Yep. Sox payroll obligations for next year are pretty steep
Sale 25.6
Bogaerts 20.0
Eovaldi 17.0
Price 16.0
Barnes 9.4
Hernandez 7.0
Sawamura 1.5
thats $96M for 6 players. If JD picks up his option ($22m) you are up to close to $120M, before you deal with arbitration for Devers, Verdugo, Renfroe, Pivetta, Taylor, Plawecki, and Arroyo. Vazquez has a $7m option. You’ve got a few pre arb guys in Dalbec, Whitlock, Houck, Davis but you have a lot of holes and not a lot of players who appear ready to fill those holes at low salaries.
Sox are going to have to blow past the CBT threshold to even bring the same team back.