More fall out from Alex Bregman and the Red Sox!

0:00The Baskards of Boston Baseball Podcasts. Back to folk. Red Sox fans of London here at the Boston Red Sox are World Champion. Game over, series over, and the Red Sox are World Champs again. Yes indeed. Here it comes. Another addition of the Baskards of Boston Baseball. More fallout with the Boston Red Sox and the Alex Breggman situation. We are your Baskards of Boston Baseball. I am your host in 2025 Boston Baskard of the Year, Chris Felica. Join by Jason Kelly, according to Doug Dunkel.

1:03Doug Higgison and Terry Kushman who will be joining us and has joined us. So guys, as if we didn't suffer enough this off season. The Boston Red Sox have still yet to make any signings in the free agency period despite all the plethora of trades that we have made with the St. Louis Cardinals. And it just seems like more and more keeps on evolving here with this Alex Breggman situation. You know reports where there's some quote-unquote people being called potentially liars as far as the contract situation. I'll leave it to you guys to go over all the details I gave my take the other day. So I think I'll start with you Jason. What's your take as far as this continued fallout with Alex Breggman in the Boston Red Sox? Well, my initial take is that I'm not surprised that once again the Boston Red Sox cannot negotiate in good faith that Craig Brezel doesn't know how to deal with other humans in an appropriate way.

2:07That whole story about him basically trying to call Scott Porz's bluff saying, oh, I don't think you guys have another offer and you know this is the best offer on the table. I mean, that's just so out of touch and just it's again it's arrogant. It's Craig Brezel being arrogant again thinking he's the smartest guy in the room. Scott Porz has been doing this for a long, long time. Much longer than Craig Brezel has been doing this GM work. So for Brezel to kind of think that he could like Hoodwink, Scott Porz is hilarious and also very embarrassing for the organization. And then the reports coming out that the real sticking point was the no trade clause. Well, that to me screams John Henry. That was John Henry to me because for Breggman to say, yeah, I would have taken the deal but they weren't going to budge on the no trade. That's John Henry saying, yeah, no one's getting a no trade as far as I'm concerned because if I don't feel like paying them, I'm just going to do what I did to Rafael Devers and ship them out to the desert or ship them out wherever. And of course, if you're Alex Breggman, it makes sense that he wants a no trade because he's been telling teams all winter, you know, I've got a young family.

3:13I don't want to be moving around. I want to side one last contract that I can retire with and I want to stay in one place and I want that no trade because I don't want to have to pick up my family and move again in three years because someone decides to trade me. Perfectly reasonable, right? It's perfectly reasonable. And the Red Sox just said, no, we're not doing that. And that to me, that's John Henry to a tee. I think Brezzlo didn't negotiate well in terms of the contract and with Scott Boris, but that no trade thing. That's all ownership to me because they want the control to be able to any point to say, yeah, we don't feel like paying you anymore. We're going to ship you out to God knows where. So I'm not surprised once again, it's because it's not just Brezzlo, it's ownership. It's the whole front office. They're all involved in this. They all think that, you know, their model is the best and you should just take whatever crappy offer we give you and you should be happy to be playing for the Boston Red Sox. That's just not how it works.

4:13Players have really good agents now and they have different demands. It's not always just who pays the most money. It's stuff like the security of a no trade clause, you know, and John Henry and co just aren't willing to do it. So once again, just another bungled negotiation and the more these stories come out, the worse the organization looks and that's going to make it really, really hard later on to sign any other free agents. Because now other players around the league are looking at this going, wow. This Brezzlo and Henry, these guys are ridiculous. Like, I don't know if I really want to negotiate with Boston because it's going to be a pain in the ass. So all of it's bad, all of it's embarrassing. And once again, Red Sox lose out on another free agent that wanted to be here, but they couldn't seal the deal because they just don't have a negotiate. It's pathetic. It's hilarious that Craig Brezzlo thought that this would be a tradable contract after the first year.

5:16I mean, let's just say the Red Sox signed Bregman to the Tigers deal. Six years, 171, I think it was and then had the season that he had. Do you think he's tradable coming into 2026 or are there too many red flags? Like, maybe a desperate team would take him, but I don't think generally speaking, it wasn't a good year, especially that second half with no power. Most of his stats just kind of took a nose dive. But when the news broke on Saturday night, which is kind of rare. I don't really remember another big development like that happening, you know, in this podcast existence, maybe it happened. But it's not a super common thing. But initially, I was, I was kind of shocked that the Red Sox were in play. Like, I mean, their offer was only 10 million less than what he was saying last August would get it done.

6:26He was asking for a five year 175 dollar deal last August and we've kind of, you know, we've kind of criticized that and picked it apart and recent episodes. And so come to find out we were in on them all along and I just didn't see it as a good value contract. I would rather have Pete Alonzo a million times out of a million over Alex Breggman for five years. You know, Alonzo, like we said, not long after the signing has essentially played a full season, including two 162 game seasons recently, you know, you're not getting that out of Breggman. It was just a bad value type thing and then come to find out the way and we've only found this out in the last 24 hours. Brezlo, as Jason said, was just a complete moron on how we went about it. Nothing about this situation is good.

