Red Sox/Dodgers talking Lester/Kemp

[TheHurl]

Kemp is a good controllable player.

 

Not usually the wording for a guy who is on his second below replacement level season and is owed $83.5M over the next 4 years. If the Red Sox had a DH spot to use him at he'd at least fit in there...but they shouldn't have that. He's the DH equivalent of Matt Joyce...but Joyce still can play LF. At least Kemp's bad defense wouldn't be as big a deal in a LF where you don't actually need range. So he might actually move up to a 0.5 win player.

[burlingtonbandit]

They can be very scary next year.

 

Absolutely. But give those rookies a couple years to settle in and establish themselves and they will have a great team. Rookies usually struggle when they get to the majors but by that time their current prospects should be getting close to their prime.

[burlingtonbandit]

The Sox were at about $155M in payroll this year. If all the impending FAs leave, and they exercise the options on Lackey (for only 500k) and Breslow, and offer arby to the arby guys (assuming estimated salaries), they'll be at $90M next year. Lackey won't play for 500K - he'll retire before he does that, so let's say he gets a reworked extension for $13M and they still have $52M left. If they bring back Lester at something silly like $25M (won't be that high, but just saying), they still have enough to get $27M worth of talent on the open market even if they don't boost payroll. And they're not relying on rookies then. You might have Betts in an OF spot, and Vazquez sharing C duties with only half a year's experience or so, but that's about it. Bogaerts and JBJ will already have gone through much of their growing pains. And they have enough minor league quality/depth to trade for MLB talent, as well, if they wanted to upgrade SS/3B.

 

Depending on how the offseason plays out, if they play their cards right, they could be a high quality team next year and still have youngsters on the way. Of course, they could always just trade decent prospects for s***** overpriced relievers, as they're apt to do ... but that is not an organization that i would consider to only be looking beyond 2015.

 

They'll be looking for immediate impact guys for next year and beyond, whether in a Lester deal, or elsewhere (FA, offseason trades).

 

Yup lots of money available. If they are really smart they will trade Uhera and Miller (can get a great haul for them) and Lester. Then they can sign a couple high priced free agents and will have tons of prospects to trade for Major league talent.