After a month to recharge, the podcast is back… and so is Theo Epstein? After the offseason of our discontent, we finally got some good news after Winter Weekend seemed to present a low point for Red Sox fandom. Plus, there’s a new batch of minor league free agents and international amateur signees to discuss, and as always, your emails!
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[Applause] Welcome everybody to the socks prospects.com podcast where the web’s number one source for information on the Boston Red Sox from top to bottom from Fort Meers to Worcester across the pike to Fenway and all stops in between thank you for listening my name is Chris Hatfield I’m the executive edor of socks
Prospects joined as always by a man who uh Netflix believe it or not is doing not one not two but three different documentaries about him this season our director scouting Ian cundle Ian uh welcome back after our our winter break I guess is what we could call it um we have
Out for a minute but we’re back with a vengeance to talk about all of the very interesting and eventful things that have happened since our last episode The we’re gonna talk about the national championship for the next hour because that’s by far the most interesting thing that’s happened I
Should have guessed that was gonna come up I mean yeah congrats by the way thank you thank you um but yeah no uh it’s whatever I mean I don’t care Flags fly forever um it’s been a interesting I me well two I mean it’s been compared to what’s happened compared to what’s actually
Happened it’s been kind of interesting it’s just been a weird stretch um this offseason just felt different than others I don’t know why it’s just everything seems slower nothing is really that interesting as happening we’ll get like here and there we’ll have a couple day stretch where a few things
Will happen but if you’re not like Jerry depoto it’s just been a very kind of blah offseason well it it’s there’s we were talking about this before we recorded there’s a number of of by the way among among the eventful things that have happened I got invisaline so if I
Sound different that’s why everybody but um the the fact that there are still so many guys out there like Jordan Montgomery is still out there Blake Snell is still out there Cody Bellinger is still out there Matt Chapman Matt Chapman and it’s it feels different than the like pre-lock out the owners are
Setting up to like cry poor in the CBA negotiations type situation yeah where here it’s just kind of like it just seems like the Market’s just not settling it’s very is it the market or is it just those guys are all represented by the same person and that
Person is like very obviously has a number in mind and isn’t likely to move off it it’s funny because like people are you know every year this happens where like in our Forum people are like oh my God Scott Boris he’s the worst like his players are probably pissed and
It’s like well no Scot Scot war is the best Scot like also I think that’s a common like misconception is yeah Scott reason you sign with Scott Boris yeah like if Scott Boris is doing this he’s doing for a reason because he’s the best
Agent he’s the best at his job in in a specific field like yeah he gets he’s not a b like he’s doing his job by holding these people out if he’s not getting the number he wants for them he’s not gonna have them sign because that’s his job like I don’t I’ve never
Really understood I mean I guess it’s the fan perspective but I just don’t get why you would be attacking someone who is literally doing their job by not their job is to get his clients the most money possible it’s no different than if you had an agent representing you for
Whatever your field is put it this way put it this way yeah Jason veritek told Scott Boris to make a deal with the Red Sox happen and he did it do you know why Scott Boris works for the player the player does not necessar I mean maybe
With Boris it kind of goes both ways a little bit but like the player can tell him what to do right exactly and that’s why we saw like wasn’t it was Paxton a Boris client when Paxton last year opted into that deal I don’t think so but like
As you said there I’m sure there there are examples of his clients taking like under market value it’s just if that’s not what they want like that’s why that we’re still waiting so I’m sure you know Jordan Montgomery Cody Bellinger guys like that have had offers but if they’re
Not up to what they want then why they’re not going to tell him they want a sign so yeah I just think I I don’t know and that’s that’s kind of the holding pattern we’re in is it is interesting think about it that basically all the top guys are Scott
Boris guys and then after that it’s I feel like a lot of the market has thinned out slowly but surely it’s taken a while Pon is Paxton is Bor like do you think Scott Boris advised him to opt into that $4 million contract last year like no chance he could have
Easily gotten I mean what did he get this year 12 million bumped down to like nine after they looked at his Medicals yeah it turned out yeah right but it’s like there’s no way like if Paxton wanted to be in Boston last year that’s
Why he took the four million so yeah I I think that uh I do wonder if it’s kind of it’s a chicken or the egg situation you know is it the teams kind of holding out or is it Scott Boris is holding out for the best possible deal that’s the question
Probably somewhere between yeah other than that I I I genuinely think most of the other like I mean there’s still like the Whit Mary Fields Jorge Solair types but like some of those guys aren’t that good hor Air’s good but he’s probably waiting for the best possible deal like
It’s just I kind we’re just kind of in a holding pattern right now yeah t did tcar Hernandez sign anywhere yeah Dodgers Dodgers that’s right oh yeah that’s right he took a one-year deal though was like one year 26 million or something like did he 26 24 was it was
Oneyear deal anyway yeah pull up the free Asian tracker um anyway but anyway yeah not a lot has happened with the Red Sox I think what a lot of what’s happened with the Red Sox is kind of like Revelation about what’s been kind of going on behind the scenes I think
We’ve we’ve moved on from it’s the cbo’s fault to its ownership’s fault um as a fan base and it’s been interesting to watch 23 and play out 23 and a half okay fair enough um some quick preliminaries before we get much further uh if you want to support the show there’s a few
Ways you can do it other than downloading and listening like you’re doing now you can rate and review us on iTunes Spotify Apple podcasts wherever it is that you listen you can support us on patreon.com soxprospects tell a friend tell a neighbor tell the co-s subject of your documentary on Netflix
Uh and you can send your emails to podcast soxprospects.com because we want to talk about what you all want to hear about but Ian without any further Ado let’s jump into it I guess let’s start with what’s gone down transaction wise or no you you’ve got something to say I
Could tell did you wantan to talk about oh shop yeah housekeeping yeah um let’s do some housekeeping so obviously we didn’t record any episodes in January um I think the way just to distill first of all just nothing was happening there was really nothing pressing there was no
Need for the Emergency podcast forign Etc um the podcast would kind of take it into into the shop a little bit kind of really thinking through some things coming this coming forth this season it’s not just going to be myself and Ian um we think you’re going to get some of
Mike Andrews Chris C’s going to come back after he made that Stellar debut on one of our episodes in December he he’s terrific he’s gonna be back more often um few reasons for this one it’s going to allow us to put more episodes out um it’s not going to be dependent on you
Know both Ian and I getting on the horn and getting it recorded right so we’re gonna have more voices in there we think it’s going to you know allow us to maybe stay a little fresher um you know allow allow the podcast to move forward and
Have it not be just this the Twan Road show that it’s been for a while which it’s been great I think we’ve kind of really hit a nice stride but I think this was really a logical Next Step we’re bringing in someone to produce the
Podcast I think so um you know kind of kind of letting the podcast continue to evolve made a lot of sense and that’s what we’re going to be doing this year so we were kind of working through those things in January and trying to figure
Out how what this was going to look like going forward so we appreciate all of your patience and uh for sticking with us and continuing to send emails like I got an email like yesterday nice yeah was just like cool they didn’t forget about us so yeah I think the biggest
Thing is that as you said that you’re still G to get a lot of Chris and I but just we’re gonna have some other people mixed in and um ideally and our plan is hopefully it’ll um is that there’ll just be more content for everyone you know
We’ll have more more more opinions uh or you know more more interesting topic more voices yeah and hopefully it’ll uh we’ll be able to we keep growing so that’s kind of the goal with everything for sure for sure and we you know we’re still going to work on some other things
We can talk about and and people we can talk with this offseason um you know some of kind of the the voices you’re used to the voices maybe you’re not used to but we’re we’re we’re working on some things um so we just got to make make
Dates and things line up like that so uh keep keep your ears to the to the podcast feed stay tuned um you know we’re not going anywhere uh the show is not going anywhere uh like I said we’re just it’s it’s the next step we needed
An offseason to we did we did well again like the other piece of it was like I mean they were talking about this on the on the Forum it was just kind of like well they haven’t had anything to talk about like what do you want an episode
About no I mean signing of don’t get don’t get me wrong we probably could if we needed to uh spend about 30 minutes talking about Joe Dunham but I don’t think anyone wants to hear that so dun dunand yeah I don’t even know his last name but Romy Gonzalez just I mean names
That are now members of the Red Sox organization Melvin adone Joe D dun Mark kosur Tyler Henman Romy Gonzalez yeah like I don’t think people want to hear us break down those guys for half an hour maybe they do but uh I don’t think
So so I don’t think so yeah so I mean yeah do we want to start really quick with hitting all these things yeah let’s do transaction since we’re already talking about them yeah yeah so um we got there’s a lot to catch up on We’re not gonna walk through every single
Thing I mean I mean the Lucas goo deal is official that’s the really the biggest one that’s happened since our last episode we talked about that on the last one so we talked about it one year deal with a player option uh there were some low-level miners releases um no one
That got above low a so I don’t think we’re really gonna dive into that but Cesar Ruiz claudo Simone or S I think it actually was Simon Claudio Simon um jugi Garcia Simon Pacho Michael Valera Emanuel Polo and Hansel de los Santos a lot of those guys didn’t even make it
Out of the DSL oh some more yeah some more Alias scanio Marcos alanar Andre Jimenez Al Castillo Jose Lano Albert chalas Jean Carlos Reyes Nathaniel Uso and yizel Bernett All released uh Bernette probably the most notable one of all he just couldn’t stay healthy just couldn’t stay healthy um he was an
Interesting arm and healthy but yeah um was not Red Sox avoided arbitration with all their arbitration eligible guys great smart that’s good business alexo retired Alex Aro did retire um or was it EO pronounced I don’t know I thinko but yeah yeah good for him Happy Trails good
Luck in the next uh was he the one from Northeastern right Northwestern Northwestern yep it for some reason I thought he was Northeastern um yeah I think I think though the rest of the deals you can kind of lump in and we’ll get onto the spring training invites in
A second but there’s a lot of go ahead I was just gonna say it’s a lot of just churning over the bottom of the roster or like players 4 bot of the 4 man 41 to 50 who aren’t on the 40 but are like depth options well also the guys who are
On the 40 cuz they’ve had like three guys claimed off well no no that’s what I mean it’s turning over the bottom of the 40 and then adding depth options who were you know players 41 42 43 44 Etc who they’re not going to be on the 40
But they’re going to be in Triple A with a chance to come up to the big leagues if necessary and I think that’s kind of what we’ve seen um you know like out heading out you’ve got Maris Mauricio loua um max Castillo who was also claimed this month um and uh Zach Weiss
You know coming in you’ve got um Dalton three like Tyler Heyman is on the 40 he was one um well let’s start with the 40 man because the 40 man so what happened was beginning of the month they they signed Max Castillo to fill the 40-man
Roster or the claimed him off of waivers from Kansas City um when gito became official they designated Mauricio Jaa for for assignment not terribly surprising because he was out of options um he want up getting they they already have they we’ll get to it when we talk
