The Red Sox announced the signing of lefty Patrick Sandoval to a two-year free agent deal. The Wasserman client is reportedly guaranteed $18.25MM. He’ll make $5.5MM in 2025 and $12.75MMM in 2026. Boston’s 40-man roster is now full. Sandoval is currently recovering from Tommy John surgery, performed in June. He’ll miss at least the first half of the 2025 season, if not a bit more, but could be a late-season option in Boston and should be a member of their 2026 rotation.
Sandoval’s two-year guarantee makes the Angels’ decision to non-tender him and his $5.9MM projected salary (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz) look all the more dubious. Even if Sandoval had missed all of the 2025 season, he’d have been in line to merely repeat that $5.9MM salary — a total of $11.8MM. There’s no way he would’ve secured a nearly $6.5MM raise on that projected 2025 salary heading into the 2026 season.
The Angels presumably shopped Sandoval around prior to cutting him loose, and market circumstances have changed since that time. Still, recent two-year deals for Tommy John rehabbers on similar timelines (e.g. Tyler Mahle, German Marquez) show that there could eventually have been trade interest in the lefty, but the Halos instead opted for immediate salary flexibility. Perhaps that made it easier for them to sign Yusei Kikuchi on a three-year pact, but Sandoval’s deal with the Red Sox shows that he’d very likely have had at least modest trade value had the Halos tendered him a contract and continued to explore the market for his services.
Though his exact timetable for a return to a big league mound can’t be known this far along in the rehab process, Sandoval is a quality arm who’ll slot into the middle of the Boston rotation whenever he’s cleared. Just days prior to his injury, I took a look at the statistical similarities between Sandoval and another lefty — popular trade target Jesus Luzardo. Dating back to 2021, Sandoval carries a 3.80 ERA with roughly average strikeout numbers (22.6%) and somewhat heavy 10.2% walk rate.
Sandoval’s command isn’t great and never has been, but that number is skewed a bit by an 11.3% mark from 2023 that looks like a clear outlier. Sandoval posted a 9.3% walk rate in 2021, 2022 and 2024. It’s still not good, but it’s only about one percentage point north of league average. He sits 93-94 mph with his four-seamer and sinker alike, complementing those fastballs with a slider that misses bats and a changeup that helps him keep righties at bay. He does still carry a notable platoon split, but right-handed hitters haven’t exactly crushed him (.263/.344/.391) and lefties practically shouldn’t bother swinging (.195/.274/.324).
Sandoval isn’t a star but has proven himself to be a capable third or fourth starter, even in a contending rotation. He’ll obviously open the season on the injured list but will eventually give Boston another arm to join a starting mix that includes Garrett Crochet, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Brayan Bello and, at some point, Lucas Giolito. Like Sandoval, Giolito is on the mend from UCL surgery, but his was performed last March so he should be back a few months sooner. Garrett Whitlock gives the Sox another potential rotation arm who’s on the mend from a Tommy John procedure, though he could factor into either the ’pen or the rotation.
The Red Sox could very well add another starting pitcher. They’ve been tied to Corbin Burnes on the free agent market and have also reportedly looked into the availability of Mariners righty Luis Castillo and Padres righty Dylan Cease. With several arms on the mend from surgery and a number of starters with only one full season of rotation experience under their belts (Crochet, Houck, Crawford, Bello), another arm feels prudent — even if it’s not a front-of-the-rotation type.
With Sandoval now in tow, RosterResource projects the Red Sox for a $155MM payroll and about $191MM worth of luxury tax obligations. They’re nowhere close to the $241MM tax threshold, thanks in no small part to going the trade route for their first impactful rotation addition of the winter (Crochet). That leaves ample opportunity for the Sox to bring in another arm and continue to poke around the markets for Alex Bregman, Teoscar Hernandez and other high-profile targets.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Red Sox and Sandoval had agreed to a two-year, $18.25MM contract. The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier had the salary breakdown.
Seems like a lot of guaranteed money imo
I agree. I see the value in the move, it’s common enough for a guy coming off TJ, but that’s a lot of cash
@rennick. That’s alot for someone to be back after the all-star game. Not sure if he had alot of people interested. That’s what beiber signed for. He’s most likely only going to pitch a month. I can almost guarantee setbacks because it always happens with Tommy john. So it’s essentially 18 million for next year.
Plus Sandoval is streaky to begin with. Hopefully the change will do him good once he’s on the mound again.
Sure feels like the Red Sox are trying to duplicate last year’s Cardinals rotation (excepting Crochet). Sandoval? Oh, please that’s embarrassing.
It spreads the risk of injury for all their pitching staff around and gives them depth. It’s a hedge. Many teams are employing a similar strategy. Trying to minimize putting too much $ in 1 player. Teams may make exceptions based on how close they think they are to a Championship and/or if the player puts them over the top. Many teams are gun shy to give out contract for pitchers of more than 5 years especially beyond a certain age. Like Corbin Burnes
This year NYY took more of a risk signing Fried for 8 years.
I never see it really talked about on this website but teams are probably buying some kind of insurance to minimize some risk.
I’d be surprised if NYM didn’t purchase some kind of insurance on the Soto contract
murph – I’ve posted several times the past few weeks how the Red Sox love going after guys who are …..
1) Injured or returning from serious injury
2) Have horrible recent numbers
3) Are inexpensive
And once again, Sandoval checks all three boxes.
So as of right now the Sox have:
Houck
Crawford
Bello
Crochet
Sandoval (obviously missing most of 2025)
And what of Giolito? Will he start the season on the IL? Will he be a reliever/spot starter when he returns?
For depth there’s Criswell, Fitts, Priester (maybe)…
This will make the skeptics believe even more that there’s no big name SP free agents on the Red Sox radar right now.
Giolito would start in the rotation while Sandoval starts on the IL
Can – Giolito hasn’t pitched since 2023, hasn’t pitched well since 2021, and is questionable as to whether he will return from the IL for the start of next season. He’s a huge question mark.
Giolito has to be monitored as will Sandoval. I wouldn’t have guaranteed about $20m for the next two years. They apparently see him as a lefty Pivetta type for 26.
Can – Giolito had TJ surgery in mid March.
14 months which is a minimum for recovery would suggest no starts prior to mid May. If there are any set backs then it could be mid season.
Also, it takes about two months for the SP to regain his full control. He won’t be 100% effective until mid July if he is like most SPs who have TJ surgery.
If Sandoval starts on the IL so will Giolito so Crochet, Houck, Crawford and Bello are the top of the starting rotation as of today with a bunch of question marks filling out the 5th spot.
This is Breslow wasting small money with another risky pitcher like Giolito. Best case, both will be able to pitch after the all-star break. Giolito might be ready but not fully effective as early as June.
We still need a SP but now have $10Million less so about $80 Million remains under the CAP. What a great way to reduce the chances of getting an all-star pitcher without officially announcing it to the fans!!!! Those owners, they know how to deceive the fans. Full Throttle!!! Couldn’t help myself.
Gioliti didn’t have tommy John surgery. He had an internal brace operation which has a faster recovery time
Giolito under went an internal brace procedure same as Whitlock the recovery time is significantly less then a full TJ surgery. It’s not unrealistic to think that Gio could be available at the start of the season or very early same as Whitlock.
I think this signing is more proof that Breslow and Bloom were handicapped by ownership. I believe there is no way that ownership is going to green light an 8 year Burnes contract. If Burnes is willing to accept a high asset value 3 year contract with opt outs that’s the only way I see this happening. It’s a damn shame because this team with a healthy Crochet and Burnes fronting that rotation makes this team dangerous. I just don’t see it happening though. My guess they sign Buehler and another bullpen arm hopefully Scott.
Bruin – I wouldn’t mind Yates.
Sag – Gio didn’t have TJS.
He had internal brace which is less invasive with a faster recovery time.
@Fever – What do you think about this:
Houston sends Ryan Pressly & $5M to Boston
Boston sends Wilyer Abreu back to Houston
Boston would then have Pressly, Hendriks & Chapman to deploy in innings 7-9, not to mention Whitlock too if he’s not forced into a starting role. They would have a rock-solid bullpen.
I really like Abreu, but they need to get rid of some LHHs (Yoshida is next) and I feel like we saw the maximum offensive output from Abreu last season. They would miss his defense for sure, but it would open up space to sign Teoscar and eventually Campbell if they decide he’s best off in the OF vs. 2B.
They should just sign Tommy John himself . It’s like every pitcher they sign is injured. What is the narrative? One of these times we will catch lightning in a bottle!
Wilyer way too much for Pressley, who has had a good run but lost a lot stuff wise last year. I like Fever’s Yates idea. And save Abreu for a starter if need be. I’m not convinced they are out on Burnes.
FPG, I would be totally fine with Yates.
Dorothy, that would be huge overpay for Boston the Astros would do it in the blink of an eye. No way Boston does that trade though.
There is no guarantee Giolito will be ready to start the season. That would be best case scenario
Dottie – I feel the same about Abreu, but I’ve accepted the fact he will probably be the odd man out.
I think with your trade proposal Boston would be paying too much, if Abreu gets moved it should be for a young SP.
stel – What do you think of Estevez? He had a great season, but doesn’t have much of a track record. I know he’s 6 years younger than Yates though.
Bruin1012 – You may want to research results of this procedure on two real MLB stars like Ohtani and Rasmussen. I documented elsewhere how long it really takes to recover from this procedure.
Cora can spew BS any time but I don’t trust him so I researched it. He’s full of crap. It’s all theoretical recovery times to please the fans. Actual times so far have been significantly longer.
Do the math on Shohei and Drew and you’ll see. It’s not much of a time saver and the issues of recovering your control are the same as far as I can tell. So save a few months returning but it still takes a couple of months to regain your control at a normal level.
I agree about Buehler, he makes Breslow sense. If Scott comes at a low enough price, that would be great.
Fever Pitch Guy – Tommy John surgery (full or partial) with an internal brace. Giolito’s was a partial TJ repair with the brace. The same thing was done for both Ohtani and Rasmussen.
Their recovery times are not significantly faster. 18 months for Ohtani and 13 months for Rasmussen and he only pitched 2 innings per game from August to end of season.
Giolito is likely kaputt. As a White Sox fan, I always liked Giolito and had believed that he was better than most. He always put up good K numbers, and showed some real promise but he could never string it together for long, I always felt like he would rest on his laurels and get hammered for it.
