SoCalChiSox

He speaks the truth.

He will need to shed one of those bad OF contracts first. Also, if they are going the one year opt out route to rebuild value, I'm not sure Boras will want his client playing in that park.

Yep it's officially over. This team is despicable and beyond stupid.

Why did hi8is Wednesday thread get locked?

Give us MOAR!

Harold, when is something going to get done?

They should focus on Lux if they are talking to LAD.

It was reported that he was scratched due to general back soreness. Although I agree that it looks a bit suspicious. I'd like to think all our efforts to address our top positional need would result in something better than this but here we are. The other issue is it seems to be a two step trade, i.e it's not Kimbrel for the RF. Sounds like more of Kimbrel and maybe cash for something and then you turn around and use the something plus maybe something else for the RF.

Thats an awful result.

Yeah I'd rather have Joc as a bandaid than get roped into an aging RHH who will further limit our financial flexibility in 23 with his player option. I'd rather give Kimbrel away for free than get that in return. Hell no.

How does this address LH RF?

Righty bat + player option= Its not Pollock

Get the damn trades done already. We badly need something new to talk about. We also badly need a LH RF and another SP, but mainly we need something new to talk about.

Thanks for the summary. Sounds like instead of Kimbrel for RF it's Kimbrel first to open up room for a 2nd trade for RF.

No one seriously believes they will go into the season with no LH RFer addition or SP addition after backing themselves into a corner by publicly stating these were their top needs. Even if TLR won the battle for how the budget got spent (relievers), it is STILL not realistic to believe they are done. It might not be Conforto. It might not be an OAK pitcher. It could very well be a mediocre unsatisfactory short term addition but there will be an addition. We didn't offer 4/73-ish (Jimmy) and then magically decide there's no more room because a couple relievers got signed on even shorter term deals.

Negotiation tactic

Jimmy, what's going on re the Kimbrel trade to a west coast team? It's been a few days already.

Pretty much this. Ofcourse I can see this going off the rails because if the Sox finally give in on the opt out they are gonna want to reduce the total exposure in exchange. Ok Scott we agree to the one year opt out. But instead of 4/75, it will have to be 3/57. He won't go for that.

FO has now has a few days to mull over their 3 offers for Kimbrel. It was reported the transaction would address the RF need and it was a few days away. That was before the weekend. Is it possible they are putting it on hold and circling back to Conforto because of his cooling market?

Canes win again! Woooo

Why would they resign when they are not the ones who value relievers like gold and they're not the ones calling the shots on how the pie gets divided?

The Sox don't have a great immediate history of winning games of chicken against elite agents, even when there is a seeming lack of other suitors. I'm not expressing an opinion on the merits of whether 5/100 is a good idea or not. I'm just saying getting stuck in a stalemate against Boras when your other viable replacement options have now disappeared, the positional hole is as large as the grand canyon and you have a short window to win is a poor position to be in. In a master class on creating good leverage, this probably wouldn't be used as the example in the casebook.

I'm not sure the issue is lack of creativity. I think the issue is JR says ok fellas there is X left to spend and TLR says get me these two relievers and RH/KW say we need a SP or RF and 2B. JR then says sign the relievers. RH/KW: What about our primary needs now? JR: Sorry guys now we are maxed out. Graveman and Kelly weren't cheap. How bout trade a bad contract for a bad contract? RH/KW: Doesn't really address the need though. Just puts a new warm body in that spot. Fans will be irate. JR: Well...can't pay a dollar when we only have 50 cents. A warm body will have to do. The fans are doing fine and we have Scott Merkin on the case. KW/RH: Were falling further and further behind Jerry. Even Minnesota is nipping at our heels. We need a SP and RF. JR: Tony says we're fine guys. I remember back in 83 we got to the ALCS against Baltimore. Damn....heck of a manager. I think our team is on the field. TLR: (wry smile)

Nope...Boras isn't going to do anything unless it's a) 100+m guaranteed or b) contains a very early opt out so Conforto can rebuild his value. He was on track to get a 150m deal. They aren't going to accept half that without a mechanism to get the rest of the money if he plays well and we're not going to offer an opt out unless we get one as well and Boras will never go for that. They will take a 2 year deal for 40m with an opt out after 1 before they accept a 4/73 Grandal deal.

Wouldn't this suggest we had better offers elsewhere? If ATL was the best, we would have taken it.