I think it’s a no brainer to bring him back. I don’t think there’s a better right handed bat out there for us.

I don't have a lot of faith in John Henry opening up the checkbook, but it's fascinating To play around and see what could happen if he did. I put together the below scenario, let me know what you think.

Total payroll is at about 130,000,000 Our current roster has the following:

Rotation: Houk, Crawford, Bello, Giolito, Whitlock

Bullpen: Slaten, Hendricks, Winckowski

Defense and bench: C Wong 1B Casas, Gonzalez 2B Rafaela, Valdez 3B Devers SS Story, Grissom, Hamilton LF Refsnyder CF Duran RF Abreu DH Yoshida

Obviously there's a lot of holes to fill, and presumably the tax threshold (241 Million) would be our salary cap.

First I would acknowledge that Whitlock is a weapon in the Bullpen, but a liability in the Rotation. I'd move him to a setup role to compete with Hendricks for closer. Second, I'd work a trade with the White Sox. Crochet is an Ace, and we'd have to pay accordingly. I'd also use the opportunity to shed some salary. The trade package would be Casas, Yoshida (sending 10 mil in salary this year and next) Marcelo Mayer, Miguel Bleis, and Luis Perales. This move saves us 9 mil, but then we would sign Crochet to a 6 year, 150 mil extension. This would bring our total payroll to 144 mil. We now have holes at LF, SP, DH and 1B though. We desperately need right handed power, I'd offer Pete Alonso 6 years, 180 mil (sportrac estimates he'll get 6 for 174). This brings our payroll to 174 mil. Tyler O'Neil wants to be in Boston and he was a great fit as a teammate, as well as swinging a powerful right handed bat. I'd extend him at 3 years 51 mil (sportrac estimates 3 for 49). This brings our payroll to 191. Roman Anthony looks ready for the big leagues, I'd give him every opportunity to earn the LF spot. We still need a starting pitcher, and an established Ace would be huge. Corbin Burnes at his estimated sportrac deal of 6 years 181. This brings our payroll to 221. Our Bullpen is still in need of shoring up. Joe Kelly is estimated by sportrac at 1 year 3 mil, I'd offer him that. I'd also add AJ Minter for 2 mil and Will Smith for 3 mil. Crawford faded in the second half but may be attractive on the trade market, but for now I'd keep him. He can compete with Houk and Giolito for the 4th and 5th rotation spots (Houk is best in the bullpen imo). The odd man out will move to the Bullpen. This brings our payroll to 229 million, 12 mil under the cap. Most importantly, it creates a balanced lineup and a strong rotation. The lineup would look like this:

CF Duran RF Abreu 1B Alonso 3B Devers SS Story DH O'Neil 2B Rafaela (I expect a big year 2 jump) C Wong LF Anthony

Bench Romy Gonzalez IF/OF David Hamilton IF Rob Refsnyder OF Vaughn Grissom IF Danny Jansen C

SP 1 Burnes SP 2 Crochet SP 3 Bello SP 4 Giolito SP 5 Crawford

RP Houk RP Winckowski RP Slaten RP Smith RP Minter SU Whitlock CL Hendricks

Hope this is okay to post! Performed at his cigar launch in NJ - more than gracious with his time!

Watching “The Comeback” today and they get to the part where Kevin Millar says he handed out shots of Jack Daniels before game 6 of the ALCS. In the video footage, however, he clearly is holding a bottle of Crown Royal. I feel like the country of Canada deserves some recognition for the part their prized whisky played in ending the curse of the Bambino.

The way the younger position players developed last year has me feeling good about the field. Pitching is another story, we need good pitching and desperately. I would really like to see them sign Max Fried, but it seems like they’re chasing Garret Crochet and I’m not too sure how I feel about that. I like the fact that they’re going for a LHP as that is a need for us, but I would prefer a veteran winner like Fried.

And I know it’s early but the stir for Teoscar to come to Boston is interesting. Certainly a good right hand bat in the lineup but I think he fits in the DH spot better than in the OF, the defense concerns me, especially when Wilyer just won a gold glove, Ceddanne is going to be a repeat gold glove in the future, and Durran is just fast af with solid defense. That leaves him competing with Masa, and I know a lot of yall are wanting to trade him away. I don’t understand the desire to get rid of a high contact batter. Yea he’s left handed but I don’t think many want to take his contract, and we have other left hand bats in the farm system that we can trade away anyway.

That being said, I think the real move is to bring Adames in at short and move Story over to second. That way we add a right hand bat, improve defense up the middle, put Rafaela in the OF, and maybe some strain is lifted from Story. It sucked to see him go down like that last season, and I think second base would be just a little easier on him.

