What are the Red Sox doing this offseason?

What are the Red Sox doing this offseason?

an agenda free Friday mass which is brought to you by Catches Law at Catches. >> Agenda. >> They specialize in helping those who have been injured not only from a one-time incident, but from a lifetime of hard work and labor. Does this sound like you? Visit catcheslaw.com. Also, again, thank you to Catch Law for their uh $10,000 donation to Christmas in the city. Uh that that was announced on yesterday’s show. And thanks for everyone that did come out yesterday as well, the Hurricanes before the Bruins game. Uh great turnout for that. Thank you for all the gifts and donations to Christmas in the city. You can continue to do so and get in on that Bruins 50-50 raffle as well. Just go to 985portsub.com for more information on that. By now, if you don’t know the routine, uh just right off the top of the show here and throughout the afternoon, uh anything you want to discuss and uh as I always say with Mike out on agenda free Friday, I can’t stress the anything part enough, uh call us at 617-779-0985. In the meantime, as we continue to clean and sanitize the studio, uh we will kick things off with opening takes. Matt’s still getting set up. So, Bar. >> Yeah, let let Bar go first. I am still uh I’m still working on the crusty residue over here. So, go to Bar. >> Barth, what do you got? >> Well, you say anything. I’m tempted to go with the college football playoffs starting tonight, but no, I I’ll go with the NFL. Awesome awesome game last night between the Rams and the Seahawks. You love it when a big game, a hyped up game lives up to the hype. And I’m sitting there, you know, the the Seahawks are going on this comeback. I’m like, “Wow, this is great.” You know, it’s it’s been a while since I’ve seen a game like this and enjoyed it. And I realized I saw a game like this less than a week ago. I just didn’t enjoy it cuz my team was on the wrong side of it, but a lot of similarities in that game to Patriots Bills. Now, I think the Rams and the Seahawks might have an argument to be the two best teams in the NFL. I do think it’s kind of crazy though that because I remember talking to somebody about it after the Patriots game that, oh, you know, teams blow leads, you can’t make too big of a deal out of that. I think you can. I don’t think it should be acceptable to blow multi-score leads in the NFL. It happens. Saying it doesn’t happen, but it’s usually you don’t really see a case where a team is so good they just overwhelm their way back to a lead. Usually the team that has the lead that blows it is in part responsible. And then I found this tweet from Adam Shfter. This was before last night. Six teams won in week 15 after trailing by at least 10 points, tied for the most in a single week in NFL history. So that was last week. That includes obviously Patriots Bills. That Falcons game was in there as well. And now week 16 kicks off with one of these games. >> I I don’t want to say that suddenly this is becoming overwhelming. I still think most of the time when a team gets up big, it’s ball game. But it does feel like we’re seeing a little bit more of these comebacks, especially in these big games. It’s almost starting to feel a little bit like the NFL, like the NBA where remember like Celtics Pistons the other night, Celtics go up 14 in the first quarter. You think of that as not a big lead. Maybe it’s not equivalent to 21 in in football, but like you’re feeling pretty comfortable has gone like that. Yeah. Right. >> So, it does feel like and maybe it’s it’s the elevation of the quarterback play. Maybe it’s the league having a coaching shortage. I don’t think there’s a lot of good coaches in the NFL right now. Although certainly two good ones last night, but it feels like more of these comebacks are happening and I’m trying to figure out like is it taking progress? Is it good for the league or is it not? But whatever it was, that was an awesome game last night and I hope we see those two teams again in January. Maz, if you’re still getting set up, I can piggyback with another NFL thought. >> Yeah, sure. Go ahead. >> Uh, so cuz I didn’t get a chance to take a victory lap yet on the benching of Tua Tong of Aloa by the Dolphins on Wednesday. I wasn’t here. And I don’t mean to crow too much, but uh, man, what a gym was right for the ages. That was a what an early Christmas gift. Uh hopefully uh these dopey owners and general managers in the NFL will now start to wake up and realize what I said at both the time of Tuas and Daniel Jones’s extensions was the right approach to these middling bummy quarterbacks and long-term contracts. NFL owners have to really consider some sort of quarterback salary cap bar or just fiscal responsibility. And the guy who’s normally here will always yell at me, “Well, what do you want to do? Go back into the draft and start all over again?” Yeah. Yes. And in the meantime, you find one of these stop gap retread quarterbacks, you can pay for like a season or maybe two tops. That’s it. But big extensions for Tua, Gino Smith, Daniel Jones, reap what you sew, get lost. And I know Jones was having a goodish season, but he was turning back into Daniel Jones what he was on the Giants. