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Chapter 1: What is the significance of the Red Sox acquiring Sonny Gray?
Hey, it's Rob Bradford here on Jones and Keefe on WEEI. He is presented by McFarlane Energy. Bradford, I want to keep you waiting. We want to get you right in. How's everything going?
Oh, it's great, man. Was Sonny Gray going to be your random baseball player of the day today?
No, not today. Spoiler alert. You mean Pickles? Don't be him. We had to punt on that. We were just reading the latest from Brad Faux up now on WEI. You can follow him on Twitter at Brad Faux. Of course, baseball isn't boring. I like this line in here from you, Rob.
The three-time All-Star is reliable, and while Gray is a perceived top-of-the-rotation option for the Red Sox, he wouldn't seem to be the caliber of starting pitcher Craig Breslow was hinting at earlier this offseason. So what do you make of the trade?
I only deal in facts. Those are facts. Yeah, first of all, I don't think you can really criticize the Red Sox for the trade because it does what everybody wants them to do, which is try to win in 2026. That is undeniable when it comes to looking at this trade. You took on a fair amount of money. Now, I know they're getting $20 million back, but still paying a pretty decent chunk.
You're giving up two guys who might be major league, probably are major leaguers, and you're getting a guy for one year. I mean, one year. And he's part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Where I wrote that, and this has to be part of the conversation, is this the guy that Craig Breslow was talking about, the GM meetings, to walk side-by-side, hand-in-hand with Garrett Crochet at the top of the rotation, and he's not. I mean, that's... That's not where Sonny Gray is at this point in his career. Two years ago? Yeah. 2023? That guy? Sure. But not the guy that we saw last year.
That doesn't mean he's a bad pitcher. That doesn't mean he can't be a number three starter. But still, that's not this guy. So that's what we sort of have to wait and see. But I think ultimately what you have to look at this trade like, hey... Good for them. I don't think they gave up guys who are really going to hurt you down the road. And even if you do, so what? So what?
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Chapter 2: How did the trade for Sonny Gray come about?
Don't you want to win now? And this helps you win now.
And really just an upgrade over, you know, best friend of the show, Lucas Giolito.
Yeah.
Like fair to say he had a good year, but he's just unfortunately he hasn't been able to stay healthy. Sonny Gray gets the ball and goes. And for one year, roughly that price tag. Is that kind of what we're looking at here?
Yeah, I think that's a great way to look at it. And I think the problem is that everybody, and they sort of paint themselves into this corner by saying, we're not worrying about three through ten. We're worrying about one and one and a half. And so everybody's so focused on getting that guy, like I said, the Joe Ryan guy, and we're going to have to see if they get him. But I don't...
I don't know how you can really criticize him too, too much because this is the type of trade where I would scream and yell, like, why wouldn't you do it? I don't want to be clinging to prospects. I don't want to be clinging to the idea that Richard Fitz someday is going to be a number three starter or Brandon Clark is going to pop off out of nowhere. Maybe they will. I don't know.
But all I know is what you have now is a World Series contending team if everything breaks the right way and you keep adding to them. So that's what they did. They kept adding to it.
So, yeah, I like... I like this trade. I'm curious, how do you think Sonny Gray stacks up compared to guys like Dylan Cease and Fran Brevaldez, who are free agents, and some of the other names that we've been brought up before, like Mackenzie Gore, Hunter Green, Sandy Alcantara? Is he... Do you put him in that same realm, or is he below those guys? How do you rank him?
To me, Rich, it's kind of two different buckets, honestly. One, because of the age. I mean, happy birthday to Sonny Gray. He just turned 36 on November 7th. Happy birthday, Pickles. Yeah, Pickles. There you go.
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Chapter 3: What are the financial implications of the Sonny Gray trade?
And you mentioned Giolito. I'll mention another one, what maybe they thought they were going to get in Walker Bueller, which they clearly didn't. But they needed this. This is a guy who's not going to walk guys who's pitched in big games, who's going to give you innings, who is going to give you good starts. But, you know, is he going to win the Cy Young? No, probably not.
But still, like, that's OK. I still think that you've got to go after the upside guy because you know what? That's what they said they were going to go after the upside guy.