He has cashed some big checks, he has had a good career, I’m not sure he is the type of player who is motivated, and the concerns of how his arm strength will be seeing that he so much relief on his power game, he certainly can’t be counted on.
Sandoval seems more likely to make a strong come back to me, steep price but if you get one good season out of him in ’26, it’s not that bad of an overpay, add in the potential for a late season return in ’25, and I’d say the deal isn’t that bad at all. Hedges some of the Red Sox rotation risk after the all-star break. Like the move for the Red Sox
Fair enough Saga it looks like the internal brace procedure on average has 12 to 14 month recovery time while full TJ surgery is 16-18 months. Times vary of course but the brace procedure appears to have a shorter recovery time on average. Ohtani underwent his procedure in September 19, 2023 and I highly doubt the Dodgers wanted him to ramp up and pitch in the post season. I think his 18 month recovery is just a factor of when he had the surgery in 2023 not indicating a true 18 month recovery.
Lucas Giolito underwent his surgery in March of 2023 we should expect him back early in the 2025 season. Since Whitlock had the same procedure in May 2023 we can expect him back a little later. The effectiveness of either pitcher probably shouldn’t be counted on for either pitcher next season.
Tommy John surgery and internal brace are different operations. Just because it happens on the same body part doesn’t mean they are the same. And as bruin pointed out the recovery time varies but is often shorter with the brace procedure.
Pointing out a mistake you made is neither insulting nor inflammatory KD. Calling me and others stupid is. Im sure this
acell10 = No mistake was made. You are simply wrong about the procedure. TJ has variations and the brace is one of them. The tear in the elbow dictates the best choice among the many ways to repair it.
This is now the second time you have suggested I was wrong which I wasn’t and that is inflammatory because it’s a lie. If this was the first time you did this I could ignore it but since this is commonplace I will document your abuse yet again. Go back through the old comments by you, this happens all the time and it always creates a response like this from me because bullying through anonymity should never be tolerated.
The internal brace procedure doesn’t involve grafting a tendon from another part of the body. it uses a suture like substance graft anchors to bone promote healing. It is also well documented that recovery time is faster for internal brace vs a UCL tear. therefore it is not a variation nor is it the same procedure. I agree that the tear in the elbow dictates the type of procedure.
pointing out someone is wrong isn’t bullying nor is it inflammatory.. Calling people stupid, and leveling insults at them is like you do to me constantly simply because they disagree. I used no insults I simply pointed out that brace surgery and tommy john are different procedures.
This guy is a depth move so we don’t end up trading for garbage at the deadline again. You act like he’s the guy they expect to start day one.
Tang – How does yet another “depth move” help the Sox in the first half of 2025? Some people thought the team finally wanted to make the playoffs next year.
If they are building a rotation for 2026, fine …. but then that decreases the chances of them signing a quality SP to a multi-year deal. You gotta look at the big picture here.
First, if you think they are going to sign a big contract, you are probably mistaken anyway. Second, they don’t organize their moves in order of preference. You take them as they come together. Most of the bigger free agents aren’t willing to sign right now because they are waiting on someone else to set the market.
Whats wrong with the depth you have Criswell, Fitts, Crawford, Insert Name Here…..
Lets call it what it is, this is a sedative for the fans and nothing else.
“We were in on Soto, Burnes, Fried, Bregman. But, we’re excited about Sandoval in 2026.”
I’m furious right now. You’ve wasted $19mm dollars this season on Sandoval and Chapman.
I dont mind the Chapman signing, but in totality its looking worse, because now its going to be your SECOND best move instead of your Fifth best move.
It’s fricken December. Calm down
The one thing I will say is Sandoval has been an interesting pitcher as recently as 2022, which is better than Giolito can say. Even last year his FIP and strikeout numbers paint the picture of a guy who was a bit better than the ERA and WHIP would indicate.
I don’t hate gambling on him. But that’s the key. This better just be a gamble. If this is the other “big move” then I’ll be pretty PO’ed because this in no way “raises the ceiling” as we’ve been promised. But if he can pitch to his 2022 or 2023 level upon return, it’s fair to say he does raise the floor compared to most of our usual deadline pickup/injury fill in trash we’ve been wasting our time with the last few seasons.
Tang – Most of us feel it’s unlikely the Sox sign Burnes, but what about C-level pitchers such as Flaherty/Walker/Manaea?
The Red Sox have insisted they aren’t done improving the rotation, it’s not like people here took it upon themselves to guess the Sox would still acquire another quality SP.
Dirty – Wouldn’t you agree it will be virtually impossible to find another quality SP now that is willing to accept just a 1-year contract.
If they do sign another quality SP, it will be a multi-year contract which means who goes after next year? Bello? Crawford? Houck?
@Fever – I think Walker Buehler has a chance to be a quality SP this season and he is certainly open to sign a 1 year deal to reset his market in 2026.
Is it the most efficient allocation of resources? Absolutely not. Definitely not going to try and make that argument. But I would argue given the experience in recent seasons – we need to expect somebody’s going to get tired and somebody’s going to get hurt. That’s not a unique problem to the Red Sox, it’s true for most teams, but the Red Sox have not been preparing for or addressing that issue when it arises like a serious team in recent years.
If I’m Corbin Burnes or Walker Buehler, a signing like this is not going to bother me. I’m not getting brought in on a mega-deal to compete for starts with Patrick Sandoval. So if Henry is actually willing to open the wallet this winter as we’ve been promised, I don’t see why this should preclude any high end free agent starters from wanting to come. Mid tier options, maybe. But we have enough of them already that adding any more mid tier guys is not “raising the ceiling”, so if that’s really the goal then this shouldn’t impact anything is my thinking.
Going back to preparing quality rotation depth in advance, if the 2026 rotation looks something like Burnes/Buehler, Crochet, Houck, Crawford, and Bello, with a healthy Sandoval and Fitts the 6th and 7th guys in line to start while staying stretched out in multi inning/long relief roles, I would 10000% welcome that plan over the way they’ve preferred to go about it recently which has been to go into each season with zero depth beyond the starting 5 and then when injuries or the malaise of the dog days of August kick in having to panic and cycle through a ton of crap like Paxton, Hill, Keller, Kluber, Ort, etc.
Dottie – You’re right, I shouldn’t have grouped him with the others. He’s another guy returning from injury who hasn’t been healthy or pitched well since 2021 so he would definitely accept a 1-year deal.
He could be another high-risk gamble the Red Sox take.
Dirty – i agree. Even if you completely disregard the injury, rehab and money, what you’re left with is an inconsistent SP who will be 30yo with no reason to believe he can find the secret sauce post-TJ.
I know someone here will say “that is what you got in Crochet”. But, he’s 25.
‘Tang It: Yes, it’s December 20th and signing Sandoval is about 2026 and doesn’t preclude them from making moves for 2025. Looks like Breslow will make one of these deals every year- we have Fulmer last year and Sandoval this year so far.
Those guys aren’t coming off the board until Burnes signs and possibly not until Castillo gets traded
Tang it – Does this team have a tendency to back load our star players after the first of the year? NOPE.
It’s never too early to worry when it comes to the crap job the front office does on filling needs. Expect more dumpster diving. YEP we are bringing out the new and improved way Breslow dumpster dives compared to Bloom.
Bloom could take a star player making good money like Mookie and divide his $27Million into 6 to 8 crap players yet spend the money and lower the average talent on the team.
Breslow takes that same money and gets two high risk guys that were good several years ago and watching them go on the IL and not contribute at all BUT they were cheap so that is ok EXCEPT when you add up the total money spent on the guys not playing it equals Mookie’s pay!!!!
Two brilliant GMs perfecting the concept of pissing away payroll. We can try to blame ownership for this but I think it’s fair that they are simply contributors. These two philosophies are their own concoctions as completely inexperienced GMs. If this seems familiar, think about another completely inexperienced moron who manages the team. ONLY CORA marks off-days on a calendar and sticks to it because Hinch taught him to. A real manager reads the body language of the star player and sits him when needed not based on a calendar that doesn’t change based on rain out, schedule changes or mental and physical health.
If you count Cora, Bloom and Breslow we have had a trifecta of inexperience and bad decision making. Their contracts as front office personnel hurt us just as much as Devers, Story and Yoshida not to mention Giolito and Sandoval.
Wait for the scraps to save a few bucks, instead of striking out to get a player you want? The Sox are a team that need to overpay FA’s now, so why wait?
It didnt stop them from throwing $95mm at Yoshida two offseasons ago
Dirty – If we did what needed to be done in the off season then Breslow’s gambling would be tolerable as a risky waste of money BUT that didn’t happen.
1 – No Devers to DH
2 – No two stud all-star pitchers just one iffy guy that has only 1 year of experience as a starter.
3 – No 3B to replace Devers
4 – A lefty reliever (Chapman) but it could have been Scott
5 – Trade or dump some payroll for 2026 with Story, Yoshida
Without these things getting completed, the Sandoval move simply should anger fans because it’s only impact is to lessen available money for the stars that are needed.
Fever Pitch Guy = So Breslow’s legacy is low cost hopefuls that eat up the payroll similar to the dumpster dives of the Bloom era. No PROVEN studs just guys who had good years in the past or in Crochet’s case, ONE GOOD YEAR period!!
I’m thinking back over the last 100 years of baseball and I don’t remember anyone else adopting such a unique philosophy for becoming an elite team.
Seems to me, the latest approach to improving isn’t like Bloom’s buy 100 guys that all play every position, it’s buy 30 guys with recent injuries and wait til they come back but only contract them until they prove their worth and are able to get a real contract from another team like the Yankees or Dodgers. Interesting approach Cotton!!! hahahaha
Sad Soc 3 – BUT wait you left off the best part!!!!
The contract with Breslow gives the pitcher enough time to come back and be great as an option and then he can make a ton more money with a club that will actually pay over $20Million AAV. So we are like the farm system for repairing injured or under performing players and sending them off to better teams that pay real salaries.
I wonder where in this brilliant philosophy they figure winning will be important? When the risky guy finally gets good and is a free agent going to one of our competitors?
Seems like a .500 philosophy to me.
Very well said. If it ever works, we will be the farm team.
Okay, but you’re acting like the offseason is already over. It’s not too late to still address 3 or 4 of those items.
Bregman, Teoscar, and Burnes are all still unsigned. Arenado has yet to be traded, if he’s going to be. Alonso is still out there too, if they end up deciding they are just going to tolerate Devers being a butcher at third for another 5 years (not what I’d do but can’t rule that out at this point since they haven’t yet accepted he’s a DH) and shift to finding the biggest bat they can get to fill DH instead of Raffy. Several teams who don’t have big money to throw around in free agency are looking for an affordable, productive bat which Yoshida with modest salary relief attached mostly is.
