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I feel like it would be one of those moments where you can tell even through the internet that everyone is just kind of stunned into silence. There would be a gap because the reporters would be calling to confirm the account wasn't hacked or something.

Sweet, they're both done. So, uh, why hasn't it been announced? If the theory was we were keeping one quiet to get the other, what's the theory on why its silent if we already have both?

Hell, we have seen players and teams go to arbitration over a few hundred thousand dollars. In some of those scenarios the cost of the lawyers is probably almost the difference in the sides. Wait, so what is your argument? That he doesn't want to play for the Sox or Philllies so he is waiting for a team to match our offer so he can go there instead? Because I feel like most people here (and the media reports seem to confirm this) believe that, if all else were equal, he would prefer to play for the Yankees, but they are not offering anything close to the highest offers, so now he is simply waiting for a team to reach what he thinks is an acceptable level (probably $300M) and he is willing to wait so that teams feel pressure to move closer to that amount. Basically no matter what he is going to take a huge offer because there are more big offers out there (CHW, PHI, SD) than there are big players, so by waiting he is attempting to maximize his contract while also having very little downside. If he or his agent believe he can get another $30m for waiting another month, why wouldn't he do that? That is literally getting potentially $1m per day for just waiting. And again, what is the downside? They know they have us as a fallback. We aren't going to fill his spot and we don't think we are going to compete this year so if he is still a little rusty at the beginning of the year its not that big of a deal. I don't think its really that ridiculous of a discussion. It plays out all the time in the NBA with the max contract and some teams playing in states with no income tax versus states with large income taxes. IIRC, another sport (can't remember which, likely either hockey or soccer) computes the cap hit as the money that goes to the player and then teams simply figure out how much the contract needs to be to get to that amount for the player. If the luxury tax really does become a hard cap this is something you might see the teams in California arguing for in the next CBA.

WARNING: WALL OF TEXT INCOMING! So personally I don't believe the theories about having Machado signed already and I don't think we would even try hard to get both unless their markets are even worse than we have heard, but I did just think of something that could make it possible. With the new swell-opt contracts it is basically assumed that if the player continues to perform that the team will opt in to the extension and higher amount. But I wonder if there is a case to get both of the guys on contracts with swell-opts in the same year to give the team a ton of flexibility (or at least a lot more than signing both outright). If there isn't payroll room to fit both raises, the team could simply choose to only opt in to one contract, with which being selected depending on past and projected production as well as possible alternatives both internally and externally. So say we get both and then after 3 years when the opt-in deadline comes around we have a glut of great outfield prospects, then we could opt-in with Machado and not with Harper which would put him in the position of either opting out (which would be okay if we have a replacement) or staying at a lower than expected salary (in which case we save money over the projected salary for those years). If this were to happen it would give us both for the years where we could easily fit both salaries in our payroll while also either getting out of one of the contracts or getting it at a lower than expected rate for the back half of the contract. The players would get a higher guarantee than a short term contract while also having upside and a chance to opt out if they are playing well but we can't afford them and the whole time they would likely be on a good team because getting both guys would likely be a huge impact especially in our division. TL;DR - I made a reasonable conspiracy where both guys sign contracts with similar swell-opts.

I feel personally attacked

..........its Thursday.

Well, praying to God hasn't worked so far, might as well switch it up. Hail Satan! Thank you for this torturous journey to 666. Now that we have reached your holy number, can this please be over?

The probably horrible translation from Google: The Yankees are going to wait for the sports honeymoon to finish before announcing the signing of Manny Machado

Yet they have said that is generally what they do because otherwise most prospects ceiling would be MVP, 10 WAR seasons, etc. Instead they use some realistic maximum value as the ceiling because it gives an idea of what could plausibly happen.

Honestly seeing them not really answering Sox questions anymore made me think this too. I worry that part of it is that the Sox development/coaching staff has generally been bad and we are being left behind in the new wave of tech/analytics, so its less likely our prospects will perform close to their ceiling than prospects for other teams, so they bake that into the ratings. I know that might sound conspiratorial, but these guys are often judged by how the prospects perform in the majors compared to their ranking/rating, so they might want to rank a guy in a bad developmental system lower than if that same player were in a good developmental system because even with the same talent he might get worse results.

hyperventilating increases

If he is able to make it back for the end of the year this year, they can do that too and then it would be even less time in the minors to start 2020.

Yeah, he is incorrect. The injury occurred while he was on the ML roster, so he has to be put on the ML disabled list where he still gets service time.

IDK. That guy was a 2x little league gold glover. He might have some sources!!!!

???

Probably more so. We do this to get away from our jobs; this is their jobs.

Okay, just finished the bottle of NyQuil with salt. Tasted pretty weird. What do I do next to get on the dream quest?

Its insurance all the way down

Looks like the Sox picked up another 2018 signing: Wilber Sanchez INF. He played on the 2017 Venezuelan 15u team, so he is 17 maximum. Its been hard to find much on him. He pitched in a game against team USA 15u and did pretty well (at least compared to how most do), but the prospect league he is a part of repeatedly said INF for him. This was the only video I could find of his swing, but there are a bunch of other posts with him on that EBPAcademy instagram. Easiest way to see them might be to search for him on twitter and look through their instagram linked tweets. I was also able to find a two game sample from a different prospect league in which he went 2-8, 1 HR, 2 BB, 0 K, 2 SB, 1 CS.

Agreed. The profile seems like one you can find decently easily. Goodish defender that might have plus speed but no power and questionable hit tool against major league quality pitching. Unless we really just have a ton of money left over, I would really want to save it to see if any other Cubans pop up during the signing period. To me there are still a couple on the island who would be worth it more than Sanchez including what to me is the big prize in Pedro Leon. With the rate at which top guys are leaving and the MLB-Cuba deal seemingly dead, there is probably a good chance he decides to leave in the near future.

Basically you have a contract that has years and a salary increase that the team can opt in to after a certain point but if they do not choose to opt in to it then the player can choose to opt out. So you can have a contract that is a base of 7/210, but the opt in time is after the third year. If the team opts in it will add a year or two to the end of the contract and increase the AAV for years 4-7. If the team decides not to opt in, then the player has the option to opt out early. So basically if the player is doing good then they get the higher amount because the team can't risk the player opting out. If the player does really bad they have the security of the base contract.

Jesse again putting it out there Sox are in it if he waits until July. I find that interesting if just because it shows we might have $2mil or more still uncommitted. Either that or we really like him and would be willing to trade for more space.