Big Mak’s Offseason Plan
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Alex Colomé, $10.3M – Tender A no-brainer
- Yolmer Sánchez, $6.2M – Non-Tender Six million for only Defense Not worth the price
- James McCann, $4.9M – Tender No-brainer
- Carlos Rodon, $4.5M – Non-Tender; Just Had Tommy John and he might be Ready for August, but with his injury history and performance not worth the money to find out
- Leury García, $4M – Tender Need him early in the year to man center then utility after
- Evan Marshall, $1.3M – Tender – quality loogy
- Josh Osich, $1M – Tender
- Ryan Goins, $900K – Non-Tender
CLUB OPTIONS
Write “pick up” or “decline” after the option.
- Welington Castillo: $8 million/$500,000 buyout You can buy much more interesting things for 8 million Buyout
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
Try to retain, or let go?
- Jose Abreu (made $16M in 2019) Retain The Sox Will need to retain the current face of the Franchise
- Iván Nova (made $9,166,167 in 2019) Let Go
- Jon Jay (made $4M in 2019) Let Go – We no longer need Manny’s Buddy on the roster
- Hector Santiago (made $2M in 2019 on split contract) Let go
FREE AGENTS
No. 1:Will Smith (3 years 45 million) For the Sox to Contend they will need a better closer than Colome, while colome was effective. Will Smith is a better pitcher in all areas of the game and all he will cost you is Jerry’s Money.
No 2 Zack Wheeler(4 years 64 million) You need to acquire as many dependable rotation options as possible, currently you don’t know when Kopech will be back, and cease is on the job training, and Lopez is not very dependable, So Wheeler will definitely fill a need in the rotation, as a solid 3 starter.
No 3 Yasiel Puig (2 Years 14 Million) A lot of people may shit all over this one , but hear me out , this might a good post post post hype pickup, yes his over the top shenanigans are well known and he’s never quite repeated 2014. But you don’t need him to repeat 2014 you need him to repeat 2018 or 2017 were he put up a 3.8 War . If he could come in that neighborhood at 7 million a year that is a good value pickup. Also a 2 year deal give the kids in the minors time to develop.
No 4 Jose Abreu (2 Years 36 million) Have to Bring him back on the goodwill factor alone, keeping it 2 years because Vaughn or Sheets should be ready by then
No 5 Travis D Arnaud (2 years 8 million) Yes not the best option but will be a solid option behind the plate
TRADES
No. 1: The Sox Trade Blake Rutherford, Dane Dunning, Micker Adolfo and Konnor Pilkington The Colorado Rockies for Jon Gray
This is the number 2 starter the sox need only 27 years old and had a breakout last year , he only has 2 years of control left and is in Arb . So He will get a 12 million arb reward . But he will be worth it. The Rockies In this deal get Salary relief , a good rotation piece that should be ready to go sometime this year in Dunning. A Future Outfielder in Rutherford , A Future First Basemen in Adolfo and A good Arm in Pilkington.
No 2 Sox Trade Alex Colome and cash to The New York Mets For Dominic Smith and Thomas Szapucki.
Alex Colome last year had an effective year which will give him some trade vaule, the Mets whose bullpen lost them the wildcard will be looking to shore it up, but the free agent options outside of Will Smith are awful and expensive. They also have a young assist they can’t play , Dominic Smith is a good cheap young Left handed power bat who’s best position is DH. He had a mini breakout in 2019 , but he could not get the playing time, with Pete Alonzo at First. By Nickname alone “Medium Hurt” should be a Sox DH. Szapucki is a good arm that can’t stay healthy if he can could he would be in the majors by now.
SUMMARY
Looking at the team Assembled I think I have filled most of the holes, all the holes can’t be filled because some youth will need to play. My Math has the total at about 112 million right under the required budget
Pitching
Rotation
1 Lucas Giolito
2 Jon Gray
3 Zack Wheeler
4 Reynaldo Lopez/Michael Kopech
5 Dylan Cease
The rotation will be really good if Kopech is healthy Lopez is the backup/fill in for the rotation , if everyone is healthy Lopez will be moved to the bullpen. I think cease with less pressure and a full year on his belt could show a good deal of improvement in the 5th spot.