As far as the big 3/4/5 (however you see it), I think they need to stay in triple A this season. Take the year to develop and round out all their skills before being called up. Unless we get the injury bug again then our hands are tied. Teel might be the only one I would want to see this season, but that’s just because I’m a sucker for great defensive catchers and don’t care how good their bat is.

What do yall think? Who do you want to see signed or traded for?

This is reddit so surely everyone will hate it, but here goes

-Trade Mayer and Ceddanne for Crochet. Duran is the much better player, we're trying to win a championship here. Keep your stud cf in his prime and hope the white sox bite on Ceddanne. And KEEP ABREU

-Next sign Willy Adames, most underrated fa in the class. Fangraphs has him 3rd highest position player projected war for this FA class, behind only soto and Bregman. Adames has said he willing to move off ss. Let Story and Adames be the keystone up the middle.

-Sign another decent sp like Jack Flaherty

You get a lineup like this:

Jarren Duran

Willy Adames

Rafael Devers

Triston Casas

Wilyer Abreu

Trevor Story

Roman Anthony

Yoshida/maybe another RH bat?

Wong/Teel

SP Rotation:

Crochet

Flaherty

Bello

Crawford

Houck

Giolito

And cried as many tears of joy and happiness as I did in 2004.

Big righty bat, perhaps has had enough badness in a ChiSox uniform to decrease his value to affordable levels? Hes an injury smorgasbord, sure. But I might be too if I played for a 20 win team next to banjo hitters. Not sure what his contract status is, or whether he’s under/overpId, just curious what people think.

I know the A's GM just said they're not trading Brent Rooker 2 days ago. Buuuut its the A's. Could even have been said for leverage. Plus I'm pretty sure they said the same thing before trading Donaldson to the Blue Jays.

He would be the perfect righty bat we've been looking for. Not a free agent until 2028 and financially much cheaper than Teoscar Herandez and no draft pick compensation. I'd have a super hard even considering parting with Mayer, Anthony, or Teel and I think Breslow agrees. So idk if we'd be able to swing without it since they're all pretty much off limits. But curious what everyone thinks a realistic package could look like to temp the A's to accept?

Catcher: Teel & Wong and we're all set.

1B: Casas owns this spot.

2B: Grissom deserves a chance.

SS: Story's if he can stay healthy.

3B: Devers all day.

OF: Duran, Abreu, Rafaela, Anthony.

DH: Yoshida's contract isn't very moveable. And he's fine.

UT: Campbell (high-ceiling) and González (average but most versatile) to start the season, with Hamilton and Mayer ready and waiting, depending on who goes gets hurt first.

That's 13 position players. We really don't need any free agent hitters. Yes, a right-handed bat would be ideal, but most SPs are right-handed, and going with 6 lefties against them most games isn't really a bad thing. And then we switch in Wong and sometimes González specifically for the lefty starters, and the balance is restored. The amount of left-handed hitters isn't ideal - but it's not going to ruin this team. Throwing money at a poor RH slugger just might.

SP: Houck, Bello, Pivetta, Crawford + Burnes and Fried (or maybe Bieber if we can't get both of them). Let's have a 6 pitcher rotation until one of them goes down or really sucks; that gives us security, flexibility, and none of them are cold when we need them.

RP: Criswell as long relief, until the day we need him to start. Whitlock as closer. Fitts and Slaten were solid. Martin would be fine to give another chance to; he was lights out in 2023. Weissert was fine but his WHIP concerns me; I'd rather pick up Hoffman and then we can use him as our set-up man, or to pick up a couple innings starting a high-leverage moment. Then we need a lefty specialist, and I sure don't trust Bernadino, so Tanner Scott is our man.

That's 13 pitchers. We have 26 for opening day!

TL/DR: Actual free agents I want: Burnes, Fried, Hoffman, Scott, re-sign Martin, Bieber as a third choice for two SP pick-ups. Urquidy might be worth a flier at the right price. But I just want pitchers. All this noise about Bregman and Teoscar and Adames and the like - forget it. We have our bats. Let the rookies play, and save that money to get pitching. Just pitching.

Just curious to see if anyone has and gotten anything

The guy cost like 0 dollars. Made 5mil last year and still hit 20 bombs. With the Yoshida surgery, a desperate need for RHB, why the fuck not? His numbers aren’t even far off from Yoshida last season. Easy dfa if it doesn’t work out. 0 risk. I love it.

Played SS at LSU. 3rd for Astros. Obviously, this on top of more pitching help, but I really think the front office should consider him. Cora and Bregman also have a connection when Cora was in Houston.