Sarava

Boom or bust potential for both sides. I'm good with it. Hopefully he stays at last year's level.

There seems to be untapped upside to both Mazara and Puig, while they've mostly been mostly mediocre in recent years. At this point, the Sox already have Mazara, so I don't see any reason to bring Puig in.

Assuming we could put him in RF, since Moncada is a far better defensive 3B. I wonder if some kind of extension could be worked out in advance of a trade? Seems unlikely with Boras being his agent. With the Cubs seemingly disrespecting him, you'd almost think the idea of coming to the south side and killing it would be appealing to Kris. I think I'd do Vaughn + Stiever/Dunning (only one of them), plus maybe Rutherford. Would the Cubs want Vaughn while they have Rizzo? Well, Rizzo is starting to sound a bit annoyed with the Cubs and they recently refused to discuss an extension with him. Also Theo could view him as a flippable asset, even if they don't have room for Vaughn. But that's a lot to give up for just 2 years...unless he re-signs. But man would our lineup be ridiculous.

Good to hear!

I'm totally fine with this projection. The Sox have such a wide swath for what could happen next year. Anywhere between 70 and 100 wins won't surprise me a whole lot.

I'm fine with this. Yeah he improves them for now. But he's been injury prone...and this has a high probability of being a bad contract at some point. Before long, he could help the Sox cement their hold on this division when he ties up the Twins payroll.

Jerry Reinsdorf is not going to shell out $350 mil for Betts. Why do you guys keep torturing yourselves with this impossible fantasy?

That's a bit much for such a dry market. How about 3/42?

Eh, I don't blame him. He signed a long-term deal. Many people thought he could of gotten a lot more on the open market. And now they're shopping him hard before the extension even kicks in. That is disrespecting him. For the Sox. I'd love him, but we do have a pretty kickass third baseman already. Madigral and Cease are off the table for me. If you can land him for something like Vaughn, Stiever/Dunning (only one of the pitchers), Mazara and Rutherford - then go for it. But then it would require Jerry taking on all this salary in addition to what he's already spent. You'd then have to move Moncada to CF or RF.

That is a lot of money to commit to a 34 year old. Probably will be a bad contract before long. But yeah it makes them a good deal better right now.

I really don't understand why Tampa made this trade. It looks very one-sided against them.

That certainly would suck for him. But if he has nothing good to take right now..... I gave up on the Sox signing Castellanos weeks ago, when the Sox signed EE. Or allegedly signed EE, since it still isn't official. But if they somehow managed to get Castellanos on a one year deal, that would be great. It does feel like an extreme long-shot, so I'm not getting any hopes up. I'd be interested to see if his defensive improvements continued, which might happen given his trend and that he's only played RF for 2 seasons.

Yep. Hawk and Wimpy are my favorites of all-time as well.

Bryant doens't quite feel like the player he used to be. Plus there's injury concerns. I'd be hesitant to give up too much if I was another team. If the Cubs are expecting a 'Chris Sale' type of return, they probably will be disappointed.

Everything feels good right now. But go back 4-5 years or so with the Cubs. Who would the extension candidates of been? Even ahead of Baez, they would of been Schwarber and Russell (since Bryant wouldn't of done it as a Boras guy). I'm not sure many people saw the fall in value for those 2, or the rise in value of Baez. That said, Theo has won what, 3 World Series? He's obviously facing the biggest struggles of his GM career right now. It will be interesting to see if he can right the ship before bailing on the Cubs. And for the Sox, hopefully Robert and Jimenez live up to their prospect status, both this coming season, and for the next 5-7 years beyond that.

Like it or not, Jose Abreu was just re-signed for 3 years. I didn't say they have a long-term solution there. But it's not like CF or 2B (if Robert or Madigral were traded), where suddenly you have nobody to play the position. As for crazy - here's where people get confused. You suggest someone might get traded, and they act like you're giving him up for nothing and that you gave up on the guy. That obviously is not the case. You would never move a guy like Vaughn unless something seriously big was coming back. What if some team falters the first two months, decides to do somewhat of a rebuild, and offers a juicy young controllable pitcher and they want Vaughn back headlining the deal? All I'm saying is the Sox might think long and hard about something like that. I could see it happening.

Another question. JR shelled out 52 mil for Luis Robert while the Sox payroll was bottom 2-3 in baseball. And that's great that he did that. But will he do it again while the payroll is climbing fast? Eh, we'll see. Of course, I don't know that this guy will approach those types of dollars?

I kind of agree with Eloy...seems like a decent chance Vaughn gets moved. If they want to augment this team at some point in the next year or two, he might be the only big trade chip left that isn't on the team yet. And it's not like he's playing a position the Sox are screaming for help at.

Exciting move by the Sox. Kudos to Hahn and Reinsdorf.

Win 2 World Series in the roaring 20s and we have our best decade ever. I'm not saying it's likely, but I'd love to see the Sox have a 20s, like the Blackhawks had in the 10s.

He was given plenty of credit when it happened. What's your agenda here? Are you JR's Soxtalk burner account?

The ceiling in 2020 is winning the World Series. For # of wins, I'd say around 100. If the Twins could do it last year, we certainly have as much talent as they did last year. But a ton of things would have to fall in line. Think along the lines of the Cubs in 2015-2016, when all their prospects were clicking at that point. That's not saying it's likely. It's obviously unlikely. But if Robert and Madigral kill it as rookies, as opposed to the initial struggles we saw with Eloy and Moncada. And Cease and Kopech kill it....this team could go nuts. Now if someone asked what is likely, somewhere in the 80's I'd say. I'd go with low 80's as the bullpen stands now. Hopefully we see the talked about bullpen improvements over the next month or so.

Maybe I am nuts. It just concerns me how bad he was last year. That's more than just an off year. It's downright terrible. How do you know there isn't an injury lurking in there somewhere?

That's a pretty big gamble, considering how awful he was last year. I would only do it if he comes somewhat cheap. Anything with Stiever is an immediate no as far as I'm concerned.

We're still talking about Kela, right? Timmy posted 2 links earlier. One of them led to this link about his issues when he was with Texas. https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/mlb/texas-rangers/article142465809.html