One of two choices: Blow it up or build it back up?

[grepal]

It's not that hard to see a scenario where things break right and the Sox are competitive:

• Sale comes back and gives us 120-140ish innings of #2-quality starting pitching.
• Eovaldi comes back and does the same.
• Verdugo continues to play like he did in the 2nd half of last year.
• Yoshida breaks out and becomes the high-OBP leadoff hitter we needed last year.
• Kiké continues to provide excellent defense in center.
• Story/Arroyo/Valdez provide adequate defense up the middle.
• Wong/McGuire are sufficient behind the dish and McGuire provides some flare at the bottom of the lineup.
• Bloom's bullpen additions provide some lock-down coverage.
• Bello takes a step forward and becomes a consistent #2/3 starter.
• Casas continues to develop into a middle-of-the-order threat and gives Devers and Story some coverage.

All of that happening is unlikely, but with a little luck, some timely development, and an easier schedule, I can totally see the Sox winning 85 games and fighting for a wild card.

From your keyboard to Gods' ears.

 

[ElcaballitoMVP]

They signed short term deals. I do not think the idea is to get a long-term commitment from those two. If the Sox are in a complete rebuild mode for now most players understand that. Seems to me if or when the time comes to sign megastars those deals now come with full no trade clauses. I know the Sox had a policy not to include that clause a few years ago but it can't be a thing now. That seems to be the tradeoff for players not having a right to exercise opt-outs.

No, the idea wasn't to get long-term commitments from them, but I'm not sure what that has to do with what I was talking about. There will always be guys willing to sign short term contracts and they will be at risk of being trade bait if the team isn't in contention. My point was this: I don't think the Sox signed either Martin or Jansen with the idea of flipping them at midseason. One, because trades for these types of relievers typically don't bring back much and two, it will discourage other quality arms from signing with the Sox in the future. When they signed, there was no indication that the Sox were in a complete rebuild mode. If the Sox had missed out on Bogaerts and Devers was traded, that would have some merit. But they signed both before X signed with San Diego.

 

[Pat Spillane]

Cant see how we are not in rebuiild mode. There isnt much out there to move the needle for us. An awful lot of things woudl have to go right for this team to compete. A healthy Sale and Paxton might not even be enough. The deadline last year would have been the time to start making these moves. We could accept this offseason if we saw a pattern. I would have to go with rebuild it as any moves left would be desparation cap cloggers

 

[grepal]

I think we are pretty much forced to re-build at this point. That being said, Devers would not be the worse bat to build around even if the Sox arent ready to compete for another 2-4 years. One of my biggest complaints related to the SOX being DOA before Opening Day is the money out of my pocket if I choose to go to games to watch a team that has very little chance of winning. (Some prognosticators are saying no chance whatsoever for 2023 and I feel that way too).