Don't forget about Lindor, I agree though..they are the team to beat.

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Let Abreu walk.

Move Anderson to 2B; get a defensive SS with some speed. With the shift being eliminated, infield defense up the middle becomes even more important.

Vaughn to 1B, Eloy to DH. Get a left-handed power hitter to man either LF or RF.

Find a catcher that can take over for Grandal if he gets DFA'd during the season.

Find a lefty to be your #4 or #5 starter.

New manager that holds the players accountable and won't put up with their laziness.

Emphasis on speed, defense and lefty hitters/pitchers. Need to balance out the lineup and pitching staff.

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

Abreu is still their best player. Letting him walk to give his at-bats to a younger guy who will never be as good rather than signing him at a discounted price is probably what the Sox will do. Giving Vaughn Abreu's money will just be the next version of giving Danks Buehrle's money.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

I think I'd sign Abreu to DH. He may not even want to play any more. He looked hobbled most of the year. He's probably signing one year deals from here on in his career.

Move Vaughn to first.

Let Eloy play LF. You can live with his glove if you have + defenders in Robert and Colas. It becomes a problem when Robert is flanked by two bad defenders. Also, Eloy's offensive numbers are much better when he plays defense and his bat is that good.

Is there a lefty hitting 2B out there?

I would spend on starting pitching

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I'm not that interested in a first baseman who stands 5'8".

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

Now he is listed as 6'0

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

So me and Bernsie’s height? For the record, I am three inches taller than Bernsie, but I was leaning over in that RTS pic.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

They have room for Vaughn, Eloy and Abreu.

It’s the other DHs that are the problem.

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Vaughn was their 2nd best hitter this year. Might want to notice the 120wRC along with the 117 ops+. There's no reason to bring down Vaughn just because you are afraid the Sox will fuck over Abreu.

Pitching, 2B, and Culture change needs to be focus of offseason.

I would agree with JORR on bringing Abreu back.

I would think at least one of your regular players would be traded in a deal for pitching.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Gun to my head on a must trade? It's gotta be Eloy. He's brittle and he bitches about DH-ing.

Left-handed bat

And a lefty that the manager will play when it makes sense to do so

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I would think that would be a good choice with the make up of this team. But Anderson,Robert, or Vaughn might be options as well. Would love to trade Grandal but I highly doubt you can get anything of value for him.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Vaughn is a young player who looks like he can develop as a hitter. Who knows if he will? You can get a lot for him in a trade. The knock on Abreu is his "lack of power" this season. Yet he slugged the same as Vaughn. And again, Vaughn is a tiny target at first for the wild infield arms.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

I want him in LF. I agree the best target at 1st is a big target.

He's brutal out there. But I agree you can live with him if the other two outfielders are solid.

Eloy is your best power guy. He seems to have a good attitude. I don't hold it against a young guy who doesn't want to be half a player. But he DHed after Cairo took over and hit like a monster so I don't think that will be a problem. My bigger concern is him being corrupted by the young Cubans who just seem happy to be there and make millions in America and don't seem too concerned about winning.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

Why do you want to deny the LatinX players their joie de vivre , old white man ?

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Vaughn is another guy who needs to have a good off season conditioning program. He needs better stamina as he's faded at the end of each year and he could use getting stronger.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

"This is a business" when Scott Boras is ruthlessly negotiating our contracts. "We're just having fun" when we're playing grab-ass by posing at the plate as the ball bounces off the wall for a long single or when we're showing up the opposing players.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

Yeah but that stuff is what the kids want to see. Hustling is a form of white supremacy.

_________________
Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

You've got to stick with Vaughn. Abreu is close to flaming out and if you keep him and move on from Vaughn you're soon going to be looking for a new first baseman. Without having any sense of what he might bring back, saying Vaughn should be traded is really not something I can consider.

If you can't decide, you can keep Eloy, Abreu, and Vaughn each taking turns at DH and playing in the field for one additional season, but you can't have an outfield of Vaughn, Robert, and Sheets going forward. Also, giving Grandal any time at DH next season is a total waste.

Sheets is not really needed. Vaughn is your backup 1B and if he is DHing one day and Abreu gets hurt mid game, Grandal can stand there. Trade Sheets for a AAA semi-prospect and move on.

Engel is best suited as a 4th OF, caddying for Eloy/Vaughn when they are winning late, and giving Robert and whoever they sign for RF (their #1 priority for FA this off season) the occasional day off.

Hopefully Mendick comes back fully recovered. Their #2 FA priority should be a 3B to push Moncada to the bench, but the 3B market isn't great this off-season behind Justin Turner who would be a one year stopgap.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

I'm not sure if Abreu is close to flaming out, but point taken that he is closer to the end than the beginning. But finding a guy to play first isn't hard. The problem with the Sox is they have too many first basemen. I don't think there's a great reason to be in love with Vaughn. Yeah, he looks like he can hit. But I'd rather not have a midget first baseman. And he's one guy you can get something for. It's easy to say "Trade Grandal and Moncada." It's just impossible to get any value doing that. You can sell Vaughn high without killing your team or tanking.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

Colas has to be the RF next year. The guy kicked down the door in each level of the minors this year and he has everything they would be looking for if they bought a FA. Its dangerous handing a job to a rookie during a window of opportunity but he's earned the job like no other sox minor leaguer in a long time. I like to reward the guys who produce.

Now, if they move from Abreu, put Eloy at DH and sign someone like Brandon Nimmo as the LF, they will have immediately transformed both their OF D and their speed on the bases.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

The Sox conditioning program is awful.

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Vaughn is about to hit his prime (He turns 25 over the winter). I think you got to take a chance and see how he develops Year 2 to 3. His OPS+ of 115 says he can be a middle of the lineup run producer.

Sheets is depth, nothing more nothing less. And more or less a left handed DH. I don't think he's much of a defensive player. Probably time to move on from him.

This team is going to need a starter, bullpen help (though they are locked into so many arms for next year), 2B, 3B, OF and catcher - at this point, I would take a defensive stud who isn't much of a hitter (like Maldonado of the Stros) to improve the pitch framing and neutralizing the running games.

My thought is not that you want to move Vaughn. If things hadn't gone so badly we wouldn't be having this conversation. But I think we all agree that changes need to be made. And just cutting the guys we don't want to see- Grandal and Moncada- isn't good business and it isn't going to happen. If we want to change the makeup of this team, something radical needs to be done.

You can re-up with Abreu, likely at a discount and that makes the loss of Vaughn fairly low impact. Sure, we may have to watch as he wins a batting title somewhere else with 25 homers, but at this point I don't think we have the luxury of worrying about that. It has to be about what he can bring back and making the Sox able to really compete as quickly as possible. Maybe keeping Vaughn is the best way to do that. I don't know.

But something has to be done. I'm guessing the Sox move will be to make some minor changes and hope that it was the injuries that killed this season. I think that's a mistake. But who knows. I thought the offseason prior to 2005 was a disaster.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

You know they aren't moving on from Grandal. That's like me hoping they will sign Trea Turner for 2B.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I agree he will start the season with the team next year. But I don't think they can go long with him if he hits- or rather, doesn't hit- the way he did this year. At that point you just have to dump him and move on.

I have no problem with Zavala being the main catcher. He came in and seemed to at least try to be a team leader, a tough thing to do for a guy who was basically not much more than a rookie.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.