This story broke yesterday when I was responsible for making sure a bunch of rabid 7th graders didn't kill each other so unfortunately I couldn't give my immediate thoughts. "Looks like Chris Sale is changing his Sox!" - everybody with no sense of humor that think's they're the first person to make that awful joke. Now that the dust has settled I still very torn on this move. In the immediate future, it's awesome. The Red Sox starting rotation just got one of the best pitchers in all of baseball to pair up with two former Cy Young award winners in David Price and Rick Porcello. Rounded out with some combination of Clay Buccholz, Steven Wright, Drew Pomeranez and E-Rod. Starting Pitching is suddenly an area of great depth for this team. What I love about this move is that Sale is under team control at a very reasonable price in today's MLB market. With one year left and two team options on his contract I think he's only owed like 39 million dollars over the next 3 years, which is a bargin for a perennial top 5 finisher in the Cy Young vote. He's only going to be 28 years old this season so it is very possible to think he could just be getting into his prime. Also his numbers against the A.L. East are outstanding. He has the best career ERA against the Yankees by any pitcher in the last 100 years. I think that's good?
However the asking price was a little high. The Red Sox parted with two of the top prospects in all of baseball, Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech in addition to two other prospects. We'll see how they pan out but many believe Moncada could be one of the best players in all of baseball once he finds a position. It definitely hurts the longterm future of this team to move on from such promising young talent but they still have to pan out. Who knows maybe they'll be busts.
I just wish they made this trade at the deadline last year to better their chances at winning the World Series in David Ortiz' final year. After the move Papi joked about possibly coming back now that the Red Sox just put their nuts on the table and said we're going for the World Series right fucking now.
Whether or not they do remains to be seen. I still have a lot of worries about this team mainly if Rick Porcello can keep up what he did in 2016 and if David Price will be able to relax and be able to handle pitching in Boston. Also losing the best DH in baseball history is kind of a big deal. But whatever all my focus is the Patriots right now. Still torn on this move but for 2017 it makes the Red Sox the team to beat (on paper) in the American League.
P.S. Do the Red Sox let Chris Sale wear Tim Wakefield's #49? I'm really into uniform numbers and this was honeslty one of my first thoughts after the trade. 49 has not been issued to anybody else since he retired after 2011. Sort of "unofficially-retired". While Wake is never going to make the baseball HOF, he probably will be in the Red Sox HOF, plus he's 3rd all time in wins in franchise history and is one of the most beloved Red Sox of my lifetime. Would be nice to see him get his number retired after all he did for the Sox on and off the field. Similiar to what they did with Johnny Pesky. I guess we'll know soon as the Red Sox will probably officially introduce with the next few days.
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