About where the roster at right now but they already have multiple Guys Without options who are question marks to make to Ross you can’t have another one like that no yeah um yeah joa went to Seattle who are quietly pulling together an all former Red Sox bullpen I don’t know if you’ve
Noticed this and in Seattle they got like G Gabe spear I remember he was on their team last year yeah they have like a bullpen full of reformer Red Soxs now it’s well they got Gregory Santos in a trade they got Gregory Santos in a trade yeah Gregory Santos was one
Um like some of them are kind of whatever like minor league free agent types but there were a few like oh that guy names that was that was pretty great H roster my my computer hates when we record it just is useless do you remember uh what trade Gregory Santos
Was a part of originally um was he the PV deal nope because he went to the they traded him to oh no he because he was still in the DSL right correct yeah he was the second piece of the deal he didn’t go to the white socks he
Went to the Giants no correct no you know you went the giant right yeah oh was he um noon time Eduardo Nunes yep yep do you remember who and the primary piece was daza no nope third round pick right-handed pitcher out of Florida oh Sean Anderson right yep yeah
Right yep he was I think Gregory Santos is a great example of one of those the Dave debrowski throw that it was like you don’t really need him in the trade but we’re gonna ask for him and you’ll he’ll probably say yes because he wants Eduardo yes and you look now and he’s
You know he’s gonna be a setup guy and he was a closer last year so I can imagine the reaction to like wait you threw him in for what why yeah because I’m sure we didn’t even know anything about him cu was back when you know you
You really just didn’t hear about guys in the DSL at all but that was a great like I’m sure they would have done Shan Anderson for Gregory or for Eduardo Nunes but you know doesn’t hurt to ask is what they say yeah exactly exactly so all right I’m finally getting the
Mariners Bullpen I have it right here it’s Santos Spear and Taylor Sao wasn’t Taylor sauo with the Red Sox or am I thinking of someone El no who am I think oh I’m thinking of Joel pamps I don’t know why I confus those two yeah that
That was a weird one um and they might have a bunch more guys who who are projected for Triple A on their roster um come on L definitely could I mean I’m looking at their roster Resource page right now yeah so like they have Jonathan
Diz yeah I think that’s one of so it’s where’s the come on they they have Michael shavis now they acquire Michael Chavis this off season they have laa they have eduard bazardo they have Ty buter they hry yeah um I’m pretty sure they had uh they
Had Caleb Ward at one point he’s now with um Miami but he got DFA today also by them so yeah there there are a good number yeah yeah you said Henry right yeah yeah so they they’ve got a number of former Red Sox it’s kind of funny um
That took way too long to get there but we got there uh who else we got going on so okay so back end we’re talking back into the 40 man so we’re we’re on early in the month um joa gets claimed by the Mariners uh moving along nothing happens nothing
Happens in uh nothing happens oh Justin Turner sign with the Blue Jays uh why Des Zack Weiss got designated for assignment on January the 31st when the Red Sox claimed Romy Gonzalez off waivers from the white socks which I completely forgot that he’s on the 40
Man yeah um he’s a utility guy he’s probably gonna be in triple uh so Zack White gets DFA today he got claimed by the Twins and then on the second of February um the Red Sox acquired ceter Tyler Henman from the Mets for cash and designated Castillo for assignment so he
Was on the Red Sox for all of uh one month and one day so uh and Castillo got claimed off waivers today by the Phillies so it’s been uh a little bit of churn in the back end of the 40 man you know it it’s due diligence it’s been the
Today was for whatever reason a very busy 40 Man day or like waiver day I think teams are pre themselves um in the next week starts well it’s also you can put guys on the 60 finally the next week so if you if you see someone you like
You just claim them and then you try to just kind of figure it out you know for work for a week and a half yeah yeah yep um I think just the of the oh I was just GNA quickly touch on the two guys they got um Gonzalez is R Ro and Michelle
He’s solid I mean he’s depth like what I don’t really think it matters that much um he like if he’s playing a lot there’s big concerns I would say um in the majors you mean at the majors yeah yeah got projected for Triple A like but I
Get it because when you look at so the positions he can play he can play like I think it’s second base Third Base left field right field Short Stop center field like he can play everywhere basically but first base looking at the triaa depth options there I actually
There’s not a lot in the infield frankly like if you look at the guys on the 40 the only other 40 Man INF Fielder is David Hamilton and Emanuel Valdez and so if you need someone to play third base or first base I don’t really have someone like that in Triple A because
Right now we have Bobby do projected for the majors so I think he just yeah the season starts today he makes it it’s not even a question yeah so I think Gonzalez is just a stop Gap like honestly like he’ll get DFA at some point when they
Have better options or they have another need but I think until then it makes sense to have someone who with positional versatility even if he has a terrible approach doesn’t walk and Strikes Out a ton but yeah I think yeah I mean looking at the looking at the
Triaa projected roster right now like I know we have Roberto Perez projected for Triple A but like I’ll be stunned if he’s there past May one like he’s definitely gonna per Perez almost certainly has an opt out for the start of the year he might be one of the guys
That gets it automatically I don’t know what his service time is but if he doesn’t have one automatically they he almost certainly has one he’s competing with Reese Maguire for the second catching not there to be the tripa catcher it is interesting though that they went out and got Tyler Hinman
Who’s has plenty of Major League experience as well and um and like’s not he’s not a good hitter but he’s a great you know he’s a great catcher which is what he is and that’s all they need in Triple A because you know the other options are like Stephen Scott Nathan
Hickey they’re not exactly um Beyond Perez and that’s if Perez is assuming he sticks around if he doesn’t then you need like another adult voice in the room for that catching group yeah well because they’ve got Mark koser um they they you know who I think is another
Defensive guy yeah um and you look at what they had last year I mean they had Jorge Al Faro for like half a season like he was bad you know I mean Scott when he got up there I mean he’s not great defensively Hamilton whatever he was there Hamilton’s whatever Ronaldo
Hernandez not a great defensive Catcher And and you look at what they did there what we’re going to talk about in a little bit with regard to the coaching staff it was very very clear that the Red Sox were not happy with how pitching development went in Triple A last year
And I think they kind of got away from you know they they had like alaro right like it was it was keep this quote unquote catcher here um in case we need him in the majors and it just didn’t go anywhere and as a result like like like you know we were
Talking about this before the show started every pitcher regressed when they got to Triple A every single one and I think like the poster the poster child that’s changer Ohan but it wasn’t just him it was like everything was just it was not great what was going on there
With the pitching and and yeah we’ll see and yeah as you said we’ll touch on it but I think that was kind of it seems like they decided that was a larger issue and they’ve completely revamped the whole pitching apparatus there yep yep or I mean across across the
Whole minor leagues but it’s it’s the most apparent in Triple A yeah um so yeah we we’ll see how that how that plays out but the catching position is definitely a piece where they where they did that um henan you talking about hen you talked about
Romy uh I think that’s probably it for 40 Man type additions all right they signed dton guthy who’s like a kind of Scrappy pinch hitter pinch Runner type right um yeah he’s versatile Defender can you know move around he can athletic I just think it’s another another depth signing kind
Of like what we were talking about with um with uh Romy Gonzalez yep Joe dunnan is another guy they signed another hitter for Triple A they they’ve really kind of like they’re kind of stockpiling a lot of like minor league free and hitter types in Triple A
Which is a little different than what they’ve done in the past I mean so far this offseason they signed mark contris Joe dunnan Jamie Westbrook Ro they claimed Romy Gonzalez they traded for Tyler Henman signed Mark Claus yeah it’s interesting I don’t know I mean there’s probably no correlation here but uh Joe
Dun and um dalan Guthrie and Von gome all spent a considerable amount of time last year in the Braves triple A team and they’re all now in the Red Sox I just thought that was interesting just looking at their Pages yeah yeah um also the Red Sox signed pitcher Melvin Adon
Or ad Dawn uh who is literally like Rick vaugh there was like 102 and he has no idea where he going no clue where it’s going I think he had like a nine walk nine last year nine nine walks per nine or eight eight and a half or something yeah something
Crazy like that so the type of arm you bring in sure let’s go he had see how it looks last year he had in Triple A he had 37 walks in 40 Innings yeah there you go there you go that’s how you do it um the Red Sox also extended some
Non-roster invitations to spring training among those who were in the system who are getting invites or C relievers cam Boozer rman Hermon Luis Guerrero Justin hagenman AJ P Chase shugar uh on the hitting side catchers Roberto Perez and stevenh Scott infielders Nick York Chase meidroth outfielder Mark Contreras catcher Markos
Infielder Jamie Westbrook outfielder Cory Rosier uh utility players Nick sogard and Eddie Alvarez and is there anyone oh and and catcher Nathan hickey as well oh some more relievers relievers Alex hoppy Jorge bitez and Hell Chris olivarez as well who we’ve got projected for double A so the the we talked a
Little bit about this when it went down in as far as the nris the only ones that surprised me the only one that surprised me a little bit was grant grant Gambrell not getting an invite um and Richard Fitz was the other one that surprised me
A little bit that didn’t get an NRI those to me felt more like just lack of starting pitcher work to go around in that yeah I agree if if you look at the number of guys they have coming in stretched out it’s gito beo Peta Crawford who are the
Three guys right now that they’re penciling into the rotation um they’re also bringing in stretch four should be four or four I meant yeah I said four names yeah um yeah I can count I swear uh but also Tanner H is coming in stretched out G Whitlock is coming in stretched out Josh
Wowski is coming in stretched out so right there you’ve got Murphy too is coming and stretched out is Murphy okay that’s so that’s eight guys they’re going to have stretched out is too Walter I would assume I could see them I mean Ma you probably have come in as a
Relever they’ve said Ma’s a reliever now yeah okay yeah so he’s not gonna be stretched but so but it’s that’s at least nine guys right there and you just don’t yeah there’s just not especi sign Cooper chriswell also so yeah there’s just not enough room I don’t think so
It’s just a matter like there’s no point in inviting a guy if you’re going to send him down the second turn to the rotation like just doesn’t make sense so that’s why a lot of these guys they’re bringing in are relievers to get a look
At them to help eat up some Innings and like you know guys like you know there are guys on that list who are going to get sent down the second Major Leaguers start getting stretched out right like the guys that they’re going to project for Portland uh but it is telling when
You see a guy like hoppy yeah who throws harder than probably any other reliever who was in the system last year well no he does he’s the hard he has highest fastball highest average fastball VI in the system last year so not a terrible surprise it I think it is interesting
Though that um oh and keep in mind too that Luis parales and wi MC Gonzalez are going to be a major league Camp I want if they’re being on the 40 man so like those are two guys that they also need to start by getting stretched out and
They’re goingon to have to get Innings then they’re gonna they’re going to be on the first train back to minor league camp but like yeah they’ll get again those are starting pitcher those are starting pitcher bodies they’re going to be in Camp yeah so um no I was just
Going to say that I I do think it’s interesting um that uh that some of the guys of the relievers that who didn’t get an an um I was a little surprised like Ryan zephron didn’t get one I thought maybe that if you’re if you know if you’re
