What Can Be Done to Fix the Sox?

Keeping Xander at SS turned out very well.

Maybe we could have gotten Donaldson.

But I hate going back in time and thinking about all this.  Xander at SS doesn't put as much pressure on his bat.  If Xander hits like we all dream about, he'll win an MVP someday.

If Zimmerman goes to an AL Team, he won't be worth it. Price has Dodgers written all over him. Go ahead and sign Cueto if you want. Gonna cost 200m. Awfully risky for a team that is a long way from contending.

Any grand scheme of fixing the Red Sox simply by throwing money at the situation is flawed by the financial reality that we have $84.5 million in guaranteed salary owed in 2016 to Hanley, Sandoval, Rusney, Craig, Porcello and Miley. That means that nearly half of next year's payroll is allocated to bad contracts. It's like the Sox have torn a page from the Ruben Amaro playbook "How to Financially Sabotage An MLB Team."

diango, I think you are giving up on some players way too early. These players have adjustment problems of one kind or another, and are not performing as they should, based on their past records.

Hanley is a great hitter and I think he is going to be the next Ortiz. The priority with him is getting him off the field, which was the case with Ortiz, and it paid off.

I've argued all along that people worry far too much about Sandoval's weight. That is not his problem. He is going through a bad patch, but I think he will give the Sox several good years. He is a much better defender than we have seen recently.

It is impossible to assess Castillo. He hasn't had enough time. He seems to be a pretty good fielder and he definitely has some power. It is way too early to claim that his is a bad contract.

No argument on Craig. I feel sorry for the guy but I don't think he is going to make it back with the Sox. I think it was a reasonable risk to take a chance on him.

Porcello was a very good pitcher last year and he isn't consistently that pitcher yet with the Sox. He still is young, not even in his prime. I think he will be fine and give the Sox some solid pitching.

Miley was not himself for a while but he is doing better now. He is far from an ace, but OK as a fourth or fifth.

Every one of the top teams has top-ranked pitching. The Sox don't, and with what they have now, they won't. And they will not be a contender without it. The problem with the Sox rotation, other than the fact that everyone has had bad runs, is that no one has been exceptional, or is likely to be. There is no number 1 or number 2 pitcher except for Buchholz when he is in one of his good streaks. But you never know when that will end. I'm not counting Rodriguez because after today's performance we need to see more of him.

The Sox need a couple of ace-level pitchers. Maybe Rodriguez is one, but that's not enough. Johnson is not that guy. Owens may be, but with what he is going through this year, he may be further away than we thought he was. There is no one below AAA until the low levels with that kind of potential. They have to sign or trade for at least one.

The hitting, of course, is atrocious. I think it will improve some, but the heart of the batting order is problematical. Ortiz and Napoli should not be batting back to back anymore. I am not sure Napoli should be batting at all. De Aza should not be starting in the OF. I know it is the result of Betts getting hurt, but he is never going to be a good player. He cannot help the Sox. Trading for him made no sense.

At this point, with virtually no chance left to be a contender, the Sox should move into a rebuilding phase, and start getting rid of the players who will not be around next year - or shouldn't be. There are trades that can be made. There are players at Pawtucket who should be given opportunities. There need to be some promotions of players from lower levels so room needs to be made at the higher levels - and the highest level.

I think Farrell is Bens guy and he'll go down with him. If we get a new manager it's bc there's much bigger changes.

This isn't really a suggestion to fix the RS, but it's an important step toward being competitive in 2016: they need to stay under $189 million in payroll here in 2015. That will give them the ability to go past $189 million in 2016 without getting crushed by a high luxury tax.

It's unclear to me where the 2015 payroll stands now based on AAV (which is what counts) and including benefits, etc. BRef has them at $182.4 and Cots says the cost of their 25-day opening day roster was $184.4 million. (For luxury tax purposes, it's the 40-man roster that counts.)

Given how close they're cutting it, I doubt that Allen Craig has a shot at getting back in the mix. And I think I read that they could do the same thing with Masterson. Giving Masterson the Craig treatment halfway through the season would knock off another $4.75 million for luxury tax purposes.

And of course, if they can move Napoli - though I think they'd have to eat some of his remaining 2015 salary - that would provide a bit more wiggle room. Ship Koji to a contender and they could save even more.

The team has a top 3 farm system and dead money in the form of Napoli and Victorino coming off the books. They have been very unlucky in the sense that all their position prospects have struggled in their early going.

The worst thing they can do right now is make panic moves. However, a couple of things need to happen:
1. JBJ must get another long look. What have you got to lose at this point?
2. The DH spot must be made available for Hanley next season.

There isn't anything that can be done to "fix" the 2015 Red Sox.

The question I have is how good will this team be in 2016? They're locked into Sandoval at 3b who is mediocre at best. They're locked into all of their position players except for Napoli, and as much sense as it makes to play Hanley at 1b next year, that could also backfire as the player doesn't want to play there and could pout if he's asked to, and/or also could be every bit as brutal at 1b as LF. With Ortiz set to come back at DH next year, Hanley won't be DHing.

I know there's a "trade" Ortiz sentiment, but Ortiz would have to be willing to go, and at this point is an icon the way Jeter was with the Yankees, who put up with a declining Jeter for a couple of years. Logic tells you that Hanley should be better over the course of the next few years, but the guy could get hurt, get his ego bruised, who knows? I actually trust Ortiz more than I trust Hanley. Either way I don't see Ortiz playing beyond next year, once he hits his 500th homer. I don't "dump" Ortiz so Hanley can DH, although I can see the logic to it.

They're stuck with the contracts of Porcello (who I haven't given up on quite yet, but worry that he's still more of a backend starter on a good team) and Miley, and will most likely pick up Buchholz's option. You figure Rodriguez, Johnson, Kelly, Wright, and eventually Owens battle for the last two spots.

It's obvious they need a legit ace starter, but I doubt the Sox spend all that money on a pitcher.

While they need it, my question is when do they REALLY need it?

I mean, if the Sox are basically the same team next year minus Napoli, aren't they really more than one good pitcher away from seriously contending? And if so, would that pitcher still be good when Bogaerts, Betts, Swihart, and Castillo truly mature and when the next wave hits with Margot and Devers? That's important.

If the young core is improving, but it's offset by declining veterans - as Sandoval (who's young but has a body that's much older), Pedroia, Ortiz, and Ramirez aren't getting any younger, that they Sox are locked into contractually, can the Sox really be expected to improve dramatically in 2016?

The Cubs didn't sign Lester until they thought that they're ready to win. Are the Sox really ready to win in 2016? We thought they'd be in for a bounceback this season, but that's not the case.

Nice Cliché, but it just doesn't apply to baseball. You absolutely can do the same thing and get a different outcome in baseball, there's a lot of randomness involved.