Of the relievers out there, this is one of the ones I was hoping they'd sign. Salary might be just a tad high, but overall a nice pickup.

Almost $9M per for a good, but nothing special 36 y.o. RP seems crazy to me.

Look, when Bloom signs a reliever for two years/$18 million, it always works out.

The Cubs got him for 1/$2.5 M last year then traded him for Zach McKinstry (career WAR 0). I like 25 excellent relief innings as much as the next guy but I'm thinking it's a bit of an overpay.

For reasons unrelated to their respective musics (with which I am jointly pretty unfamiliar), I can never keep Martin and Thom Yorke straight. Which one's connectd to Gwyneth?

Which one's connectd to Gwyneth?

Chris Martin of Coldplay was - they divorced in 2016.

This deal is all Yellow

Sweet, looks like the plan to sign a few slightly overpaid random players, make some ridiculous claim that they 'can't afford' to sign X because they don't want to tie up too much future payroll, and throw #### against the wall at the start of the season, desperately hoping something sticks is firmly in motion.

The "sign a few slightly overpaid random players, make some ridiculous claim that they 'can't afford' to sign X because they don't want to tie up too much future payroll, and throw #### against the wall at the start of the season, desperately hoping something sticks" plan would benefit from a sexier moniker.

Today was the day that I learned that there's a relief pitcher named 'Chris Martin'. Not a good sign that this is going to be a good deal for BOS.

a sexier moniker

DunnyBall

(Brush up on your Aussie slang people!)

Chris Martin: (1) Went to Arlington High School here in Texas; (2) Once insisted on signing two autographs for me when he could have only done one; (3) has been an above-average pitcher for five straight years including a 1.88 ERA in 14 playoff innings; which, I have no idea how rare that is for relievers nowadays but it sounds OK to me :)

Plea from a lifelong Red Sox fan:

1) Just sign Devers and Bogaerts.
2) Pick up at least one outfielder who would be a clear upgrade over most of what we were throwing out there most of last year.
3) Then do whatever you want.

The Red Sox seem determined to do this in reverse order, and if they get around to #1, whatever. Red Sox Nation's patience with Chaim Bloom is running pretty short, pretty quickly.

#12 -

That is pretty much exactly my thinking. The rotation will be what it is. I don't really want them to go out and overspend for a front line starter, so I am willing to accept what they piece together. Bullpens are fickle creatures. But for ####'s sake, sign X, extend Devers, and sign a competent OF.

Plea from a lifelong Red Sox fan:

1) Just sign Devers and Bogaerts.
2) Pick up at least one outfielder who would be a clear upgrade over most of what we were throwing out there most of last year.
3) Then do whatever you want.

The Red Sox seem determined to do this in reverse order, and if they get around to #1, whatever. Red Sox Nation's patience with Chaim Bloom is running pretty short, pretty quickly.

Agreed. This is as exciting as the soft candy canes (leftover from last year) we found while unpacking the Christmas decorations. I mean sure they are technically "candy" just like Chris Martin is "a Hot Stove signing", but both are unexpected and disappointing "surprises" I didn't even know existed.

1) Just sign Devers and Bogaerts.
2) Pick up at least one outfielder who would be a clear upgrade over most of what we were throwing out there most of last year.
3) Then do whatever you want.

I get the sentiment, but there's no reason to think they aren't working on #1 constantly. Bogaerts isn't going to sign on their schedule now that he's reached free agency (letting him do so is another matter), and negotiations with Devers may take a while. They've reportedly made multiple offers to both so at least they're working on it in some capacity, I guess?

I'd also add a step between #2 and #3: Acquire at least one quality starter. I'd like it to be a Rodon level ace, but if not, they at least need another guy to give them quality innings.

I get the sentiment, but there's no reason to think they aren't working on #1 constantly.

Not sure about that, at least for Bogaerts. If the Red Sox wanted to retain him, their failures to make a significant extension offer before the 2022 season seems inexplicable, since he would have been cheaper then. Did they really need another season to figure out whether Bogaerts was worth keeping? Today’s reporting indicates that the Red Sox haven’t made a competitive offer to Bogaerts:

Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe reports that between eight and 11 teams have shown interest in Bogaerts, and yet the Red Sox weren’t “positioned in that group as of Sunday afternoon.” According to two sources, Bogaerts’ former team hasn’t yet made “a competitive offer” to re-sign.

That’s strange, if true. Not as strange as letting Betts go, but pretty strange. Very weird, IMHO.

I guess what I was getting at was not the quality of their offer but that I don't think they're putting off those signings because they haven't yet.

Are they trying to spend their money somewhere else first ($hort$top? $p?) and coming back to Bogaerts later if they fail? If so, where does Devers fit in this sequence? It's really weird.

Bogaerts actually had his first positive season of his career by the fielding bible numbers last season. But what if you thought one slightly positive year is something of a fluke after a series of negative years? And what if you thought the inability to shift is going to highlight inadequacies of middle infielders. Those are both reasonable propositions and would make Bogaerts' likely real value a bit less than the superficial perception of it, wouldn't it?

I completely want them to re-sign Devers. I'm a bit ambivalent about Bogaerts.

And the 8-11 teams probably includes a half dozen or more simply doing due diligence.

And the 8-11 teams probably includes a half dozen or more simply doing due diligence.

Funny, I was assuming it was 8-11 teams doing due diligence. I believe if any of those teams had made a competitive offer then it wouldn't have been reported merely as "have shown interest."

Encouraging analysis of the Martin deal from Justin Choi at Fangraphs.

Looks like the Sox Therapy threads are all locked up. So this is where we can discuss the Red Sox stuff for now, I guess?

At the winter meetings, Bloom apparently said they want to add between 7 and 9 players including another reliever, a starter and an OF. Also said they have in-house solutions at SS if they can't sign Bogaerts.

I was wondering about Sox Therapy. Does commenting cease after 2 months?

I think it's some sort of time limit, yes. @Villageidiom--want to throw up a new thread? Doesn't need to be anything fancy....