Inviting like hoppy bonitz Alles but I think what that shows is kind of like the the hierarchy that similar to what we have in the rankings where like Guerrero hoppy those guys are kind of A Step Above the Rest of the system when it comes to relief pitchers zhr John and
Like Chris Troy yeah I could put in that group too he was like probably on the board right but I just think there’s just not enough there’s just not enough Innings yeah yeah I think they’re at 60 guys in Major League camp and that’s typically right about where they tend to
Be there’s no maximum number of nris but there’s just a maximum number of amount of playing time like you just need to get guys Innings so if you have too many guys in Camp you just don’t have enough Innings to go around so that’s where
They tend to wind up um and I’m sure some of these other guy that they were at 60 before they signed a few more of these guys so like you know I’m sure guys like Guthrie and Dunn and are going to wind up with they probably also have
Invites so they’re probably 62 right now yeah and I’m sure they’ll sign a couple more as we get closer to Camp yeah Adon might be too yeah so yeah so that’s that’s the the situation with Camp um some old friends who are are officially gone James Paxton obviously signed with
The Dodgers Christian Royo signed a minor league deal with the Milwaukee Brewers uh Rio Gomez signed with uh wuan in uh the CB cpbl which I think is taiwan’s uh professional League um it’s like the Chinese professional baseball league but I think it’s technically in Taiwan so
Happy trails to all those guys uh on their next steps in their career outside of this or um I think that’s about it for transactions in anything else I mean I guess Al what’s left to say is like what else happens from here because we haven’t
Gotten well I mean I guess they got Grom right but and we talked about that obviously in December but they have not made a major they haven’t made a major league deal since we talked last no and so it’s you know we thought they might sign one more
Starting pitcher we thought they would go get one more outfielder well done this I think though that what has not happened put it frankly is a lot is a large largely related to the big news coming out of winter weekend which was when they finally admitted that they’re
Cutting payroll this year um and I just I look at the math and I just don’t we don’t know how much money they have to spend and you know last year the payroll was at 225 and they’ve said they want to be under that is that 220 is that 215 is
That 210 is that 205 like we don’t know how far under they’re going to go and if it’s either of the first two they probably don’t have they don’t have room to add really anyone so yeah I think barring a change of course with the spending you’re pretty much looking at
The team that’s going to be you know on opening day it’s going to come from the group that’s in Camp right now well look at it this way would you sign Michael Lorenzen to a one-year deal just to fill out the rotation instead of like getting
A look at Whitlock see this is the tough thing because it’s like it’s like I guess I kind of get that this is the thing it’s like is spending $7 million for a guy who when you look at the projected war is probably right in the same range as the internal options you
Already have worth it yeah and that’s the question Craig brlo and Co are going to have to ask themselves cuz the the upgrades are just out of their price range you know they’re not not going to sign Blake Snell um doesn’t look like they’re going to sign Jordan montgomry
Regardless of you know him working out in Boston and all the other connections there which that’s the one that’s wild he’s right there just he fits he fits exactly what they need in the sense that I understand that they’re building for the future and this is kind of a bridge
Year again I know people don’t want to hear that but that’s kind of what it is but you know they don’t have rotation pieces coming in the future anytime soon um they don’t have those horses you know those top 100 leag pitching prospects or you know elite elite potential pitching
Prospects coming anytime soon uh so you know you’re going to have to go outside the org to find starting pitching if you know unless a bunch of these guys take a major step forward this year already in the system with the new Dev staff and that’s the wild card is you know we
Don’t know what’s going to happen with the new pitching sta pitching instructors and how how that’s going to take with the minor Leaguers and frankly the Major Leaguers too with Andrew Bailey and new voices in the room there but I just look at you know what they have
And gito beo Peta Crawford like I feel pretty good about that four I would feel better if they had someone above all of them which is where like Montgomery type comes in yeah but if you’re not going to go for a guy of that level you can make
The case that it’s better to figure out you know are any of Hal Whitlock Josh wowy any of those guys capable MLB starters it’s better to find that out this year in a bridge here than you know head and and if they aren’t you know addressed in the offseason IDE next year
When the position player prospects that they’re clearly counting on for the next you know quote unquote Great Red Sox team are coming um or you know what they hope to be the next great Red Sox team um when those guys are you know close to Big League ready in 2025 2026 time you
Know you need to know what you have with those other pitchers so um I can see the the logic of not going out and getting a marginal upgrade or a similar type of pitch on the free asent market you know just just rearranging the deck chairs
But I just yeah at the same time for me like you are not going to have rapael de forever well no that’s that’s a tough that’s the tough thing for me is that you’re you’re kind of throwing you’re throwing another year away of his prime potentially and obviously they’re that’s
Not how they’re going to look at it and that was probably a poor choice choice of words it’s not throwing it away it’s you know it’s they’re they’re they’re they’re building for the future and kind of this season is I think a year where it’s more of like an evaluation you know
We’re going to see what we have with all these players and who’s going to and it’s kind of going to weed out you know who are who which which bucket do you fit in going forward are you you know an integral roster member are you more of a
Squad like more of a depth player you know you a potential everyday guy things like that where I think a lot of those guys are gonna be we’re gonna figure that out with the guys like jiren Duran Von Gom um you know what is Trevor story
Gonna look like when he comes back I was just about to say that that it’s it’s figuring out a lot of that stuff and um It’s just tough though when you have like a a star like des and this is his Prime and uh figuring out what kasus is
Figuring out what Yoshida is and his second year in the majors yeah right like I think they have a lot of pretty big error bars again I know I always say this but it’s true like they have a lot of guys with a lot of space between what
They could there’s a lot of variance on this team and that’s but I think that’s what’s hard what I I and I can understand the frustration is that you look at that variance and you say if you’re an optimist that hey if these things go right and if you throw Jordan
Montgomery and add like a Jorge Solair type in the middle of that lineup that’s a team that can win 85 games and do you know how many get how many you know DX made the World Series last year with 84 WIS you know you just have to get into
The dance to have a chance and did you mean to rhyme that uh sure um but just you know you can see a a pathway for a team like that to make a playoff run you you get into the playoffs you get 85 games you have Jordan Montgomery you
Have beo takes a step forward this year you have Peta pitches like he did the second half of the Season Crawford for five and like you can talk yourself into it but it’s just it’s without you know know those two big pieces and those are two very big pieces that likely will
Cost you you know 40 million in money which they don’t seem likely to spend um you just look at it and it’s like okay you got four guys in the rotation who’s the fifth guy we’ll see you know you’ve got three guys who have had a combination of injuries and not
Performing as a starter you go to the lineup you’re GNA count you’re counting on jiren Duran to be an everyday player you’re counting on Willer or brao to be everyday player counting on Von gon to be an everyday player none of those guys have been everyday players before in
Their career you’re counting on Tyler O’Neal to be full season for full season toar same thing with Tyler O’Neal who hasn’t been healthy in three years you know there’s just a lot of question marks well O’Neal has been but yeah he had the one year he
Was an MVP candid he’s been an everyday player but I’m saying he hasn’t been healthy in three years right right um you know you have you know when you look at that lineup how many guys do you feel comfortable about heading into the season right now like like you know what
You’re going to get out of them I would say two like three maybe you know what you’re going to get at cus you know what you’re going to get with Des you know what you’re going to get with Yoshida to an extent other than that say you know
You’re going to get out of Conor Wong is is a fine starting defensive catch starting catcher who you would feel comfortable replacing with someone better if he’ll break yeah that’s the yeah that’s fair Conor Wong’s a good point but like hit him n he is what he
Is he’s he’s fine plug him and play either way we’re we’re not counting half more than half the lineup like right and well and the thing is it’s like you could look at this lineup squint and see the core of the next Red Sox playoff Contender with like one two tweaks I
Don’t know where the tweaks are but like if I came to you and I’m like Ian I’m coming to you from five years in the future the top of the line after the Boston Red Sox five years in the future has Kasa gome de story Anthony Meyer teal yeah would you
Believe me oh and Duran right like would and a or some combination yes but the problem is you just listed like eight left-handed hitters right I mean that’s the problem this this is the issue that with the system right now and why I just I would love to see something like and I
Think the Diamondbacks did it this week they traded uh Dominic Fletcher who’s a solid fourth fifth outfielder type he was never gonna play for them because they have you know really good young outfielders Alec Thomas Corbin Carroll they just resigned guriel um there’s one more that I can’t remember right now but
They have uh oh Jake McCarthy’s the other one like they have good outfielders at the major league level they traded him for uh Christian Mana with the white socks who’s a potential starting pitching Prospect you know he he had a rough year with white socks last year but there’s there’s some
Upside in it yeah that balanced out their system they didn’t need Dominic Fletcher and and this is the concern and the thing that the Red Sox are gonna run into is every guy you just listed can’t be on the field at the same time right now no like you can’t play Von gram
Trevor story and Marcel Meer Assuming he’s up at the same time unless one of them’s playing Third Base I guess but like well you’ve got a guy there but then which I mean I’m not ready to move him yet I know that everyone just screamed at their phones move him to
First but what are you going to move of DH like and this is and the same thing with the Outfield you know you you you’re going to have an outfield of jiren Duran um will and Roman Anthony so you’re gonna have three left-handed hitters to go along with an infield that
Is three left-handed like yeah it’s they need to bring some balance to the organization and that’s to the force and that that’s kind of the the thing I’m hoping we get to see this season is is some sort of some clarity with that of you know these are the guys we’re going
To build around and these are the guys that we’re going to be looking to move for upgrades positions of need and whether that be you know starting pitching depth um whether that be even right-handed hitter like trade a you know a left-handed hitting infielder for right-handed hitting Outfield like
Something like that like I’d love to see some moves like that in order to get creative and kind of balance things out because you know as you said if if we do look ahead they just have a lot of repetitiveness at certain positions and ideally you know hopefully this season
If they they keep the St if they keep it as it is and they’re not adding much then this is the season where we’re going to get some clarity with a lot of those guys or the first wave of those guys I should say two things I want to
Hit on before we move on first off I know you wanted to talk about moving Kenley jansson oh yeah that’s I guess the rumors the the only the I feel like the biggest rumor that going out there is they’re talking about shopping Kenley Janson and for me I just look yeah I
Look at the team and you’re like if you’re you know if you’re looking at this as a bridge year he’s an asset that there’s he’s not going to change between now and the end and spring and the deadline in terms of the only it’s only