7:29Nothing, you know, initially we're like bullet dodged cubs took the plunge, but this is Craig Brezlo's third free agency season and it's probably his worst and there's no reason to believe that let's say a strike doesn't happen next year. There's no reason to believe that number four is going to be any better. I think agents across the league that represent players respect him less. I think front offices all across the league respect him less. I mean, he's only willing to do deals with Hyman and Sherrington who don't have a ton of leverage anyway. We just saw no one aeronauto get shipped off today to the diamond backs. But this is a very incompetent front office. It's a very dysfunctional one and they have no friends.

8:32Everybody's coming at them from all angles, players, analysts, the Red Sox beat are all destroying the Red Sox right now and rightfully so. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure like like me like you guys, a lot of people in my every day, either text or see me go, what are they doing? What are the socks doing? They asked me about it and it's like, what do you even say at this point? It's like, they're just a joke and there's a lot of words that I'm not going to say here that I usually say to people describing them. And but and it's funny that you bring up a Lonzo Terry because it's like, I think not getting pregnant. It's not about not getting pregnant. It just makes you feel like it brings it back to a Lonzo of the feeling of just we're just not getting anybody. And it just it's just that feel it and I feel like I've heard a lot of people bring up a Lonzo today because it brings everything back of just we're just so incompetent.

9:35We're just not doing anything to have a zero dollars spent on the board. It's just insane. I've never even seen that. And and to have and to think like you're right to think it's going to get any better. I don't know why you would. Right, there's no signs of him being competent at all. There's no signs of him having any respect from any player, any front office. It's just he's a joke. The front office is pathetic, feeble. So many words to describe them and it's just it's sad because there's a lot of players on this team that I want to cheer for. And I feel like at this point when they come out on open and day like there's going to be booze. And those booze aren't really directed at the players, but they're going to have to hear them. And I can't make them happy. There's no way that they're happy with the front office. There's no way and it's.

10:35It's just going to have a trickle down effect. I think all season and I'm afraid of the morale of the team because of it. Yeah, it's interesting that you you make that point, Doug, as far as the level of disappointment with missing out on Breggman, right? Because I agree with you. And I think most fans would agree that it's not about losing Breggman. I think what Breggman represented was he was the surefire name that's been attached to us since freed and see even before it started. Right? Like we came into this and it was like Breggman and who and it was filling Schwarber or Alonzo. We all for the most part wanted Alonzo and I think most of the fan base. It was just it made the most sense, right? Hand it back, crush the monster. The contract would be more friendly as far as more defensive perspective until he got to the D-Troll, etc. But Breggman was was basically the promise. That's what he represented was a promise from the Red Sox front office to the fans to the roster.

11:38And he was also the bridge from Devers, right? Like we got rid of Devers and it was like, all right, well, this is who we decided to go with. So this is kind of where we're putting all of our dollars and our faith as an organization. And they completely spat in our face because they traded the largest contract that we ever handed out and the cornerstone franchise player in Rafael Devers. For Alex Breggman and then completely let him walk after they told you, well, don't worry, we're going to bring him back. It's a question of who else we're going to bring with him. And I think most of us objectively are, you know, Terry tweeted today, right? Like two things could be true. We could be happy that we didn't sign Breggman, which I think most of us are because five years 175 is crazy, right? I think even when most of us heard the reports that we were attached to Breggman for like that amount of years after Brezlow came out and said, well, you know, we're going to be responsible when it comes to years and age and really take these things to account.

12:42We looked at us like, oh, there's no way we're in on them. And little did we know we were 100% in on them. There was the caveat, the no trade clause. And that was their way of basically trying to sneakily get him on a five year quote unquote deal and then try to ship him out after one or two years because we all know that contract is not going to age well. Terry said it best. No one is going to want that contract in three years, let alone five. So, you know, there's a part of the respect the socks recognizing that that's a bad contract and they realize they have to get out of it. The problem is this is a game now the socks have continued to play and now the rest of the world's calling their BS because no one wants to do business with the red socks. You know, we've said it all along and free agency is a period we got there and you quote unquote overspend. And that's either via years or dollars or both and you can't have your cake and eat it too. And the smartest man in baseball, smartest man in the room, Craig Grezzo thinks he can and every time he does, we don't even have a freaking cake.

