Lou Merloni joins to discuss the Red sox missing out on Pete Alonso | WEEI Afternoons

Lou Merloni joins to discuss the Red sox missing out on Pete Alonso | WEEI Afternoons

Our guy Lou Maloney joins us from Florida. Mr. Maloney, how we doing? Well, I’m starting to drink heavily. There you go. Yeah, me too. There’s our Lou. Getting getting that plane ride home and uh just a quiet quiet winter meeting. You always hope it’s kind of get some action. I thought maybe there was cuz there was some coming into it, but um not much not much going on, especially in the Red Sox end. Just to put a bunch of nips in that carry on. You’ll be just fine. Yep. You’ll be you’ll feel better soon. But uh I I think you and I shared a brain the other day on Twitter. It was uh Schwarber goes back to Philly and it’s like, “Okay, this is this is fine. It’s just Alonzo or Bust.” Well, now it’s not Alonzo. So, what does Bust look like? Yeah, it’s um the minute he found out Baltimore like offered Schwabber basically matched what he went to Philly. He just said, “Well, there’s your market for Alonzo, you know? I mean, they offer that to Schwabber. Why wouldn’t they offer that to Lonzo?” And basically, it was they gave him five more million. So, um I don’t know. You know, listen, I wanted one of those two guys cuz obviously it’s instant power tool, but you know, is it bust after that? Like, you know, there’s still some players here that you can add. You can add a couple of bats to kind of improve this top and middle of the order that that can make you a good baseball team. You just you don’t have that elite tool of power. Those are those two guys. The other guys, Gino Suarez, I’m not a big fan to be honest with you. I know he’s got potential, but it’s not consistent. There’s a ton of strikeouts. He doesn’t play a position. So for me now, I just sort of look back to I want Alex Bregman, you know, I want I want defense. I want contact. I want 20 to 25 home run potential. I want to find the same thing at first and go from there. Lou, you the uh you going back to uh Pete Alonzo just real quick. You said, you know, kind of the Schwber kind of set the market for Pete. Um and so it was a pretty simple kind of contract to get done with Pete if he wanted it. But reports are that they went way under what Pete Alonzo actually got. So you two things that come to mind for me is well did they you know did they really want the guy if they severely kind of under bid or did they completely misread the market? Um what is it one of those things to you that happened there? Yeah I I think the Red Sox sort of Yeah, you’re right. It’s one of those things. Yeah, we like the player. Well, obviously not enough. Right. Right. Like and this is part of the whole thing of getting uncomfortable. Do we think four years hund00 million is is probably what he is worth because he is probably a DH but you know that’s great you can think that but if that’s the case then you really don’t want him because that’s not going to come close to getting it done you know um so it’s like it was funny I talked to somebody out from New York and they were just kind of talking about him it’s like you know he’s a DH and and the Yankees kind of I mean the Mets rather they’re not bringing him back I’m like what does that say you know because he does have 45 homers in that lineup why wouldn’t they bring him back and he’s like I just don’t see Craig Brezlo giving a unedimensional guy who doesn’t run, play defense, he hits home runs, 30 million for five. And I’m like, well, that’s what it’s going to take. And it was and they just they weren’t they weren’t willing to go there. So, do I know what the plans are? No. Does anybody know what the plans are? No. Because it’s a very small circle of trust in that GM room of Craig Brelo. And so, that’s why these reports that come out, I don’t believe any of them because I think they’re all coming from other teams or agents, which is crazy. But, uh, you know, that is what it is. So, Lou, what about Breman? uh seems like there was that talk that maybe they’d be able to bring him back and then last week I believe there was the report they’ve now shifted focus. He’s their number one priority. Do you think there’s any more movement on that front? Because it feels like since he’s a Boris guy, they’re kind of painting themselves into a corner and now Bregman and Boris have the leverage. Yeah, for me it’s almost like last year too it’s like they got Alex Bregman because Bregman almost waited for Boston to move, you know, and to offer him a deal he’s willing to take. And I think, you know, Bregman wants to be back here, but I think you you look at his mark, you start wondering what it is. And this could come down to the issue. The Red Sox like these players, but they like them at their price. They value these guys. And if you continue to do that, you are not going to get these guys, right? So, um, they may slow play this thing. And that’s why I think part of the rumors too to be honest with you with him interested in every single infielder might be to shake up that camp a little bit because I do think Alex wants to come back and he doesn’t want to hear the Red Sox involved in Esock parades or to tell Marte or whatever it may be and they may be separate deals anyways but um they have to be willing to kind of get a little uncomfortable in terms of what they want to give per year and how many years. Nessen and WEI’s Lou Maloney here on WEI Afternoons. Lou, so you just said, “Ah, there’s a couple bats out there, and we’ve already seen a couple pitchers come in.” We all started the offseason thinking Joe Ryan and a big bat. Uh, is it now is it now quantity over quality then? Well, it it depends. I mean, it depends on if you think like, you know, a guy like Cel or Alex Bregman, it’s like, you know, is it is it more of a complete play player better than a guy that can pop 45 homers, you know, and you can sit in a room and argue that all you want. So, um, you can still get two impact guys to hit this two in in the two three range for this lineup. I think, you know, it’s just a question of is one through trade, is one through free agent signing. Um, it’s just a question of like where they where they go from here. They have to go somewhere. Like you don’t like you don’t like you you you have Roman Anthony, you know, let’s call it you have