Red Sox extend Devers—11 years, $332 million

nvalvo

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Last offseason everyone was saying the Sox wouldn’t spend until they dropped nine figures on Story. This offseason everyone was saying the Sox wouldn’t spend until they splashed out the sixth largest deal of all time.

It just doesn’t square with reality. There’s something a bit pathological about it, honestly.
 

SouthernBoSox

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Last offseason everyone was saying the Sox wouldn’t spend until they dropped nine figures on Story. This offseason everyone was saying the Sox wouldn’t spend until they splashed out the sixth largest deal of all time.

It just doesn’t square with reality. There’s something a bit pathological about it, honestly.
And the guy they didn’t signed papered a deal that could easily be viewed as the worst contract given out this off season.

It’s Mookie Betts syndrome. Nothing more. People can’t get over it.
 

SouthernBoSox

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And the guy they didn’t signed papered a deal that could easily be viewed as the worst contract given out this off season.

It’s Mookie Betts syndrome. Nothing more. People can’t get over it.
And to expand on this….

View: https://twitter.com/peteabe/status/1611786382015401984?s=46&t=R7AIx3e2k_7y1IZDugZ1NA


Every single time someone makes a move. Every. Single. Time. The Boston media makes some comment insinuating that everyone else is making moves and the Red Sox are just sitting around.

That is not some amazing move by the Phillies, and if the Red Sox made some similar move it wouldn’t be a good use of resources given the current roster.

There is blood in the water against this front office and ownership. They need a competitive year.
 

jon abbey

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Honestly I think that is every single fan base these days (and that includes the majority of beat writers, most of whom are less informed than they should be), I'm sure even Astros fans are irritated for some reason now. With the advent of social media and fantasy sports, everyone thinks they're a brilliant GM and feels compelled to share their brilliance far and wide.
 

chrisfont9

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And to expand on this….

View: https://twitter.com/peteabe/status/1611786382015401984?s=46&t=R7AIx3e2k_7y1IZDugZ1NA


Every single time someone makes a move. Every. Single. Time. The Boston media makes some comment insinuating that everyone else is making moves and the Red Sox are just sitting around.

That is not some amazing move by the Phillies, and if the Red Sox made some similar move it wouldn’t be a good use of resources given the current roster.

There is blood in the water against this front office and ownership. They need a competitive year.
Or they just need to adopt a policy of "fuck the Boston media and all of its insane Pete Abe/CHB bullshit"
 

jon abbey

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Although I think maybe Abraham just phrased that badly and he doesn't mean "BOS should have been in on this specific player" but instead a more general "BOS needs to clear 40 man spots and a deal like this would do that, so that is probably one thing they're working on" while being coy and not naming names so that if guys aren't moved, they're not pissed at him next year for bringing them up.
 

OCD SS

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There is blood in the water against this front office and ownership. They need a competitive year.
I think that’s really overstating things , it begs the question “or what?”

The Sox were competitive in ‘21 and bad last year. We’ve see them be terrible and the fans bitch and moan (all of us included) and in those off seasons with hey can never do enough, but as soon as they’re good, we’re right back with them.
 

Green Monster

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Although I think maybe Abraham just phrased that badly and he doesn't mean "BOS should have been in on this specific player" but instead a more general "BOS needs to clear 40 man spots and a deal like this would do that, so that is probably one thing they're working on" while being coy and not naming names so that if guys aren't moved, they're not pissed at him next year for bringing them up.
Thats pretty much how i read it....."TYPE of trade they are POSITIONED to make" rather than they should have made that specific deal.
 

VORP Speed

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Honestly I think that is every single fan base these days (and that includes the majority of beat writers, most of whom are less informed than they should be), I'm sure even Astros fans are irritated for some reason now. With the advent of social media and fantasy sports, everyone thinks they're a brilliant GM and feels compelled to share their brilliance far and wide.
Eh, I don’t know. I think the Toxic Idiocy levels are far higher in some markets than others
 

jbupstate

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His source told him the Red Sox upped their offer by $100 million overnight.
This seems so obviously false.

The reported initial offer for Devers was $168m. After the loss of Xander, all the signings this offseason and the risks associated with letting Devers reach free agency …. Bloom was only up to $231m or so?

