As the title says, I have recently purchased tickets to a game on SeatGeek for April, obviously we are still 5 months out from the season does this mean I still need to wait for tickets to release?

My next question is for anyone who has experience purchasing tickets through the app when do you normally receive your tickets through the app or how do you receive them?

If anyone can recommend a better alternative as well for future games that would be greatly appreciated.

Gave me a little chuckle

Assuming the FO is able to spend (I know big assumption), what would you like for them to get?

My unrealistic want would be Soto but my ideal would be sign one of Fried, Burnes, Snell + trade for another young controllable arm. I'd also love to add Hae Seong Kim on a 3 year deal but I understand that's more of a want than a need

Fans are already throwing in the towel because we might overpay Pivetta? The leaves haven't even completely fallen yet and people are already crashing out

(Using fangraphs depthcharts projections because Eovaldi is absent on the FA tracker, probably because of his option.)

This makes sense if you look at Nick's season last year. He got 2.0 fWAR while being slightly unlucky with quality of contact. He had his best hard hit% and BB rate of his Sox career to the tune of a 3.59 xERA. So he pitched better under Bailey even if the results didn't quite bear it out.

The six pitchers projected to be better than Pivetta are Burnes, Fried, Snell, Flaherty, Eovaldi and Kikuchi. He's above interesting targets like Manaea and Severino. Pivetta is the only one of these pitchers we could conceivably get without a multi-year commitment.

So my point is that his value wouldn't have been some easy thing to replace. I think keeping him helps us retain stability in the rotation as more depth arrives with Giolito, Priester and Fitts. You need 8-10 SPs to get through a season in the modern game. Whether or not the Sox go for a bigger name pitcher (and obviously I want them to), I'm confident the rotation will be above average, consistent, and an improvement upon last year.

And beyond all that, Pivetta is projected for the 13th highest fWAR in 2025 of all FAs regardless of position. I really don't think Sox fans should be thumbing their nose at this, we might have just signed one of the best "upper-mid" FAs to a one year deal.

saw this on Mohegan Sun’s event page as I happen to be heading up there this weekend. Feel like there was zero promotion or mention anywhere. But still pretty cool

PS - it is a ticketed event and thanks to Ticketmaster and their fees it’s $110. But tickets are still available.

Free Agency is just hours away!!! The Red Sox need to bring in some free agents and make a push for the playoffs so how much do you think they will spend and who will they bring back or Sign?

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5893223/2024/11/04/mlb-top-free-agents-juan-soto-contract/

(for those who do not have an Athletic subscription, I will post the projection, but not the underlying analysis.)

I'm looking at this based on not "Will the Red Sox pay for this", which many people will automatically go "FSG are cheap, won't spend.. yadda yadda yadda", but "Should they spend this amount". Meaning, will the contract be a massive overpay, or is somewhat reasonable:

Soto: 13 years, $611 million

My view: I don't see the Sox making the move. The position they're in doesn't make Soto a must sign, and with the Dodgers/Yankees/Mets and the rest all circling around wanting to make a splash, it's going to get ridiculous numbers very quickly.

Burnes: 7 years, $217 million

My view: As the article notes, he's now three seasons past his best year, and while he's been good enough, I don't think he's 7 years at 30 million a year good.

Bregman: 7 Years, $189 Million

My view: Not a need for the Sox currently.

Fried: 5 years, 140 million

My view: Yeah, I could see this going about that amount. He's a position of need, and costs less then Burnes on both AAV and length. I'd definitely go five years around $125-150 million.

Adames: 6 years, 150 million

My view: Had the best season of his career. I think with Story still having a couple years left, and the talent coming up, I'd be hesitant to pay it.

Snell 4 years, 110 Million

My view: I'm hesitant to give 32 year old pitcher 4 years. Did play well last year in the latter stages, but I think he's a strong #2, but we need top of the line. I'd go after Fried first.

Jack Flaherty 4 years/92 million

My view: I'm going to contradict what I just said, because Flaherty is three years younger, and would cost about 5 million less a year. He would be a #1a/1b starter, not super top of the line, but if we can afford two pitchers, I'd go Fried/Flaherty.

Quicker hits:

Anthony Santander 5/105: Eh... I think this is a little high of an ask. Not sure I'd pay $20 million a year, but 50+ BB a season puts him ahead of the next candidate

Teoscar Hernandez 3/69: 33 HR last year, and we do need a Right hand basher to balance things out. But I think the 200+K's a season would drive Red Sox fans absolutely batshit insane.

Pete Alonso 5/140: Last two seasons: .217 and .240 Batting average: Pass.

Tanner Scott: 4/64: With Jansen likely moved on, we need to replace him, either from a free agent or from within. It's a bit on the high side, but I'd probably pay close to it.

Sean Manaea 4/76: If we didn't have a rorttion full of #3-5 starters, I'd be willing to pay something like this, but we need top of the rotation, not middle of it.