Risk the risk is he gets hurt and then you get nothing for him if he’s you’re going to get less for him two months than you are for one year like right exactly so if you can trade him now then I I think it makes sense and to me I I
Know that’ll get framed as you know cost cutting measures but to me that’s just a baseball move you know that’s you have a an expensive relever and you’re not a cont you’re not supposed to contend they still could but you’re not supposed to you trade that for an asset any in my
Opinion you know 10 times out of 10 because I I look at the rest of the bullpen and I do think that is one of the strengths of the team and the other thing that that I think is interesting with the Bullpen is that how it’s currently constructed I actually do
Think there’s a pathway to keeping both Justin Slayton and Brian M which is not something I would have thought coming into the offseason but I just look at the way it is and if they move Jansen Martin or and Martin’s I I I know we disagree on this I think Martin
Becomes your closer I’d rather just have him in the eighth inning just don’t mess with it I guess but it’s like and this is are we assuming they sign a starting pitcher or no they don’t sign a starting pitcher if you’re trading Jansen you have the sign of starter though I think
Because yeah because that pushes wincowski back to the major league team like I just think that it it it hurts your starting depth because you have to you know Hal you’re counting on Hal Whitlock and winkowski then in that situation to be more of your kind of
Like your leverage so say like your your Bullpen looks like this Martin H Whitlock Bernardino are kind of your main four shriber five and so it’s what 13 pitchers so you got five starters so you’ve got seven no eight eight relievers yeah so again Martin H Whitlock Bernardino shriber are your top
Five Slayton six no I’d have Campbell six okay Campbell six I the major real five sure Campbell six Slayton ma is probably your seven eight and you’ve got you know wowski Walter chriswell Murphy weisser Kelly and Triple A yeah that I I think that’s fine you can get away with
That that’s fine but that’s why I also think like you could also have weisser because you still get that revolving door last spot if you were to move H or Whitlock into the rotation it’s not good well and you also if Campbell’s on the roster Campbell have options so has
Options too so I think I think you’ve got you can easily have one or two spots that are the rotating doors yeah there um that you just you know bring up guys who who are you know fresh but I that that’s the important thing to me just is
If they do move Kenley I would not look at it as purely a cost cutting measure like I would look at it as in a baseball move it makes sense yeah um and shly if they decide they want to keep him and you know we look look at the trade and
Obviously this is best case scenario but look at the trade the uh Royals made for with a RIS Chapman last year they traded him in what may they got back a guy I mean obviously this is 90 this is literally best case scenario but they got back a guy who’s turned into their
Ace like Cole ragins was literally one of the best pitchers in baseball down the stretch last year obviously I think he had a couple bad starts at the end of the year but for like a two-month stretch you know yeah and that’s you know that’s ideally if you can move
Janson you’re probably trying to get back some sort of starting pitching Prospect and you know you never know that so even if they do keep him it’s not the end of the world but I think that that’s really the only rumor as of late is that they’re shopping Jans and
Other than that I feel like we haven’t heard who they trade who they trade who is who is short a closer who’s contending Dodgers is the most obious think yeah I mean plus it’s you know bringing him back it was it was you could have maybe said the Astros but
They went out and got Josh haer um yeah the Orioles have Kimbrell the Phillies probably well the Orioles have Kimbrell and uh oh because what’s is batist for the season I would say the Phillies but they have like Dominguez like there’s a few of the contending teams see the
Phillies the Rangers were but they got David Robertson so there’s definitely some options it’s just you know can you match up on a trade right right um and then the other big acquisition of course that we should mention briefly although I just don’t know how much to talk about
It is that hasn’t it’s mostly just talking about what other people have reported is Theo Epstein coming back as a uh as a member of Fenway Sports Group yeah uh kind of a wild situation there uh you know we we talked at the time that breslo was hired about bringing in
The the senior consultant uh for him as having you know he he doesn’t have the background doesn’t have the EXP front office experience there’s your front office experience right there and I get the sense with Theo Epstein having heard interviews he did while working in the Commissioner’s Office most recently he’s
Been kind of there he’s been the guy in charge of all the new rule stuff more or less for the Comm Commissioner’s Office having him come back as the sounding board it does also sound like he’s kind of getting it’s almost like an internship to become an owner right as
Part of a group where he’s going to have more of a direct say like you said it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be he stays with Fe Sports Group for the next 20 years by any no that’s not that’s not even my words that’s Sam Kennedy’s words they they’ve known each other
Since they were kids yeah it seems like it’s kind of his like I said internship to become an owner eventually um when an opportunity becomes available maybe they’re waiting for like expansion or something because you’ve got the A’s in theory moving although that’s getting Wilder assum I would assume they’re waiting for like
Nashville and Montreal or whatever the next two teams to come in are yeah well because I think it was what did Manfred say the A’s and Rays have to get sorted out before they expanded and the Rays have been sorted right they they they might put a new stadium I
Don’t think it’s 100% but it looks like it’s going to happen um which is good honestly I mean you know I’m I married into a raised family um we should say like their current stadium is so inconvenient like it’s inconvenient unbelievable it’s a terrible Stadium yeah worse than Polar Park Polar Park is
Great but I’m just saying like polar Park would be a better Major League State ballpark than it’s a the facil it’s just not a a major league standard Park like Lauren my my wife my wife’s earliest memories going to professional sports games were going to the lightning
At Tropic field put it that way hockey at a place where they play baseball right now so I I do think it’s interesting and I think that people need to you got to have the expectations with the Theo thing is that he’s not going to be the one like grinding through waiver
Claims or you know get draft reports he’s going to be probably on the bigger decision someone hey can I throw this off you like what do you think or that’s the way at least it’s been framed is you know he’s going to be there um with breslo who obviously someone he knows he
He gave breslo his first stop with the Cub so so there’s a level of trust there and I think that it’s night it’s you know there’s no downside to it like you know most likely when he will he’s going to be behind the scenes you’re never going to see him publicly facing that
Much maybe he’ll you know maybe we’ll see at a game here and there games yeah but like yeah I think it’s more that if he’s going to be there for breslo and I just think it’s nice that you’re bringing in someone that breslo trusts and who frankly the fan base has trust
In um because I think that ownership has kind of reached the level where there is there’s a substantial amount of distrust between the fan base and ownership and I think that there needs to be some some Pathways or they need to start trying to mend those fences and I think that you
Know it’s not a major move but I think it’s as I said it doesn’t hurt to bring in someone like Theo to kind of show that you know yes we are still committed you know we’re going to bring this guy in and have and have him you know be an
Adviser with granted he’s goingon to be helping apparently with like Liverpool and other stuff too but also with an eye towards the baseball team which I think Sean McAdam talked about in his piece that it was an acknowledgement of FSG that the Red Sox have not been as high a
Priority as they were when they initially you know created the whole which group which when I read that and I thought about it I’m gonna I’m gonna make some people really angry by saying this I kind of get it yeah no I I I because here’s the thing the Red Soxs are what
They are and and I know in terms of an investment I’m just think looking at this stly from an investment portfolio perspective they’re not going to be a depreciating asset you know they’re not going to increase really that much they they kind of are what they are and
That’s what they’re going to remain until they finish all the infrastructure around the ballpark to be clear yeah to be clear I’m not saying I get like cutting payroll I don’t no no no we do I get them not being like you as John Henry all day every day are saying like
Okay you know what above all else are the red sucks good yeah because we’re past that no because when you look at them they have they have you know they they have they’re a lot in a lot of different Ventures there with uh Liverpool obviously is and I know you
Know if you’re a premier league fan you know what’s going on over there their manager is leaving who is suddenly and unexpectedly right one of the one yeah one of the top five managers in the world is leaving um they’re you know they’re obviously they have a roster
That needs turn over they have a lot of guys aging out there so it’s going to be a pretty big offseason for them without a manager which is a massive question mark um they obviously the the penguins which I don’t really follow hockey so I’m not but the Penguins B is the golf
No no they just signed it they just did the golf thing no well no there’s I was gonna say they’re also rumored to it be in line to get if there’s an NBA expansion LeBron yeah but the big one is they just signed the golf thing you know
They just did what was it a three billion dollar deal with the PGA the PGA Tour yeah so they’ve got a lot of stuff on the front burner and I just think that the Red Sox kind of fell to the back burner because they they’re kind of self-sufficient at this point you know
It’s all they had to do was set the budget and then the rest is is other people running it and and I think that became a problem I think that became a problem because they would just pyate Shute in and that’s that’s why Heim Bloom gets fired is you finished in last
Place that’s not acceptable yeah it’s no well you know what it is it’s you see in September you see in September um the Dodgers series and there’s you know 25 thou or 20,000 Dodgers fans chanting let’s go Dodgers at Fenway Park and you look at the standings and those two
Those two things are just yeah that’s you’re not paying attention on a day-to-day level and you see that that’s not going to turn out and that’s why you need like you know the person here’s the thing like I think a lot of people you know I made this post on the Forum I
Would love to see the ven diagram of the number of people who are saying like fire Sam Kennedy the vend diagram of the people who want Sam Kennedy fired and know what his job duties what his job responsibilities actually are I would love to see the overlap there because I bet it is
Minimal well because yeah because s kenned is not the one who’s telling them what the pay is he’s the messenger probably but he’s not he’s not the one setting the payroll and he’s he’s at a higher level than like dealing with the day-to-day of the major league club and
I think the thing is it’s he’s the one that gets put out there as the mouthpiece because like there’s a reason as I I’ve said this before there is a reason John Henry and Tom Warner do not do media anymore and it’s for thing because of things like full freaking
Throttle yeah like like like you just don’t even say that if you’re not going to do it like we like we said don’t say a thing be what you do like be offseason don’t make the job harder for preso than it already is like he walked into a situation which is extremely difficult
And I and I I think and I think we’re in lockstep on this that the moves they’ve made I like a lot of the stuff they’ve done I like a lot of the infrastructure they’re building you know the changes they made in the front office which
We’ll talk about I think in a in a second yeah we minute yeah but but it’s like when you say something like that it just makes his job infinitely harder and I’m glad they finally clarified it it they should have clarified it immediately it shouldn’t have been taken
Multiple months but I’m glad that they finally reached the point where they were able to clarify it and be like look this is and kind of I I think that I I appreciate that they were honest where they were like yes we’re cutting payroll like I know it’s not what people wanted
