PREAMBLE
I don't believe Jerry has any desire to spend a cent before the lockout, but we as fans have suffered enough, so I am spending all $90m under the guise that Jerry wants to make this year interesting so people don't forget the Sox exist during the lockout.
COACHING STAFF
- Hitting coach: n/a
- Pitching coach: n/a
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Mike Tauchman: Non-tender
- Steven Wilson: Non-tender
- Derek Hill: Non-tender
None of these players seem worth it at that price. Tauchman just isn't healthy enough.
CLUB OPTIONS
- Luis Robert Jr.: Exercise $20 million option
- Martín Perez: Buy out for $1.5 million
This is obviously what they plan to do.
FREE AGENTS
No 1: Pete Alonso (6 years, $150M): The Sox lack of right hand power is quite glaring, and frankly I just want to watch a 1B who can hit tanks again. I grew up on Frank/Paulie/Jose and I am sick of watching Miguel Vargas or Curtis Mead slap the ball around in the name of positional versatility. We take advantage of the weak market due to long term uncertainty / the Japanese 1B posting distracting the big names and give out the biggest deal in franchise history to Alonso.
No 2: Max Kepler (1 year, $8m): Here is my Mike Tauchman replacement. Can actually play some RF, might actually play 120 games.
No. 3: Adrian Houser (1 year, $5m): Run it back. I fail to see a good reason not to try this again.
No. 4: Gregory Soto, Jakob Junis (1 year, cheap): Couple MLB arms to give our bullpen a semblance of respectability and seriousness.
TRADES
No 1: Trade Edgar Quero to Philadelphia for Aidan Miller (SS/3B): We don't need two of our best players at C, and moving one of them to 1B craters their value. Philly needs a Realmuto replacement theoretically, and uses their prospect depth (Turner and Bohm are young ish) to get younger and better at a premium position for cheap. No idea if they would say yes.
SUMMARY
Opening Day Lineup
1. Luis Robert CF
2. Kyle Teel C
3. Pete Alonso 1B
4. Colson Montgomery SS
5. Lenyn Sosa DH
6. Max Kepler RF
7. Miguel Vargas 3B
8. Andrew Benintendi LF
9. Chase Meidroth 2B
Bench: Brooks Baldwin, Korey Lee, Curtis Mead, name your minor league invite 4th OF
Rotation:
1. Shane Smith
2. Davis Martin
3. Adrian Houser
4. Sean Burke
5. Jonathan Cannon
Bullpen:
You get it.
Coming this summer: Aidan Miller at SS (Colson to 3B), Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith (Cannon and Burke see ya later) and Braden Montgomery (bye Benny).
I think I am a touch over $90m but in this scenario we convince Jerry he could actually put a fun team on the field and sell MORE tickets. Our pitching is way short of a playoff contender, but our lineup could be dangerous if Colson can keep up the 2H production in a sustainable way and LuBob stays on the field. That is a potentially top 10 offense that should be a lot of fun to watch this summer and not offensively bad in the field or anything. We add Aidan Miller to our SS stockpile and he replaces Vargas mid season, who I don't think has a long term future. Colson and Miller is our left side of the infield for 5 years, then Billy Carlson comes up just as Colson is heading to 1B to replace Pete Alonso and Miller goes to 3B.