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. The owners in the NFL have also no one but themselves to blame for this. Like I said at the time, of two is extension. They’ve allowed the league to become too quarterback friendly and pass focused. And you’ve created this environment where bummy quarterbacks along with wide receivers and pass rushers are able to make massive demands and you kind of have to pay them. You did this to yourselves. You’ve quartered yourselves uh with how you’ve built the league in ter what you’ve turned it into. But in terms of these bummy quarterbacks, have you learned your lesson? It’s time to stop practice. Make real evaluations. Think about it. When it comes to guys like Tua Tongoa, oh we got to give him 50 million a year. No, you don’t. And now look what you’ve done. You got to start over. like you pro you should just be willing to let these guys walk. I told you Maz, what do you got? >> Uh Murray, I would just like to touch on the uh the hot stove season in Major League Baseball because there’s been a flurry of activity in the last 24 hours or so throughout Major League Baseball. Michael King has resigned with the San Diego Padres’s had been linked to the Red Sox. >> That’s a hot stove. >> Yep. Yep. Matt Stum, reliever from the Philadelphia Phillies, formerly of the Red Sox, has been traded to the Kansas City Royals. >> That’s a hot stove, too. The Baltimore Orioles, who uh obviously are in the same division, American League East, the ironclad American League East, have acquired Shane Bos and a trade with the uh Tampa Bay Rays. >> That that oral stove, you’ll sing your hand. You get close to him. >> No, everybody’s moving. I’m happy to report that uh now that Michael King again, Michael to San Diego, Matt to Kansas City, Shane to Baltimore, and I would like to announce uh breaking news that the Red Sox have acquired Dick, [laughter] Richard, Dick, Jack, call them whatever you want. They got squat zero. Still Zippo on December 19th. I don’t know where you go with this. You have a right as a fan to be agitated. I’d use the word disappointed, but it goes way, way, way beyond that. Nothing. Zip. A big giant Richard on December 19th for the Red Sox. So, again, I was going to have Jimmy play the breaking news sounder just to bust balls, but the breaking news is the Red Sox have acquired Dick. It It’s >> No, actually, Maz, they traded Dick Fitz. They traded him for Sunny Gray, remember? >> Oh, yeah. No, that’s their big move. Yeah. No, dick gone instead. You Yeah. No, it’s it’s embarrassing and it’s it’s I think I said this to you either this week or last week. This is how 20 the offseason going into 2022 played out. After 21, you got the fans back. There was real buzz at the stadium. There was you’re like, “Oh, okay. They’re going to build off this.” And they did. Dick. And the same thing, the same pattern is repeating itself. >> Jimmy, what have you heard? Uh what have you heard about the Red Sox? You mentioned something before we came on the air. Yeah, I’ve I’ve heard that they’re panicking over there and the front office the front office of the Red Sox is trying to figure out what to do, which leads me to think that they’re going to make a mistake and maybe put on a full press for Kyle Tucker and one of the international free agents. >> GOOD LUCK WITH THAT. >> Does that wet your whistle, Red Sox fans? Kyle Tucker. >> No. >> Like, does Kyle Tucker move the needle? >> Well, look, he would if they and and this is going to sound funny. They have left-handed hitting outfielders. It’s like the one thing, you know, I shouldn’t say the one thing they do have, that’s not fair, but they have left-handed hitting outfielders, but the the idea that they are panicking, if if what if what Jimmy is saying is true? Good. They should be panicking. I hope they all crap their own pants and have to go home and change. That’s what I hope. >> Doesn’t Kyle Tucker sound like Carl Crawford 2.0? Like he doesn’t have a position. He’s a left-handed >> right fielder, I think. better better player than Kyle Crock >> and supposedly my understanding is the best offer that Kyle Tucker has on the market is from the Dodgers and that’s a three plus one. >> If you were telling me it was Tucker and you’re also signing Bregman like okay that that’s good but if this is just like a panic move and this is everyone what everyone’s supposed to be satisfied with. No, it’s not enough. >> They’re not going to get Tucker. He’s going to cost too much money. They’re not going