13:44So let alone eating it and it's to grave disappointment. I don't know where we go from here. You know, there's already been reports which I know we're all roll our eyes at that plan B. That should have been plan A over Breckman. But the friend, the fan base is fractured and I don't think anyone's buying that the red socks are truly not anyone. And the red socks are a pivotal point as a franchise where they have to recognize as Terry said they have no allies and no friends. The media is calling them out on their bull crap even the ones that usually kiss their ass. Every sports agency, news network, et cetera is basically laughing at us. And ex players are coming out and just absolutely pummeling us. So where do we go from here? I mean, if Boba shit really is the plan B, I'm very curious to see what this quote unquote aggressive offer that it'll be for him because that's what we heard during the Breckman talks, right?

14:47Red socks made an aggressive offer and then we looked at it and said, well, really wasn't that aggressive because they wanted to defer a lot of the money and there wasn't a no trade and all that. So look, are they going to go after Boba shit? Probably. Are they going to fall short? Probably because he's he's going to get a big contract and they're going to get spooked at some point. John Henry's not going to turn around and give $300 million to Boba shit because he's embarrassed that they lost on Alex Breckman. That's just he's not going to do it. And he'll turn to Craig press honestly. Look, it's your job to sell to the fan base that we have good internal options now because you know, we didn't get anyone in free agency or maybe that's when they go and trade for Brendan Donovan because his name's in floating around forever. And again, Craig can only trade with two GMs, high and beam one of them. So that'll probably be the pivot after they lose on him, but shit. Yeah, this whole pivot, this plan B, all that. It's just they're too disingenuous to get away with it anymore. The fan base is smartened up. I mean, Chris, you said it, even the ones who usually kiss their ass, you know, the carobuses of the world and even he's sarcastically tweaking like, oh, yeah, right.

15:59They're not going to get Boba shit. Wake me up when that actually happens. Like they've broken carobus. That's how bad it is. That's how bad the lying and the dis you know, disingenuous has gotten them. It's like nobody believes anything they say anymore. And it's just no one takes them seriously. The fans will take them seriously. The rest of the league doesn't take them seriously. And it's all because they've got, you know, an owner who doesn't want to open his wallet and a GM who's a nerd who thinks he's smarter than everyone else. And, you know, for a team that hasn't wanted a couple of years, you can't be acting that way. The Dodgers can act that way because the Dodgers kind of are smarter than everyone else. They win and they continually have the best farm system. That's why players want to go there, right? They are the model of excellence. The Boston Red Sox are not that. They need to stop acting like they are. And look, I would love nothing more than for them to prove me wrong and to go and hand out a massive contract of Boba shit and get him in Boston. That would be incredible.

16:59But I don't think it's going to happen. I think the bidding war is going to start and they'll be in there at the beginning. But then that number is going to keep going up and up and up. And at some point John Henry is going to back out. So it's a nice thought. But once again, just I don't believe anything they say. I think that, you know, they'll dip their toes in the Boba shut waters. But they're not serious about actually giving him an aggressive offer. So I think the chance of Boba shit coming here are very, very slim. When we were talking about the shit previously, and I think universally we're all pro Boba shit, whether he was our first choice or not. And I've already said Alonzo was my first choice. But I mean, I think we've all said that the shit is a fit. He's a career 297 hitter has decent pop. It would probably see an uptick in home runs app thinly parked being a righty. But when we were talking about him, it was a six or seven year deal. And that's what a lot of the projections were.

18:07So if we're hearing $300 million, do we want to pay Boba shit for 10 years? You know, with, I mean, he's not super injury prone, but he hasn't played a full season since I think 2022. So I don't know. I'm a little uncomfortable with with a $300 million contract and how it'll age. But having said that, I mean, I don't know what other options are out there. If you're serious about winning, you probably have to do it. Six or seven years would have been perfect though. That's like to age 35, you know. But you look at that infield, you know, it would be Wilson Contreras. I'm assuming Marcelo Meyer at second. Well, I shouldn't assume that it could be Boba shit at second base, Trevor story at short and Meyer at third.

19:13That's a pretty good infield. It might not be quite as defensively as what you want it to be the right side would be the left side, not so much. Well, I keep, I keep getting, I don't know where Meyer or Bishet would be. It'd be second and third, whatever order. But, you know, if it's Meyer and Contreras on the right side, that's a very good, that's going to be very good defense against left handed hitting. So, I don't know how it would shake out, but Craig Breslow, his chief opponent in the race for Boba shit is going to be Dave Dumbrowski. Who's going to win that one? I mean, come on. I just, I don't know what to do. And you still have a log jam in the outfield. The development that came out before the Breggman news was that the Red Sox never seriously considered moving any of their outfielders.

20:23And the thing I keep going back to is where is $68 million Christian Campbell going to play? And everybody says Worcester. And I'm like, well, that's fine for April, but he should be up in 2026 and he should be an everyday player once he gets up here. So, what's the plan? And the plan is there is no plan. And if there's no plan, you signed a bad extension. You signed a bad extension on a player who hadn't even played a major league baseball game yet. Or maybe he played a couple of weeks. I forget the timing. Maybe it happened in April. But still, so the point I'm getting at here is the entire organization is in complete disarray. There's no direction. And yeah, go ahead and lie to me about Boba shit. If they're going to make this move, let's say I'm wrong and we end up with them. Okay, they panicked. They panicked because it's essentially D day in terms of all of the media all around major league baseball, whether it's Ken Rosenthal, Jeff Passon, MLB network, by the way, has been destroying the Red Sox.