Story is going to be a different story, he is going to have to stay healthy and play reasonably well for several months before anyone is going to want to think about taking him off our hands. Maybe if he’s having a nice year and Campbell or Mayer are knocking hard on the door, we might be able to send Story somewhere at the deadline.
Point is, there is still time for all of this to happen. The only reason any of it couldn’t or wouldn’t will be if Henry was lying to us again and goes cheap, again. Otherwise if they were serious about spending a and building a contender, this move is not going to inhibit any of that.
While I agree the Bloom/Breslow Era hasn’t really been very fun, the blame is squarely on ownership. If Bres was given a green light to spend 10% past the first LT level, you bet he would have Burnes already locked up. Maybe even Soto.
Cripes, look at Cashman. He’s gonna end up in the hall of fame because their ownership knows it takes outlays to stay competitive. He gets the money and spends it where it needs to be spent… because ownership approves.
If Henry would give Bres enough $, I’m confident we wouldn’t have to watch all these reclamation projects every year.
dirty – Will you feel the same way if they sign Means as well?
Here’s the thing, I don’t believe the Red Sox will ever spend like the Mets, Dodgers or Yankees to name a few. If they really want and need a player, and it requires just a few more million to get him, they could lose out because of budget constraints. I’d rather add that $18.25M to an offer for a really good player who is healthy now, than risk it on such a questionable contract as Sandoval’s.
Sag – Great post!!
So very true, it’s absurd how even if it’s a best-case scenario where the pitcher has one good season with the Red Sox, that pitcher leaves right after.
The ONE TIME a flier on a starting pitcher actually worked out was Wacha. They saw he got great results after making some changes just a few months before free agency, they signed him to a one year contract and he had a darn good year, and then they refused to pay him anywhere near market value.
If their plan is to do that every year, overpaying on dumpster dives that hopefully give them one good year, then they are even more foolish than we thought.
It’s like buying 10 consecutive scratch tickets and expecting most of them to be winners.
Dirty – Completely agree the off season isn’t over. Heck, other than a bad trade, it never got started for Boston!!
If you think they will do more and add talent, I am happy for you. My glass is half empty.
I dunno about that last part. Sandoval doesn’t figure to be any safe bet to start in 2025, meaning he’ll maybe be able to help as a left-hander out of the bullpen later in the year while being capable of filling in starts as needed. And he hasn’t been remotely good enough to be worth penciling in a rotation spot in 2026 – feels like he’ll have to compete and earn that.
This feels a lot like how the Dodgers approach their rotation, overpaying for single years and pursing similar type ways to accumulate around 8 rotation arms, many of whom won’t be counted on (and can’t be counted on) but together should be able to cover the course of a full regular season.
I’ve felt for some time that Boston wants to pursue a Dodger-type approach, excepting that they had to build up the system talent before they could do that. This seems to fit that mold. In which case, it doesn’t change the 2025 rotation and doesn’t close out the ability (need?) for a reliable guy over multiple years that a name SP FA would represent.
One thing we as fans often overlook is that teams need to cover both whether they do lock down a FA signing or whether they don’t. Boston could be sincerely pursuing one or more notables out there, but it can’t operate as those are givens. Breslow might also specifically feel Sandoval can be coached up to another level and/or be an effective swing man and/or maybe could even be a very good multi-inning bullpen arm, so maybe this is also a target for a different role entirely.
All of which is to say that I *absolutely* do not dismiss that the franchise might already be out on any other notable SPs – I just don’t see this closing the door any more than it felt prior to the move.
No one is expecting a “big” free agent signing anymore this offseason. However, this is a team in need of talent upgrades at SP, 2B. LF ,DH. Making a depth move here for 2026, at which point he’ll be turning 30yo is ridiculous.. For a nominal amount more (aav) you could probably sign Andrew Heaney, who could start in March.
Attaching the Dodgers (name) to this “strategy” is ridiculous. The Dodgers Strategy to me, seems to be, sign and trade for immeasurable talent (Glasnow, Snell and Yammamoto), and supplement that with a never ending pipeline of young mlb caliber arms (Gonsolin, May, Miller, Sheehan and Stone). That doesnt sound at all like what the Red Sox have done with Paxton, Giolito and Sandoval
redsox – The big difference between the Dodgers approach and the Red Sox approach is they’ve acquired SP who are currently healthy (Ohtani doesn’t count) and coming off great numbers.
Glasnow, Snell, Flaherty were all healthy and putting up great numbers.
Paxton, Giolito, Hendriks, Sandoval were all injured and coming off bad seasons.
Giolito was not injured when they signed him. Glasnow was an injury waiting to happen. They paid big bucks to extend him and the injury happened.
stel – During 2022-2023 Giolito’s performance and peripherals such as velocity screamed “injury concern” when the Red Sox signed him. They should have known, but as usual they thought they were the smartest person in the room … just like when they signed Story despite HIS drop in performance and injury concerns.
I usually try to stay positive, but this seems like a waste of money. If he was an ace and got injured/had surgery I would get it, but it has been years since he was pitching at a high level. Maybe for $5 million, but I don’t get the amount they are spending on him. They need to invest money intelligently not on reclamation projects. Come on, this is the best they can do.
More dumb anti-owner BS every single post from Fever Pitch about Red Sox. If you have noticed, Breslow is adding lefties to the Sox, who had very little LHP. What do Crochet, Sandoval, Chapman and Wilson have in common? They all pitch with their left hand. It has nothing to do with being cheap.
The reality is that Burnes will not be worth the big contract he gets. You just want them to spend money to prove something to you. But what do you want them to prove… that spending $200M+ over 7+ yrs is a bad idea for a pitcher in his 30s? Do you even need to question that? If they were one SP away, maybe you gamble on a big contract for Burnes. But they aren’t one player away. They are trying to build a young, exciting team that can win over the next decade. The dumbest thing they can do is blow big money on contracts that make them pay the luxury tax forever, which costs draft picks and international spending pool limitations (not just money) when they aren’t quite in their window yet.
They should try to compete, but frankly when the market goes nuts, it is best to let the big idiots blow their budget in dumb times and wait until a better opportunity presents. That’s what they are doing, and it is smart.
I have no doubt — zero — that they will spend big at the right time.
This signing is fine. Neither Giolito nor Sandoval are likely to pitch early in the year. But people always get hurt, so having reinforcements coming later is a good thing for depth. This is a depth move.
It they can find a deal for a young, potential 1/2 controllable starter that gives up Crawford and Bernardino in the package for him, you will appreciate they had depth to include and should help them not have to include as big a bat in the return.
I would watch for them to add Tanner Scott as well to complete their pen. LHPs are worth a premium, so building depth to deal from them later is smart…. and who knows that better than our LHRP CBO.
One more young SP, likely via trade, and hopefully they can convince Sasaki they still have a great young core.
But you don’t want an economically viable, great young team to watch for the next decade. You want the owners to prove they are willing to throw buckets of money at pretending to build a winner. So keep on complaining. It’s what you do well I guess.
My main issue with the Sandoval signing is that a nearly $20 million commitment to an injured player who seemed to already be in decline takes money away from more significant signings that have an impact on the team now. I usually try to keep a positive mind and don’t attack ownership, but I worry that this money is going to reduce the likelihood of more meaningful moves. I want to believe they will be making some bigs moves and I agree that Burnes is likely to get a contract that is beyond what is reasonable to pay. If they are going to be competitive now they need to make a few more moves. I am not giving up hope, but not a fan of reclamation projects as they have seldom worked for the Sox.
Blueberry – It’s been 5 years. When exactly are you predicting that they will spend big? When is this right time you allude to? That’s the kind of thing dreamers say not realistic fans wanting to win again.
There is no big spending coming. The $20Million AAV cap has been set and stuck to since they wasted all that money on Devers, Story and Yoshida.
People don’t want the owners to spend big money. You aren’t understanding the grief that people are giving the owners. They want TALENT. Like we had in 2018. Like what Bloom pissed away. Like Breslow (the gambler) is investing in since he can’t spend real money to get talent.
Sasaki is already off the table. He exceeds the limjts just like Burnes and all the other blue chip pitchers who have signed elsewhere.
BLUE CHIP – those are the players we want ownership to seek out at whatever cost it takes to sign them. The hundreds of millions of profits suggest these players are affordable but we need a GM who knows what BLUE CHIP means and clearly that’s not Bloom or Breslow. Ownership chose those inexperienced GMs and they have destroyed a once great franchise. The fans just want the huge fan dollars spent on Red Sox baseball to provide a competitive team not a .500 or worse team like we’ve gotten since Dombrowski was fired.
Fans are paying Lamborghini prices to watch a AAA team. The problem starts at the top and has infiltrated the entire organization by hiring inexperienced personnel to run the entire organization.
Why wouldn’t a Boston Red Sox fan complain based on the performance of the ownership, front office, manager and players rostered by the organization? The bigger question is why aren’t you passionate enough about your home town team to care as much as the real fans!!
Smh every dang signing. 18 is peanuts now
Wow what an overpay for a jobber.
He should’ve gone to Tampa or Milwaukee to get fixed in the pitching lab.
Milwaukee doesn’t have this kind of money to spend on guys who aren’t ready to give them a full season of quality production, unfortunately.
Who resigned woodruff?
They are a team with limited financial resources, the fact that they already gave close to $18 M last winter for one of these types of deals, combined with the fact that they just had to basically salary dump one of the best closers in baseball would suggest that they have even less money to tie up in a rehab project than they normally would.
Not to mention, Woodruff practically pitched at an ace level for them when healthy. Sandoval has not proven to be anything more than a probable mid-rotation starter.
@dirtywater04. Sandoval will be a reliever if he can return without set backs. He definitely doesn’t have the mental makeup for that. He gets in his head if he’s not getting calls or errors happen and that’s when the wheels fall off. The prices for pitching are definitely high this year, but that seems steep for Sandoval. When you could probably get lorenzen for 12.
I haven’t watched him much at all to know about him being a headcase but that’s a bad sign if he needs everything to be going his way to stay calm and pitch effectively. With the Red Sox defense the way it’s been in recent years you can pretty much guarantee it will not be smooth enough sailing to keep him from melting down, then.