There is no freaking way the owner stepped in and added $100m overnight without input from Bloom. It only makes sense if Bloom dug in and was incapable of understanding the market. If that was the case I would expect Henry to shit can Bloom immediately.

Henry knows his business and has been taking a beating from fans and in the media since he authorized letting Betts go. Devers was the guy to sign this offseason and a deal for only 10 year at his age is a huge win.
 

RedOctober3829

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This seems so obviously false.

The reported initial offer for Devers was $168m. After the loss of Xander, all the signings this offseason and the risks associated with letting Devers reach free agency …. Bloom was only up to $231m or so?

There is no freaking way the owner stepped in and added $100m overnight without input from Bloom. It only makes sense if Bloom dug in and was incapable of understanding the market. If that was the case I would expect Henry to shit can Bloom immediately.

Henry knows his business and has been taking a beating from fans and in the media since he authorized letting Betts go. Devers was the guy to sign this offseason and a deal for only 10 year at his age is a huge win.
How does it seem obviously false? They did the same things to Bogaerts in the offseason before free agency.
 

chawson

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Jared Carrabis’s job is to get attention and convince more people to gamble. Of course he’s going to peddle a narrative that’s more exciting than the truth, unfalsifiable, and gives them an illusion of control.
 

RedOctober3829

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Jared Carrabis’s job is to get attention and convince more people to gamble. Of course he’s going to peddle a narrative that’s more exciting than the truth, unfalsifiable, and gives them an illusion of control.
Jared has as many or more sources than reporters that cover the team. It's easy to crap on someone because you may disagree with what they say. If you remember, back in the season there were reports that the Red Sox would use the Austin Riley contract as a comp for Devers(10/212). It is not rocket science to think that they were in or around $230 million currently. Reading the room is something the Red Sox ownership is famous for and there was enough pushback to not let Devers go for Henry to put all his cards on the table and get the deal done.
 

chawson

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Jared has as many or more sources than reporters that cover the team.
Do you have any evidence of this?

It's easy to crap on someone because you may disagree with what they say. If you remember, back in the season there were reports that the Red Sox would use the Austin Riley contract as a comp for Devers(10/212). It is not rocket science to think that they were in or around $230 million currently. Reading the room is something the Red Sox ownership is famous for and there was enough pushback to not let Devers go for Henry to put all his cards on the table and get the deal done.
No, it’s not rocket science. It’s informed speculation. Riley and Devers are comparable players.

I think a lot of people would disagree that “reading the room is something Red Sox ownership is famous for.” We have, in my view, one of the less reactive ownership groups in baseball, but YMMV. But my point is that there’s nothing to lose and a lot to gain for some clout-seeking Barstool bro to say that he got an anonymous text (I’m not going to listen to his podcast) that told him booing John Henry directly influenced ownership to add $100 million to his offer to Devers, but you’d have to ignore many more plausible narratives to believe it.
 

YTF

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Although I think maybe Abraham just phrased that badly and he doesn't mean "BOS should have been in on this specific player" but instead a more general "BOS needs to clear 40 man spots and a deal like this would do that, so that is probably one thing they're working on" while being coy and not naming names so that if guys aren't moved, they're not pissed at him next year for bringing them up.
100%, I didn't take this as any sort of player specific suggestion or knock on the team. I see it as pointing out a parallel situation. Not all fans may be aware of the number crunch that the Sox face pertaining to the 40 man.
 

Yo La Tengo

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Jared has as many or more sources than reporters that cover the team. It's easy to crap on someone because you may disagree with what they say. If you remember, back in the season there were reports that the Red Sox would use the Austin Riley contract as a comp for Devers(10/212). It is not rocket science to think that they were in or around $230 million currently. Reading the room is something the Red Sox ownership is famous for and there was enough pushback to not let Devers go for Henry to put all his cards on the table and get the deal done.
It seems wildly unlikely that the front office decided to up their offer by $100 million in response to fan discontent. Moreover, I don't think the timeline to iron out the details lines up (do we think that they reached agreements on no trade and opt outs before reaching an agreement on salary/years?). But, let's assume all the speculation is true. Bravo and well done to the front office. Because they ended up with the best long term deal of this off season.
 

scottyno

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Jared has as many or more sources than reporters that cover the team. It's easy to crap on someone because you may disagree with what they say. If you remember, back in the season there were reports that the Red Sox would use the Austin Riley contract as a comp for Devers(10/212). It is not rocket science to think that they were in or around $230 million currently. Reading the room is something the Red Sox ownership is famous for and there was enough pushback to not let Devers go for Henry to put all his cards on the table and get the deal done.
Sox negotiations never leak, but I'm sure he had exact numbers on the biggest negotiation the Sox have had in the last several years.