To hear but it’s nice to know that because I think for Craig brow’s sake it was important for fans to hear that because they needed to know that you know we don’t know what his ideal offseason would have been if they had money to spend but we know that you know
Operating within the budget they are I like what he’s done and the question now is you know hopefully and they’ve said they’ve said that they’re going to free up things in the you know in the future and so and if that’s the case then you
Know we’ll get to see what he can do then but I think it’s just it was it was good for them to say it because now as I said it helps frame and understand what brow has been doing it’s not like a why aren’t you signing Montgomery why aren’t
You signing SN it’s like well it’s not his choice yeah and then it doesn’t make it okay right but I I they realized what they realized because at first I was like why would you say that why would you put out there that you as a team are
Not spending more money because like it gives other teams a competitive advantage of like because I think that you know that the Red Sox aren’t going to come in and and like spend that money but the thing is that this was known behind the scenes for a while like I feel like teams
Around baseball operating under this impression yeah guess there’s no need to make it official but I think the need to make it official was I think they realized what a bad situation they were putting breslo in and they were just like you know what we need to take some
Heat off of the rookie GM or CBO whatever he is and and I think that’s when they realized they needed to say that um let’s move on into um uh the coaching stuff uh so the Red Sox set their major and minor league coaching staffs Major League I really
Don’t care who the base coaches are they new base coaches great fun whatever who cares minor leagues what they’ve done as we kind of previewed a little bit was they have essentially completely overturned the upper miners pitching app atus and other than that it’s really small moves yeah it’s just like I think
That’s the one that is the most impactful though for everything going on around here um and I think it’s a carryover of what we talked about with the other big move that we haven’t talked about yet which was Kyle bod um the founder of drive line coming in as a
Special is it about b b or bod bod y b y it’s BD I I I meant to say why sorry uh coming in as a special adviser to Craig Bry and I think what when you look at that and and talking to people around the
Game like he’s a pitching wizard like he really knows pitching and the amount of influx of talent and M pitching Minds that they have had this offseason is really impressive you know you’ve got Craig Russ you’ve got B bod um Justin Ward is the new yeah Justin I was gonna
Say we need to find out how to pronounce that but Justin Willard um then you have director director of pitching um and is director of pitching not minor league pitching I didn’t realize I think he’s working with both Andrew Bailey and the minor league staff yes and that’s and Bailey is also
Apparently not just the major league like he’s kind of helping run the pitching with the organization and then also Triple A you have a new triaa pitching coach and you have a new Bullpen coach and you have multiple new catchers so yeah yeah I I think it’s um
It’s interesting that that’s kind of the route they’re going with the pitching I I think it was needed I think the pitching development it’s been weird I I think that it’s just and it it’s something probably we’ll talk more about in a future episode um kind of why they’re at the place they
Were at with regards to pitching talent in the system but I look at what they’ve been Drafting and kind of like the way they’ve been approaching it and I think they needed some new voices um you know a lot of guys they were bringing in to the system you know the stuff
Wasn’t really there or if it was there it didn’t really get to the level it probably should have or and I think most notably Triple A was the biggest example of that last year um yeah just a lot of pitchers got up there who have talent and for whatever reason it just wasn’t
Clicking and I I do think Polar Park is a very good hitters park which is part of it I think the the the the uh what was it the automated Strike Zone was messing with pitchers I think a substantial amount but they still should
Not have been as bad as they were a lot of those pitchers and um I think that having you know new voices and that I think this is something that I’m most interested to see is you know the tangible changes that obviously there’s stuff going on behind the scenes that we
Don’t know about but what are we going to see on the mound when we get down in spring training you know are we going to see you know different pitch types are we going to see a emphasis on you know more of an emphasis on this pitch um
Pitching to this quadrant of the zone you know mixing things up with your sequencing like there’s there’s a lot of interesting stuff that I I’m hoping that that we should be seeing there and um that’s kind of what I’m most looking forward to with um seeing how this new
Pitching infrastructure kind of applies the new stuff that and the new ideas they’re bringing in the other thing that you noticed going through through the release is that they basically had a chain promotion of hitting coaches in the organization um dou a hitting coach Doug Clark gets promoted to AAA to
Basically be a co- hitting coach with Rich Gman who comes back uh Chris hes gets promoted from Greenville to Portland that makes a lot of sense the Greenville hitters were terrific last year um in high Greenfield they have a new new hitting coach a new uh extra
Coach it’s weird one thing that really we’ve seen expanding in the past five to six years is the size of the coaching staffs at each level there’s a manager a pitching coach a hitting coach and at least one extra coach at each level um in tripa you’ve got a bullpen coach and
A bench coach uh you know at the complex you’ve got two managers two pitching coaches two hitting coaches two extra coaches uh in the Dominican you’ve got two managers two pitching coaches two hit I mean I guess you’ve got two teams so this makes sense two pitching coaches
Two hitting coaches four other coaches and Pedro Sako is an instructor and two development coaches so there’s a lot happening uh in in the system with all of these guys they that they have um I like it I think you know bring in more coaches as long as everyone’s kind of on
The same page um it’s solid to me so I don’t know any other stuff on the coaching staff stuff Ian or should we move it on to I I think it’s it’s a lot of we’re going to see it’s it’s I’m just excited to see it in
Action because you know we’re close it’s about a month a little over a month minor league game starting so it’s going to be pretty interesting International free agency went down in the middle of January the Red Sox big S so far the Red Sox have signed by the way like 40 guys
45 wild 45 it is interesting that they’re really internationally and I kind of I like this frankly is they’re they’re not going with the approach of putting all your eggs in one basket internationally they’re really spreading their bonuses around they for a while and going for volume and I think it’s just interesting
Because you look at some of the other classes like the guys who were getting 4 million having one guy getting $4 or5 million you know they’re only signing 20 people or so so they’re really uh you know they’re spreading it around and taking as many you know shots as you can
At different guys to see if someone you know you can find those Diamonds in the Rough down there yeah and it’s it’s it’s it is interesting because they usually don’t sign this many guys in January or the first month I should say because it used to be July um you might get this
Many guys over the course of the full International free agency period which is for 11 months of the year before it goes silent between December and January um they just went out and got everybody right away which is kind of interesting um at the class is headlined by
Centerfielder Vladimir asencio who got a million dollars even so it’s kind of one of the lower top bonuses that they’ve had in a while I think the last time you get they have a top bonus that low is like the WAN shaone year which I think would have been
2019 if that’s sounds right to you I um you know for example last year by comparison you all in CPUs got 1.4 million the year before that framy Deon got 1.2 and Fry and kassion got 1.1 but therein lies the rub framy Deon is like a utility guy in the Gulf Coast League
Who hits ninth and and kassion missed the full year basically because of an injury yeah it’s you know one thing to keep in mind because we every year we get questions why aren’t they out there for the top bonus guys I think if there were a guy out there that they needed to
Sign for that much who they thought was worth that they would I do think that there is a strategy here yeah um that they don’t do that but at the same time it’s like with the way the international market Works where you get these deals locked in like two years ahead of time
Three years ahead of time yeah that’s what I say is these deals have been agreed a long time before you’re punishing them for getting guys locked up early for Less by being mad they aren’t spending more on a single player so I think it’s just a lot of let it
Play out and I think the way you know having looked at this once like yes the big big bonus guys are the ones who have a much higher likelihood of booming in the sense that they become the the Cheerios of the world the like top 10
Top 15 top 25 type prospects in the game right like a lot of the but you know there are guys who get five figure bonuses who become that they’re much rarer but that said I don’t think that there is as big of a gap between you know if a guy doesn’t
Become maybe you don’t have a chance at those guys who pop but I don’t think that the the Mis rate is much better because there are a lot of guys who get those big bonuses who become nothing right who don’t make it to double a that
Happens and so I would prefer not to put probably the biggest example yeah I mean guys don’t make it to um who is the guy that the a signed the p um who’s going to be like the next Michael y knowa y all the way back then
That was like a decade ago that was a while ago but I’m just like but I mean the point I mean he was like not he wasn’t even your standard sort of number one guy in the class he was like like look Ethan Solace gets the bonus he does
For a reason yeah he’s a stud yeah because he’s a stud he’s an absolute stud but like and it’s gonna take that much money to sign them but it’s like if they ran on a guy like that great but if you’re not going to be in on that guy
Then I would prefer they do this than just throw money at a guy to throw money at a guy well it’s so like yeah they were they had an example of that of someone who had that Talent level and obviously a tragedy happened off the field that you could you had no control
Flores that was like the last time they really spent that much on a single player yeah um and obviously something happened out of their control with that and and and I don’t think that’s what scared them off I don’t my no my point is just that they when they there are
They will do that for certain guys was my point sure yeah and and I think and look like I said there’s a reason why by Ben badler of baseball America who probably covers this Market better than anyone else out there he doesn’t rank the players anymore except by expected
Bonus for a reason and that is because there’s just such an information Gap because once these guys agree to deals with teams traps shut a lot of them shut them down yeah a lot of like they get shut down they don’t do public workouts anymore and you just don’t get new Intel
On a guy for three years no and so it’s not worth trying worry about wait until the guys come State side and see what happens and then ipus might be a stud so my Franklin arus who didn’t get that kind of bonus I also think though that
When you look at the Red Sox International pool or you know kind of like their development infrastructure that’s the group that has been together I think for the longest amount of time Eddie Romero has been in charge of what almost a decade now yeah obviously probably more than that and their track
Record is just great like they churn out and it’s consistent L like Brian ba was what $35,000 or something Brian M was 25,000 even if for him getting to where he is for that is sidan Rafael was under 100K like they have a really good track record with finding these these guys for
Lower bonuses who turn into um either you know useful trade chips because I think Gregory Santos is another example of that someone you know who they use as a chip um in a trade Manel Margo like the list goes on and on and my point is
Just they’ve been doing it this way for a while and it’s really been working so I don’t think there’s any need to change it and I look at you know the guys they got and I do think there are some interesting things there like you have
Kind of a mix of you have really it seems like they kind of fall into two buckets which I guess kind of is the Latin market for position players is you have either you’re an Uber athlete who plays up the Middle with good contact skills or you’re a bopper with like huge