@dirtywater04. I’m a angels fan. He definitely has ace potential. Not sure he needs much fixing on that level. But he’s definitely a headcase. I don’t think it’s bleeds into being a bad teammate/clubhouse cancer. But he definitely yells in his glove alot, and it unravels. Just thinking he could come out the pen if he’s ready, and I’m not sure if i would want him coming in with bases loaded.
Pretty big commitment to a mid to back end starting pitcher with ZERO certainty when and how well he will recover…
Jersey – That’s been the Red Sox M.O. for the past 5 years, high risk commitment with the hope the Sox can save a few bucks in the future. In their minds they are the smartest person in the room, and continue to prove they re delusional.
It hasn’t been working for the Sox, talk about definition of insanity …
FPG – Smartest Yale Graduate in Baseball Syndrome strikes again!!!!!
Sad – True! But I am really starting to believe Breslow’s hands are somewhat tied.
FPG – his hands are 100% tied.
But, here’s the problem i have with that. Trade aside, Ownership has approved three free agent signings for approx $20mm. I dont see this as the best allocation of that money. If they indeed said, “craig go out there and use about $20mm”, is this the best he could come back with? If it is, I have to start to think about Breslow’s acumen.
sad – Actually they spent $31M on the 3 free agents ($10.75M Chapman, $18.25M Sandoval, $2.25M Wilson). but I totally agree much of it seems like a potential waste.
My understanding is Breslow, with just one year of HOBO experience, doesn’t have a lot of say in these decisions. He doesn’t have the power that guys like Larry & Dave did. Obviously no way to prove it, but if Kennedy/O’Halloran/Cora/Romero/Henry are influencing Breslow to make these moves then it’s hard for me to put all the blame on Breslow.
The one constant since 2019 has been Kennedy/O’Halloran/Cora/Romero/Henry. I really think they need to blow up the front office and surround Breslow with better minds.
Fever Pitch Guy – My take on this puzzle of how to get good players is that ownership built a box to work within and Bloom and Breslow dealt with the box differently. Dombrowski dictated the framework and when the owners wanted to change to this new philosophy, they had to fire Dombrowski because he would never agree to it because you can’t win with it.
Bloom will always be the dumpster diver.
Breslow will always be the gambler.
Both waste enormous amounts of money compared to contracting blue chip players but small chunks of money seem to please ownership even if they are ineffective choices. Thus, mediocrity will exist until something changes.
The sad part is Breslow is really bad at figuring out who is a pretender in the farm system and who is a future star. He’s already dumped 3 future stars so other than Campbell and Anthony he has mostly pretenders who will eventually be DFA’d. That really set back the organization after building a brighter future. Lets hope they don’t shed more future stars like Duran, Casas or Houck. I have absolutely no confidence Breslow belongs as a GM based on his decisions to date.
Sag – I agree on most of that, but keep in mind Breslow had ZERO experience as a HOBO before taking the job a year ago ….. and it’s not like he was surrounded with talented mentors the way Theo was.
I believe Breslow could become a solid HOBO within the next 3 years, but then he will likely leave for a better situation elsewhere ….. and Cora will replace him. Hahaha!
Fever Pitch Guy – Bite your tongue!!! Cora sure has a high up backer keeping him in his job and you might be right which should flag the MLB to investigate why he is still in the ranks of the Red Sox organization and how it links to huge winnings in gambling world now tied to baseball.
Breslow had no experience and didn’t deserve to be hired. The same is true about Bloom. It’s even more apparent that Cora had no experience.
Those three mistakes are clearly on ownership and the fans should remind them of it EVERY DAY!!!
Sad = Excellent commentary.
Think about this. A good quality starter costs more than the limit set on Breslow. There are a finite number of innings in a year so if you can’t pay 5 starters and a back-up starter over $20Million a year you must either have controlled players like Houck, Crawford, Bello or maybe some dumpster divers like Bloom did with Kluber etc.
We have a great Closer in Hendriks, an adequate lefty set-up reliever who can close in Chapman so why not take the $90Million under the CAP and add the best relievers on the market that cost less than $20Million per year to cover one inning each? Add Tanner Scott, David Robertson, Paul Sewald, Carlos Estevez, AJ Minter and Kyle Finnegan. Six more relievers to go with Hendriks and Chapman.
That costs about the equivalent of two SPs that are top of the rotation and leaves $30M for a 3B so Devers can go to DH. Then your rotation is Crochet, Houck, Crawford, Bello and an opener game where 3 relievers go 2 innings a piece and you have Chapman and Hendriks to cover the 8th and 9th.
One game by committee and four starters until Giolito returns mid=year or possibly earlier.
Breslow’s acumen. Great topic. We hired a completely inexperienced Manager who was a crap player with a bad work ethic as a player, we hired a “take credit” guy from TB who knew nothing but took credit for their success and now we have a genius with no experience either. Three unqualified hires that have set back the ball club half a decade so far and it’s looking like that won’t change soon.
Yeah, I think Breslow’s acumen is suspect!! Great point.
Fever Pitch Guy – Lots of team prefer not to surround Breslow with better minds, they prefer to hire the better mind to do the job and cut out the middle man. We had that with Dombrowski and threw it away.
We keep believing the owners care about the results and I don’t see why that would be true. They simply care about profits. These are the same people who hired Cora to show they aren’t racists as rumored in 2017 and later proven in 2020. Blowing up the front office is a great idea but be careful how you suggest it to Cora.
Sag – Totally agree, but how many execs on Dave’s level even exist? Let alone are available.
Breslow is highly intelligent and a great guy, all he needs is knowledge and experience … and of course the ability to make his own decisions without the manager undermining him.
I thought we had moved past this. Wasn’t this supposed to be the year they build a championship team? Now I do have some big question marks about Breslow. This is not what I was waiting to find under my Christmas tree.
More wasted money on a recovering pitcher hoping he can regain form.
Why sign top tier FA when you can waste money on guys like this? Did they not learn from Paxton? Jesus Christ.
Beyond the basic risk/reward answer, I wonder how these contracts effect calculations the payroll and luxury tax. If he’s not on the 40 man roster in 2025 his pay will not be counted towards the luxury tax, so does it give him an average of $9+ million vs $12+ million AAV in 2025? Is it essentially a manipulation of the CBA?
Plus can they collect any type of insurance on player contracts even though they knowingly signed an injured player? Is it some type of write off if you have to pay someone who cannot work?
GM – Sandoval’s AAV is $9.125Million which is all that really matters because it’s pegged to the CAP.
The 40 man roster doesn’t matter. It’s a MLB contract so it goes against the MLB team.
Breslow is new to the GM spot and has an approach unlike most savvy GMs. He’s either inferring a lack of funds by his low cost deals or he’s got the handcuffs on by owners. Either way, he’s simply a high risk high reward gambler that has been unsuccessful so far and will eventually be replaced by someone else with no experience. Worst nightmare would be seeing Cora in the position.
Red Sox love making these deals. I like Sando fwiw.
And is there an example of these working? I can’t think of one, but I’m sure there is an example.
Michael Pineda with the Twins.
Not a major one I can think of, but clearly the Red Sox will be damned before they stop trying. And of course one of these years one of them is going to randomly work out well and they’ll point to that one case as being proof that it was a good and worthwhile to try it 17 times.
Miller, Pomeranz, Moyer, Hill, heck even Breslow.
Paxton did end up working for them. He came back and pitched fairly well. The season was sunk already though.
They paid him to rehab 3/4 of the year. I’ve had enough of these injured player contracts with Breslow and Chaim Bloom. The guy has a 19-45 record, great addition, should put us over the top. Nothing like throwing guaranteed money in the wind.
There is a ton of money to be made if you’ve ever been in the big leagues and your official position was “pitcher”.
Wow. That’s. just… a TON of money for an empty uniform.
Don’t forget “and if you throw with your left arm”!!!
This can’t be any worse than the other Sandoval signing.
Literally true, Pablo Sandoval was a negative WAR player for them at a major salary and many years guaranteed money. That truly was about as bad as a signing gets. The only way this could be worse is if he goes crazy and robs teammates or hurts them with violence or something, haha.
Great move Red Sox, congrats…….
The panda is back!!!!!!!!!!
Wait….
No this is Patrick!
*hangs up phone*
I know, Deja vu. Unfortunately he is probably going to end up with similar results.
I see that Breslow is climbing back into the dumpster and picking up and guaranteeing money to injured players. Can Breslow spend on players who are decent and not dumpster discount players. Although he threw a lot of money at this guy. Did we not learn from Paxton already. So now we see that the 700 million for Soto was all BS for eye wash for the fans.
I’ve said all along that
1. Just because they offered Soto 700MM doesn’t mean they will spend that same AAV across other guys for those years.
2. The offer was likely a facade, it gives the impression that they tried without actually paying someone.
Joe – you’re making great points. I totally agree.
Spending $20mm this year on Wilson, Chapman and Sandoval.
Sounds like just enough to prevent a grievance from MLBPA and not an actual team building exercise. What the heck is happening?
No one is offering $700m in the hopes that the person turn it down….. John Henry has said it himself that he doesn’t like the idea of giving massive contracts to pitchers in their 30’s. Then he goes out and signs david price to the biggest contract (at the time) to a starting pitcher in his 30’s. Now, tell me how did that work out for him?
Aggee – when there’s other bidders driving up the price, the offer is more of a “hey look we tried and missed our” than an actual attempt to sign the player. We have seen this time and time again with the Sox front office. It has gotten quite old. They should just say they’re not in on players instead of giving people hope and then these offers come out which are so far for what the player actually got.
And yes, they have had some bad luck. But the alternative to not spending on pitchers while your CBO ignores pitching prospects is having a horrible rotation for years, or being forced to significantly overpay for a reliever turned starter with health issues.
If the Sox were up against the luxury tax, I get it. But they have so much room to operate and signing a guy like Fried, Burnes, Snell, etc gives an impression that you’re actually trying to improve the rotation for this year. The Sox make money like few other franchise do, and they refuse to actually reinvest it in the team.
Invest in Fried? Nope. Here’s another rehabbing pitcher, maybe he will return to his 5ERA self in 2026.
The Red Sox’s David Price days are long over. The exact reason tehy offered $700mm is because they knew it would be turned down. They were willing pawns in Boras’ game, thinking that they were driving up the price for the Yankees.
Bahahahaha!!! Again, no one is offering $700 in anticipation of them saying no. If he would’ve accepted it then what? Like I said, John Henry stated that he has no interest in signing a 30 yr old pitcher to a long term contract ( i agree). They got crochet and y’all are still complaining that they didnt improve the rotation. It’s as if your complaining just to complain….
