If you put in the proper more up to date adjustments from a Fangraph article from a year or two ago (long story short he argues that DH's should be on par 1B as far as positional adjustments go), then it is a 6 win season for Papi.

Does Clay have 5/10 no-trade rights? He's appeared in 10 seasons, but I don't know if it's service time that counts.

NN--I think it's service time, not # of seasons, that counts.

Sandoval will get every chance to at least be a platoon job-share at 3B with Shaw, unless some stud 3B drops in their lap via a trade (which I don't see happening).

I hope they don't trade JBJ. I'd love to see a full season with Benintendi-JBJ-Betts as the OF.

I think they need starting pitching depth. Johnson and Owens didn't look good last year, Kelly seems to be a reliever, and there are no other pitching options in the high minors. I don't know how to fix it outside of just hoping you can find some guy on a minor league contract that turns out to be better than expected.

NN--I think it's service time, not # of seasons, that counts.

If so, I think they should trade him - even while I acknowledge that the net return would be tiny and that Mr. Cumstein is right in #4 that they need SP depth.

Some starting depth would be good but the good news is there are six starters under contract that I feel good about (Price, EdRod, Buchholz, Porcello, Wright, Pomeranz) in varying degrees. They'll need more than that but some kind AAA filler (e.g. Sean O'Sullivan) is probably sufficient.

The Buchholz option was officially picked up today.

Watched Kopech in the AFL all star game. Good movement and location on his pitches and he was mixing it up well, al, hard of course. He worked very quickly which I like. He does the Wade Miley thing where he never turns his back on the catcher.

Who can they realistically trade for though? Honestly, their best shot at significantly upgrading the starting pitching passed away.

I think Greinke can probably be had. Sonny Gray would be expensive and risky but is probably available. Tampa supposedly is open to trading Cobb or Archer.

All of these options will be costly, JBJ and a top prospect opens the bidding, and all co e with risks of varying degrees. Whether or not these are good options is definitely a dispute but if the Sox want to make a splash for a top starter they have options.

Any chance the Cubs would consider trading Kyle Schwarber to the Red Sox for JBJ and a low level prospect. I am prone to believe that such a deal might help pick up a few WAR points offensively with perhaps relatively little cost defensively due to the ability of either Betts or Benintendi to move to CF. I think Schwarber's bat might play very well in Fenway and heck, we could perhaps reunite Schwarber and Sam Travis in the near future.

Do we want Hellickson? Looks worth a flyer if he's not too costly.

I suspect Hellickson would cost more than we want to spend on him.

Schwarber is intriguing no but I don't think it makes sense. All we are doing there is filling one hole by creating another I think.

I really doubt you could get Schwarber for JBJ. You'd probably need to at least add someone like Kopech or Groome plus some kind of lower end prospect.

It could still be worth it in theory but I tend to think not, especially when we can just go sign Encarnación for just money.

Who can they realistically trade for though? Honestly, their best shot at significantly upgrading the starting pitching passed away.

And 11 days later the pale house are having a fire sale and both Quintana and Sale are available. And as discussed previously, I am sure Greinke can be had from the snakes.
That's 3 pretty darn good hurlers who would look good slotting in around Price and the Cy Young award winning Rick Porcello.