SoxBlanco

In a perfect world, we have five solid starters when Rodon is healthy and he doesn’t need to take anyone’s place. It could be like adding a great lefty reliever at the trade deadline.

Rodon isn’t a free agent after next year.

Possibly, but we could easily rotate Grandal, McCann, Collins, and Abreu among C, DH, and 1B. Should still be plenty of at-bats to go around.

Even if someone gives Cole $240M for 7 years, that still would be under $34.5 AAV. What kind of contract do you see somebody getting that would make that question a “yes”?

Great post. I definitely agree. I’d really like to give Collins as many at bats as possible next year.

I’d like to suggest locking this thread. Any rumors that surface can go in the specific thread for that player. Anybody agree?

And you would certainly win that bet because once we sign Cole, we'll already be over 90 million.

Good point. We also should have kept Moncada down for a couple more years because of his rawness and high strikeout rate. Same with Eloy. It's not like guys can get better while in the big leagues, so I don't know why we ever call these players up.

That's why it's smart to sign Grandal. Let Collins DH almost every day, and if he flops, McCann can be your DH. That's also why I like the idea of signing Castellanos to play RF. He can always slide into the DH spot if need be.

This is exactly the point I was getting at when I posed the hypothetical Eloy question earlier in the thread. People have an idea of what a player should turn out to be based on how highly touted or highly ranked they are/were as a prospect. The guys who are higher ranked should get a longer leash, in their minds.

Let's say Eloy's timeline was hypothetically delayed about a year, and his first taste of the majors was at the end of 2019. Let's also say he struggled at the plate in that limited sample size. Would you be willing to give him a shot a the start of 2020?

I don't mind this option. If they tender him a contract, can we get him for about the same price that it took to get Yonder Alonso last year?

When you say he is not a good catcher, is that based on things you’ve read? Or based on the eye test when you’ve watched him behind the plate?

Moncada put up a wRC of 130 in AAA, and we called him up and let him struggle for a year and a half on the big league club. Collins put up a wRC of 140 in AAA last year and some people don’t want to give him a chance.

After his initial slump in the majors, he went back to AAA and reworked his swing/approach. Did Menechino make the changes with him?

People have pointed out that the Astros hit better on the road in 2017. But the sign stealing might not have started until August or September to get ready for the playoffs. What did their offensive home/road splits look like in August, September, and in the playoffs?

I think in a perfect world, you find a way to give him every day at bats without relying on him. If you sign Grandal, let Collins be the every day DH. If he struggles, you can slowly give him less at bats (start DHing McCann or whoever else might be hitting well...perhaps the guys who started at 2B or CF before Madrigal and Robert are up).

Fantastic post. Thank you.

I just drew a Venn diagram with one circle representing us signing Cole and the other circle representing us signing Wheeler. This is what it looks like... O O

Cue Rick Hahn... "They said we'd never enter a rebuild, and we did that. They said we'd never make a trade with the Cubs, and we did that. They said we'd never go into the penalty to sign a big international guy, and we did that..."

If I were the Sox and I was going to pursue Cole, I would act exactly this way and tell Stone and Merkin to say exactly what they said. After being let down with Machado, I would not want the same thing to happen. Now, that doesn't mean we ARE pursuing Cole. We very well might not have any interest in him. I just think that this is the perfect way to act if we were going after him.

Agreed. And that's why I think we should either go with a one year option (Calhoun or Dickerson), or take a shot with Castellanos (he can play RF for one year and then move to DH). Whenever there are no obvious solutions, I think you need to just fix it for one year and try for something else next year.

Yes. We will know in an hour and a half (or earlier).

Come on. If the Sox offered 3 years for $20 million total, you think Jose should take it?

In your opinion, how much money would be the breaking point where Jose would be better off taking the QO? Let's assume a 3 year deal, for the sake of discussion. If the Sox offer 3 years at $30 million, should Jose take that or the QO?