Also, people have been screaming online for months (years really) about how awful Henry is and how cheap he is and how he should sell the team to someone that cares about winning, but it's totally realistic that he ignored all that and then all of a sudden changed his mind because some fans booed him.
 

snowmanny

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There is blood in the water against this front office and ownership. They need a competitive year.
I think they needed to sign Devers and they did. I think they could be competitive but they could easily finish fourth in the division and miss the playoffs. They probably know that. I think if they are non-competitive in 2023 they will put a lot of pressure on themselves for 2024.
 

RedOctober3829

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Do you have any evidence of this?
He's very close with a lot of the players on the Red Sox roster and due to him doing a national baseball podcast he's got extensive contacts around the league.


No, it’s not rocket science. It’s informed speculation. Riley and Devers are comparable players.

I think a lot of people would disagree that “reading the room is something Red Sox ownership is famous for.” We have, in my view, one of the less reactive ownership groups in baseball, but YMMV. But my point is that there’s nothing to lose and a lot to gain for some clout-seeking Barstool bro to say that he got an anonymous text (I’m not going to listen to his podcast) that told him booing John Henry directly influenced ownership to add $100 million to his offer to Devers, but you’d have to ignore many more plausible narratives to believe it.
He's very close with a lot of the players on the Red Sox roster and due to him doing a national baseball podcast he's got extensive contacts around the league.

He doesn't need to chase clout dude(and doesn't even work at Barstool anymore).

One of the less reactive ownership groups in baseball? NESN ratings were down so ownership had them make big splashes in Carl Crawford and Pablo Sandoval. There was fan outrage in both trading and then not signing fan favorite Jon Lester so they went and signed David Price to a $200 plus million contract. So yeah, there's plenty of evidence that ownership reacts to what outside voices say.
 

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He's very close with a lot of the players on the Red Sox roster and due to him doing a national baseball podcast he's got extensive contacts around the league.

He doesn't need to chase clout dude(and doesn't even work at Barstool anymore).

One of the less reactive ownership groups in baseball? NESN ratings were down so ownership had them make big splashes in Carl Crawford and Pablo Sandoval. There was fan outrage in both trading and then not signing fan favorite Jon Lester so they went and signed David Price to a $200 plus million contract. So yeah, there's plenty of evidence that ownership reacts to what outside voices say.
Or maybe they preferred Price all along and that was part of their overall strategic plan. In fact, I'd say likely.
 

RedOctober3829

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Sox negotiations never leak, but I'm sure he had exact numbers on the biggest negotiation the Sox have had in the last several years.

Also, people have been screaming online for months (years really) about how awful Henry is and how cheap he is and how he should sell the team to someone that cares about winning, but it's totally realistic that he ignored all that and then all of a sudden changed his mind because some fans booed him.
I will also add that Carrabis was not the only non-traditional media personality to learn of this deal beforehand. Steve Perrault explained on his podcast that one of his sources reached out to him and told him that the Devers deal was done before it was announced.

Again, the booing at Fenway was done after the deal was apparently agreed to on Monday.
 

jbupstate

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How does it seem obviously false? They did the same things to Bogaerts in the offseason before free agency.
It seems wildly unlikely that the front office decided to up their offer by $100 million in response to fan discontent.
People can believe whatever they want. But it’s a nicely timed piece of “inside information” that fits the anti-Bloom narrative from a guy that isn’t an insider. But still more of the it wasn’t Bloom decision (Devers) and/or it was the only decision (Mayer).

FSG has be called cheap and disinterested in the Red Sox since the partnering with “pick one from list” below. They have absolutely been slammed repeatedly. But from that podcast we’re to believe there is an insider giving info to Jared, FSG suddenly cares more because they received a negative reaction at Fenway and made it happen overnight.

Roush Racing
Liverpool FC
Pittsburgh Penguins

The financial world has changed over the last two years. Writing huge checks when money was almost free is a lot different than today. FSG isn’t running individual hobbies, they are running a business.