David price is a perfect example of why you don’t give long term contracts to SP in their 30’s…. The rest of your comment is feelings. Nothing i can do for that….
Aggee – not complaining at all. I love the Crochet trade, as a matter of fact, i want them to extend him.
The anger comes from the ignoring of glaring holes in the team and going out to make this move. Or, jumping out and signing Justin Wilson. Its moves like this that perpetuate the lies this fan base is being fed, year after year.
Crochet? They did get him, and he does represent an improvement over pitchers in the rotation but he has not shown that he can be healthy and effective over 30+ starts in a season.
Crochet is a MASSIVE injury risk. He was horrible in the second half of the season. Could he be great all next season? Sure! But besides blind faith, why would you think that?
I’m complaining because they need to improve the rotation in 2025, they talk about “raising the ceiling” and they do so by trading a massive haul for a very high risk (but very high reward) guy and another rehab project.
We have seen year after year how important pitching is. The Sox are leaving in that department, both at the major league and minor league level. They have made steps to improve the minors, but still lack that top end talent down there. The major league team could easily be fixed by throwing money at it. The Red Sox will get massive surplus value from their young position players. Theres no excuse for not signing a top tier arm when you have the money the Sox do and the positional need like the Sox do.
The general consensus was the Sox needed two top tier arms to fix the rotation. They got one, even if I don’t love the move. Now they need another, and not another “let’s hope he can stay healthy and pitch like one year he was really good and not the rest of his career” guy.
And yes, not every contract works out. But there are examples of guys that in fact do work out such as Verlander, scherzer, Randy Johnson, etc.
One bad contract shouldn’t scare them from fixing their biggest roster hole.
No because Crochet has a high probability of being a bust. Crochet is the type of risk you take when you already have 2 good front of the rotation arms. Instead they are hoping a injury prone pitcher with no track record can be your ace. Seriously what are we doing here. I checked out on the Sox last season and I doubt I will pay attention if this is the headline move. At least sign Burnes, they have the cap space and don’t tell me they can’t beat out the Giants or Blue Jays. I used to defend Henry but those days are over. He doesn’t care about the Sox and Breslow sucks. Breslow is only hea, because 15 other people didn’t want the job
aggee10 – Wow talk about an uninformed opinion.
The $700 Million was a low ball. That was obvious in light of one GM stating that he would bid $65Million more no matter what. That’s so obvious even you should be able to understand that it was meaningless. For those that better understand the inner workings of the front office, it was a political bid not a practical bid. Boston wants to stay tight with the Dominican Republic Baseball Academy and the DR people. That’s why Devers got paid twice his worth and is allowed to play like crap on defense. This was a bid for a Dominican player that wasn’t going to win the bid but the magnanimous gesture was perfect in showing how serious Boston is at supporting the Dominican Republic players.
It was nothing more than a political win and there was absolutely no expectation that it would be chosen.
Crochet has ONE YEAR of experience as a SP. It was a poorly constructed high risk move because 3 star prospects were lost in the trade. Had they thrown in guys like Mayer who is more hype than performance, his rating would have lowered the number of players and left Boston far better off than they are now in the farm system.
Complain when a job is poorly executed is no different than being upset when a player botches a play. The fan has the right to their opinion and their dissatisfaction with the performance of the ball player, front office personnel or owners.
I read ahead to your next inane comment about Price. You are so clueless about baseball you should study the game for say a decade and then come back here and comment.
Price got a perfectly fine contract. Age had nothing to do with the issues he faced but you would know that if you actually followed Boston baseball. He was fine with Farrell but when the numbskull Cora because manager he impacted the entire pitching staff because he was a flunky bench infielder as a player and knew nothing about managing. The number of great pitchers who failed under Cora is ridiculous because he still has a job as the owners chose to distract their racism by hiring a completely inept minority and claiming diversity.
Price, Sale, Porcello and even some of the formerly great pitchers like Kluber and others all failed under Cora. Age can’t be the answer because Sale is older than he was with the Red Sox and he just won a Cy Young conclusively proving that it wasn’t age it was the dbag CORA.
Dombrowski signed a guy who had better credentials than nearly every SP in baseball when he signed Price. Then he did the same with Sale and he got him at a very, very friendly price well below market value.
Signing a 6 year deal whether it’s with a 25 year old or a 30 year old is always going to be risky but it’s a necessity to bringing talent to a ball club. Your BS about age is just that a bunch of BS. It’s a cliche rather than a fact based comment.
Joemo
He was horrible in the second half of the season.
=======================
It’s in the eye of the beholder. In his last 8 starts, he was virtually unhittable. He has a 42/3 K/W in his final 25.1 IPs.
they are hoping a injury prone pitcher with no track record can be your ace.
=============================
Does his 4.1 bWAR last year not count as a track record?
His 2nd half numbers were not good. I don’t believe it is open to interpretation. His ERA was over 5 and WHIP was near 1.4. This is probably what could be expected from a pitcher going from reliever workload to a starter workload.
He only made 12 starts in the 2nd half and only pitched 38.1 innings. The White Sox were clearly limiting his innings in the 2nd half. I wouldn’t compare his SO rate to normal starter when he knows he was only going to go 3 or 4 innings per game.
Also, you need to factor in he is going from a neutral home field to a hitter friendly park. I think even the most optimistic fan should be concerned.
Offering $700m is a low ball offer?….. Bahahahaha. Oh all of sudden crochet is worthless after the sox acquired him…. Again, all of you are just complaining like a bunch of high school white girls… Go change your panties.
There is no doubt that Crochet has the potential to improve the Red Sox. Sandoval on the other hand may not even pitch this year, so he is not currently an upgrade. They did lose multiple players to free agency and without knowing how they will be replaced we don’t know if they are an improved team overall. Why wouldn’t the fan base be getting frustrated waiting for them to create a competitive team this offseason. If they had not hyped up their big plans for this to be the year to turn things around there would be different expectations.
Joe – It’s a single data point. You need two to trend.
A track record suggests two points.
8 years since he played in college. 1 year as a SP that was successful. That’s the full track record but most of it was as a reliever which is a completely different animal.
Joe – WAR is a fabrication. The 4.1 is irrelevant because the next guy wouldn’t come up with that number. Use real stats.
I’m pretty sure I documented how excellent he was for the one year. The 4.1 is misguided information that is totally meaningless when discussing reality.
aggee10 = Seriously, you don’t understand the simple concept of a low ball offer? Are you in grade school?
$1 Billion is a low ball offer if you are certain the final offer will be $65Million more than that. That’s a pretty simply concept. Even a guy like you should understand it.
Sounds to me based on your behavior in these responses you might be a high school girl, although I don’t want to offend them as a group by suggesting they are incredibly stupid. Hahahahaha
Bingo. You can “offer” him $700 million all you want when you know he’s not taking it. Just another typical offseason for the post-Dombrowski Red Sox.
DD actually tried to win. Since then, they have been more focused on giving off the appearance of trying to win, than actually improving the team.
I like how the addition to the article mentions they are still looking for rotation upgrades. Duh, because they need some this year and AT BEST Sandoval is a next year solution.
Yes, nothing has changed. The Red Sox are still looking to upgrade this year’s rotation and Sandoval is about next year…but you are ANGRY. LOL!
Wouldn’t say I’m angry at all. I will be, if this proves to be the second biggest move of our offseason, but for now I’m continuing to hold out hope that it won’t be. I’m fine with taking this gamble, as long as the FO is in agreement that this is merely a gamble and not what “raising the ceiling” looks like.
DW04: Agreed and you didn’t sound angry. I was replying to Joemo. I think there are more moves coming. I am happy that Breslow seems to be taking a methodical approach. I think he is refusing to make deals he thinks are bad for the Red Sox.
All – Remember how you like to focus on money. The money invested on a guy like Sandoval takes away from the available money to get a blue chip SP. Do the same deal AFTER we sign a Burnes or Burnes equivalent, nobody complains. Sign him before we have a rotation, Breslow deserves to be roasted for this move.
The Red Sox are willing to pay luxury tax this year if necessary. Again, signing Sandoval does not keep the Red Sox from making any moves.
My bad, notifications were saying you were replying to me so i was mixed up. But yeah as long as more moves are coming I can live with this one.
I think the hard part is that we are seeing the rumors of all the potential impact moves they could make, getting our hopes up that the next few moves are going to be those exciting ones, and instead they sign another reclamation project. I had not even seen anything about Sandoval being on their radar, and when I saw that name it brought back memories of a different Sandoval that did not work out.
I really hope they lock up Crochet to help justify the prospects given up. I do think he will be a significant improvement and with another starter the rotation should be much better. Just waiting for a right-handed bat, bullpen ace, and hopefully trading off a few players that have limited value (Yoshida for example).
Trying to stay positive, but I do worry when they make significant commitments to injured players as that has not often worked out in the past and the money may have been better spent elsewhere.
Al – Add Giolito to the list because they should have known he wasn’t right when they signed him. They continue to sign players coming off bad seasons, which is a ridiculous approach for a Top 4 Revenue team.
Mondesi was a complete waste of money, let’s see if at least Hendriks works out.
Fever Pitch Guy = I can’t guarantee it but I believe Hendriks will be one of the pleasant surprises of 2025.
I think he’s so resilient that he can overcome almost anything.
His 2019 to 2022 numbers reflect the type of closer we need. If anyone worries me, it’s Chapman. I watched him with Texas and had throwback thoughts to Mitch Williams and Don Zimmer wiping his head throughtout the 9th inning as Williams walked the based loaded and then struck out the sides.
Sag – I had forgot Zim managed the Cubs!
I’m not inspired by this move, but if anything the BS seems like it’s coming from your direction. Learn what from Paxton? Paxton wasn’t just a TJS signing; he also had a long history of injuries, which Boston knew and accepted. He wasn’t able to return late in 2022 (on the 1.5 year recovery timetable) because of a LAT injury, and then he exercised a cheap player option that Boston was perfectly happy to have him under. Once he suited up for Boston (after his 2023 debut was delayed by a hamstring injury), he gave a 3.34 ERA over 16 starts, and then the final numbers were skewed by his final three appearances…easy to figure that the knee inflammation that shut him down might have been the cause of that.
So they got an excellent full half season from him (including AL Pitcher of the Month for June) essentially for $14M before this third unrelated-to-TJS injury in a Boston uniform threw off three starts. Could have been a smashing success, but still passed muster at least. Sandoval hasn’t been injury free (obviously), but he’s quite different from Paxton, in many ways.