Yusei Kokuchi 3/63: For the same reason as above, plus we need to lock down the front half of the rotation going forward, and 2-3 year deals to old(er) pitchers isn't probably the best way to spend whatever money is available

Nate Eovaldi: 2/45: Thanks for the memories, Nasty Nate. But no, paying a 35 year old when we're not quite automatic contenders isn't wise, I think

Jurickson Profar: 3/48: Switch hitter, which would be good, but while he was good last year, let's not forget in 2023, he was so bad for the Colorado Rockies that they walked away from his $7 million contract. There would have to be a trade of Yoshida and really strong buy in from the coaching staff that 2024 was the typpe of production we'd get going forward

Current Red Sox Free Agents:

Nick Pivetta 3/48 I think someone will give him something like that. I don't think it should be the Red Sox

Tyler O'Neill 3/45 Man, this is so freaking tempting: He'd only be 32-33 when the contract is over, and if he shows good, but our prospects are ready, he could find trade interest.

Stuff that I mostly don't have any opinions about but were mentioned in the article, feel free to comment if you do have an opinion

Christian Walker 2/37

Ha-Seong Kim 2/36

Jeff Hoffman: 3/36

Walker Buehler: 2/32

Luis Severino: 3 years, $50 million

Gleyber Torres: 3 years, $45 million

Nick Martinez: 3 years, $40 million

Andrew Heaney: 2 years, $35 million

Shane Bieber: 2 years, $30 million

Carlos Estévez: 3 years, $30 million

Clay Holmes: 2 years, $20 million

Jesse Winker: 2 years, $17 million

Joc Pederson: 1 year, $16 million

Paul Goldschmidt: 1 year, $15 million

David Robertson: 1 year, $14 million

Danny Jansen: 2 years, $14 million

Carson Kelly: 2 years, $14 million

Justin Verlander: 1 year, $12 million

Max Scherzer: 1 year, $12 million

Blake Treinen: 1 year, $12 million

Tomoyuki Sugano: 1 year, $11 million

Kyle Gibson: 1 year, $11 million

Kirby Yates: 1 year, $10.5 million

Harrison Bader: 1 year, $10.5 million

Justin Turner: 1 year, $10 million

Max Kepler: 1 year, $10 million

Michael Conforto: 1 year, $10 million

Jose Quintana: 1 year, $9 million

Alex Verdugo: 1 year, $8 million

In all seriousness, how lucky were we to be able to watch Papi do his thing?

I asked this question last year and suggested Pablo's walk-off grand slam. Top comment was Yoshida hitting two HRs in one inning.

My suggestion for this year is Yoshida's game tying HR against the Jankees in the Bronx and then Rafaela's go ahead HR in extras. Felt like we were really about to make a playoff push then. Vibes were through the roof.
What do you all think?

I know all the trade talk is centered guys like Crochet and Luzardo but there’s a trade partner out there that makes too much sense that I haven’t heard anyone talk about.

The Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers HATE paying guys, especially pitching. The Red Sox need bullpen help and starter. Enter Freddy Peralta and Devin Williams. Both look to be trade candidates entering the final year of their deals. Peralta would be an obvious extension candidate and these two would certainly cost less than any package you’d send to Chicago for Crochet. Feel like this makes sense for both sides. The brewers get to add to a young controllable core and the Red Sox get a top flight arm and lockdown back end guy.

Williams is still under arbitration for the 2025 season, and he’s expected to earn between 8-9 million according to Jeff Passan. Passan also says he is a trade candidate.

Obviously you don’t want to block Mayer, but Adames is a good right handed bat with pop, and I know Williams gave up a big home run in the NLDS this year, but he still has filthy stuff.

Now this could just be a bullshit list and if I’m wrong I do apologize but if I’m not, then we should maybe stop being cheap you know?

I've been looking forward to the offseason since about mid september. And I mean that legitimately, feel like we have a lot of pieces and are real close. That makes this offseason an important one. Seeing the Yankees loose and look so defeated feels like momentum for the us and the rest of the AL East. I'm so glad we don't have to hear 28 rings right now, and especially glad there was no 3-0 comeback.

A few big impact moves is all I want for christmas this year. Curious what your guys ideal offseason looks like?

For me, I'd say pull a David Price and go all in on Corbin Burnes. Likely $200mil+, but his season alone would've gotten us in the WC this year. We need an ace and he feels like an old school sox player. If that happens and thats it, I'd be thrilled. But hopefully we're finally going for it. So at least 2 veteran RP on short deals. Lots are on the market this year (Treinen, Chapman, Kahnle, or reunions with Martin, Kelly, or Bard). And a vet RH power bat (Hoskins, Cahna, but Teoscar would be huge and scare the yanks) Other than adding 2-3 of those kind of players, we have a good core. It would add a lot of payroll, but Burnes would really be only financial commitment of more than 1-2 years unless Teoscar signs.

He's a free agent and I'd believe he ain't coming back.

https://x.com/ChrisCotillo/status/1852752571099652278

I swear if they let go of Mayer, Teel, Campbell or Roman just because they’re too cheap to pay for a frontline starter I will be upset. I’d rather get nothing and let them develop as hitters.

Just a random thought I had tonight while stuck with no baseball for a few months.

Looking back, the hype around A Gon and Crawford was so high. I personally bought a Crawford jersey and you’d be hard pressed to walk around the city and not see one of these two jerseys or shirt jerseys around, people were absolutely stoked for these two and the way it ended was so bad.

Don’t know if there was a duo of Boston sports players that were so anticipated that ended more poorly.