21:37The whole, I forget which crew it is. I think it's the athletic, you know, that's who Rosenthal works for AJ Persinski has been on those podcasts. They've all been destroying the Red Sox. So have the beatwriters, as I said previously. So if we end up with Boba, that's why it's because they panicked. And one thing to consider here. Most people have the Red Sox in fourth or fifth place. So by the way, does Jonathan Pappelbaum and how, how ideal is that going to be going into a strike. That's a very bad note to go into a year long strike. You want, you want to go into that on a good note. You want to go into that with a little bit of optimism. And right now, like I said, it's a complete mess. Dougie.

22:38Yeah, at this point, it's like you can't, I'm not going to read one article about us pursuing though. I'm not going to look into it. I'm not going to buy into it at all. I'm not going to get any hopes up. I'm just going to wait for that alert to come up on my phone. And when it says whatever team signed them, that's if it's the Red Sox, then that's great. I'll be very happy. And if it's for 10 years, 300, I really wouldn't care. I just want to see it happen to be honest at this point. I just want to see them do something and show that they can actually get a free agent to come here, just anything. And they have all this money to spend because it's they're not getting anyone else. So whatever the price is for Bichette, I don't really care. I want them to get them. And I agree to like that looks like with him, it looks like a pretty good infield. You know, and it's just, but at this point, what you can't buy into any report, you can't believe anything they say, you can't actually think we're going to get him. So you got to just sit back and accept the fate that everything, it's all in their hands and they control everything how we've all our faith this season. And it's just a shame.

23:49And this, the bowl thing is they're going to, I think, Terry, I think the six, seven years thing, I'm with you, but like, but like I said, if they signed 10 years, like, would you, would you care? Would you be upset? It would be uncomfortable, but at this point, we've, we've backed ourselves into that corner. Yeah. And you know, I think a lot of people, like you said, you don't have to have us fourth or fifth. I don't really see us being that bad. I don't think like as disappointing as this offseason is, I think our roster is still not that bad. And I don't see us, I don't see a reason why what, let me ask you like, what's the biggest reason why would be so much worse than we were last year? Well, so when I look at this team, again, assuming everyone stays healthy, yeah, maybe they are a third place team. They're not a first or second place team, because they were a third place team last year.

24:57And, you know, yeah, if Anthony doesn't get hurt, there's a chance we passed the Yankees, but I can't, without a shadow, without tell you we do. And Toronto has gotten better. The Yankees have kind of just stayed the course, except they're getting back their number one pitcher and their Acer they didn't have, and they still beat us. Could we finish third as possible, but the Orioles got better. They just did, they've at least made the effort to get better. I can't say we have, because yes, there's moves that we've made that in a vacuum, you could say, would make the Red Sock better, had we not lost what we lost, because we let players walk and have been truly replaced them. And the people that we have attempted to replace them with are really not as good as the players that left. And we still have holes. I think that's the scary part about this roster and the truth is, I don't want to be a third place team. I want to be on the Ascension going for second place and fighting for the ALEs.

25:57And the fact that we can't even say that the Socks are trying to do that, I think is the most frustrating part. And I agree with you, Doug, I think I want to see the Socks hand out a crazy contract just so that I know they still can. I mean, that's the point that we're at now as a franchise like, give them a 12 year deal at $20 million a year. I'd hate it in a couple of years. But let me love it today so that I know we're capable of it, because the Socks have put ourselves in a position where I don't think they're capable. And the scariest part about it is, I don't think John Henry gives a crap. I think he's fine with it, him not spending money. And if that's the truth, then it doesn't matter, fiscally responsible, not fiscally responsible when it comes to offers, because you're never handing out another contract. If this is the mentality, and I think, you know, I hear a lot of rumblings, because I live here in New York, right, like Tucker seems to be getting offers now from the Mets. And the report was that the A.A.V. is 50 plus million dollars. And I heard a lot about rumors of, all right, well, if you're going to offer him 50 plus, maybe you do it in a three to four year deal, knowing there's going to be a lockout and knowing you're not going to pay him for 10 years.

27:13You're giving him about two-thirds of what you would on a normal 10 year contract, and you're going to only do it for three to four seasons, while he still quote unquote this prime. And now, while I don't necessarily know if I would do that with Kyle Tucker, it did pose an interesting concept for a team like the Red Socks who came out and basically said like, yeah, we're fine spending money, but we're just not going to spend money if you're old. And we're all smart enough to recognize that free agents in the MLB generally hit free agency when they're kind of just entering their prime or just kind of getting ready to exit their prime. They're going to mean their late 20s, which means you're not handing long-term contracts if you don't want a 35 year old under team. So, Boba Shed is 28. What if the socks did offer crazy money? What if they gave him 40, 45 million dollars A.E.V. for four seasons? I wouldn't love it, but it's a hell of a lot better than not getting anyone and going after people like Brendan Dunham, who's a fine player if you had every other hole filled. But with as many holes as we had, he's not doing it for any of us.