As for Soto, Boston would have signed him if the number hadn’t exploded into the stratosphere, so there’s no BS there. 2 of the 3 teams with the most ability to overpay for a guy were max all-in on him, and Boston did nothing wrong by not being able to match them to the end.
Just because they were willing to pay HUGE for a guy they have ultra confidence in doesn’t mean they should just throw that money at whomever else. Never spend for the sake of spending – that’s what gets you the Crawfords and Sandovals and Lackeys of the world. Spend on the guys you really believe are worth the investment.
Red Sox – wait your telling me that James Paxton, the guy who is perpetually hurt, got hurt? I am shocked. The Red Sox paid what 28MM (too lazy to actually look) for a guy who lives on the IL to pitch a few good months? Wow such value there!
Instead of spending this money on the Paxtons and Sandovals of the world, they could spend it on guys who have a track record of being healthy and performing like actual top of the rotation arms.
And you’re right, the Sox would have signed Soto if they had the highest bid! Unfortunately with your Cohen, dodgers owners (Guggenheim Partners), and even Cashman, the Sox will never be that top bid for a top tier FA.
soxu – Paxton had 10 good starts thru July 8, after that he had 9 bad starts with a 6.98 ERA.
If you really think $14M for 10 good starts was a great investment, sorry there’s no point in discussing further.
Have the Red Sox considered signing guys who are possibly ready to pitch when pitchers and catchers report instead of waiting 8-15 months for surgery rehab to finish?
I CAN’T, i cant
C’mon. I argued against this last week when they were tied to John Means. STOP signing pitchers who cant pitch for you. Stop signing pitchers who arent better than Crawford or Criswell or Fitts or any other depth starter you have…..STOP!!!!!
Sad – just when you thought the Sox were done scrapping the bottom of the barrel, they find a new way!
Why invest money in actual top tier SP when they can pay guys to rehab from TJ and then play part of the next season with mediocre output.
Didn’t Breslow say he’s trying to raise the ceiling of the rotation? Not sure what this move accomplished.
Joe – AGREED! I so hate this maneuver, paying for a rehab. One day, ooooone day, this may work and the Starter may actually pitch well. And what do you get? He’ll walk away for a tne more money somewhere else.
I dont love the idea of 8yr contracts for SP’s, but this is equally dumb on the other end of the pendulum swing.
Sad – I actually forgot about their interest in Means, and let’s not forget the possibility of Fulmer coming to a Red Sox rotation near you.
They are still trying to mirror the Rays, it’s unreal.
There is no reason to not add guys for the 2026 team. I assume that there will be a 2026 season.
AGREED these are guys you sign AFTER you sign the BIG boys. This is a late Januay sign. CONCENTRATE on BIG tickets available NOW!
Well, he was a pretty decent pitcher back in 2022. Which in today’s market gets you $18,250,000 guaranteed.
Compared to what Woodruff got on his w year deal while recovering it’s kinda in line and fair price
i actually like Sandoval but for a guy who they MAY get 1 month out of, this essentially amounts to maybe a $15m deal for 2026. it’s way too much for a guy still recovering for me TJ.
The Red Sox need to make a splash here. This is a mediocre pickup at best. All of the talk about being aggressive in the offseason and so far the Crochet trade is it. Time to sign a bat…Bregman would be a great pickup. And more pitching is needed. The Yankees are dusting us. Let’s goooo!
Come on Sam Kennedy….
Could have done the same with John Means for way less money. But also less of a sure thing I guess.
Yeah, I don’t understand the size of the number here. Was Sandoval’s agent holding some kind of negotiating high ground or beating off suitors with a stick while waiting for someone to offer “real money”? At his projected market value if healthy (2 years, around $11M or so annually) this is like locking in 1.5 seasons from him.
Ah c’mon. This signing can’t be that bad…
*checks baseball savant*
oh…
Guy who throws 96/97MPH with an above average changeup. $9M a year is nothing. Might hurt teams like Oakland and Pittsburgh, but $9M is nothing for Boston. Smart move, I can see the Yale degree is paying off for Breslow
NorthJersey – Congratulations, you are the only commenter so far who has not been a total brick.
North – If he doesn’t pitch next year, it’s $18.25M a year.
You can’t say he’s getting $9M to pitch next year if he doesn’t end up pitching, or pitches only a month or two.
Feel like that’s a big guarantee for another rehab project, but I have to admit I do like this one better than Giolito.
I am totally fine buying a lottery ticket on this guy’s health, but I also hope it doesn’t preclude a bigger, more of a “sure thing” type of addition.
Houck, Crochet, Crawford, Bello – great start for the rotation. Add another “serious” arm and we’re cooking. If Sandoval and/or Giolito are able to contribute anything, all the better. Though I’d feel a lot better about it if they’re put in positions where any value from them is gravy, not something we are built to depend on.
Lots of comments poo-pooing the Red Sox for paying so much. Where are all the comments questioning the Angels incompetence? If this guy is worth $18m on the open market they could have gotten at least $10m in prospect value by trading him.
The hate for the Red Sox FO is warranted, and also brought on by themselves because they’re always making us big promises about “raising the ceiling” and going “full throttle” and all that before whiffing on every potential acquisition that would actually drastically improve the team and telling us how great they actually feel about the guys they already had.
The hate for the Angels FO is also warranted, but also I think pretty well documented? These guys wasted the career of Mike Trout and the first half dozen years of Shohei Ohtani, an absolute joke of a franchise. They’re where you go when you want that last big contract but you’re ready to start phoning it in for your career instead of playing up to the expectation you’re getting paid for. Basically MLB’s pre-retirement club. I feel bad for their fans.
Dirty – My understanding is some of the horrific Angels signings, such as Hamilton, were all Moreno’s doing. If true then their FO can’t be blamed for it, unless you consider the owner to be part of the FO which is fair.
Wade – I do agree with your points.
But maybe he’s not worth 18MM to other teams and the Red Sox just love paying people to rehab with them.
I don’t mind signing a guy coming off of an injury to a multi year deal but i do not understand why the paid such a steep price. Who were they bidding against that they thought they had to go that high?
Baked into the calculus is the assumption that he delivers a full, healthy season for 2026.
At $8 million per WAR which is often quoted as the value of 1 WAR, and assuming he’s a 2-3 WAR pitcher when back on the mound (an aggressive assumption because I think he’s done this exactly once), they’re not actually paying him much of a premium at all.
They think his value will be about $16-$17 million in 2026, and if they can get about a month’s worth of that type of production out of him in 2025 that would be worth about $2.5 million.
I agree that I think it’s an overpay, but that’s because I think it’s overly aggressive to assume he is going to be that good/reliable. For one, being a guy who has been more of a pitch to soft contact type than a big strikeout guy, I worry about how that will look with Boston’s atrocious defense. The other big thing, is guys coming off a major injury should be signed for somewhat of a discount to market rate, which they didn’t manage to get.
But if they are comfortable enough with something they see in him to think he’s going to pitch well in Boston, they’re not really paying a premium for his expected value. They just messed up by giving him a market rate deal when he’s in no position to command one.
Totally agree. Waste of money when SO MANY better ways to spend that money.
Plus our last Sandoval was also a disaster. Albeit a different position but still.
Time to find out how good Bailey’s pitching lab is.
Red Sox just spent more on a depth or 2026 piece than the mariners will spend all offseason lmao
“Market circumstances have changed since that time.”
This is MLBTR talk for “pitchers are getting such crazy contracts right now that who cares about ten million here or ten million there?”
I wonder what the total WAR of every one of these contracts over the last 15 years for pitchers looking to rebound vs the WAR of spending on a Burnes, Cole or other Stud pitcher.
even if healthy, not a game changer.
They have like 60 mil before they cross the tax line. Just used up 9 mil on a pitcher who is 19-45 life time and who had TJS and won’t be available until late next if not until 2026. Sox have pressing needs and this is how they go about filling them
’67 – thank you for being so calm and expressing my thoughts so coherently. This fills exactly ZERO needs.
Sox67 and Sad Sack – please go buy a calendar. It is not March and the regular season does not start next week. Lmao
Whine, whine, whine, whine, whine ….. still lmao.
Maybe you can find a nice Red Sox calendar with Devers and Duran on it.
Sox doing all they can to finish last. ; )
Yanks – I’d say the Sox definitely finish ahead of the Rays, and possibly ahead of the Jays too. But that’s as of right now, let’s see what other moves are made with all teams.
Fever Pitch Guy – It’s funny. The Trop is gone and TB looks like a hot mess but somehow I feel like Kennedy will rally them to a better record than Boston. Toronto has to be one of the least productive highly talented teams in baseball. They get my vote for last place.
Devers at 3B, Cora as manager and a $20Million AAV cap on new contracts. Sounds like a .500 team to me and it kills me that it could be 90 win team with just a couple of tweaks. A new permanent DH and a new Manager. Oh well, .500 it is!!
The Red Sox are like Wile E. Coyote. They just never learn, no matter how many things blow up in their face……
xpensive – That’s what happens with owners who are stubborn and arrogant.
John Henry is convinced it’s possible to contend every year on a lower-half budget, and nobody can change his mind.
xpensivewinos = Great comment. Best comment for visualizing what’s happening in Boston!!! Couldn’t stop laughing. So true.
You guys complain when we don’t have pitching, complain when we sign pitchers… baseball is fun relax !!
Still lots of moves to be made. Have some trust in Craig !!
The negativity from these “fans” is astonishing. If it was February and it was just Crochet and a bag of injured balls the torrent of bad mouthing would make sense. But nobody has signed Burnes or any of the others—Flaherty, Manaea, Buehler, also Bregman, Teo, Santander. Castillo and Cease are still potential pivots. Why not see what actually happens before looking at an obvious grill signing and presume that forecloses all other options? You guys act as if Crochet is a disastrous deal when many experts around baseball see him as a surefire ace. The Sox still have player assets and money. Why panic now? Unless as “fans” what you really want is for the team to fail so you can vent your endless state of grievance against ownership and management.
Steldarl87….. SPOT ON!
The amount moaning done in these comments is comical, and generally the same fools over and over again.
Coop – If you think it’s just here where Red Sox Nation is displeased, you definitely need to look around more outside of this forum.
The unhappiness is everywhere …. every baseball website, every podcast, every media outlet, every street corner.
People aren’t dumb, they have a right to be skeptical.
steldarl87
The negativity from these “fans” is astonishing.
