GreenSox

Providing the Brewers a decent piece for Kolten Wong would make it an even worse move.

LOL Of course they have. Some things never change.

Then trade Graveman for them. If you go by WAR, Graveman had a higher WAR than Gonzalez and Winker combined last year (quite the feat, as WAR generally disfavors relievers). You just can't trade a good player, Hendriks, for 2 mediocre/bad players.

I don't think Lux' 3 WAR is anywhere close to legit. He doesn't hit for power, his D is okay, not great, and his OBP is good, not great. He's kind of what we would could have reasonably expected out of Madrigal. Sosa or Gonzales should be able to deliver something close to that. Sox really need outfielders.

They've got a few Mendicks on the 40 man; and even though it's a sunk cost, the aren't dumping Leury.

By org. depth, I mean lower minor leagues. Sox have a lot of infielders in the upper minors; just adding more doesn't help. But, as I suggested, if there's a pitcher or an OF, then that's a different story.

Thanks. I had thought there was a deadline.

Why didn't the Sox clear all of the riff-raff off of the 40 man roster; it would maximize flexibility to take advantage of opportunities that may arise.

Dealing with the Rays' Rule 5 guys won't help organizational depth. If they could get a major league pitcher or OF out of it (worthy of the non-Rule 5 prospect they will have to send in return), then fine. That would require the Sox org. actually having knowledge of the Rays' system, which is a dubious assumption. The Sox certainly don't have a Rule 5 crunch. There are at least 5 guys on there who you would never keep if it meant exposing a real prospect, including a couple that probably shouldn't be on there at all regardless of the circumstances. There are also 9 infielders on the roster; 11 if you include Sheets and Vaughn. There are also 6 only OFs, only 2 of which can actually play OF (Engel and Robert); Eloy is a DH, Sheets and Vaughn are infielders and the 6th is an org. guy.

Yea I can understand making a trade, but Liriano had an ERA in excess of 5 and a WHIP >1.4 that season (and similar numbers the season prior). But the Sox do that. Shields wasn't having a good season, was 34 and had been a hard-used pitcher for many seasons. Sox FO was unphased. And both were terrible with the Sox.

It wasn't even the lower levels in a lot of cases. Semien and Bassitt (Phegley, too, in that trade) were in the majors, as was Escobar a couple of years before. Sox, apparently, couldn't tell the difference between those guys and Yolmer. Tatis, Devenski and Montas were lower level. A lot of talent sent away for horsesh.... in return. I'd prefer the Sox avoid that route. Giving Tampa Bay open access to our young pitching, even such as it is, is scary.

Then the Sox should take advantage of the market, hand the ball to Reynaldo and get the haul for Hendriks.

Is Lowe's .691 OPS to be ignored?

Trading for the obvious is lazy, unimaginative and you pay a premium price. Right up Hahn''s alley.

"He bet on himself!" What a gift to the Sox!

Why is it too late?

Like one of the 4 young players/major league ready prospects they have and accept below par hitting, if necessary. Meanwhile, they have 1 real outfielder on the roster.

3 WAR for Lux with those numbers looks straight out of the WAR factory (Eaton is a proud graduate).

I like the idea of Conforto on a 1 year.

Just glancing over the 40 man, they could easily make room for 8-10 guys that need to be protected.

They've got 4 minimum salary guys they can play at 2b. All are reasonably well regarded in the minors. Plenty of good teams let young players play even if they struggle some. The Astros do it, the Phillies do it, and the Sox...sign Josh Harrison to get that proven production. 2B is really down on the list of trouble spots (catcher, OF, SP, e.g.)

That may be, but at least let him show his full value on offense, whatever it may be, before trading him, rather than trade him under current depressed value conditions. Plus, the "sign Abreu-trade Vaughn" scenario depresses Vaughn's value even further, as any trade leverage Hahn has is further neutered by that latent announcement "We need to trade Vaughn." (Hopefully he doesn't blatantly announce it like he did with Kimbrel). On other matters, if there's one place they should use the young guys it's at 2B; they have like 4 ML ready (or close to it) 2nd basemen, and trading/dumping them, only to trade for yet another average veteran would just be more of the same. Of course, I see this year as a reshuffle/retool year; I just don't see how they can overcome Hahn's effups from last year in one offseason.

I look at Nimmo and I see that gaudy 5.4 WAR, but then the raw numbers suggest he's basically an OBP guy. $25 is quite the price for an OBP type hitter. Now, I realize that OBP guys are in short supply (nonexistent) on the South Side, so maybe we should just pay-up for one. But we're also a place where OBP goes to die.

While the 2nd paragraph is a grave concern, I don't find the Royals' decision to pass him over particularly troubling. After all, they are the Royals.

I don't think they quit. I think they just an out of gas after game 3 of the Astros' series. They were done. LaRussa was a problem, but the roster probably wasn't any better than an 85 or so win roster. Montoya was announced around the same time as Grifol. If anyone knows, is Montoya someone that they mutually agreed upon prior to the announcement of Grifol. Or was it a FO thing and Grifol said okay; or vice-versa, where he's Grifol's guy and the FO said okay.