Exit Vos and those are the two groups they targeted with like Vladimir know is the athletic right-handed hitting outfielder like you know makes a ton of contact doesn’t strike out our potentials if but good Defender okay can work with that then you go to their second bonus
Carlos ccarol um or carrasquel uh he’s be caras kale kale at he’s 6 foot4 195 pounds listed at 17 yeah yeah he’s a big boy like third yeah Big Exit Vos like legit raw power okay I like that Edwin Britto now we’re back to you know right-handed hitting
Outfielder with offensive UPS side has some physical projection in his frame um produced Big EXs of elos again okay you go down again to the next position player Anderson Ferman very athletic switch hitter who will move from center field from Short Stop to center field and pro ball Anderson for me top tier
Athlete who can really run contact as aead of power at this point okay yeah like we’re back in that bucket you know and and you go down the list and that’s what it is and I think the one the one most interesting one to me is they
Actually gave more to a pitcher than they have in some time in Dalvin and Reyes quarter 50k yeah the last time they gave that much to a pitcher I think was like five years ago and and I I think it was and it was uh not and I’m
Just looking at the Latin mark because they gave uh CH the uh right-handed relever double AIA HOSA no no no uh Taiwanese guy uh oh CJ Lou CJ Lou thank you I was gonna call him Lynn and I was thinking of chasan Lynn they gave CJ I always want to do
That with him they gave him like 750k well no the last guy they gave 450 was pasio Pas got 450 in 2021 okay that’s what it was because CJ L was what 19 yeah was 750 my point was just they don’t spend a lot like internationally and rightfully so with the pitching it’s
Just such a crapshoot like you just don’t know because those guys they have a lot of physical development remaining and I I mean even like looking at you know the top International mob pitchers all of them got like small bonuses so but it’s I think it is interesting that
In Reyes they went out and got you know it was one of the higher bonuses given to a pitcher this year and he’s the super projectable but he’s also got some present V like he’s up to 93 already as a 16y old but he’s also 65 200 lb that’s
Really interesting to me um yeah so I like but no it’s it’s it’s an interesting group and you know we’ll see them in about a year um and we’ll kind of see what we’ll go from there yeah it will be yeah I mean you know it’s always fun to kind of keep it
Keep a track keep track of these guys you know we’ve got the full list on our International signings page although there’s even more guys so we got to get more bonuses but um they’ve spent 4.85 million at least of their $5.9 to5 million pool so they’ve got some room
Left to sign some more guys believe it or not if guys pop up so uh we’ll have to wait and see what they do there uh shall we bring it to email Zan and then bring it home our uh again if you want to email us our email address is podcast at
Soxprospects.com we have a lot of these let’s try and get through them quick Ian our first email comes from patreon supporter Al mendal he says can you please explain how Chris sales vesting option works which is the Braves problem now it vests if the sale hits certain
Milestones in 2024 if he does not hit those Milestones this will become a regular team option that the socks can choose not to pick up um the the vesting option it vests if he is top 10 in the siong voting I believe well it doesn’t matter anymore because you signed an
Extension oh that’s right he did sign an extension with the brav that’s right but that’s how it did work yeah um our next email is from uh someone who didn’t sign it and it’s not clear from their email what they want to be called so I’m going to hold off
Um wondering if the Red Sox in recent years have effectively VI effectively used their upper miners non- catcher position player death while the Joe Jake and Caleb Hamiltons of the world get emergency call-ups they never brought up the likes of Greg Allen Nico goodram Nick sogard or Ryan Fitzgerald it seems
That part of having that depth is using that depth why not give Fitzy a cup of coffee even if you risk losing him on waivers when he’s sent back no one thinks he’s a major league regular but giving him a few days um giving him even
A few days Pablo was the exception but it I think he means Pablo Reyes was the exception but it seems like that was pre-ordained when the core when the core Brothers targeting him which was great but still um whatever that means I mean I think it’s go through the list Greg
Allen Nico gam like neither of those guys did anything outside of this organization Nick soard is still around as dep Ryan Fitzgerald I I think it’s a lot of just like to do what yeah I bench utility Guy what’s the point because you got to to
The 40 man like well that’s the thing is you’re not going to DFA someone like a Bobby dobeck or someone on the 40 man for those call Ryan Fitzgerald like it just doesn’t make sense the the game is about keeping and maintaining your depth and if those guys are like a lot of
Those guys are what they are and that’s Triple A’s probably the best spot for them um and so yeah that’s kind of you don’t want to there’s no reason to to bring them up and risk losing them for that reason next email comes from Sam
And Tacoma Park who I hope is as happy about c o Rojo getting a new uh space u for their restaurant as I am he says for all the hand ringing about salary shedding based on the ctio article it’s cillo why did I say his name that way um
Damn you carabus I’m wondering how potential costes and Bao extensions factor into the Red Sox calculations if they want to extend both how would the aav from each of those contracts impact their luxury thr luxury luxury tax threshold proximity and practical terms maybe one reason not to go hard after
Jordan Montgomery is to make sure there’s room to lock up the guys they already have before get closer to free agency it’s possible if I’m Craig breslo I get why you don’t want to rush into an ex a contract extension with a guy that’s said I really would like to get
Kasus locked up in particular I kind of get wanting to wait a little bit on beo yeah pictures like pictures are a different animal but I I just think and I keep coming back to this and it’s probably a larger topic of discussion where I just think we haven’t adjusted
The fact the free agency is about to get awful for the next couple of years because all the good players are signing extensions when they’re you know and we we’ve seen it this week Bobby wit signed an extension with the Royals which B bought out I think his first three years
Of free agency Colt Keith not even in the majors signing extension with Detroit Jackson Cheo signed with Milwaukee like top prospects if you’re an elite Prospect you’re probably getting extended before you get to the majors at this point now or shortly thereafter you get there and I think
Doing something like that with kasus makes a ton of sense because like the longer you wait yes you’re getting you’re going to get you know these two cheap years right now but but is that worth it if you know four years down the road you’re having to pay instead of 20
Million you could get them for now you’re having to pay 2530 million a year I don’t think so I’d rather have it more spread out and you know pay three four million this year five six million next year and have it flatten out rather than you know run into a situation where you
Know he you risk losing him because we we’ve seen it happen with mookie bets like with Xander Barts you know that second contract you want those guys locked up as for as long as possible early on and if you don’t yeah and go south and I just don’t I think that
Building from within is the way you’re going to have to be doing this if you’re the Red Sox it’s the way the other teams you know the top teams in baseball that that’s the way they do it and um I would look to be locking those guys up for
Sure although that said I mean like I kind of what you were getting to a little bit there with the average annual value if if this is an outlier year in terms of payroll I get why you maybe wait a year yeah because if you sign a
Guy to an extension now the average annual value is the average of the contract you don’t they don’t count for 4 million this year 5 million next year or whatever so it could add you 15 20 million to the a so you’re you’re taking the hit now to save later is what
Happens yeah um but that said I really wouldn’t mind an extension that started next year I I think that would be a smart bit of business I think you can sign them to an extension that doesn’t start until next year um and keep them on their contract for this year in
Theory so um our next question comes from our our buddy Bill Stan from patreon he says go Blue quick question are you going to rank Maris grome and if not where would you guess he would be obviously not he what’s that he meant vau I would assume God damn yeah Von Gris I’m
Sorry it’s been a week today did it say vaugh or Maris no it just says Grom where would you rank gr I I add full names when emailers usually just use one got it um are you going to rank Grom and if not where would guess he would be he
Exhausted his rookie eligibility like two years ago so he’s not he’s not Prospect eligible and so it’s we always get where would you rank this guy who’s not Prospect eligible anymore and it’s always tough because it’s like well we know what he is in the majors to some
Degree I get I get the question though with him because we don’t really know what he is at the majors like I’d probably rank him four you would put him behind teal yeah that’s probably about right I think he’s a 4550 type I think teal has more upside than
That yeah I get that I think that’s fair I think that’s fair I like that I’ll coign um our next email our next email comes from Sam he say you’re going to like this he says I work in cricket over in the UK oh there now we’re talking yeah What a
Wicked googly all right uh young athletes in the UK are developed through the academy system which allows the players to focus on their skills whilst Wist playing for their junior sides these young players dream about making it to the first team but for a lot of them this dream never materializes and
They are let go and are left to find other opportunities be this for another team or a completely different professional path we’ve recently started incorporating an education system into the academy system to allow the young players who don’t make it the best chance to succeed after they’ finished
Playing secondly I’ve seen firsthand the impact being told you haven’t made it has on young people and the effect they can have on their mental health these are all very interesting points so far so my question is what do baseball organizations have in place for players
Who sign from high from high school or who’ve come over to the us as an international signing in terms of education and opportunities outside of baseball also when trading for young player does do organizations feel the duty of care for the player for for instance um he
Says for explains is that a British thing for explains or is that just the typo okay maybe just the typo uh for instance blaz Jordan and jiren Durant have both spoken about their mental health so would a baseball team hold on to them to help protect their mental
Health or is business just business thanks to love the show Sam bigs good question good a lot a lot of great stuff to unpack in there and one of the things I feel kind of is a logical Next Step because as we know the the the MLB players Association just expanded to
Include minor league players right yeah I I I and we’ve seen gains in pay for minor league players we’ve seen that they get housing they get meal at least two meals a day from the team uh a lot of excellent gains for players we’ve seen that teams are required to have a
Dietician on staff now a lot of really positive steps forward uh the the the stuff about education and that sort of thing is I think a logical Next Step think about it a lot of these guys are college age not saying you got to give them a full College curricula well but
They do if if you’re a high school kid and you sign part of your contract or you get the money no I know I’m saying like so think about the stuff you learned in college that like wasn’t class education but it’s like like the social skills social skills but also
Just like you know the seminars you have during orientation about like you know how to live in a dorm setting how you know a lot of you are living away from home for the first time here’s how you do stuff like I mean I would assume they
Have stuff like that because they have like they have class knows you think every team does you think that no not every team but I’m saying I think I’m so confident the Red Sox do um I know like they have like English lessons like at the Dominican Academy y um and and like
For the draf E they have money part of their contract or I think it’s on top of their contract it doesn’t count to the bonus but they have um they have money to finish school or go back to school or go to school if they were a high school