OK, well, I agree with all this and I agree this move in a vacuum. Like, I'll give up prospects for a guy who can help you right now. And I think, by the way, Brandon Clark had been ranked fifth in the organization. But Baseball America came out with their top 10 yesterday. There's a bunch of pitchers who have passed him by.
Peyton Tolley, Connolly Early, their first round pick a year ago, Kyson Witherspoon, Perales, Valera, like a bunch of pitchers have passed him by. So fine. OK, you're dealing a guy who might not even be a top 10 prospect. I'm fine with all that. I will push back on you saying there's no downside to the trade or nothing to be upset about with the trade. I'm not going to fault baseball ops.
I like what baseball ops did. Is ownership looking at this as like a big splashy move? Here's 20 million we're spending because the Cardinals are 21 million. The Cardinals are eating the other 20. Is ownership going to look at this as one of their big moves or is this just a small move in a bigger offseason?
That's the main thing I'm wondering about because if this is just one small move and they're getting some of the names you said, Dylan Cease or Mackenzie Gore, and they're adding bats and free agency, great. If this is a big move on the pitching side with one bat, that's not going to be enough.
Well, ultimately, it's not that big a move financially. It's like, this is Walker Bueller. And so, did we say that about Walker Bueller last year? No. So, the answer is, there's no possible way they could view this as, oh, this is one of the big moves. And it comes back to what we said before, guys. If we're going to look at the debt, we cannot forget the Raphael Devers trade because the
That trade was the foundation of it was the money coming back. How are you going to spend the money? They will not definitively say, this is how we're going to spend the money. But still, at the end of the offseason, you want to see them spend the money. And this doesn't chip into that at all, I don't think. To answer your question, no.
This isn't a John Henry is going to be smoking a cigar in front of the fireplace move. That's the best way to classify it. This isn't an Instagram-worthy John Henry move.
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Chapter 4: How does Sonny Gray compare to other pitchers like Dylan Cease and Mackenzie Gore?
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I mean, the guys are going to get in this offseason you're talking about, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you're still going to get a bat, and you're still going to get a pitcher. Like, I still think that. And now you're hearing about relief pitchers. I do think, to come back to what we can learn from this move, is that this is clearly a, hey, 2026 is an important year.
We have to keep moving forward. Because as much as we say, oh, well, Richard Fitz, Brandon Clark – Listen, the guy who was just traded for Richard Fitz and Brandon Clark might not have made this trade because he liked Richard Fitz and Brandon Clark too much. There is that element of prospect hugging in baseball, which drives everybody crazy.
And we know what Richard Fitz is, but Brandon Clark is, he's the ultimate guy where you look at and say, oh, Oh, yeah, look it. He's throwing almost 100. He was a fifth-round pick, but he came out of spring training like gangbusters. He started the year like gangbusters.
And we're just going to ignore that he had over five ERA in Greenville and couldn't throw strikes because he's still a work in progress, which might be true. But that's no reason to hang on to him when you can get a guy that actually can help you for 2026.
I'm curious, the reported interest, and this came out this morning from Ken Rosenthal, the reported Red Sox interest in JT Real Muto, and is that going to be one of their big targets this offseason? That also feels underwhelming.
I don't know if it's underwhelming, but it's odd. I know that they want that bat. They like the leadership. Real Moodle is still a really, really good catcher, but you're sitting there with Carlos Narvaez as a really, really good catcher as well, who's a lot younger. So if you're going to allocate resources to Real Moodle, that one just seemed odd. Now, we all know that this time of year,
If someone expresses interest, it becomes a big deal. And we just have to figure out the level of interest it is. We saw the same thing at the GM meetings with the relievers, with the Devin Williams of the world. Well, are they actually making this a priority or aren't they? Hey, they, they might trade for real. I'm sorry. Sign real Muto tomorrow. And we're all diving into this.
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Chapter 5: What is the Red Sox's strategy for the 2026 season?
Check out his work, weei.com. Listen to him on Baseball Isn't Boring. I'm sure Sonny Gray will be on there in no time. And you can follow him on Twitter at Bradfo as well. Rob Bradford, we appreciate the time. Thanks so much.
Guys, thank you so much. Have a great Thanksgiving.
You too.