All good. The Red Sox haven't made me miserable since Game 7 of the ALCS in 2003, but it's ok if Ras thinks I am.
Much like Newman, the Sox are not “Ready to deliver”– The 2025 Offseason News (& rumors?) Thread
- Thread starter chawson
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And based upon how the Red Sox have been operating the past few years, I don't expect either Campbell or Anthony to break camp with the club. While this can certainly be rationalized as best setting up each player for success (not "rushing"), I think an equal (or even primary) motivationcan can be filed under service time manipulation. It's the smart, long-term play typically executed by smaller market teams. It also helps that it makes sense to give players such as Vaughn Grissom a legit shot to earn his place on the roster.
The second paragraph is exactly what I've been saying all winter.
However, anything an agent says - just like anything an owner says - should be taken with a huge grain of salt.
In this situation, nobody affiliated with the Red Sox should ever say a single thing other than "Devers is a 3b, he is our 3b, and he's working hard to improve there" until they have someone in place to change that plan. Maybe he will be. Maybe he won't be. But literally nothing else should be said beforehand.
While I like human reactions and don't fault someone for it, Story probably should never have said what he did about Arenado either. Only downside to him saying that unless / until a deal is made. Players get caught up in the moment too (not just executives), and for what it's worth, since Bregman isn't coming to Boston, I happen to agree with Story - but there is only downside to him having said it.
https://nesn.com/2025/01/trevor-story-opens-up-about-possible-nolan-arenado-red-sox-trade/
To me, that is always the tough thing to reconcile as a fan as in what do you want from a vocal leader? The business side / negotiating side of it is admittedly interesting, as is the clubhouse aspect (Story, without having said it, is endorsing a drastic move of some kind) and for clubhouse optics this could be bad. As a fan, I like a baseball player coming out and talking about something that they think would make the team better and help the team reach where we all hope they end up and in some ways lending credence to what many of us are seeing as problems with the current iteration of the Red Sox.
It's interesting to me, personally, to hear the players speak their minds. Plus for them, they aren't negotiating deals and are only dealing with workplace dynamics like the rest of us - so I want to be clear - even though there is really nothing but downside to Story having said that, I'm kind of glad he did. Makes players easier to relate to - which is part of being a fan and not at all analytical. On the flip side if Kennedy or someone said it, my reaction would be different. Interesting - but possibly unfair - dynamic there.
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Rice for Winfield would have been an amazing trade.
Winfield had more left than Rice at that point, though Rice was really good in 1986. (But if anything about the 1986 Red Sox season had gone differently, I might have a few more years added on to my life expectancy, even if say, missing the playoffs or losing to the Angels would have sucked at the time. And there's always the chance that the theoretical 1986 Red Sox with Winfield might have actually won it all, too. I'd gladly vote for changing that timeline.)
And if Winfield was in Boston, Steinbrenner wouldn't have hired Howard Spira to get dirt on him, and Steinbrenner wouldn't have been suspended from baseball in 1990-- meaning he probably would have continued messing up the Yankees and prevented them from developing their late 90's championship teams.
I doubt there was ever a real trade discussion of Rice for Winfield, since Gammons frames it all as "dreaming of packages" in trades for Rice.
Fun to think about though.
Can I ask a question, and I'm sure it's been addressed, but why can't this team just sign Alonso (who appears amicable to a shorter deal), play him at DH and move Yoshida to LF. The lineup would be stellar, and if Anthony forces his way in, you can move Yoshida at the deadline.
CF - Duran
3B - Devers
DH - Alonso
1B - Casas
SS - Story
RF - Abreu
2B - Grissom / Campbell
LF - Yoshi
C - Wong
That's a pretty even lineup with plus hitting up and down it. Basically, are we overthinking this? Yes the defense in LF, 3B and 1B is questionable, but it looks pretty good up the middle. Catcher is clearly in need of an upgrade, but that as been discussed ad nauseam on this board, it's tough to see where that comes from.
CF - Duran
3B - Devers
DH - Alonso
1B - Casas
SS - Story
RF - Abreu
2B - Grissom / Campbell
LF - Yoshi
C - Wong
That's a pretty even lineup with plus hitting up and down it. Basically, are we overthinking this? Yes the defense in LF, 3B and 1B is questionable, but it looks pretty good up the middle. Catcher is clearly in need of an upgrade, but that as been discussed ad nauseam on this board, it's tough to see where that comes from.