28:15Yeah, I agree. I don't think the roster is terrible as it's currently constituted. There's still some pieces that I would like. I'd like to have, you know, a true, you know, every day second basement, not just a platoon, same at third base. I'd like a little bit more in the bullpen. But otherwise, like I like the rotation, I like the back end of the bullpen. The Contreras move was a good move. So, you know, it's not awful, but like you said, everyone around you got better. Baltimore got better. And look, you know, Baltimore kind of went for it with some trades and with the Alonzo signing. Whether or not it will work, we'll see, right? You know, we'll see what happens with Peter Lanzo. But chances are he's going to hit, you know, close to 40 home runs for Baltimore this year. So that's a big thing that they didn't really have on their roster last year. Toronto keeps getting better. Toronto is aggressively spending and basically telling everyone we want to go back to the World Series. You know, the rays of the rays, they're going to do their thing. You know, they'll have some, some kid throwing 105 coming up at some point this season that we're not going to be able to hit.

29:21The Yankees did kind of stay the course. They're going to lose Belwinger, but they'll get back aericle. I guess that's good. You know, Aaron Judge is still a monster. So they'll still be competitive. And, you know, the Red Sox, I don't think they got better. I think they just sort of basically the same. Just they just kind of swapped some guys out. You lost Alex Bergman, but you bring in Wilson Contreras. Okay. I mean, that's, that's pretty good. You, you know, you brought in Sonny Gray. All right. I mean, he's a nice piece of rotation, but we all agree that's not a true number two, which is what they said they're going to go after. You lost a lot of bullpen arms that you didn't replace. So that's a little bit of a concern. I just think, I think that biggest problem right now is that I don't need them to go out and get silly with, you know, a boba check contract as much as I would like him. But it's more like I just wish they were more proactive earlier this winter. They let so many guys go off the board.

30:23You know, the first couple of weeks, first couple of months of the off season to the point where, you know, then it came down to, okay, they lost out on Peter Lonzo. And, you know, then it got down to, well, there's only two premium free agents left. And that's really Bergman and the chef. And the Red Sox were so confident that they were going to get Bergman that they sort of were okay like being backed into that corner because they were like, no, we got this. We'll get them. And they never thought, well, what if we don't? You know, they never really planned for that. It was always just everyone in that organization just thought, no, we're going to get them back. And he didn't. So now you're really backed into our corner as Terry said. It's like, now it's like Bishet or nothing. I mean, you know, it's Bishet or you got to make another trade, which I guess is fine. But then your entire off season is all we did was make trades. We didn't spend a single dollar. And did we really get better? Because now like a telemarte is off the table. So that deals dead. You know, if you trade for Brennan Donovan, okay? Like Chris said, he's a nice player. But he's the kind of guy I'd want them to trade for when the rest of your one through nine is already nasty and looks really good.

31:34And then, okay, we add Brennan Donovan to play second base. That's a nice, lefty bat to have. That you, you add him now. It's just, again, you run into the same problem that you had the last couple of years where you're very lefty heavy. You know, he's, again, he's a nice piece, but it's not going to be enough. Like trading for Brennan Donovan is just going to get a big shoulder shrug out of everybody. And rightfully so, because you look at that lineup, if you add a guy like that, okay? Marcella Meyer is going to play third. Is he going to stay healthy all year? Probably not. You know, is Trevor's story going to have the same season he did in 2025 highly unlikely? He's a prime regression candidate. Getting Roman Anthony back will be great. But now, because Breggman's gone, he's like the guy that you are going to be leaning on to drive your offense, a 21-year-old. Like, that's ridiculous. Your D.H. is probably going to be Mastaka Yoshida. Okay. Is Korra going to let him hit against lefty? He's probably not.

32:36So, you know, your D.H. is going to be a guy who, three out of our before at bats, is going to roll over to second base. And, you know, you still have an outfielder log jam. Like, Seidon is a phenomenal outfielder, but his bat is very questionable. It's just, there's still so many question marks around this team and around this lineup that, because you slacked in free agency so badly, this is what you're left with. You're left with basically the same team from last year, except everyone's a little bit older and you swapped out a few pieces. That's it. So, that's why guys like Paplon and, you know, all these other guys kind of have the Red Sox finishing lower in the A.A. Least because they look at how aggressive Baltimore and Toronto were when free agency kicked off. Like, those two teams were really active at the Winter meetings. The Red Sox didn't do anything at the Winter meetings. I think that was the week they traded for Oviato. I'm not sure. But that was it. You traded for a cast off from the Pirates.

