Melky and Rasmus are FA's next year and then we have options on Happ, Morrow, Lind, Janssen, Santos, McGowan, and Thole. Losing all those guys would open up some holes but that will free up a lot of money.
Oh man is this enjoyable to watch. Two caught looking and then throwing big fat Ortiz out at first.
The only way to make this better is if Farrell has the Sox try to sacrifice bunt their way back in to the game.
There is little doubt that we will need a starting pitcher.
By the trade deadline we will know more about this team and if the Juan Francisco/Tolleson/Lawrie platoon is working and if we possibly need another reliever.
I think all 3 of them are grouped pretty close together IMO for their own reasons. I'd probably keep all 3 of them on the big league team if it were up to me.
AA said something along the lines of going with Hendricks avoids having to use a starter who is limited to 65-80 pitches for a couple of starts as they gain arm strength. If he wouldn't have put Stroman in the bullpen for two weeks this whole problem would have been avoided.
We are going to need 7 or 8 starters by the end of the season. Hendricks likely would have gotten his shot sooner or later but he should have been in line behind Stroman and then Redmond.
Alvarez does look like a legit #4. As for the rest of those guys, this is just my opinion but Hech and Marisinick are bench players. I am not sold on either Nicolino or DeSclafani, I wouldn't bet on either being serviceable starters in the big leagues but maybe they'll prove me wrong.
I agree with you on Escobar, he was wasted in a deal because of non-baseball reasons.
Navarro is fine as a patchwork starter and for what we are paying him.
As others have stated, he's probably better suited as a good backup to a mediocre starter but for 4 mil in FA he's fine.
That's really dumb of the FO.
Even if they view him as the 3rd best Catcher, that's not how they should see it. They should see him as a much needed platoon partner for Lind. The fact that he can play C is only a bonus that shouldn't be looked at as a detriment because we already have 2 Catchers on the roster.
This should be our bench:
C/DH: Kratz- platoon partner for Lind, I'd actually start him at C in those situations and move Navarro to DH
C: Thole- catches Dickey, pinch hitter, emergency 1B
UT: Tolleson- platoon him and Francisco with Lawrie switching between 3B and 2B
OF: Gose- backup OF, defensive replacement, and pinch runner
It isn't half bad but AA seems to hate the idea of having a backup CF on the team.