==============================
It comes from decades of some disappointments. Some fans have never gotten over ’67, ’75, ’86, etc.
Joe – 04, 07, 13, 18 all gave the ‘fans’ an opportunity to get over their disappointment, sorry I do not buy that excuse. It is just whining…
MLB-1971 – Sorry but whining seems so inappropriate when fans pay big prices to support a team that wins a championship despite it’s manager and then the ownership chooses to dismantle a potential dynasty for no explained reason.
Why shouldn’t fans be pissed? It’s not like we are one of the defunct franchises that know they won’t compete, this franchise had vitality for 15 years and then the plug was pulled without a proper explanation.
I think reminding them daily of what they did is completely appropriate behavior for a true fan. Fan’s typically like improvement. This franchise was a lovable loser thanks to the big money spent by the Yankees after they got Babe Ruth. Then, for 15 years they weren’t. Now they are again.
I say a complete revolt is in line. Storm the castle and fix the owners attitude or oust them and get better more motivated owners.
Steldar – Many of the ‘fans’ on here just want to whine and cry!
steldarl87 – It’s almost as if you haven’t been around the last five years. You could have said the exact same words each of those years and you would have been wrong all five years.
So lets do a quick probability test. Is it more likely that the same thing will happen after five consecutive years of it happening thus establishing a trend or is more likely something completely new is going to happen like you are suggesting?
This is simply a case of been there done that for five straight years so I have a right to complain in hopes that it will stop. That’s hardly unreasonable. In fact your attitude is really unreasonable. Do I need to remind you of the meaning of insanity? To expect something different is INSANE by definition.
So ease up on those fans who want to see change, that can only be good for the ball club.
MLB-1971 – You are right. So when are you going to stop whining and crying about the people legitimately protesting the actions of the owners and front office???
I mean, there’s maybe potential here…but come on. Enough with the rehabbing pitcher signings….”Red Sox signed pitcher X to a 2 year deal, but he’s only gonna be active and available for the final 2 months of that deal”. Hendricks, Fulmer, now Sandoval…there’s a bunch I didn’t list too, just at work and don’t have time to look them up lol. You got Crochet, signaling intent to contend, then backtrack with another “value” signing here… lets go, get aggressive and get Burnes, a couple decent bullpen arms; and either Bregman or Arenado. Find a taker for Yoshida, move Devers to DH….done deal.
Why wait for them to get hurt. Acquire them in post-op.
Wow…18 million for maybe a year plus…Christmas came early for Sandoval
Amoritze it over eight days of Hanukkah (or even 16 since it’s a two year deal). It hurts less…….
the big con is on. Henry holds the key to the bank, and he is not spending. so far, he has spent 21 million on junk. That money would have paid a chunk of Burns salary.
Back when I worked at Mass General I used to see a guy who looked a lot like Sam Kennedy walking around the orthopedic surgery center with a giant checkbook. Seems nothing’s changed…
If they think Sandoval is their final answer to this rotation they really screwed up. This should be a 2nd half depth hopeful and nothing more.
They are either WAY to confident they understand the market or the Crochet deal was the ONLY big move and they will beat that into the ground.
Obviously they signed Sandoval for 2025. He’s this years Paxton/Hendriks
Hugogo – Paxton and Hendriks is NOTHING alike.
Paxton sucked most of his career as he did in Boston.
Hendriks is a cancer survivor who was dominant from 2019 to 2022. He put up over 100 saves in 3 fulls seasons and the COVID 60 game season. His ERA and WHIP were great. His TJ surgery was in August of 2023 so he’ll have over 18 months of recovery time before Spring Training starts. He’ll be just fine.
NEVER lump him with the worthless piece of crap Paxton.
Signing Hendriks early got him at a great price and his career is far from over like Paxton’s. Neither Sandoval or Giolito have ever been as good at pitching as Hendrik’s was prior to his TJ surgery.
Quality players. There have not been many good contracts since 2019 but Hendriks is one of the best ones.
Bunch of us just went to check our FA predictions list, only to realize Sandoval wasn’t in the top 50.
If you read the article and had reading comprehension you would know that he wasn’t a in the Top 50 because he is recovering from TJS.
Coop – You really stepped in it with that response.
Look at #44 on the list …..
only to realize Sandoval wasn’t in the top 50.
=============================
So you weren’t aware of this???
He looks good for a start or two then gets shelled his next three.
great move for 2026, and if he pitches well you QO him and net a pick. Precisely the type of stuff you wanna see if you expect to start picking in the back of the first round.
I know it’s the off season and all, but Boston’s moves compared w NYY just make them look pathetic.
But… here’s to a successful rehab Mr Sandoval. Welcome to Boston sir.
Swan – forget that they’re our hated division rivals to the south, but they identified their needs, created a plan and executed it. I’m jealous. And, it does make us look pathetic because there is no reason whatsoever that the Sox couldn’t have made all of those moves. Theyre not just outspending everyone.
The Sox were profitable to the tune of $350mm last year (estimated numbers), and were $70mm under the tax. The best you could do is Wilson, Chapman and Sandoval? I’m sorry this isnt team building, and, it is dumpster diving, it just is.
The new pitching program that Breslow put in is supposed to make the pitchers better.Houck got better,Same with some others.People are basing these moves on what they did.If the program works then these guys will be better than they were.Either you believe in the program or only sign potential 20 game winners ,who won’t get hurt, and can throw 6 -7 innings a start.
TB – its all about the journey, right?
Who wants to watch proven major league stars apply their trade in front of a raucous fan base anyway (lol) sigh sigh
Sad – Now you’ve got me singing Journey songs!
Fitting, considering the Sox front office theme is “Don’t stop believing (our BS)”
TB – Red Sox pitching went from 21st in 2023 to 17th this year, not that much of an improvement.
Bello was worse.
Pivetta worse.
Crawford worse.
Martin worse.
Bernardino worse.
Winck worse.
Kelly worse.
A lot of upside for the $$$. plus any pitcher leaving the Halos will pitch better wherever they land.
The Sox seem to have a lot of faith in Hendriks, Fulmer and Sandoval. If only they had as much faith in Chris Sale
I’m sure you werent calling for them to give him away before the trade.
Yeah, this is a lot better than signing Fried.
Totally Better!
Another monster signing!
Oh wait….
Red Sox Acquire Tommy John
Cut out the middle man.
Lol
They’re rolling the dice for 26. not so much for 25. It’s not in the budget to go out and sign players. The purpose is to make money, compete if we can, and hope people see Fenway as a destination. Just like last year.
“Full throttle!” – 2024, did absolutely nothing but sign washed up guys, guys who were hurt already whole giving guaranteed money too them and guys who were injury prone who got hurt again.
2025- last 5 teams in running to get Soto, offered him 700 mill. Missed out. Missed out on Fried over a couple million to our rivals. Well done front office. Now Burnes will cost more so thank you for that and we know we’re not getting him because Breslow most likely has been talking to the 33 year old grocery store manager in his town that has had a long minor league career and could be good. So don’t worry Sox fans it’s another winter of the front office saying we’re here to contend only to watch the good players sign everywhere else. The front office opened there mouth this season by saying we’ll give Soto 700 million and we are ready to get uncomfortable with contracts and go over the tax threshold. That’s even worse that saying we’re going full throttle. But same results. Can’t wait to see what Breslow signs next, most likely a guy who has a TJ surgery scheduled for next week and will give him 40 mill guaranteed. Go get a real GM.
It’s on JH. He feels players are expensive. This team churns out profit. competition be damned
Completely worth the gamble. Sandoval has been electric at times. For the crybabies, they haven’t missed out on any of the other pieces they are missing yet, so you can hold the complaints.
kyredsox17 – It’s like I always say
“You can’t have enough hurt SPs with Career ERAs of 4.01 and WHIPS of 1.392 that can turn around a program a year from now”
It’s also brilliant the way Breslow signs people for 2 seasons, one hurt one not so that after waiting a year you could see them come back strong and use their Free Agency to help another team. Brilliant strategy!!
Good Lordy we need to set up a clinic in the bull pen! So sick of the walking wounded. They need to sign a healthy pitcher!
Spitfire—The pitchers can report to the Tommy John Wing at Mass General.
I’ll just try to keep it shortish.
The Red Sox aren’t a serious team right now, and the players around the league know it. They are looking at better teams invest and try to win and see the cost as prohibitive as those teams improve. This is the mentality of mid and small tier teams dealing with windows of competition opportunities.
For four years you have seen them understand they are not good enough. Major issues go unsolved. The talent becomes less and less. The spending is thrifty to say the least. The willingness to give everyday jobs to journeymen, and reclamation projects become a feature of the roster build instead of depth.
It is the only thing that makes sense, because they aren’t dealing with blatant known issues regardless of the money that they have available to solve them with. They do not think they can compete, and they have adopted an attitude of can’t win, why try. Until they feel the young prospects are ready and will save them tens of millions in everyday roles, they have no desire to be outplayed spending by better teams
2024 free agent spending AT FULL THROTTLE
57 million on a hurt pitcher (Liam), and reclamation (Giolito), Anderson, Criswell, Keller.
2025 at MORE THAN FULL THROTTLE
36 million on a HURT starter on the heels of two bad years, a diminished Chapman, and Wilson.
This makes sense after the debacle of 2023
177 million on Jansen, Yoshida, Martin, Turner, and 4 reclamation projects.
william – you have aggregated the dollars in a way that shows, quantity over quality does nothing.
For all the money, and for all the dollars, wouldnt it have been better to sign a few of the quality free agents these past few years?
The Sox can afford to pay anyone, stop the nonsense
Quantity is fine for depth where you are covered. When you have obvious problems and solutions like the Red Sox it is always better to fill those deficits with quality to end the problem.
So, yes. You are right. As an organization, for 6 years, we have spent far more money on not solving issues then solving them. We have spent nearly the same amount as usual on short term contracts, that do not solve problems and create turn over issues, then we would have if we solved the problems for multiple years.
FPG: “Kennedy repeatedly stated they won’t try to win until CMAT (now just CMA) develop into solid MLB players, which meant 2026 at the earliest.”
=============
and yet no articles or quotes on the internet
William – That’s me clapping at your commentary. Outstanding.
It’s funny how all this gets sold to the Red Sox faithful.
Bloom promised a better future by tearing down a championship team Breslow, like Bloom, emphasizes the length of time it takes for the farm hands to develop into full fledged players and then he trades many of them.
