Red Sox Rumors - Just Kidding
- Thread starter jcormjmac
- Start date
Thanks. There's been some mention of him playing some 1B, but there's not a lot of time spent there either. That said, an off season and full ST to work at the position could be doable from a third baseman with some experience vs a Schwarber type. A DH, backup 3B, back up RH 1B run producing type does fill a need.
We've reached the point where we're pining for Justin Turner? He's been a great player for the Dodgers, but he just turned 38. His OPS+ over the last five seasons:
2018 151
2018 131
2020 133
2021 120
2022 116
Not a great trend for an aging player.
2018 151
2018 131
2020 133
2021 120
2022 116
Not a great trend for an aging player.
His old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools. JT can fix this.
Sox currently have 3 players who had an OPS+ that good last year and two of them are Reese McGuire and Rob Refsnyder.
Exactly, the savvy move now seems to be to go out on the free-agent market and have writers Tweet that the Red Sox are interested in signing you. This move leads to more years and more money. Dever's agent would be committing malpractice by not encouraging Devers to test the free-agent waters.
I suppose there is one line of thinking that he's soured on the Red Sox so much he just wants to hit FA and go elsewhere no matter what.... this would seem pretty unlikely to me.
I don’t think this is a big problem. Jose Abreu put up a 131 wRC+ over 2021-22. Turner put up a 125 wRC+ over that same period, and that includes a stint the first month of last season during which he put up a 33 wRC+, a 16-for-106 stretch when he was clearly getting his timing back after a lockout-affected spring.
There’s some injury risk, but he’s still comfortably in the top 20 percent of MLB hitters, and I can’t imagine he’d require more than two years.
He would be a complete moron with an agent who is also a moron if he signed literally anything the Red Sox put in front of him today. Do you think the market is going to be LOWER next offseason? There is basically 1 other top tier guy: Ohtani. That's basically it. Devers will get a dump truck full of money from virtually any team.
Machado will join him, but they’ll have potentially the Mets, Yankees, Blue Jays, Dodgers, Giants, Padres and Red Sox all with vacancies at third base.
Do you have a link to this? The last I heard they were $80M+ apart and sounded like the Sox offer was closer to the Riley contract than 10/300. That as back in late October/early November though. Link - https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-red-sox/2022/10/28/rafael-devers-contract-extension-red-sox-mlb-free-agency-news-rumors/
If they're already at $300, they should be able to figure it out, bridging something like 300 bid/350 ask isnt insurmountable - $240 v. $350 is.
The second best SS this year got $280M though. I think there will be plenty of silly money for both Devers and Machado in a year.
It's absurd to claim he would be a moron to sign "literally anything the Red Sox put in front of him today".
If they give him a market value deal as if he was a FA right now (12/350?), he would be nuts to not take it. A lot can happen in 12 months.
Judge made a lot of money by taking the risk and going to FA, but if Devers gets offered 350 now, how much upside is he really giving up? Do we think he will get 500M with a good 2023?
This is exactly where I am at.
The Trade deadline was the clear example of awful mangment. Not getting under the Cap should be a fireable offense.
The JBJ trade was a sign that he didn't have a grip on the teams overall salary and shouldn't have made the trade w/ out getting a much higher prospect. The diamonds in the ruff strat has worn thin after so many proved to be bad gambles.
This years Rule 5 - 40 man roster was the worst bumbling of that area in years.
The majority of the free agent and in proper handling of home grown talent has been the worst since the Fisk off season blunders.
You didn't have to Sign Xander but lying to the fan base that he was a priority was a bad signal to the fans and future players. If you say a player is a priority you have to be prepared to do what it takes to bring them back.
Very few trades are going to smooth things out for this level of dragging the team through the mud.
That said, Still really hoping we pull off sone miricals, but this really feels like the worst off season in memory.
Red Sox need to get back to the 2004-2018 version of this team - Step it up John Henry!
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Agreed, a guaranteed $300M+ is a nice hedge against some sort of career altering injury.
Oh I think there will be too. But I do wonder how teams will evaluate his defense over the term of a 10-12 year contract, and how many years he'll even stick as an adequate third baseman.
