The World Series period can be pretty aggravating for fans who aren’t completely invested in it. Sure, I’m watching and following the World Series, but I’d much rather read about players that became free agents who have Red Sox ties.
The list? Alejandro Machado, Kevin Jarvis, Carlos Pena, and and Ken Huckaby.
John Farrell being named pitching coach and Dave Magadan the hitting coach is enough to satiate me for a day.
But that doesn’t help in writing an article, with nothing to go on. What do I write about?
This offseason is so unique, the first in my memory, that there’s nothing to write about simply because there is no clear-cut plan of what to do, no clear-cut plan of who to go after, what to upgrade …
Yes, pitching. We know that. But we can go so many directions with pitching, offense, defense. Do we still put defense at a premium? Upgrade offense? Trade Mike Lowell? Stay with the pitching? Bring in complementary arms? Bring in big arms? Free agency? Trades?
Every single step we take this offseason will lead to yet another step. If we trade Lowell, we suddenly need a third baseman (or first). If we sign a big arm in free agency, do we take the financial hit or try to clear salary elsewhere? Do we give up on Coco Crisp? Do we trade Manny no matter what, making a hole in left field?
I can’t write what the Red Sox should do this offseason, because it’s so open-ended. Who to get, what position to get, how to get it, how to fill the positions created by getting other things …
In addition, the new collective bargaining agreement may or may not drop draft pick compensation for free agents. (My take? They need to stay under the current system for a year as so not to burn teams like the Nationals, then award compensation based on win-loss record. Any team over .500 who lets a free agent go should not get compensation. Something like that.)
The World Series will end no later than October 31st. The General Managers meetings (thankfully) will start two weeks later, on November 13th. The Winter Meetings will be in Orlando, Florida.
That’s all I have to say. We’re just sitting here twiddling our thumbs. I wish I could come up with a concrete idea of what the Red Sox should (or will) do, but there are so many different directions we can go in that it’s flat out nuts. This is the year Theo will earn his money.