Kid yep 100% And yeah I think that it’s Pro and the thing is it would be nice if it was like Universal thing I think it’s more of a team to team thing because I think the best example and I don’t know how if it how well known it is around
Here um but uh the Dodgers have resigned Andrew tols um who’s an outfielder with them he’s not played since 2018 I believe um and he’s been he’s got bipolar disorder in schizophrenia and he’s been in and out of mental hospitals he’s been in out of jail he’s been in
And out of being homeless um and the Dodgers have signed him every year since 2018 to a contract and then place them on the restricted list so that he has access to healthare with them because he gets the team Healthcare and so I I think there are organizations that do
Care about it and and and will do things like that and go above and beyond but I do agree that it would be nice if it was there were more like Universal things where you know it was set out that every team had to you know work with the guys
On this but I I do think from knowing what I do about the red socks and the stuff I think they’re doing a good job with um with kind of teaching and educating the younger guys especially when the 16 17 year olds come into the Dominican Academy I think they have the
Really good infrastructure down there and then um you know working with them on English lessons and you know flip side too I I like a lot of some of the things that I think we’ve talked about it before here like they send some of their top prospects the us-based top
Prospects down to the Dominican to work out I don’t know if they still do it they were at least doing it pre pandemic they did do it yeah Fair good point but they back to it they used to do things like that um so I think that yeah that
Is uh they’re thinking about it and and there are other things I mean there are other things that play about when guys come to the US and things like that too but um I mean examples of guys that they’ve treated well um Kevin Steen who got an unfortunate car accident down in
Fort Meers during extended spring training and they I can’t I think he just I think he retired I don’t know that they released or he became like a minor league free agent or something I don’t think they cut him yeah um even long after it was pretty clear he was
Not likely to come back um Ryan West Morland who you know they kept around for as long as he wanted to be here basically um even when you know I I think we could probably say at this point like it if you knew the situation
It was clear a lot sooner than it was outside of the organization that it just wasn’t going to happen um you know but it was like they kept around because it’s like what’s the point why why would you cut that guy um so they they they
Try and do right by guys um in the organization so um but yeah I mean there’s a lot of good stuff in there you know I I the the academy thing is interesting too that’s the part though that’s it’s a little different I think oh mental health is the other thing to
Talk about too you mentioned that they they do have mental skills coaches they they have skills coaches yeah um but I I think that the one thing is the when and I think that this applies to football in the UK too because there’s been a lot of
Talk and one of the big things um you see some really interesting articles about is a lot of times the impact fact that players who get released when they’re like 18 19 years old and and I’m talking about it I’m talking about the premier league right now um or like
Football teams is a lot of articles about how like that you know if you’re release that moment in your career can be the pival juncture you know some guy some guys that you know goes down the wrong road and that’s something like the Premier League is having to really
Address is you know finding a way to better to give those guys a better landing spot rather than just like basically saying like yeah your dream of being professional is over and um yeah I think that that’s definitely I mean it’s it’s it’s something that is is you know
A topic in in all walks of life is finding you know a way or a pathway to keep everyone engaged and everything and I yeah Chris mocker yeah a former Red Sox farmand was recently arrested for selling parts to ghost guns I think or something like that right like just wild
Um but I think really good question it’s great questions great questions I love it and if if we didn’t hit on stuff in there please you know hit us up that was that was terrific question Sam um our next question uh is from M deuba who
Asks um the subject of the email is Isaac coffee says I really like the way he looked for the Sea Dogs this past year and think he might just be a bullpen piece in 24 but your site doesn’t seem to like him very much judging by your rankings can you talk
About him and give us SL me some better insight into your ranking of him at 44 you always seem to skip right over him or barely acknowledge Him with talking about the state of Red Sox pitching prospects well I think we talk about him to some extent I mean the problem is he
Doesn’t that what’s the average fast ball 88 like 88 89 and that’s this is the thing is he’s just the his profile of player just is not one that has a great track record at the major league level like guys can get there you can get a cup of coffee but the staying
Power is tough when you have such a small margin for error because you’re you know you’re 88 to 90 with a average secondary pitch um it’s just hard to be a deception guy at the major league level 100% 100% our next question is from Jason who asks know Brian Abraham
Is the director of Player Development and Devon Pearson is the director of amateur scouting but who if anyone is responsible for Bridging the Gap between these two departments I imagine communication between those two departments is key to organizational success does Player Development inform amateur scouting and does amateur scouting inform Player Development once
A players in the organization best regards Jason great question uh I would suggest going back and listening to our interviews with uh Paul tabone with Brian Abraham um I would say you’ve got Paul tonei a above those two actually we didn’t even mention Paul tone just got
Promoted again um to he’s an assistant GM now right um Paul Tbone was the VP of Player Development and scouting I believe last year in amateur scouting uh so that’s kind of your obvious Bridge right there but those two me those two departments have to work hand inand uh I
Know with the amateur Scouts I believe after the draft they have them come in and do some like internal scouting to some degree if I remember correctly kind see it varies from or to or but yeah yeah yeah so I mean that’ll happen I mean certainly they’re talking to each other
Like about hey here’s the report on this guy but I think there’s also something to having fresh eyes on a guy too right like you bring the guy in and it’s like okay I want to look at this guy with a fresh set of eyes see what I see see
What we can work on and that sort of thing but they don’t do it in a complete vacuum either um so yeah I I think those two mechanisms do talk to each other and it is imperative and I’ll add international amateur scouting as well um that’s another piece of it that like especially
International amateur scouting I mean the Dominican Academy is basically International amateur scouting and coaching all in one place with kind of the same people um so they do go hand in hand there and it so it makes sense at that level but I don’t know if you got
Anything to add on that Ian but I think it’s it’s yeah that’s a great Point that’s how it works um our next question is from Braden and he says uh could you help me understand defensive progression through the miners you’ve talked about the challenges each level presents and the questions that might be
Asked of hitters and pitchers as they move up can you provide similar framing for the defensive side some of the questions in my head thinking more of if thinking more of if slash of than pitchers and catch oh more INF field Outfield than pitchers and catchers are
There known challenges of moving to each level informal checkpoints you look for specific metrics you look you or the team lean on any insight is much appreciated thanks again Braden um I I I think defense it’s a little less obvious what the benchmarks are it’s not like you have things like swing decisions
Contact how hard you’re hitting the ball exit vo type things that are easily measurable I think it’s just do you have things to work on with the speed at that level is probably the best way that I would put it you know are there based on your abilities on field
How will you handle the move up to the next level as the game picks up speed a little bit more as the game gets a little quicker as the ball comes off the bat a little quicker um as you’re you know expected to throw guys out who you
Know make tougher plays that sort of thing um it’s not quite as obvious it’s hard to tell it’s hard to tell in limited looks um so it’s something that’s a lot easier more easily judged in a larger sample that coaches than the like get then that we might get even sitting on a
Full week well it’s also position by position too I mean like catch its own thing like you know Short Stop versus first base are their own thing like but I don’t think there’s really benchmarks in I think it’s just more the easiest way to tell is feel and and it’s it’s
Kind of more of an art than a science yeah sound right to yeah it’s not like a checklist thing I think it’s it’s more um like yeah it it’s it’s more of a feel thing it’s it’s not they’re not I mean I’m sure there are specific things but
It’s more like it’s not like to get the dou a you got to be able to turn the the double play you know I can do that yeah it’s it’s it’s it’s reps is really the most important thing probably it’s how how does the game speed up and that’s
Why a lot of what you see is it’s based on what happens at the plate because defense is defense um the guys that get moved between levels to help fill in are the guys who can field right like there’s the the guys who wind up playing
At three or four levels in a given season are the guys usually who can pick it right and that’s because it’s Universal defense um I think it’s the kind of thing where like like we’ll put it this way blae Jordan part of the reason he stays at
Greenville as long as he does last year is because staying in Greenville allowed him to play more third base to get reps there right um it’s not that he didn’t hit a benchmark defensively before he could move up is probably a good example so I think I think it’s more art than
Science our next question comes from John he says I wanted to get you guys thoughts on Conor Wong something weird about him is he’s been a reverse split guy in his career his numbers last year against righties were fine but against lefties they were awful and he notes
That he had a 94 WRC Plus in 295 plate appearances against righties compared to a 32 WRC plus against lefties and 108 plate appearances did he show this sort of split in the miners any idea why this is and the possibility that it can be improved usually it’s right-handed
Pitching that drags a right-handed hitters overall numbers down and not the other way around thinking even further down the line if this holds I don’t know if he would be the make the best tandem with Kyle teal as I think it would be better to pair him with someone you can
Play against left-handed pitching thanks again um keep it up I appreciate the kind words John um I as far as you you saw more you saw more of Wong in the miners that I did um I we can pull up whether he had reverse splits in the
Miners as well I don’t know if you’ve already done that I saw you here the typing but um what are your kind of thoughts on on Wong Lefty righty splits um I don’t think I would read too much into it for a oneyear sample play appearances yeah like he just you you’re
Not facing a lot more than he ever has yeah because like I guess yeah I mean I it’s it was a thing last year in the in the um the majors but I’m I’m trying to bring it up as mind like splits right now to see if that was a thing um let’s
See wrong one I don’t know I I just I I it’s not really something I’m with him I’m that worried about if that makes sense I guess I just think that um like he kind of the bad is kind of gravy with him I I think the more
Important thing is is is making sure that he’s working with the pitchers that he that you want him like catching the most yeah CU like in in 2022 uh he hit 250 321 531 against lefties uh 285 347 445 against righties so he had a better batting average but a
Better slug against lefties so I I just I I don’t think there’s I think it’s a lot of like it’s not a big enough sample yet to know that he’s a true reverse split guy I think the bigger thing is you just try to find the matchups
Whether it be a righty or Lefty both pitcher wise that that play to his strengths but also it’s more important as his defense and making sure that he’s catching you know you want him catching specific pitchers yeah yeah and I I I get the point but I’m less worried about like I
Don’t think the left the backup catcher needs to hit the other hand of the starting catcher like to me it’s just no I don’t I don’t think no I don’t think that matters at all all right our next yep our next email from Teddy says looking at the
