Stories final month from MLB.com’s John Denton indicated that the Pink Sox, Mets, Phillies, Padres, Dodgers, and Angels have been six of the groups (and maybe the one six groups) Nolan Arenado was keen to waive his no-trade safety to hitch, ought to the Cardinals work out a suitable swap with any of those golf equipment. 4 weeks after that preliminary report, Boston stays “a most popular vacation spot” for Arenado, in response to MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo and Sean McAdam. What isn’t identified, nonetheless, is that if the Pink Sox and Cardinals are wherever shut on a deal, or if the Sox are notably motivated to convey Arenado to Beantown.
Buying Arenado would examine a few large wants off of Boston’s offseason purchasing listing. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow reiterated earlier this week that the Sox have been wanting so as to add “a right-handed bat out of the center of the lineup,” contemplating that the staff is heavy with left-handed hitters. Bringing top-of-the-line defensive third basemen of all time to Fenway Park would immediately assist Boston’s subpar infield protection, and Arenado would even be reunited along with his good pal and former Rockies teammate Trevor Story.
One preliminary roadblock, after all, is the truth that the Pink Sox have already got a star third baseman in Rafael Devers. Although Arenado has indicated that he’s open to a place change in the proper circumstance and Devers’ agent mentioned in no unsure phrases in November that his consumer was staying at third base, it’s laborious to consider that Arenado would transfer off the recent nook in deference to a a lot weaker fielder in Devers. If a commerce did occur, Devers would presumably turn into the brand new first baseman or DH, although this creates different conflicts with Triston Casas and Masataka Yoshida.
Each of these gamers, nonetheless, have been talked about in commerce talks this winter, and even in a number of the similar commerce talks. Casas is the much more invaluable commerce asset of the 2, and whereas Breslow mentioned “we’re definitely not purchasing him,” that naturally doesn’t imply Casas is off limits. Certainly, Cotillo and McAdam write that “there stays a perception within the business that the Pink Sox stay open to buying and selling Casas, doubtlessly for younger pitching, to facilitate different roster maneuvering.”
It could possibly be that the Sox want to first commerce Casas earlier than making some other strikes, as their leverage in a Casas deal can be lessened if the Pink Sox created a positional logjam beforehand. Buying and selling Casas purely as a automobile to clear payroll area absolutely isn’t Breslow’s choice, which is why that aforementioned try to hyperlink Yoshida and Casas collectively was nonetheless a part of an try to convey Luis Castillo from Seattle to Boston.
Payroll can be a significant side of any Arenado commerce, because the third baseman is owed $74MM over the remaining three seasons of his contract. Between deferrals and the $10MM being lined by the Rockies, the present-day worth of Arenado’s contract reportedly works out to $60MM. The Cardinals’ chief incentive in buying and selling Arenado is of course to maneuver as a lot of this cash as attainable, and the proposed cope with the Astros that Arenado blocked would’ve seen Houston tackle both $45MM (as per Katie Woo and Chandler Rome of the Athletic) or $59MM (as per ESPN’s Jeff Passan) of the $60MM determine.
Theoretically, the Pink Sox might take up the whole contract and nonetheless keep beneath the $241MM luxurious tax threshold, as RosterResource estimates Boston’s present tax quantity at just below $212MM. It stays unclear precisely how a lot payroll capability Breslow has been allotted this winter, as whereas the Sox have made overtures to a number of high free brokers, their spending has been fairly modest up to now. The Pink Sox might maybe persuade the Cardinals to tackle an even bigger chunk of Arenado’s wage (or no less than nearer to the $45MM determine) if higher prospects are provided in return. Chaim Bloom’s involvement on this speculative commerce is an attention-grabbing wrinkle, because the incoming St. Louis president of baseball operations has loads of data of Boston’s farm system attributable to his previous stint because the Pink Sox CBO.
Buying and selling for Arenado would come at a lesser total price than signing Alex Bregman, one other high third baseman who stays on Boston’s radar. That mentioned, the Pink Sox are identified to nonetheless be within the working for Bregman, who has some notable ties to the Sox in supervisor Alex Cora (from their days collectively in Houston) and his longtime pal Walker Buehler, who simply signed with the Sox himself earlier than Christmas. Buehler just lately informed Cotillo and different reporters that even in his transient time in a Sox uniform, “I’ve definitely made a pitch everywhere for [Bregman] to come back to Boston.”
Turning to different Pink Sox targets, it stays unknown if Boston remains to be one of many groups getting consideration from Roki Sasaki. Earlier this week, Sasaki’s agent Joel Wolfe up to date reporters on his consumer’s seek for a Main League staff, and didn’t give any indication that the right-hander was completed along with his in-person conferences with golf equipment.
The Pink Sox weren’t one of many seven groups identified to have spoken with Sasaki already, and phrase hasn’t damaged if a gathering has been scheduled or maybe it’s has already taken place since Wolfe’s final presser. As of yesterday, WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford reported that the Sox hadn’t “been informed they’re out of” the working for Sasaki’s providers, so the scenario remains to be up within the air.