Exactly. Two things in play here. First they have missed their window on Devers, unless they significantly overpay - he is gone. And he should be.
Second, they have succeeded under Chaim becoming even more of a undesirable location. Players want money and stability. The Sox do not participate in either one of those. No-one in their right mind would want to come here or stay here right now. I have been a fan and previous ticket holder for 40 years - this is the lowest point of the franchise as far as the future. I think Chaim had a plan but it went poorly, he did not adjust when it failed. The roster looks like a Royals or Pirates rosters and the minor league system is improved but largely non-impact talent. So why would their home grown marquee talent sign here? There is no future and its obvious from that the last two home-grown talents that the Sox not only won't pay market rate - they actively want to distance themselves from market rate.
No, sorry, I’ve been reading rumors and conjecture like a maniac, but I did see somewhere that someone said they came up to 10/300 after Bogaerts left.
According to Fangraphs the Orioles have $0 on the books for 2024. I don't understand how this is even possible.
payroll
This is right. If I'm Devers I am laughing in their face if they come to me with anything less than $325, maybe $350. If brass isn't willing to pay him, you might as well trade him....and do it this offseason. Waiting for trade deadline isn't feasible. I don't understand the plan (assuming they have one - which they must) and I'm disappointed this is what they've become.
Glad they didn’t end up with Swanson. Felt like signing as the X “replacement” would have been a real destined-to-fail situation and all you’d end up with is an expensive player getting booed by the home crowd until we pay him to play for a different team in three years.
Devers is a good player but $300 million plus for a player with his obvious defensive deficiencies is crazy. He is a solid hitter but not an MVP candidate. If we are throwing around 375 million dollar contracts just wait til Soto is a FA and give him 400+. Our next core of young players should be cheap then
Soto already turned down 15/440 three years away from FA. If he stays both great and healthy, his FA deal might start with a 6.
If that's the FO's conclusion - fine, whatever. No player is worth big money to them I guess. In that situation, I wouldn't be ok with them keeping him on the team next year. They need to trade him as soon as possible to maximize the return.
Absolutely. This isn’t going to happen but it’s the correct decision (although if this happened, the FO should still be criticized)
Right. People won’t want to hear this but they’re not going to approach Devers as “we have to sign him no matter what”, nor should they.
It's this silly game they play as evidenced by the tweet above. They underbid all these guys by $50M+ every off-season and it ultimately costs them really good players on reasonable deals. Or if they ultimately resign Devers, it will cost them $100-200M in extra money that could be spent elsewhere on the roster. Raffy at 10/$200M a couple years ago is a steal and demonstrates the lack of foresight and weird risk aversion shown by the FO. Same for Xander at the $160M deal he wanted last year.
Devers is set to make $17M in 2023, so if the Sox were to extend him to $31, the payroll hit is an additional $14M, right?
Isn’t it? The FO has seemed reluctant to spend? I only asked my original question because if the Devers numbers are true, they could extend and still stay under.
The NL having the DH has really opened up the market for someone like Devers.
If these are even remotely accurate then this simply must get done.
This team has to have a cornerstone player.
There are very few long term commitments. If it doesn’t get done. You have to assume a mandate in contract length is in place and a team sale is imminent.
Which brings up an interesting hypothetical. Would Ortiz have spent the majority of his career with Boston if the NL always had the DH?
im leaning no. Since it would have doubled the amount of teams willing to offer him a contract when he would have hit FA.
Im not buying anything from this dude anymore. Especially after the xander shit
Contrary to that fan tweet Gomez replied to, all we know is he was offered around Olson money - 8/168 - last offseason. My sense is Raffy was valuing himself at 250M at the time.
The tweet is bizarre in that the aav for an 11 year deal is higher than 10, which really doesn’t make any sense.
I'm not much of a tweeter--are the Bastards of Boston Baseball in a position to be at all credible with these statements of fact?
I was honestly not sure. Without Bogaerts or some other top FA I assume they stay under.
This makes no sense. For a 10th year he wants 25 million but for an 11th he wants 35?