yes sir. player (of course) after years 3 and 4.Originally Posted by Bellhorn04
yes sir. player (of course) after years 3 and 4.
other names i have posted under: none
Well, if we trade Mookie this offseason, it will be be because of the contracts left behind by Dombrowski, specifically the contracts of Price, Sale and Eovaldi.
If they do not trade him and he leaves via free agency, it will be because the Sox did not make the best offer (or made no offer). But the Sox offer might be limited by a budget that includes those same 3 deals. Especially if they are still paying luxury tax against Henry's wishes.
While Mookie might want a change of scenery, nothing about him so far says he would reject a better Boston offer just to change teams...
You can pin it on DD if you want, but Henry hired DD, approved all those deals and knew this was coming with Mookie.
So I'm sticking with JH as the man to point the finger at.
Championships since purchase by John Henry group: Red Sox 4 Yankees 1
The Red Sox are 8-1 in their last 9 postseason games against the Yankees.
If two offers are very close, he may consider location, local taxes and family preferences.
When you say it's gonna happen now
When exactly do you mean?
I don't blame either JH or DD. This whole thing came about because of the pitching staff being ineffective in 2019. This would have been a lot more palatable if things had gone as planned and we'd been contenders in 2019 when we'd have had another good year before this sh*tstorm started. That was the plan and IMO most of us were ready for it to happen then. What it did in reality is move the angst up a year to a time when we weren't ready for it. Hence, we're pointing fingers.
It's a mere moment in a man's life between the All-Star game and the Old Timer's game.
-Vin Scully
If that suits you, that's fine. But while JH might have approved the deals, he didn't write them and execute them.
I mean, by that logic, shouldn't Cherington be exonerated for Sandoval, Ramirez and Castillo?
And while we might have seen an unlikely worst case scenario, I still wouldn't say the whole situation was unforseeable. The Sox extended one pitcher coming off an injury, and signed a long term deal to another very injury prone pitcher. All this two years after giving one of the biggest pitching contracts in MLB history out to another pitcher who had been having injury problems.
Very possible.
If taxes are a factor, he is not coming to Illinois...
Something has been bothering me about this whole Betts dilemma in the past year: I can’t imagine this ownership is unwilling to pay or even overpay with the ultimate top bid to keep a fan favorite – one that already led Boston to a world title -- who is now about to enter his prime.
I just don’t believe that billionaire owners of a billion-dollar franchise who have always been willing to spend to sustain and improve a competitive product have suddenly drawn the line with their best player… not after throwing money at shiny baubles, trinkets and fugazis for years and years (Renteria, Drew, Lugo, Crawford, Panda, Hanley, Price, etc. – not to mention damaged goods like Sale and Eovaldi).
There is no way I will believe the Sox can’t afford whatever Betts wants, or can't absorb any accompanying tax penalties. There is also no way I will believe that a few bad (so far) contracts to pitchers – guys who play maybe once a week during the season – has anything to do with Boston affording their best everyday regular. I also don’t believe that the owners – after 20 years -- have suddenly changed their minds about how they approach casting a successful show in what is nothing more than an entertainment business. Adults don’t change who they are, and in most cases, old adults can’t change who they are.
The quotes, columns and stories that have been circulating for months have to be management’s spin to the public that they’re trying to make the best of a situation they know has gotten beyond their control. If Mookie had said just once, “I want to be a Red Sox for life” – and the Sox replied, “We will make sure you are” – that would have ended daily speculation long ago, and all would be quiet until the presser to announce his extension.
I'm not exonerating DD for Sale, Price and Eovaldi.
I'm just saying that JH could clearly see what was coming with Mookie and our payroll situation.
Now it's up to him to make the call one way or the other and whether the price for Mookie is too high or not. And in my opinion that decision is not affected by the money on the books for SPE. It's a bigger and longer-lasting decision than that. It's a decision that could be felt for a decade.
Championships since purchase by John Henry group: Red Sox 4 Yankees 1
The Red Sox are 8-1 in their last 9 postseason games against the Yankees.
It is entirely possible the story and rumors about the Sox resetting are overblown, and i's exactly like Kennedy said - a goal but not a mandate.
Especally when you consider the luxury tax payments the Sox are trying to avoid are typically about $10-15 mill,or less than the Sox spent on Pablo Sandoval last year.
If paying that extra $10-15mill allows Henry to earn, say, an extra $20-25 mill, certainly no reason he would want to avoid it, right? I certainly think he'd like to earn more without paying it, but that isn't the same as insisting on resetting.
Unless his real issue is with the draft pick penalties and their long term impact on the club...
I think the biggest advantage of resetting is that it allows us to go way over the line in 2021 (sign Betts?) without major taxes.
When you say it's gonna happen now
When exactly do you mean?
Where's the line between "unlikely" and "unforeseeable"?
It's a mere moment in a man's life between the All-Star game and the Old Timer's game.
-Vin Scully
One more bite at the apple ? I'm down with this .
Nowadays, all MLB small markets understand the fear of losing stars to free agency, and getting nothing back in return. It makes less sense in a big market like Boston, though many players have walked away over the years – Hurst, Pedro, Lowe, Esasky, Bay – when the Sox didn’t quite match top offers. The early days of free agency were different, when guys like Fisk or all the Oakland A’s stars, for example, bolted because of bitter contract issues.
The Fred Lynn situation was most similar to Betts, except for one big difference. Like Mookie, Freddie was a year removed from being the best player in baseball (he led 1979 in WAR, but finished 4th in MVP voting; those were the days when writers still favored guys on first-place teams). Everyone assumed Lynn, a California boy, was eager to go back home when he became a free agent. The kicker was that Boston in 1980 was no longer run by a front office eager to spend to retain its stars. Tom Yawkey had died a few years earlier, and his widow and “trust” weren’t quite as invested to invest.
The Angels at the time were the West coast Yankees (and had already nabbed All-Star shortstop Rick Burleson; another cog Boston wasn’t going to pay) – and since the Sox knew they weren’t going to win any auctions, they dumped Lynn for a bucket of BP balls... which the front office pinched with penny-ante fingers. Word of caution: Boston baseball was pretty mediocre for the next half decade, before Clemens emerged from the farm to turn things around.
Last edited by 5GoldGloves:OF,75; 11-18-2019 at 04:02 PM. Reason: typo
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