Regarding Xander… I think it is clear they didn’t think he was worth market rate in to his mid to late 30s. Especially with a Devers contract extension looming and an inexpensive, potential all-star two years away. Luckily they made their decision prior to the Winter Classic.
 

scottyno

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I will also add that Carrabis was not the only non-traditional media personality to learn of this deal beforehand. Steve Perrault explained on his podcast that one of his sources reached out to him and told him that the Devers deal was done before it was announced.

Again, the booing at Fenway was done after the deal was apparently agreed to on Monday.
Did either of these guys say anything about the deal being done before it was announced? Or did they just claim after the fact without any evidence that they knew before?

I'm also confused because you first claimed that the report was that the deal got done quickly because of the fan backlash and now you're saying that the deal was already done before the fan backlash.
 

RedOctober3829

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Did either of these guys say anything about the deal being done before it was announced? Or did they just claim after the fact without any evidence that they knew before?

I'm also confused because you first claimed that the report was that the deal got done quickly because of the fan backlash and now you're saying that the deal was already done before the fan backlash.
If you followed either of those guys on Twitter, you would have seen that they knew something about it before it was reported by Passan et al.

With regard to fan backlash, there was plenty of it the whole winter when it came to signing Bogaerts and Devers. You are stuck on the incidents at the Winter Classic. It was all over the place way before that.
 

scottyno

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If you followed either of those guys on Twitter, you would have seen that they knew something about it before it was reported by Passan et al.

With regard to fan backlash, there was plenty of it the whole winter when it came to signing Bogaerts and Devers. You are stuck on the incidents at the Winter Classic. It was all over the place way before that.
Great, there has been fan backlash for 2 years yet somehow Henry ignored all that until just this week
 

Devizier

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Glaus is an interest comp, his body did him in.
This is true for a lot of the comparisons, which isn't great at first glance.

I would argue that the saving grace for Devers is that most players seem to average ~5 more days off than they did in Glaus' prime and the Sox appear to excercise that level of caution with Devers. We certainly aren't going to see anyone chasing Ripken ever again.
 

8slim

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Some folks really don't believe human beings act like, well, human beings more often that not. Very few leaders are the kind of emotionless, automatrons that are solely focused on a quantitative plan. Real life is far more complicated than that. And in this case, John Henry has a history of making moves that are, to some degree, reactions to fan sentiment. Which is *OK*. This is the entertainment business, and responding to some of your customers desires is what entertainment companies do. You don't pursue every whim, of course.

So I don't think it's at all unfathomable that Henry was taken aback by the harsh reaction to X's departure *AND* he realized that the approach they took with X was not going to cut it going forward. It can be a little from column A and a little from column B.

Plus the mocking of Carrabis's sources is weird. Say what you want, but the guy is plugged in.
 

Benj4ever

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I think that’s really overstating things , it begs the question “or what?”

The Sox were competitive in ‘21 and bad last year. We’ve see them be terrible and the fans bitch and moan (all of us included) and in those off seasons with hey can never do enough, but as soon as they’re good, we’re right back with them.
The Sox were more than just competitive in 2021! They made it to within 2 games of the World Series, yet the fan base was by and large unimpressed. I don't think the "blood in the water" sentiment is overstated at all, but rather, an honest take on reality. The Red Sox aren't taking the big market approach of leading the league in spending on free agents and decimating the farm system in trades, and a lot of people are unhappy about this!
 

Jimbodandy

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The Sox were more than just competitive in 2021! They made it to within 2 games of the World Series, yet the fan base was by and large unimpressed. I don't think the "blood in the water" sentiment is overstated at all, but rather, an honest take on reality. The Red Sox aren't taking the big market approach of leading the league in spending on free agents and decimating the farm system in trades, and a lot of people are unhappy about this!
While I agree with the sentiment, the new "big market approach" is spending on some free agents but also building a legit pipeline on the farm so that you're not constantly paying market rate for WAR at every position. This is clearly what the Red Sox are also trying to do, along with most of the other big market teams.

A couple of teams did go hog wild of course.
 