to get >> unless the market is so dry that they can do a Bregman deal with him. And that’s three one-year contracts at 40 million for each singular season. >> In which case, why would he come here? >> Kyle Tucker because the market right now is dry for him. >> If I were him, I’d go to if I really wanted to sign a one-year deal, Toronto’s a spot. I’d go there. They need they could use left-handed bats. Uh they have needed left-handed bats. Not that they still have a a major need there, but whatever. You get the idea. I’m stopping there because again this whole thing has been it frankly it’s embarrassing what has happened to them in this off seasonason. >> You mentioned this when I was in with you guys on Tuesday and it still holds true. Only two MLB teams have yet to make a big league free agent signing the Red Sox and the Colorado Rockies. >> H no that’s that’s a good team to be down in the basement with. You know one of the laughings stock relevant teams in all of Major League Baseball, the Colorado Rockies. And you’re doing nothing just like them. Now that’s good. So, the Red Sox uh bringing you Cole so far this holiday season. Uh Bar talking about these big comebacks like last night for the Seattle Seahawks and their win over the Rams and me being right about to being benched and stop paying these bummy quarterbacks. That’s what we’re opening up with. What say you the people on an agenda free agenda free Friday? Caller 617790985. As Maz opened with the socks, we have Brendan in Toronto leading us off with a thought on Alex Bregman. Hello, Brendan. >> Good afternoon, gentlemen. Good to be leading you off from up north dealing with tons of garbage with these Blue Jays fans making a World Series run. But what’s annoying me more than anything is just the Socks inability to sign guys like Alex Bregman. Mookie Betts walks, John Lester walks, they think they can get these hometown discounts at whatever four years, $70 million garbage offers and he’s gone. So we’re going to have to picture a locker room without him. I think he was a great locker room guy. He comes, you get um Devers out of there, the team changes. They make a deep playoff run. Well, not a deep playoff run, but they get to the wild card. You You’re building something. And now they’re just going to blow it up again and they’re going to be in last place next year. So, um I’m going to go have a Tim Hortons and listen to the Conuckers talk about the Jays make another run, but I’ll leave you guys to talk about it. It’s just disappointing. >> Thanks, Brendon. Appreciate the call. And uh he’s right about that Bregman thing. I think is maybe the most underrated part of him last year is I’ve mentioned it and I think you agreed mass he was almost like a de facto manager at times. He was really good in that clubhouse especially for some of those young players. >> Look and that may be the the part where they miss him the most. And look that’s not the reason alone to go out and pay a guy 30 $40 million whatever the actual number is but at this stage and I I was almost going to jump down the caller’s throat. Not that it’s his fault but bringing back Bregman is not an acquisition. That’s not an acquisition baseline. That is standing pat is what that is. So, they’ve slid. And let this be a lesson to you because the last time the Red Sox made the playoffs before uh 2025 was 2021. Do you remember what happened in the off season following it? >> Nothing. >> Yeah. >> Nothing. So, this is now a pattern and this is what they do. And you can go back to 2013 and do the same kind of thing if you want, which is to say they won the World Series that year. They kind of stumbled into it, but whatever. They they spent the off season trying to rebuild the credibility of the organization. They wanted to build an 85 win team that played hard that got a World Series out of it. Great. Excellent. You know what they did the offseason after that? Dick >> 2018, too. Right. So, so no, really, again, this is So, there’s a pattern. They have the littlest bit of success, they suck you back in, and then they put their hands in their pockets and play pocket pool. Okay, that’s what it is. So, how can you possibly look at it at this stage and feel optimistic about where they’re at at this stage? I’d almost prefer that Bregman go that I I really if you’re not sourite. >> Yeah. If you’re not sour about this whole experience this off season, you should be. The the idea that they have not improved is really kind it’s I it’s the worst sign possible that they’re content to be 87 and 75, 88 and 74 and that’s good enough because it keeps you on the perimeter peeking in. That’s it.

Mazz’ Opening Take on an Agenda Free Friday is about the Red Sox, who continue their underwhelming offseason.

Thumbnail photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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