33:40That's nothing compared to what the other teams in your division did. So, yeah, they just, they were too late. They worked too slow and they were too late and now they're really backed into the corner. If they signed Bishet, 10 years, 300 million, would I be happy? I admit, I agree with Terry. It's uncomfortable. But, yeah, I guess I'd be pretty happy. Because at least then I'd say, all right, well, at least you still give a damn. So, the point where you're willing to pay a premium free agent a long-term premium contract. That would at least, you know, that would make me feel a little bit better in terms of like, okay, at least the owner's awake. Right. He's not just asleep on his yacht. Like, he still cares. Okay. Good. It's an uncomfortable contract. But we'll cross that bridge and we get to it in six, seven years. But I just don't see it happening. How good does Jorge Polanco sound right now? I think comparatively. Like, you're like, oh, a serviceable bat we could get, you know?

34:41And nobody wanted that guy, you know, six or eight weeks ago, we're all like, oh, no, don't get so and so. I'm going to talk about Brezl. I want to point something out though. If Kyle Tucker signs with anybody but the blue jays. Or anyone outside of the blue jays, I should say. Bichette's going back to Toronto. So Kyle Tucker owns the market. And if your boba sheds agent, you're not doing anything until Kyle Tucker signs. So, you know, it's even less control that a guy like, like, Brezl has. Another person said in our stream, mentioned you, Henio Suarez, that might be what happens. That might be what happens on a one year deal going into a strike. Nobody really wants it. I think he's more of a DH now than, you know, a third baseman.

35:45Looking at his defensive wars. I mean, he's consistently been negative, not hugely negative, but a negative defender nonetheless. So it would be a terrible move if it happens. Here's what I would do if I'm the red socks. It's not going to happen. It would be unprecedented and it would dominate the news cycle. For the entire week until a guy like Kyle Tucker signs. Just fire Brezl now. Just do it. And you're not going to get an external person. Pick the person in the front office that you trust the most that has the best people skills. That can work deals with other with other front offices because it's not Brezl. I guarantee you, I got my phone right here. When when Craig Brezl's number comes up on those other executives phones, they're probably like, yeah, let's just send that one to voicemail.

36:51Nobody wants to talk to him. Nothing productive is going to happen if Craig Brezl is calling your phone. Nothing. Get somebody in that front office. I have no idea who it would be. Any Romero might be the only name. We lost the smartest guy to the nationals. Was that group men? I forget which I get them all mixed up. But we had we had one of our younger up and coming executives get plucked by the nationals and. But if there's anybody else in that front office, let them do it. Hand them the reins. I think that's the only way you gain any credibility here. And maybe maybe it still blows up. In the short term, but. Nothing good is going to happen with with Craig Brezl. Just rip the bandaid off now in a perfect world Theo would come in and save the day.

37:51He would have Jarendran traded to another team for an asset that we badly need. Maybe that's the the infield asset and not boba shit. Maybe that's how you get there. But Craig Brezl doesn't know how to trade a guy like Jarendran. He doesn't know how to talk to anybody that's not high bloom or Ben Shearington. I would I think that's the best move you could make. You know, in the coming days is to just relieve Brezl of his duties. There's no path forward with that guy. Yeah, I agree. I don't hate that at all. I mean, how much worse can it get? Well, what's what's the next guy going to do spend less than zero? I mean, at let's I think it's I think you're right, too. I think it is a good time to show that maybe we're more serious than it looks.

38:55And if you to do that, that would be the move to do that to do that and then still sign somebody and kind of prove we didn't need him to do it, you know, get rid of him. And somebody's still it would be a huge move. It would say a lot. And bringing back like the Christian Campbell thing, like you're paying him, right? And it's like, it's like, you know, I've coached high school basketball and it's like, if you're a sophomore and you're on the varsity team, when by the time you're a senior, you better be starting or what were you doing. And it's like, now I feel like that with Christian Campbell. It's like, he came up, he got the money. But you have to make you have to work to get your spot in. This seems to not be a spot for him and just seems like, and I'm a huge Christian Campbell guy. I want to see it. But you can't just have another Castillo and just bury this guy and to pay him to just bury him in Worcester. I would love to see us find a spot for KC somewhere.

40:01So Terry, I agree with you that it would definitely obviously take over the news cycle, getting rid of Craig Grinsell as red talk spice president of baseball operations, whether the hell's title is whatever he thinks he's doing. Here's why I'm not that I'm saying I wouldn't do it. If you're going to do it, you have to do something more than that. Because here's my fear to what you just said, how much worse can it get? Doug, we went from home to Brazil. That's how much worse it can get. And I hated Heimblum. Couldn't stand him. He did sign people. He spent money and free agency. It wasn't good. We did it. He made crappy trades. Resil is good at that. Although I would say brez is probably made some better trades in time. But unless you're getting rid of Heimblum and then also reassigning Sam Kennedy to a new title and responsibility with the organization. We all know this will just be more fluff to make us feel better.

