Cora up for grabs?

[longgame]

To be clear, I'm not suggesting this year as being the year we climb into contention for a WS title. A couple of top starters might have pushed us over the top and into a 500+ team, but not a WS team. Not yet.

I'm simply saying I want it all. I want that great core of homegrown talent in place. We can see the tip of that iceberg starting to happen. This might just be the next great core that we'll be talking about and comparing to the mid-70's and late 2015's cores that we're still mad at Sullivan and Henry for letting go. We are close to this. We've endured a 78 win season. We do it again in 2024, we do it with a bright light at the end of the tunnel. We make this 2024 edition a winning team only at the expense of 2025 and beyond at this point.

A member of the White Sox press are scoffing at the notion of a trade scenario that a member of the Red Sox press suggested. Anthony, Yorke, Wikelman and Dalbec for Cease. Me? I say "screw that!!!" Not until a pitcher like Cease is the difference maker to a WS team.

25 years ago the Sox had Pedro to bring them to competitiveness.  They only added Schilling to get over that last hump.  But the point is they had something to build on.  The two leading veterans on this team are Devers and Story and neither strikes me as a complete veteran leader.  You need some bones to build on top of.  I like the young talent they have but they're going to get tired of losing too.

[SeaBeachFred]

To be clear, I'm not suggesting this year as being the year we climb into contention for a WS title. A couple of top starters might have pushed us over the top and into a 500+ team, but not a WS team. Not yet.

I'm simply saying I want it all. I want that great core of homegrown talent in place. We can see the tip of that iceberg starting to happen. This might just be the next great core that we'll be talking about and comparing to the mid-70's and late 2015's cores that we're still mad at Sullivan and Henry for letting go. We are close to this. We've endured a 78 win season. We do it again in 2024, we do it with a bright light at the end of the tunnel. We make this 2024 edition a winning team only at the expense of 2025 and beyond at this point.

A member of the White Sox press are scoffing at the notion of a trade scenario that a member of the Red Sox press suggested. Anthony, Yorke, Wikelman and Dalbec for Cease. Me? I say "screw that!!!" Not until a pitcher like Cease is the difference maker to a WS team.

The idea of trading good prospects like Yorke, Mayer, Anthony and others for a guy like Cease is ridiculous, especially since the guy is coming off a miserable year and might be on his way down.  You trade nothing like our prospects and instead get that cheap bastard to put up some of his money and sign Montgomery or Snell off the FA market.  In fact, you want to move our progress farther and faster, you sign both.  We have the money and Henry must be pressured into procuring the talent needed so we cease being a laughing stock and become what we are intended to be, one of the best teams in baseball.  When will the Boston press grow some balls and challenge the miserable owner to stop his parsimonious ways.  Either that and apply enough pressure on the bastard to get him to throw in the towel and sell the team.  The last five seasons have been hell and he is mainly responsible for what has happened to the Red Sox.

[MongoLikeSox]

25 years ago the Sox had Pedro to bring them to competitiveness.  They only added Schilling to get over that last hump.  But the point is they had something to build on.  The two leading veterans on this team are Devers and Story and neither strikes me as a complete veteran leader.  You need some bones to build on top of.  I like the young talent they have but they're going to get tired of losing too.

I went back and looked at those years. We also got the famous Varitek/Lowe for Slocumb deal at the trade deadline before the off season we got Pedro. Interestingly enough, we went from 78 wins to 92 wins. Mo Vaughn and Nomar surrounded by Valentin, Hatteburg/'Tek, Troy O'Leary and a good defensive CF'er who could at least hit his weight.

Our trade deadline ineptitude the past few years was just plain awful, not matter which direction one might have supported.

[Sea Dog 23]

The off-season has truly reached a bottleneck.  The Sox, about the only big market team unwilling to get into free agency and agent madman, Scott Boras, who is controlling about all the available free agents remaining. Of the 17 top FA pitchers available this winter, all of them have signed except for Montgomery, Snell, Ryu and Paxton.  Those are all Boras clients.  In addition Boras is the agent for the only top non-pitchers still available, Chapman and Bellinger.  With the slow crawl going on, a couple of the pitchers may not be fit to start the regular season.

What is noteworthy, Boston's budget only gives them interest in Ryu and Paxton.  The mind game from Boras will be ushering the low budget guys to a mid-major, while driving up Boston's bid for the two high demand pitchers.  Boston is not likely to do a trade and give up their prospects for a pitcher.  A fine mess it is.

[MongoLikeSox]

This search for starting pitching is getting desperate. The Giants just signed Jordan Hicks to a 4-year, $40M deal that includes some incentives each year for plateaus like Innings Pitched. He's been a reliever his whole MLB career and had a somewhat high ERA and low K-Rate in 21 & 22 for a guy throwing 99MPH. He got back to a decent ERA last season.

Their idea is to turn him into a starting. He did start some in the Minors in 2016-2017. This isn't the first team to sign a reliever with eyes on starting this off season. The Braves, maybe?

This all shines a big light on the whole need to develop pitching thing. 7 of the top 21-30 prospects on SoxProspects.com are pitchers. 4 of the top 20 are pitchers.  Two of those are guys who have to make the team out of ST. Rule-5 guy(via Mets) and Bryan Mata. Out of the 11, only 4 were obtained in between the Dombrowski an Breslow regimes.