This is exactly right. Bloom has made it a priority to incrementally improve the quality of the 40-man, as well as the overall system. What that means is that you're going to have more players with some potential than you have room to keep. Want to quibble with some of the decisions on which specific players to protect and not protect? Totally fair. But no matter how you sliced it, the Sox were going to lose some not-bad players.
This is what I see in the CBA:
But team options years are not guaranteed years & player option years can be guaranteed years (I missed that part before).
+1 on this. How could they have kept him at all under these rules?
Why does it matter if he is on the restricted list for Phi, or for Bos? The year doesn't count for his Rule 5 status... if he is on the RESERVED list in 23, the rule 5 requirements then "toll" to '24.
Mayer is too far from the majors to worry about it right now, but I think you answered your own question: they’ll move one of them to another position in the event Mayer is still here.
Play X at shortstop until Mayer is ready. Move X to some other position that I am sure they have discussed as part of these contract negotiations when Mayer is ready.
Listen to offers but they better be amazing. Otherwise assume X will change positions. IF he returns he could slide to 3rd if Devers leaves….. LF possibly.
26 year old in A+. I'm imagining injury issues, but the results at low level MiLB play are not impressive.
I don't think they look to deal him this year. Maybe at the deadline if the team is really playing well and they're in contention for Burnes type piece. But even then, I think he's good Devers insurance since Mayer or Xander could slide to third. He obviously won't be ready in 2023 but it's not inconceivable he's ready at some point in 2024. If you sign X and extend Devers, you're probably more willing to deal but even then, you could explore moving Xander to LF or Devers to DH.
Oh, WS rings are won in the offseason? Whats the point of having a season then? Someone should tell the Dodgers and Yankees that.. Given the "amazing" seasons they had last year that resulted in... Zero rings.....
Why would they deal their SS of the future because they have an aging player that no longer fields the position as well? They can just shift Xander to 2B, 3B, or LF.
What new rule is in place that will make Jansen's pitching ability not work? Just the pace of play rule?
He was one of the slowest pitcher in the majors last year, both with/without runners. Almost double the limit with the new pitch timer next year.
It is not remotely clear that Xander can play LF. And 3b might be occupied by a fella named Rafael Devers. I don't think it's QUITE as easy as you imply. But this is why I'm asking. They must have this thought through, and probably that's part of the negotiations with Xander.
Think that’s what Verducci’s hinting at. Someone in the Jansen specific thread mentioned he takes nearly 2x the time limit with batters on and not on. If he can’t adjust, it could be problematic.
Are you disagreeing with the notion that the rest of the division is still better than them? As much as you may not want to hear it, it’s true.
Yeah, Devers isn’t much of a defensive 3B. Him you could DH pretty easily.
So you’re saying it’s a slam dunk that the Sox should have protected Ward over Darwinzon Hernandez who has already pitched in the majors?
not sure but he’s more of a fly ball pitcher than a ground ball pitcher, so if he’s impacted by the shift changes it won’t be by as much as others.
Have you watched him much? He is max effort on every pitch, it seems. This would be a concern for me as a BOS fan until I saw how it actually played out to start the season.
Maybe, but what's their point? Why bother signing good players because you're still not as good as the other teams yet? That's fucking ridiculous.
It’s a fair question but I think we should keep in mind that the Sox didn’t bring him up at all last year despite a willingness to try others from AAA. They may be proven wrong but they obviously didn’t feel Politi’s stuff would play in the majors.
Yeah, that's my point of contention. With absolutely nothing to gain by winning games with two months left in the season, it would've been prudent to find out. I get that the team appears to not believe in his ability to face ML hitting. I just don't think anything would have been lost in finding out definitively.
Can the Phillies trade Song right now to a team unlikely to contend for a couple of seasons? If yes, pretty slick move by DD.