41:02Well, good. We got rid of Craig Brezlow. It'll take over the news cycle. Yet it doesn't actually fix the team not immediately. And unless you do more, it's not even going to fix it for the long term because we don't know who the hell is stepping in. And then unless it's someone with credibility, which no one with any credibility is going to come here as long as Sam Kennedy is out there doing his nonsense. I wouldn't want to work for him. None of us would. It's you're just basically the poster child of going out there giving BS handcuffed with no ability to really do anything. And then to boot you've got Craig Brezlow, who even if he wanted to couldn't. It starts with getting rid of Craig Brezlow, but it has to end with Sam Kennedy not being in the role and responsibility with those organizations. Otherwise, it can get worse. We'll get rid of Brez. And you can kill the man, but you can keep the dream alive. And that's what we did. We asked Hindloon. We kept his dream alive and we brought in an even dumber guy to do it. Real quick. So it was Paul to Boni was the executive not groupman.

42:08And and Brezlow is the chief baseball officer CBO or chief bonehead officer. Yeah, as it's turning out. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, you mentioned you genius were is I want nothing to do with him. He is below average defense terrible based runner strikes out. Probably two times the amount of the next highest on the red socks if he was on the team. To me, that's just you sign for a one year deal going into a lockout, but doesn't do anything for me. I mean, at this point. Outside of, you know, I I tweeted the other day outside of a bow or a Kyle Tucker or going out there and you want to actually make a quote unquote trade that's going to change the landscape of this franchise. A player like a Tati's not saying he's out there and available, but meaning a player of that elk or school who still no one knows what the hell is doing because they're about to go to arbitration. It seems like they're completely on two different planets of what each wants.

43:10Trading for a player that elk as far as is the rotation unless you do something along those lines. I don't think there's much you can do to fix this fracture of this organization between us as fans. And them as a team and I think to Doug's point, it's, you know, it's going to create a fracture with the players and the organization because the truth is they're the ones who got to hear the booze. That's one of the ones you're going to take all the critiques have to deal with the media on a day to day basis because Sam Kennedy is not dealing with them. Craig Brezzles, you only once the wild Alps Coral will take the branch of it. I'm sure you want to talk about someone who regrets signing an extension. Imagine being that poor bastard. So yeah, I don't know. And you know players eat when they get questions about off the field stuff and they're going to get a ton of it about the front office. They'll get frustrating for them. I would imagine. 100%. There's nothing. No one wants to answer for what their employers doing because they don't have a job and get a paycheck.

44:11Right. They don't have an answer. Well, what can they say is, yeah. Well, I mean, I'm seeing rumblings now. There's some reports where the Red Sox might be pivoting. I'm seeing the Durantry, who they said that they weren't contemplating, which we already know is BS because we know that Craig Brezzles valued him as the Seven War and then the rest of the league's looking to push the four war that he was. But basically putting him out there for a guy like Cole Reagan's, I have absolutely no confidence something like that could happen. At best, if you're going to trade Durant, it's going to be probably to the Pittsburgh pirates or the St. Louis Cardinals were scrap heaps that they have left. I know we're going to trade because Craig Brezzles can't, can't make deals with the big executives in this league. You guys have any other thoughts? Just to follow up on the Durant thing, I don't believe for a second that we never were actually considering trading any of our outfielders. Like that's such BS that all the smoke around Joe Ryan and Cole Reagan's and you know, Sharon Durant's name being tossed around like during the winter meetings and like during the month of December.

45:18It was like, I was looking at my phone thinking at some point, I'm going to see a pass into a Sharon Durant's been traded. Like that's how hot his name was at the beginning of free agency. So for Brezzles now to say, oh no, we were never really considering it. It's total BS. He's just walking it back because once again, he couldn't get the deal done. Like you said Chris, he overvalued Durant, probably asked for too much in every single trade and every team turned him down. I think the whole Joe Ryan thing, I think he pissed off the twins so much that they leaked out. Actually, no, we're going to keep Joe Ryan now because I think they really wanted Sharon Durant or they wanted some kind of Durant plus prospects package from Boston. And Brezzles pissed him off so much in the negotiations. They're like, you know what? We'll just hang on to him. It's fine. She's like, forget about it. So it's complete BS. He was trying to trade one of those guys most likely Durant and he just couldn't get the deal done. Well, Brezzles also said that there was players on the roster that he was that he had the potential to move if to improve the team.

