we've heard about are just Breslow saying "we're still interested if you change your mind."
One possibility is they're working overtime through the media to try to land the best deal right now, and to do that, they're trying to scare bigger organizations into paying out for fear that Montgomery will take a lighter deal so he gets to be in Texas, or whatever. The fact that half of SoSH is sniffing it out should tell you how poorly that's working, if that's what they're doing.
It's also possible the wish is genuine, and he really doesn't want to go to a big market, and he's just confused about how these things work.
At the end of the day, he's got one chance, potentially, with this contract, to cash in. I think most pitchers know how fickle their arms are. He's made about 20 million in his career, and he's got a chance to turn that into 150 million plus. He's going to grab the fattest deal he can. I don't think we'd be sitting around in mid-March, waiting for him to sign a deal, if he wasn't trying to maximally cash in.
On the other hand, what if he's seen what just happened to Giolito and feel some pressure to sign? Don't play with fate and all that.
All this seems accurate to me. Even if Boston ends up with the "winning bid" or whatever, there's also the consideration of like, You sure you wanna be here, pal? After all this endless deliberation, getting Montgomery for something like 4/$90 would seem like a big win on paper. But not, of course, if there's any reason to think he might be bummed out or unmotivated.
He's a professional, and I trust Breslow to know a thing or two about player mentalities. But making sure he'd be happy in Boston for the life of the contract would seem even more of a consideration here. The narrative has been that the guy has been pining to play in Texas for the last three months.
It means he wants to play in Texas where there is no Sons of Larry Parrish to call him on any bullshit.
Or his wife isn't digging her residency. Did he try to get a table in the North End on a Saturday without a reservation?
I agree totally in terms of Breslow (hopefully) being good at this part of "evaluation" having been here. I do think there is some value to having a GM that understands the landscape of Boston. Certainly not a prerequisite, but a bonus.
That is why losing Bogaerts is something that I (personally) would have fired Bloom for a long time before he was fired. That is a player that a) loved it here; b) wanted to be here; c) had incredible success here and d) fit here. Again, I'm not saying Bloom should have given him $285m or whatever. But I will always believe that had Bogaerts been offered 7/$165m (which would have been the 4th highest contract given out that off-season and more than any of Story, Baez or Correa got as short stops) he would have instructed Boras to take it.
Just to add something of a "rumor", this snippet from MLB trade rumors about the trade market seemingly being about done.
"There have been some recent indications that teams are beginning to transition from the offseason mentality of improving the roster toward preparing for the regular season in earnest, at least when it comes to the trade market." Figured it was noteworthy for those of us holding out hope of selling off Jansen, Martin and possibly Pivetta (since we haven't heard anything about a possible extension) before the season started. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/03/the-opener-spring-breakout-bello-trade-market.html
This may have come from Montgomery himself. Dallas is a huge city - but Arlington is kind one big suburb. Part of this may be some resistance based on the insane media market here and his prior experience in New York which may be just as tough. We know four teams have checked in on him - one may be a smaller market team and I doubt the reference to St. Louis is an accident.
I don't agree with the Bogaerts part of this comment at all. People don't walk away from $100 million +.
We can respectfully agree to disagree.
Judge turned down around $60m (I believe) when he was already a free agent. I think Bogaerts would have taken "top of the market" money in 2022 to stay in Boston (when he still had a year left before FA). We'll obviously never know.
There are plenty of other players that I agree, would have gone to FA and taken the highest bid no matter what. I don't think Bogaerts was one of them. But since no contract extension offer to him before the 2022 season was ever leaked, we'll never know for sure, and both of our points are unprovable. Which is fine, we just have a difference of opinion.
Yeah, nobody really knows what went down with Bogaerts, or how much responsibility for not re-upping him belongs to Bloom, and how much to Henry's payroll restrictions.
Guys people don't hire Scott Boras to give home town discounts. Boras's advice is pretty consistent - go to free agency. It's a bit like the movie ideocracy where one of the characters says "cool. You like money. I do too"Now you're really trying to muddy the waters.
No. But some hire him to negotiate the best deal he can get with the team where they want to go (see Jason Varitek).
To be clear, I'm not saying that the Sox could have lowballed Bogaerts. I'm saying I think if they went to him a year before his free agency and said "here is the 4th highest contract given this off-season (which $165m would have been) so that you finish your career in Boston, oh, and $45m more than we just gave your new double play partner" he'd have instructed Boras to take it. Maybe it would have been $176m to beat Semien. Something in that range.
I don't think this of all players, to be clear. I think it of this particular individual based on his public basically begging to be engaged in contract negotiations.
They extended Boegarts past his arb years. The extension contained an opt-out that Boegarts wanted, then exercised. The Sox made a large generational-wealth/career type offer during the FA period. San Diego made a ludicrously bigger one. Boegarts chose the money.
Time to move on.
Look, I don't know this for certain (obviously), but this strikes me as yet another in a series of excuses for why Montgomery hasn't taken the Sox offer despite it being the highest he has received, in an effort to get the Red Sox to raise their offer despite it being the highest he has received.
The Sox have discussed an extension with Tanner Houck too.
View: https://twitter.com/bradfo/status/1765814248964264368?s=46&t=Tl7uNH0-pxEyJtNj1BktDA
Tweet from Rob Bradford:
Tanner Houck on to pitch. He told me that he has indeed talked to the Red Sox about an extension but nothing was imminent. Didn't want to get into details about timeline.
1:58 pm 3/7/24
View: https://twitter.com/bradfo/status/1765814248964264368?s=46&t=Tl7uNH0-pxEyJtNj1BktDA
Tweet from Rob Bradford:
Tanner Houck on to pitch. He told me that he has indeed talked to the Red Sox about an extension but nothing was imminent. Didn't want to get into details about timeline.
1:58 pm 3/7/24
Any chance that the Sox have potential deal(s) in place for Jansen but the team(s) interested in him simply want to see him pitch first? They did tell FA's that they needed to clear some payroll first (reportedly?) they do now have the need for 150+ more innings with Giolito going down, and they have been using Houck out of the bullpen the last couple ST games. Trade Jansen and as much of his 16m as you can unload, Sign Monty to 4yr/90m w/ opt out after year 2 and incentives for GS (he has never received a down ballot Cy Young vote) Whitlock is your 5th starter, Wink the muti-inning he is best suited for and Houck is your closer. Why not?
Perhaps they instead want to move Houck back to the rotation with Giolito's injury.
There are too many moving pieces right now to make much sense of possible future moves. And I suspect the urge to move Jansen is to clear payroll and not driven by any other innings consideration.
I love that they're engaging the younger guys about contracts. That's got to have a positive effect on the culture of the organization.
100%
This is something I’ve openly envied about Atlanta, and a sea change from lowballing our home grown stars (thinking Lester and X - edit yes, it’s more layered than that).
I wonder if Breslow and Bloom saw this type of risk differently, or it’s just a matter of ‘right place right time’ and this has been going on for a while.
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Different mindset. We’ve seen enough from Brez to know He’s comfortable in his judgment.
A lot of the latter. Obviously we can think of how maybe 2016 should have gone differently? But anyway, at least as compared to the Bloom years, the opportunity for these buy-up-arb-plus-years extensions is now. Not really last year or the year before. Even Casas wasn't an extension candidate until later last season, when that sort of decision would have been punted to the offseason.
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