00:00Some of the other guys that were part of that, Jordan Hicks was part of that, who signed a $44 million deal with San Francisco before the trade to Boston.
00:07Hicks was really underwhelming. And now he's traded. Jordan Hicks goes from Boston to the Chicago White Sox, along with let me get the whole transaction in front of me so I don't mess this up, along with pitching prospect David Sandlin and two players to be named later and $8 million in cash.
00:26And in turn, Boston receives Gage Zeal, who is a top 15 to 20 prospect in the White Sox organization, and one player to be named later.
00:35So not only is Boston eating eight of the remaining $25 million left on Jordan Hicks's deal, but they had to attach a prospect in turn to get a prospect that is pretty equivalent to who Sandlin is.
00:49Zeal is further off, but also younger, maybe a little bit more promised than a Sandlin. And you got a couple of players to be named later in this trade as well.
00:56It's not the trade that we're going to break down and that you're going to rant on for a little bit. It's the idea about moving more of these branches from the Devers trade trade, no?
01:06Yes. And I think that this trade also is a prime example of why the Rafael Devers trade continues to get worse and worse.
01:17Because when the Red Sox moved off of that big contract with Rafael Devers, the expectation was they were going to reinvest those funds back into the team.
01:29And since then, they haven't exactly done that. Yes, they've gotten Ranger Suarez, which is, of course, a nice pickup.
01:35They took on Sonny Gray. They took on Wilson Contreras, both contracts from the Cardinals.
01:40But the Cardinals ate some of that money, and I'm not giving them a lot of credit for bringing in Yohan Oviedo.
01:46But the reason that this trade continues to make the Rafael Devers trade look worse is, in this exact trade,
01:54the Red Sox, who are supposed to post a top 10 payroll, they are one of the biggest markets in baseball.
02:00They should not be a team looking for consistent salary dumps unless they reinvest that money back into the squad.
02:07So, by trading away Jordan Hicks, they're saving about $17 million.
02:12A player who I think the Red Sox could use, and Gino Suarez, who we're going to talk about in the next segment,
02:20just signed for $15 million.
02:23The Red Sox could use a third baseman.
02:26I know that they have a glut there of position players, so maybe that wasn't the perfect fit.
02:30But do we feel confident the Red Sox are even going to reinvest that $17 million of savings?
02:37And I think that presents the problem that I, when this trade was made, was upset with the Red Sox
02:45because I did not have faith that they would reinvest that money.
02:50And I think you and Aram were looking at them optimistically.
02:53Of course, they're going to reinvest this money.
02:56But the problem is, they really haven't.
02:59And that was my biggest issue with the trade at the time.
03:03So, I viewed their plan of attack as a reallocation of assets, right?
03:08And after the Devers trade, I believe within three weeks to a month, Roman Anthony is on a nine-figure extension.
03:14So, I thought that they were looking at other people on their roster or in their organization saying,
03:19it's time to give them runway.
03:21It's time to put our money where our mouths are with these guys.
03:24And they started to do that.
03:25And they took on some cash.
03:27I understand that they, you know, had St. Louis paid down Wilson Contreras and Sonny Gray earlier this offseason
03:33in order to get better prospect returns.
03:36The Cardinals at least did.
03:37But, like, the Red Sox are still taking on an influx of cash.
03:41So, they did sort of kind of reallocate that Devers money.
03:45I will push back a little bit on the Hicks thing where you have this newfound $17 million spend.
03:51That was sort of kind of dead weight with Jordan Hicks.
03:54He was incredibly underwhelming.
03:56And you can look at it in a couple of different ways.
03:59The way that you're looking at it is we have $17 million of funny money over the next two years or so
04:03that we can use for Jordan Hicks.
04:06The other way, which is probably the way Craig Breslow was looking at it,
04:09is we're on the hook for this.
04:11Let's get out from under this.
04:13And if we spend it, sure.
04:15If not, not the end of the world.
04:17I'm not justifying them not spending.
04:19I'm just saying that felt more like an anchor cost than, oh, we free this up.
04:24We get to put that money right back into the product.
04:26I'm not sure that's how they're going to go.
04:28But the Yankees pivot from Soto is probably the best example of reallocation of assets.
04:34You had $750 million put aside for one dude.
04:38And when he goes somewhere else, you spray the board with a bunch of other stuff.
04:42And I thought the Yankees did that very effectively last year.
04:44The Red Sox are not doing that as effectively after moving endeavors.
04:48But they did get Ranger Suarez.
04:50They did trade for Sonny Gray.
04:51They did trade for Wilson Contreras.
04:53I can't knock him for a terrible offseason.
04:56I'm just with you.
04:57Like every single move in a vacuum seems like that Devers trade was horrible.
05:03And it could age like the Mookie Betts deal where it's just milk and nothing really comes to fruition for the Boston Red Sox.
05:11And Mookie's thriving in L.A. and Devers could thrive in San Francisco.
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