Ownership tells my buddy All in the suit that you wear that they are going to spend money each and every year and then they don’t and I feel bad for those that believe in the ownership group.
The Yankees just climbed back in the cat seat after struggling for several years and all it took was some money and smart choices. The Orioles have tons of talent in their farm system and recently promoted so they are more competitive than they used to be and are coming off a sophomore slump year with their young studs. Toronto can’t find the right young talent to lead the way so they continue to flounder. TB’s money and now stadium issues are more than any franchise should have to deal with but Kennedy will keep them in the hunt.
Then there is the chaos in Boston that started in 2019 and has continued with no solution. A mediocre team that is hyped by the media, over sold with it’s farm system and proclaimed to be run by an outstanding Manager who is truly an act of diversity gone wrong can’t produce a path to recovery in 5 years.
There is no plan for success like under Dombrowski. There is no leadership within the dugout or the front office. The players are being held captive by ONE very BAD 3B costing them more games than they realize.
Ask yourself why anyone would want to play for Cora, the Red Sox, Breslow, this ownership group when the competition is better in every aspect of being a Red Sox player other than the city they play in, the history of the club they could play for and the players that made the team proud in the past.
Start by fixing the image by removing the cheater, moving Theo into the liaison role for ownership and trade Devers so Yoshida can proudly attempt to be a DH in the MLB without distractions about his defense. Once the face of the ownership group softens, the purse loosens and experience if brought to the GM and Manager roles players will resume their historical preference for the storied franchise and great pitchers will want to pitch in Boston again, free from the millions of errors, the prejudice of the manager and the paucity of pay.
Saga, William, FPG – the Dombrowski version of the Sox, the Yankees and Dodgers have the recipe. You need a core (obviously), but then the mix is both adding QUALITY free agents, AND developing young players, into a dugout that has good players and leaders.
The obvious argument against relying (almost) solely on your home grown talent is the aforementioned Blue Jays and Orioles. For the Jay’s Bichette, Vlad Jr, et al never got there and it looks like they are on the verge of a breakdown. The Orioles developed huge amounts of young talent but left them to fend for themselves instead of adding quality veteran leaders and they simply fell off the table at the end of last season.
I want to root for CMA, and everyone on the farm, but simply bringing in reclamation projects or one year contracts of mediocre (ie cheap) players does nothing to build a winning culture and impart those same qualities to the kids, leaving Cora as the only voice in the room.
Moreover, there’s been a paradigm shift in free agent signings. Let’s look back, the Padres signed Xander and Machado to decade + deals, the end of which those two players will never see playing on the field. Think of these deals in terms of the original Bobby Bonilla deal. If I sign you to a 12 yr deal Player X, you will not play at least four of those at the end. What we will do is reconfigure your deal, take the remaining money and pay you over the next 20yrs and we’
ll into your retirement. If the player says “no” then they will be relegated to 26th man on the bench status.
Lets stop thinking about deals in terms of actual years and dollars because ultimately they will morph into something different. How many times did Tom Brady reconfigure his contract?? (Beyond the guaranteed vs non guaranteed aspect). That’s the future for baseball too.
Henry made billions,Breslow went to Yale, they shouldn’t need me to theorize this.
FPG makes up $chitt in his head.
william – Your last sentence is EXACTLY what I have been saying for several months! Kennedy repeatedly stated they won’t try to win until CMAT (now just CMA) develop into solid MLB players, which meant 2026 at the earliest.
When their tune changed this offseason, I just figured their financials convinced them to move the timeline up a year. But as of right now, their new tune is looking like BS.
Bregman and Buehler would work nicely.
The Sox just make poor decisions and then it compounds. They should have signed Wacha and Lugo last offseason. Those were reasonable contracts. Now pitchers are getting big money and they don’t want to spend on those contracts. They should have signed Burnes when Snell signed instead of wasting time on Soto who they were never going to sign. It would have been cheaper to sign Burnes prior to Fried signing. I get you want to avoid big contracts at certain times, but you need to pick and choose better. They point to David Prices contract, but Dombrowski shouldn’t have signed him. Price clearly wasn’t going to fit in Boston. Pedro signed a big deal at the time and that worked. They just make poor decisions on giving out big contracts even when it’s obvious
It would have been cheaper to sign Burnes prior to Fried signing.
=========================
You have no way of knowing that. And the fact that Burnes is still holding out implies that he is in no hurry to sign.
soxfan – They should have definitely signed Shota as well, their offer was embarrassingly low and they could have easily beaten the Cubs’ offer.
Soxfan4381 – The Price signing was rock solid. He was more qualified for the job than Sale at the time they got him. Cora screwed the pooch not Dombrowski. He has yet to be successful with any elite pitcher because he can’t help but put in his two cents which is really of negative value. It cost Boston 2 years of Sale productivity and hurt Price, Eovaldi, and even guys like Kluber with his constant wrong input.
EVERYTHING ELSE I agree with!! Somehow any signing of an elite pitcher needs to be reconsidered because of Cora’s impact. Until he’s fired, he’s the second biggest deterrent to winning behind Devers’ defense.
I would hope that they are still open to starting pitching since Sandoval doesn’t help them much if at all this season.
So the SOX were ready (so they say) to spend on Soto and they DID make a big trade….but DON’T STOP NOW….be brave…sign someone of quality who can play NOW. Sign the “PEDROIA” of today, the “DIRTDOG” who leads the young guys we have coming, the GAME CHANGER……ALEX BREGMAN !
Angels history says he will have a monster 2026. Halos could have kept him for around 12 million over two years . Ugh……
Fans are getting tired of this BS! Spend some real money and get some real talent that can help! Waste, waste ,waste! Knock the BS off! At you could have done was sign Buhler! Breslow and Henry has to go! No Balls to get good players!
For someone that has proven himself in the World Baseball Classic, and has shown to be capable of solid production as a back end starter in the Major Leagues, It could work out well for Boston if Sandoval gets back healthy. It’s still a risk, but so are all the 1st round prospects with their high signing bonuses that don’t even make the major leagues.
If he does anything at all it was on a 1 year $18+ million deal. If he does well, he is gone. It is another short-term deal causing turn over issues that has little chance of keeping value on retaining him if he succeeds. If he is bad, the deal looks like wasted money.
william – Their roster management is just like Cora’s pitching staff management, keep shuffling players in and out. It’s the Tampa way, and John Henry has been fixated on emulating the Rays.
William 2 – Precisely. Think about this.
We have Crochet and we hope he’s not a one time wonder and gives us a few years before he’s too expensive.
We have to figure out if Houck is to be extended or let go when he realizes he’s got a big contract in his future.
Giolito could get healthy and pitch like Breslow hoped and then he could sign with a real big market team for more than the Red Sox will pay so we rehabbed him nicely to benefit another team.
Sandoval – he’s the same story as Giolito. He either sucks for two years or gets great and stair steps to a good team that pays competitive salaries.
I think these are pretty much lose-lose scenarios. Houck might be salvageable by getting him a 5 year deal soon. Chrochet if good will be too expensive and if bad won’t be renewed.
Somebody needs to hire an experienced GM who can convince the ownership it’s time to spend again and can put Devers in his place and move Cora to the Astros front office. Their time is over, he would be perfect.
It’s not Breslow’s fault.
COOL!
From @alexspeier, the Red Sox remain in contact with;
SP:
– Corbin Burnes
– Walker Buehler
– Nick Pivetta
RHH
– Teoscar Hernandez
– Alex Bregman
– Randal Grichuk
all – Seriously, how much side money do you think Speier gets paid to make up stuff for the Red Sox front office? Six figures?
Here’s a guy who doesn’t have to name sources, can change the entire fan base impression of what’s going on with false information and there is no accountant tracking any under the table money being paid. That’s a great job. I don’t know if you like to write but you should try to get his job in the future!!!
wow, randal grichuk! We can afford that?
Are you sure we’re in touch with Buehler?
Patrick Sandoval ⚾️It really is time to boycott this team. Redsox Nation needs to pull all funding from Boston it’s like being slapped, standing there, getting spit on, standing there, getting punched in the face, standing there, and watching your mom go through the same thing. And standing there…enough BS is enough and this crap is too much! I’m out!
You know prob wrong thread but signing alex bregman at this point in his career feels alot like when they got mike lowell from florida with beckett..only bregman might be better.assuming the dominos fall right ..ie him playing 3b etc..they should grab him say what you want about the 17 stros the dude is a winner
Pool – Great comment. Bregman is a stud and the haters try to paint him as not a stud using ridiculous excuses like age, defense and behavior. I think he’s primed to have a great year making better money and disassociating himself with the cheating scandal.
Bregman can’t be gotten to play 2B. That would fix nothing except add a right handed bat. The defense doesn’t improve with Devers at 3B.
Stick to your guns on Bregman, he’s elite.
bregman’s bb% dropped by almost half this season and that’s a big red flag but but he’d be a revelation at third after years of devers and the green monster might be better for him than the crawford boxes
Don’t they expect to get any production out of Story?
He is a RH Hitter. is he healthy?
Too much $$$. Sandy had a rocky run with the Angels!
No one would deny the potential of this deal. The problem I have with it is simply they’re not addressing the present upcoming season as much as trying to get discounted value in the future. I know that Mass General is in close proximity, but this is a who’s who of rehab projects that might pan out. With the Blue jays and Tampa’s problem, the yankees losing out on Soto, and the orioles sitting on their hands, the division is ripe for the bold. This among other rehab candidates doesn’t scream bold. It screams cost control for 25. If we win, great. If we don’t, great.
I have more faith in Buehler as a restoration project than this guy
Decent signing for 2026, I wouldn’t expect much if anything for 2025. Giolito is half a season ahead of Sandoval in his recovery. Look at what Buehler did last year – and that’s about what I expect from Giolito this year. Look at what Hendriks did last year – and that’s about what I expect from Sandoval this year.
Desperation
Pitching is pitching.just because we pay a guy a ton of money doesn’t guarantee success.If you believe it does.Send me 10,000.00 and i will pitch for you.I pitched in Jv baseball twice but if you pay me a lot of money i will surely get better.Fans were upset with last years pitchers.We got new pitchers but still not good enough.I am a wait and see person.no highs or lows.If it works out good.If not,there is next year.
Surprised the Angels couldnt find ANY taker for him. I always thought he was a solid pitcher.
Again, Craig Breslow in his “Rose Colored Glasses” see’s something others don’t see, and I don’t know what it is. Hope, perhaps.
Most see a broken arm with extended time on the
injured list