Sandy Leon Trotsky

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The Sox were more than just competitive in 2021! They made it to within 2 games of the World Series, yet the fan base was by and large unimpressed. I don't think the "blood in the water" sentiment is overstated at all, but rather, an honest take on reality. The Red Sox aren't taking the big market approach of leading the league in spending on free agents and decimating the farm system in trades, and a lot of people are unhappy about this!
At the end of May/early June in '22, if the Yankees weren't off on some hyper insane record, the Sox would have actually appeared to be more in the mix than they ended up being too. At that point, there were 3 weak spots on the team- Dalbec, JBJ and the bullpen- that weren't going to be fixed by Chris Sale to the rescue (and even then... that would have pushed one of the starters to the bullpen to help out there some). The fact that between mid June and mid July almost every starter and any good BP arm went down, Story got injured and JDM started playing like crap.
But as bad as the team looked in mid June, it was partially in contrast to a borderline historically great MFY team that couldn't be stopped.*

*And not shockingly, they also completely (relative to how crazy good they were) fell apart the last two months. That was a team that went from looking unstoppable to all of the weaknesses being exposed at once (and injuries too).
 

BornToRun

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Glad they resigned him . My favorite current Red Sox player. Gives me hope for the future.
Betts sucked but I understood. Bogaerts was sad but I get it. I would’ve been profoundly disappointed if they couldn’t make it work with Raffy. I’m glad that regardless of whatever else happens over the next decade, we’ll get to watch our homegrown star smoking balls into the bullpen and looking like a kid out there for the duration.
 

scottyno

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So they’ve cleared that up. That must help the luxury tax this year right?
Yeah, at 29m it would have been really hard to stay under the threshold this year, especially now that they need another infielder. They're 10-15m under right now after they deal with the arb guys, so they should be able to make one more decent size signing and get close, but not over, and have the flexibility to decide mid season what they want to do.
 

SouthernBoSox

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On paper, this is a fantastic contract. The ability to allowed for lower AAV this year and insure resetting the cap is very clever and prudent.

29 AAV - through age 36 - no opt outs - no trade clauses.

I’m not sure they could have asked much more of a 26 year old cornerstone player in this setting. The thing with Devers is he still hasn’t had that year where is all comes together, and if he does in ‘23 this will look like a steal.
 

Auger34

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Some folks really don't believe human beings act like, well, human beings more often that not. Very few leaders are the kind of emotionless, automatrons that are solely focused on a quantitative plan. Real life is far more complicated than that. And in this case, John Henry has a history of making moves that are, to some degree, reactions to fan sentiment. Which is *OK*. This is the entertainment business, and responding to some of your customers desires is what entertainment companies do. You don't pursue every whim, of course.

So I don't think it's at all unfathomable that Henry was taken aback by the harsh reaction to X's departure *AND* he realized that the approach they took with X was not going to cut it going forward. It can be a little from column A and a little from column B.

Plus the mocking of Carrabis's sources is weird. Say what you want, but the guy is plugged in.
Completely agree with all of this, especially the Henry portions. The Devers contract is a fair contract. In the end, it’s good business no matter how it came to be

I think Carrabis is kind of a toolshed but he 100% has sources within the Sox organization and is plugged in there. Maybe he overstated this particular thing but It’s disingenuous for anyone to say otherwise because you don’t like what he’s reporting.
 

joe dokes

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Betts sucked but I understood. Bogaerts was sad but I get it. I would’ve been profoundly disappointed if they couldn’t make it work with Raffy. I’m glad that regardless of whatever else happens over the next decade, we’ll get to watch our homegrown star smoking balls into the bullpen and looking like a kid out there for the duration.
IOW..there were at least "reasons" for Betts and X. (One may find them unsatisfactory, but they were real). There really weren't any in Devers's case.
I also like that Devers played with Pedroia, who played with and so on and so on . . . . . which helps keep the thread from the beginning of the 21st century championship era in tact.
 

joe dokes

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No John Henry at the press conference? Bad look. You just signed your franchise player to the richest contract in team history and the principal owner can't be there?
FWIW--It was announced yesterday that he wouldn't be there. Regardless, lets jump to the worst possible conclusion about it. He's a coward? He didn't really want to do the deal? He's afraid of getting booed again? Maybe all of the above? Or maybe he has the flu? Or a kidney stone?
 

Otis Foster

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Werner looks like he's suffering gastric distress while Kennedy and Bloom throw posies to everyone down to the guy selling Italian hots outside the bandbox.