Because Yoshida sucks in the field, and also adding Alonso without any subtractions makes it harder work Anthony and Campbell into the lineup.
Alonso would make some sense if they moved Yoshida or Casas (or both). But with Boras calling the shots, he might not settle for the typical "3 years with an opt out" deal until late February, and that's a long time to hang in limbo for something that *might* happen. It's not like when they signed JDM in late February and just moved him into the more or less open DH slot. Acquiring Alonso would mean other significant moves to follow.
There are so many more options if Yoshida can play the field with his repaired shoulder. I know his range is terrible, but at Fenway it barely matters. And if high strikeout and ground ball pitchers are going, it doesn't matter that much on the road, either.
This is funny, but Kevin is a good guy. My 12-year old takes pitching lessons with him.
This.
But for a little more context, Yoshida was horrible in the field before his shoulder injury too.
If one wants to use DRS, in 2023 he was one of the worst LF in the game, with a -4 in only about 700ip. FG gave his defensive rating a -18.5 (for whatever that's worth). Baseball Savant backs this up as well with horrible range, bad "arm value" (whatever the heck that is) and horrible speed from 2023. From any metric one wants to use, he's horrendous defensively, and this was before the shoulder injury as well.
I agree that Alonso as a DH would be one of many ideas for the 2025 Red Sox that I'd be totally on board with, but it's not going to happen.
I think it's totally consistent with what we've heard from Devers any time he addresses the roster over the past few years. He's been begging for them to add MLB talent to the team. Is it a good idea or not, I'm not saying that at all. But every time Devers has spoken (or Tweeted or whatever), it's been about the relative "clarity" of the shortcomings of the roster and wanting to add proven MLB talent to it. This tracks.
So Devers watched a minute and a half clip on twitter IN ENGLISH of a couple of muppets talking with some wierd cuts, words on the screen, and a pretty indistinguishable argument with those words (for me) and then processed it beyond "WTF are they talking about,?"and hit like. Or he (or whomever runs his account) scrolled, saw video of he, Arenado, and Bregman playing baseball, and hit like and kept scrolling.
His son played for UConn - cant recall if last year was his final year. Hell of a ballplayer for us.
On it's own, means nothing.
Taken in context with his stance from :
2023 trade deadline https://nesn.com/2023/07/red-soxs-rafael-devers-has-strong-stance-on-trade-deadline-needs/
2024 team https://www.mlb.com/news/rafael-devers-on-state-of-2024-red-sox-roster
It tracks that he wants the team to add more MLB talent and would probably at least not chase down Craig Breslow and Alex Cora with a folding chair and a crazy gleam in his eye if it meant him moving off 3b.
Not sure why the English thing matters. Devers understands English perfectly and speaks it well. He chooses to do interviews in Spanish through the interpreter to avoid miscommunications or misunderstandings.
Sure he has said that in the past, its good for his image and he might even believe it. I'm contending him liking that tweet is very unlikely to mean anything.
Devers has previously hinted at wanting them to add guys, he might like the idea of Bregman in some capacity. Or he liked it ironically.
That's fair. But many posters are so quick to point out what his agent, or the FO, says as gospel that Devers couldn't possibly even remotely consider moving off 3b that submitting contradictory (and equally circumstantial) evidence should be fair game.
I'm fine with consistency. It all matters equally, or none of it matters at all. (I tend to believe the latter.)
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It was Gammons, so only he would know the ratio of reality to speculation there.
By the way, he's working on another book. Every once in a while I get an email from him saying something like, "Can you find a Globe magazine story I wrote on Frank Robinson managing in Puerto Rico in 1973?" Always makes my day to get those requests.
Rafael Devers is a $300 Million business. With a team who's number 1 priority is realizing that $300M. Him "wanting" to play 3rd is whats best for the team right now. It might not be by the time spring training comes, next year or 3 years from now. Him preferring one thing or another is fine, as long as it doesn't effect Devers corp's top priority. I sincerely doubt he was making a statement by liking a goofy tweet.
Did he say what it's going to be about?
Because even if it's just an omnibus of all of his Sunday Notes column, I'd pay top dollar for it.
View: https://twitter.com/RedSox/status/1876766722151059733
Make sure everyone stretches those hamstrings this time!
Make sure everyone stretches those hamstrings this time!
Here is what Devers' agent said.
I think it's OK to draw a distinction between a statement like that from a player's agent and the player clicking "like" on some social media video. I don't agree that either those two things matter equally or they don't matter at all.