46:25So if it wasn't Durant or any of the outfielder's and like, who was it? Wasn't Breggman. He was free agent. So that wasn't a possibility. No one would take Tristan Cossus and he's not even quote unquote on the roster at the end of the season anyway. So it just begs the question. If not them, then who? And if it was someone else, then like, what are we doing at this point? And that's another thing you mentioned, Cossus, where's he going to play? The Red Sox have not demonstrated in the post Don Browski era outside of, I guess, Chris sale that they're willing to eat money. They're not willing to do it. So now, Cossus doesn't have a spot. Christian Campbell doesn't have a spot. And I just, what do those players say as they're reporting to camp and in Breggman's not there? And he's not there because Brezlo wouldn't give him a no trade clause. I mean, so, so how does Brezlo look to his own players at this point?

47:27You know, again, taking all of that into account, Cossus showing up to camp, not knowing where he's going to play. Campbell probably going to be starting down in Worcester, which probably isn't what he wants. I mean, he played Winter Ball. I don't think it was super great. It wasn't terrible. But it's just this entire organization is a mess. And I think our pitching rotation is going to be a lot worse than people think. That's why I think we're going to be also bad. The lineup isn't streamlined as we've been covering virtually the entire show. And I just, I don't think sunny gray. I think that's going to blow up so bad. I really do. He's a raging head case. He's 36 years old. Top's out at 91. I just don't see that working out. You know, if maybe the unsung hero would have to be a Patrick stand of all type guy.

48:30He was after a year and a half of not pitching. It's just, there's just so many question marks, so many holes, so much excess in, in areas that, you know, we don't really need. It's just what a, this is what halfway through January, just about. It's just, it's, it's a major dumpster fire. If I'm going to put a win total on it right now, I'm saying probably 76 to 78. That's really where I'm at. I think Bayo is going to regress. I don't think Jaren Durant is going to be great in this type of an environment. I don't think he's going to revert back to seven war. I don't even know if he'll be a four-war player, honestly. The way he ended the season, I mean, lefties seem to have figured him out. I don't think Raphael is going to be that stout.

49:32So, and a brave is going to get at bats against lefties. Ideally, if you're going to do that, the rest of the lineup is going to be well balanced and productive. This is a mess right now. So that, that's why I, I have them below 80 wins. Would both get you to 80 wins? It would help because now, now we are a little bit streamlined. Now, you know exactly what your infield is. We just don't know where he's playing. We don't know where Myers playing. They're going to, they're going to flip flop on whichever positions it is. We know stories that short, we know the contraris, I can want to say Castolanos. You know, we know what positions they're playing. And, you know, Roman Anthony's in the outfield. You know, Durand's probably getting a lot of starts. But, you know, I'm a Christian Campbell guy too.

50:33I want him to work out. But, but I don't think we're getting boba shit because we're already at the first luxury tax. We're not going to exceed the second one. It would have to have heavy deferrals. And I think if Dave Dombrowski wants him bad enough, he's going to get him or the blue J as well if they miss out on Tucker. I don't think the red socks have any leverage right now. And if you're a top player, they all know this is a clown show too. You don't think Mookie Betz talks to players across the league in the winter or plays golf with them. And says nice things about the red socks. I don't think so. You know, and so the red socks look so bad right now on so many levels. Terry, let me give you a potential because I don't think Bo is coming here. But what if you took Tristan Cossus and you flipped him for Brennan Donovan. I think that that could potentially happen.

51:33And then you go out there and you trade. Durran, maybe even the throw Campbell since there's not a spot for him at this point. And you get a player like a Cole Reagan's who like what's the win total looking like with that. I don't love any aspect of bringing in Brandon Donovan being a lefty bat. But you know, just bringing in Reagan's alone. And he's going to be healthy because that's a question mark, I think. Okay, now you're now you're stable. Now you're absolutely stable. You've got crochet. You've got Reagan's less pressure on sunny gray now. I still think that's going to work out badly. I think Johan Oviado probably won't have a great year, but it'll be a better year than sunny gray. And so you got him. You've got Bayo. Probably send of all at some point probably Connolly early at some point.

52:35I think you're you're one starting picture away from having a scenario that will work out. We don't know how it'll be beyond crochet rate Reagan's and Bayo. But there's a way to do it. There's pieces that you can put in place to do it. So the problem is is I don't think I think Reagan's is untouchable right now in Kansas City. I don't see a scenario where they're going to give him up. Yeah, I mean, I don't disagree. It definitely brings a higher level of stability, but I think, you know, the question I think most of us would still have is where the heck are the runs coming from? Because you are putting so much pressure as Jason said on Roman Anthony. You're asking a 21 year old to basically be. Devers plus poppy plus pregnant plus insert any name that you expected power from in the Red Sox line of the last decade. And coming off of an injury nonetheless where he didn't even get the experience of playoff baseball at Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium in the case of this season.

53:43But the point is, is there's still so many question marks with this team. And, you know, you look at the players, whether it be Alonzo, whether it be Schorber and now Breggman, the Red Sox and Craig Brezlo, always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Any other thoughts guys? All right. Well, thanks for stopping by. We've been the bastards of Boston baseball. Take care guys. Have a great night.