a leadoff hitter and then you have like five through nine covered with potentially story hitting somewhere in that top five, but still it’s that’s what you have. you have huge holes in your lineup. So trademark, right? I mean, that’s the next logical thing is is the is the trade market, Lou. I mean, and there’s and so there’s there’s deals out there that we had probably have no idea because we don’t know who they’re interested in on other teams. But I mean, is that the next really the only move they have left to get the middle, you know, bat that they uh so so kind of desire and covet is is the trade market the way to go? Yeah, I think it could be. I think the Marte thing is real. Um, I think there should be interest in him. I think he’s kind of all around probably the best second baseman in the game, switch hitter, really good defensive guy that can hit for some power. So, I I think that’s real. It’s just that, you know, we we we hype up our prospects so badly that I think what it would take to get them. People are like, “No way.” And I say all day because I’m trying to improve the because I’m trying to improve the big league team. You know, you you you create depth and you just get into this hoarding me, you know, idea. And like, you know, the people in Boston, they just love these prospects. Not everybody’s Roman Anthony, you know what I mean? Like not everybody’s Pedro Martinez and it’s sort of like uh you have to start giving up a little bit and it could hurt, but you can get one of the better second bases in the game if not the best. So, uh I still think that’s real. Um we’ll see if they dive in. I like the kid Okamoto, the Japanese if they want to dive back into that first baseman, third baseman model just because of the profiles is kind of in that Bregman kind of range, right? Like he can play defense, he makes contact, he hits 25 home runs. I mean, this is where we’re at right now, right? because the elite power is off the table. Last we saw, Lou, as far as the pitching went, Socks were starting a kid who had just been called up a few weeks ago in the third and final game of a wild card series. So, pitching needs a little work as well. So far, picked up Odo and Sunny Gray. What do you think about what they’ve done uh as far as pitching acquisition thus far? And anyone you have your eye on going forward? Listen, I like the I like Sunny Gray. Okay. It’s just that I I thought you were going to get your Chris Sale to go with David Price. I thought you were going to get a guy for four or five years to go with Derek Crochet, not one. Um, so and that’s kind of what Sunny Gray is. I think for 2026, I think he’s a good pitcher. ODO is kind of more upside. Beo is in the mix. There’s guys like Patrick Sanderol and Cutter Crawford and you know there’s six names right there and then you’re not even mentioning early yet. So it’s, you know, the depth is there. There’s potential, you know, as long as you have Crochet healthy on top of that rotation for it to be still a very good rotation. But um you know depending if you don’t spend on the on the bats you do wonder if they if they they take a pass and try to load up on this rotation for one more big piece. So Luke is it my understanding Brezlo had some media availability. Were you did you hear him speak? Was what was his message? What’ he have to say? You know it’s um when a GM sits in front or or manager sits in front of the media during these things uh they don’t say anything. They really don’t. I mean it’s like well we can’t talk about free agents. We can’t talk about pursuit. We’re interested in this guy. We’re interested in that guy. So, you know, it’s it’s hard to read between the lines, you know, with a lot of it because they just they just, like I said, this front office, they they don’t give you much, right, publicly. And it’s why when you come down here, you have to sift through like all the crap that you hear and the rumors. You got to shower four or five times a day just to feel clean. um and just sort of go with it and wait for something to happen so you can react to it rather than trying to predict it because it’s it’s it can be extremely unpredictable. All right, before we let you go, one last question. I was reading some of the Kora comments from yesterday and was it reality or crap when he was talking up Will Abrau and saying something to the effect like he could be the guy he’s going to hit more against lefties this year and maybe he could be quote the guy. Is that reality? Can he be your guy for a power hitter? Yeah, he can be. He can be. It’ be nice to have like more of a given next to it, but um I do think that that there is another level. I mean, last year you look, there’s some swing and miss stuff out there numbers wise where it was like 28 30%, he cut it down to 24 if there’s one more step and he makes a little bit more contact and that average can climb to 270 and he can stay healthy and he can, you know, he can pop 30 home runs. There’s no question about it. And Roman’s got some potential to do it as well. So, um, yeah, Brayos has a chance to really be a special player if he takes the next step, like elite defense, power, um, good athlete. So, there’s there’s a lot of potential there and and that’s why you’d like to see the veteran known player go with the potential of an Abrau, Roman, Sidon, Narvas, these types of guys. You just don’t want to rely on those young guys and just expect all of them to take the next step because that’s just not realistic. All right, Lou, safe travel question. Uh, did you take the sticks down there, Lou? Did you play some golf while you’re down there in Orlando? No, I didn’t. Right on a golf course and it really killed me. Instead, I just walked up and down hallways just waiting for something to happen for three or four days, drinking about 48 cups of coffee. Walking hallways and taking a lot of showers. Yep. Very good. That’s the Lumaloney experience at the meeting. Safe travels home. Enjoy the drinking if that’s uh part of your future. We’ll talk to you soon. Thanks, buddy. All right, boys. You got it. Three times.

Lou Merloni joins WEEI Afternoons to discuss the Red sox missing out on Pete Alonso, who the Red Sox need to pivot to, and why they missed out on the superstar first baseman. #mlb #baseball #boston #redsox

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