Devers just “liked” a post placing Bregman at 3rd base and him as DH
Devers is signed until 2033.
I really don't care what his agent thinks or where he wants to play.
If the best configuration for the team is another player at 3B and him being DH then that's what Breslow should do.
It would probably be better for his health and mindset to focus on hitting anyway.
I really don't care what his agent thinks or where he wants to play.
If the best configuration for the team is another player at 3B and him being DH then that's what Breslow should do.
It would probably be better for his health and mindset to focus on hitting anyway.
From NESN:
https://nesn.com/2022/11/xander-bogaerts-agent-scott-boras-shoots-down-rumor-red-sox/
Speaking of which, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reported Tuesday, citing major league sources, that San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller recently asked Boras whether Bogaerts would be willing to play infield positions other than shortstop. But Boras denied that report, as well.
"Xander is playing shortstop," Boras told Rosenthal.
From Mass Live
“No one is going to Xander Bogaerts and asking him to play anything other than shortstop,” Boras said.
https://www.masslive.com/redsox/2022/11/xander-bogaerts-rumors-scott-boras-says-red-sox-free-agents-interest-all-at-ss-report.html
One baseball season later, Bogaerts is at 2b.
For the record, I'm 99.9% certain that the Red Sox lineup against RHPs for the next three seasons (injuries aside) will be Casas at 1b, Devers at 3b and Yoshida at DH. I just don't think it's because Devers refuses to move off 3b.
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Seems like a memoir of his baseball life. The requests are varied. Last one was for Tiant's 2-hitter over Toronto to force the '78 playoff.
Sons of Rick Waits (For One Day Only)
(The period after the massacre and before the playoff could make its own book).
I always argue that they didn't choke! Ripping off eight straight wins to make the playoffs after it all seemed to have caved in on them showed remarkable resilience.
Still think Zimmer sucked, though.
Much like the 03 team, the 78 team got within a win of going to the World Series despite of their manager.
The boxscore of that Tiant game is a great look back.
Brohammer!
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS197810010.shtml
You must have been a joy 50 years ago telling people the Red Sox were going nowhere if they gave 500 ABs to Rice and Lynn.
The year I became a Red Sox fan. The close of the '78 season was incredibly dramatic.
I am *not* saying that Rafael Devers will never move off third. What I am saying is that it's silly, in my mind, to compare a clear and unambiguous statement from a player's agent with that player liking a video on social media. I do not agree that either they matter equally or they don't matter at all. That is the only thing I was reacting to.
Maybe you will get your oft-stated wish. Maybe the Sox will sign Bregman, and Devers will happily move to first or DH. I personally do not want Bregman on a deal for five-plus years, and I don't want him at second. But it doesn't matter what I want. It also doesn't matter what I believe will happen, because I have no special insight into what the Sox are planning to do, or how Devers will react to it. I'm simply saying that it's not nothing when your best and highest-paid player reacts to speculation of a position change by having his agent declare that it will not happen.
You may not know but does it seem like it could be out this year? I don’t want to be standing outside my bookstore for nothing.
Why no misery 2010-2015? Only one year in playoffs, many last place finishes, miserable finish in 2011 worse than anything the last 2 years (and led to Bobby V).
You were happy because they signed FA’s (some of the worst). Or did one very unexpected title go a long way?
Whether or not Rice could be counted on to stay healthy was a hot topic on the Sons of Pete Runnels newsletter.
Crazy that they had .294 OBP Rick Burleson leading off with Fred Lynn hitting sixth with a .380 OBP.
People didn't really understand baseball in 1978.
I mean the fact that you didn’t even enjoy the ‘75 Sox toppling MLB’s reigning dynasty and getting within one egregiously awful call of beating a 108 win juggernaut is telling.
Mostly because they won in 04. It doesn't mean I haven't been frustrated with the team since then but 03 was misery.
Must’ve been a down year for rooster- his batting average was over 290 the two years before…should they have moved him down in the lineup that year or let him ride based on the past two years……brings up the old question of whether a player is really his body of work or his most recent year’s numbers…what they’re presently debating about Bregman…
+1
I always wondered if Torrez should have/could have started against the Blue Jay that Sunday, saving Tiant for the possible playoff on Monday. Yes, i know that they HAD to win on Sunday against Toronto, and that is why Tiant pitched; but it was Toronto in their second year of existence. If the Red Sox could not trust Torrez against that, then how could they have trusted him against NY for the division title? Just one of those little what if games to play in the mind.