International signings of the last three years it appears the Red Sox haven’t spent big is indicative of a strategy yes we we’ve talked about that yeah already uh thank you for the email though Ted our next email is from Matt and Silver Spring M Atlantic stepping up
Big this episode says looking at the international class raised a question for me it’s well established that International signings are agreed at least informally well in advance sometimes years in advance but that means that the decision is not only about the specific players to try and sign but also the traits teams are
Looking for and how they will allocate their signing pool um are made well in advance of when the class actually signs if I’m understanding this correctly when a new baseball Ops leader like breslo comes in they could be quote inheriting unquote multiple International signing classes that may not reflect the preferences or
Strategies they may want to employ I understand the CBO wouldn’t be picking the actual players but I’d expect they would be setting organizational philosophy about how to approach and value of that market so my questions are one is it actually the case that a new
CBO like breslo has no input or say on their first or first few incoming classes and two how long does it take for the classes to really be reflecting the approach and preferences of the new leader it seems less than ideal for a new leader not being able to influence
Such a significant way of adding young talent for a while thanks Matt Silver Spring it’s an interesting question and I think that’s exactly it but I guess what I would say is is this is that the chief baseball officer I don’t even know if it’s setting goals or priorities on the
International market I think it’s just getting the people in there to do their jobs and then just generally making sure everyone’s on the same page in terms of strategy I don’t think breslo is really coming in and telling the international St scouting staff to change what they’re
Going to do no I I think that that’s especially when you have someone has established zi Romero I don’t think that’s something that he really is going to be that involved in um because I think that it’s it a draft strategy is a different animal but I think with the
International market and we’re kind of seeing with the Red Sox approach like you’re signing so many players and the bonuses VAR so much and people’s looks VAR or you know the scouting reports VAR so much on um the access they have to players and everything that I think you
Just have to trust the people you have in place for that position it’s not something you’re really that SK like shaping the uh the strategy with that much um we got an email from our Buddy Aaron meta about the signings and and work that BRZ has been doing behind the
Scenes and The Hires and that sort of thing and I think we hit on that so I just wanted to thank him for the email uh let’s see um we get an email we like kind of these kind of simple questions sometimes because I think we assume a certain you
Know familiarity with things like rules um but we got an email that asks how do you know if someone doesn’t have any options left I understand a player gets three options but might get a fourth and an option lasts an entire season meaning a player could be sent up and back to
The minor an unlimited number of times in a season but there’s more could you explain explain this again in your next podcast um first of all it’s not not unlimited number of times anymore I think it’s five is the number of times you can get sent down now Ian um so it’s
Not unlimited it’s just that five usually is sufficient to get you through the season um it’s just I mean it’s you get a fourth option if you’ve been if you are out of options and you have not yet hit I believe it’s five four or five years of service
Time I want to say it’s five am might before um oh no no no if you haven’t been a Prof if you don’t have five years in baseball it’s not major league service time so in other words if you sign and you’ve been optioned three times before it’s like the fifth
Essentially anniversary of you signing um you get a fourth option so um yeah I mean it’s just simple kind of math honestly um and then he asked to talk about the pitching or the the I shouldn’t say he but the the email ask talking about the pitching uh
And I think we’ve kind of done that so appreciate the email thanks a lot for that question our next email Ian uh Mike gringer asks uh it would be a fun question but who would you guys put on an all Sox prospects team I think we’re gonna say I like that question that’s
Kind of an offseason sort of uh question right there um next up from our patreon supporter Paul Manish he uh he asks about Justin Willard uh he says I personally see breslo Bailey and Willard as the real offseason acquisitions that will impact the team the most as a data
Data analyst myself I can see John Henry loving these three how long would you anticipate seeing impact in one uh Justin Ward’s goal to maximize reaching each current player ceiling your current pitcher ceiling and two improving Acquisitions to have their right arms in the funnel who meet his and their goal
Focusing on pounding nasty stuff in the zone um thanks for the email Paul I mean I think how long it takes I don’t know uh remains to be seen well I think yeah it’s hard to say but I think it’s going to vary from player to player cuz some
People you know they’re going to connect immediately with the new um the new way they’re doing it or you know others it might take a little longer so I think it’s just it’s a case by case basis as far as who they’re going to bring into the system stay tuned we’ll just leave
It at that right your thing oh yeah yeah yeah um our next email comes from Gavin who just very simply he says uh see as the Red Sox have pretty much indicated future success is reliant on the top prospects working out I have very simply worded but no doubt far Harder To answer
Question quote Marcel Meer a big league Short Stop end quote Ian I’ll let you start with that one uh yeah he can play shortstop I I think he’s a good he’s not you know he’s not going to be like a go glove caliber defender in my opinion but I think he
He’s at least a average above average Defender at Short Stop so yeah I think he’s capable handling at the major league level will he be a big league short stop that’s the question better question um I think it’s going to depend on how Trevor story looks this year because the
The thing that that’s hard is I think he’s saying ever not this year like is he a big Le short stop not to see the future Red Sox Short Stop he’ll be a big Le short stop at some point I mean I think so yeah yeah I’m not too worried
There’s a reason he’s still and you know what’s kind of been interesting Ian we didn’t talk about rankings in the sense that a lot of the national rankings have come out it’s been interesting to me that he seems be cons he no I think he’s consensus ahead of Roman Anthony and
Almost all of them isn’t he no I think one of them had him but if you’re talking Kylie ESPN athletic or ESPN athletic ba ba full Fang grass isn’t out yet but MLB I think it’s like three to one or two to one or I think it’s three to one I know
One of them he’s ahead but I think the other ones he’s not but yeah I I think it’s and and we said it at the time like it just depends on who you talk to flip like a lot of Scouts are on the Anthony others believe in Meer like it’s split
In even the people I talked to I feel pretty good about what we did I and I think especially given what we said it’s it’s not like it’s a one two thing it’s a 1 a 1B thing they’re both you know top 20 25 prospects nationally in the game I
Just think it’s um it’s just kind of like a reference thing yep and then Aaron meta sent us another email with another thing we already talked about basically asking about uh extensions for beo and casus so he was asking um given the long-term signings of young players
We’ve seen this year he sent it right after the Whit Bobby Wht contract came out um what are realistic deals for Kasa and beo and then if at least one of them isn’t locked up by April is there any way this offseason can be characterized
As a but any other way but as a total failure I wouldn’t go that far H for the reasons we talked about I I get with a new CBO why you want to be careful before you lock up a guy like that um especially if there are payroll
Limitations this year I think kasus is the more important one to get signed and I would I would like to see I think I just think I just think it’s with with position players there’s just kind of you know you have a better feel for what
Cus is where’s beo you know you have your hopes but with pictures you’re just always worried in the back of your head that they’re going to get hurt I mean what do you think so kasus has basically one year of service time now so he’s say
He’s got five more years before he has free agency which I don’t even know if that’s correct um what’s a deal look like for him it’s maybe like 1 million for this year 2 million for next year and then you go in arbitration I mean it’s it’s going to
Have to be nine figures I think your goal is does he so what what did wit get I mean he’s not going to get the wit contract yet no but like you think in arbitration he’d probably get what let’s look at Freddy Freeman’s arbitration numbers this is obviously a best case
But so Freddy Freeman’s contract none of these websites are going to go backwards they’re all going to go forwards oh he got extended super early oh no wait yeah no Freddy Freeman got extended during yeah so he’s not a good example let’s look at Matt
Olson I had a number in mine but I’m curious now like krien Hayes yeah ol’s not gonna Happ so like krian Hayes got eight years 70 million yeah so olon got get more than olon Got 5 million in his first year of ARB so you’re probably looking at five
Then well olon actually is not the worst the worst example because Olsson got in olon got an uh an extension in a second year of arbitration and he got eight years 168 million so for so and his is 1521 for his two ARB years then 22 22 22
22 22 220 Etc so with kasus but he’s also older than KAS I’m looking at a list of pre ARB I would say prob look at prear you’re looking at like 10 year you’re hoping if you’re the Red Sox to get an eight to 10 year deal at let me
Give you let me give you some some examples so Andre simz signed a seven-year deal pre ARB um for 106 and a half million does that feel about that’s an aav of 15 15 plus million yeah um Corbin Carroll 8 years 111 million that seems yeah that’s like the
Number right but the thing is do you only the question is do you only want to go eight years or are you g to try and make it longer so you have a bunch of like Club options on the end I don’t know if I’d go longer than eight I don’t
Know for first baseman he’s 22 though yeah but like it’s not like we’re talking about a 30y old Carol was 22 Yeah but Carol also is positioning himself to get like 400 million with his next contract well that’s what I’m saying I mean k has to agree to the
Contract right yeah Carol had a lot more lever has a lot of Leverage there Ronnie aunia got eight years 100 milliones you can’t use the Braves contracts like theirs are so dumb Spencer Strider 6 years 75 million you can’t you can’t like just looking at brav prear contracts or yeah but then I
Me look it’s like look at monata five years 70 million probably want that back there isn’t a great comparison for kasus yet cuz first base is just tough because you have to be so good at space to not be DFA like CJ Kon every year like and
It’s weird to say that because CJ Cron is someone who could easily hit 30 home runs but like he’s going to be on another team I think again this year and it’s just the bar for and I think kasus is has the potential to be one of those
You know high-end first basemen um and if he shows what he did you know what was it from like May 15th onwards if he carries that over to this year he’s you know up there with the Freeman Olsen types yeah um but yeah so it’s tough like that Carol himz range feels right
You’re looking at it’s gonna be it would have to be a nine fig deal for eight years probably for him to even consider it and I I I can’t remember what podcast I was listening to but they talked about how like they wonder if he would even be
That interested because he kind of seems like someone who would bet on himself and not really care would it be Brian Barrett it might have been it could have been uh Sean McAdam and the Fenway run yeah but they were basically just talking about how I don’t remember which
One it was but they were talking about um yeah just that he seems like the personality of someone who would bet on him and just be like what I get what I get and and I’ll figure it out you know in a couple years I see I could see it I
Could see it going both ways I mean if you’re going to make a commitment to me like yeah I’ll make a commitment to you I don’t think he’s gonna take way below market value to do it no but the thing is you look at the Carol deal like deals
Like that almost always work out for the team so if you’re the Red Sox I would personally try to lock him up to something like that as long as you can you know make the a work in the early years yep I agree cool all right well
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For listening everybody be back in your drums soon with some combination of uh the good folks here at sock prospects thanks Yall J