Bullpen
Closer Will Smith
Setup Aaron Bummer
Herrera
Fry
Evan Marshall
Ian Hamilton
Lopez
Ruiz
Cordero
Fulmer
Tyler Johnson
Osich
Lineup
1 Anderson SS
2 Moncada 3b
3 Abreu 1b
4 Puig RF
5 Jimenez LF
6 Robert CF
7 D Smith DH
8 James Mccann / Arnaud C
9 Nick Madrigal
Utility Outfield Leurvy
Utility Infield Danny Mendick
Math
Alex Colome/Trade Money | 5,300,000 |
James Mccann | 4,900,000 |
Leury Garcia | 4,000,000 |
Evan Marshall | 1,300,000 |
Josh Osich | 1,000,000 |
Will Smith | 15,000,000 |
Zack Wheeler | 16,000,000 |
Yasiel Puig | 8,000,000 |
Jose Abreu | 18,000,000 |
Travis D Arnaud | 4,000,000 |
Jon Gray | 12,000,000 |
Kelvin Herrera | 8,500,000 |
Castillo Welington Buyout | 500,000 |
Eloy Jimenez | 1,833,333 |
Tim Anderson | 4,000,000 |
Reynaldo Lopez | 580,000 |
Yoan Moncada | 575,000 |
Lucas Giolito | 573,000 |
Domonic Smith | 580,000 |
Jace Fry | 569,000 |
Ian Hamiliton | 575,000 |
Michael Kopech | 555,000 |
Dylan Cease | 555,000 |
Aaron Bummer | 555,000 |
Nick Madrigal | 555,000 |
Luis Robert | 555,000 |
Jose Ruiz | 555,000 |
Danny Mendick | 555,000 |
Tyler Johnson | 555,000 |
112,225,333 |
I don’t hate the Puig idea. My main concern would be is he going to fit into the clubhouse?
Like the Gray idea (even though he’s only controllable for two more years). Guessing here, but you might not even have to give up THAT much for him (though I do think you’re in the right ballpark).
I too like acquiring Puig. The heavy Cuban presence on the Sox, I hope, would be a strong positive influence. But, trading 4 prospects for one pitcher?????? I am always leery of trading talented prospects before you know what you’ve got. Adolfo especially has a high ceiling and Dunning looked pretty good before he went down.
Wasn’t there a rumor that Abreu and Puig didn’t get along? I might be misremembering that.
Yeah maybe he could take out one of the OFs from that package and still get it done? You gotta trade something to get something and those guys all have legit flaws. If you hold every prospect until you know what you have, you’re not going to have much of value left to trade.
That’s what I going by kind of a bulk deal , all the sox prospects are flawed and more of b prospects. Dunning is more of a control guy coming off injury. Adolfo is made of glass and only really had one good minor league year. Blake has shown no ability to hit for power . and Pilikington needs at least 2 years in minors before he’s going to be anything. All for an ACE or really good number 2 however you see Gray.
I’d be shocked if that’s the contract Puig ends up with. Baseball will always have a thing for the “former shiny” things.
I agree, I think he does better than that. Just meant I could get on board with signing him.
I guess he might get more I’m going by his wearing out his welcome elsewhere, but still have 8 million in the budget I could toss him a couple million a year more and wheeler as well
If Abreu really has that kind of value, I wish they had traded him at the deadline.
A LF with no pop and little speed and a pitcher who hasn’t thrown since TJ as the centerpieces for 2 years of a #2 starter? I don’t see it.
I could always refine it and drop Blake from there and add walker and or Dunning and add Steiver Depends what the Rockies would want
It’s not just what they want, but what other teams are willing to offer. They’ll get better offers than that for Gray.
Wheeler is not signing for 4/64. Nobody, including the Sox, is going to give Abreu 18/yr. And, I think your trades will be difficult to pull off because the Sox minor-leaguers did their best to devalue themselves throughout the 2019 campaign. There’s only so much song and dance rival GMs will listen to regarding minor league under performance and injury.