Reviews final month from MLB.com’s John Denton indicated that the Purple 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 well-liked vacation spot” for Arenado, based on MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo and Sean McAdam. What isn’t recognized, nonetheless, is that if the Purple Sox and Cardinals are anyplace shut on a deal, or if the Sox are significantly motivated to deliver Arenado to Beantown.
Buying Arenado would examine a few huge wants off of Boston’s offseason procuring checklist. 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 crew is heavy with left-handed hitters. Bringing probably the greatest defensive third basemen of all time to Fenway Park would immediately assist Boston’s subpar infield protection, and Arenado would even be reunited together with his good pal and former Rockies teammate Trevor Story.
One preliminary roadblock, after all, is the truth that the Purple 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 suitable circumstance and Devers’ agent mentioned in no unsure phrases in November that his consumer was staying at third base, it’s laborious to imagine 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 grow to be 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 few of the similar commerce talks. Casas is the way more priceless commerce asset of the 2, and whereas Breslow mentioned “we’re actually not procuring him,” that naturally doesn’t imply Casas is off limits. Certainly, Cotillo and McAdam write that “there stays a perception within the trade that the Purple Sox stay open to buying and selling Casas, probably for younger pitching, to facilitate different roster maneuvering.”
It might be that the Sox want to first commerce Casas earlier than making some other strikes, as their leverage in a Casas deal could be lessened if the Purple Sox created a positional logjam beforehand. Buying and selling Casas purely as a car to clear payroll house certainly 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 deliver Luis Castillo from Seattle to Boston.
Payroll can be a serious facet 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 doable, and the proposed take care of 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 Purple Sox may take in the complete contract and nonetheless keep underneath 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 so far. The Purple Sox may maybe persuade the Cardinals to tackle a much bigger chunk of Arenado’s wage (or at the very least nearer to the $45MM determine) if higher prospects are provided in return. Chaim Bloom’s involvement on this speculative commerce is an fascinating wrinkle, because the incoming St. Louis president of baseball operations has loads of information of Boston’s farm system as a consequence of his previous stint because the Purple Sox CBO.
Buying and selling for Arenado would come at a lesser general price than signing Alex Bregman, one other high third baseman who stays on Boston’s radar. That mentioned, the Purple Sox are recognized to nonetheless be within the operating 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 lately advised Cotillo and different reporters that even in his temporary time in a Sox uniform, “I’ve actually made a pitch all over for [Bregman] to return to Boston.”
Turning to different Purple Sox targets, it stays unknown if Boston continues 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 crew, and didn’t give any indication that the right-hander was completed together with his in-person conferences with golf equipment.
The Purple Sox weren’t one of many seven groups recognized 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 advised they’re out of” the operating for Sasaki’s providers, so the state of affairs continues to be up within the air.
