The Monday, December 16, 2019

* The Boston Globe

Final thoughts from ’s

Peter Abraham

Things jotted down in the notebook during four days of traipsing around the hallways and lobbies at the Winter Meetings:

■ New Cubs David Ross believes Mike Napoli is an important addition to his coaching staff.

Napoli, 38, will be the quality assurance , a fancy title for somebody who will be involved in all aspects of the team.

“He checks a lot of boxes,” Ross said. “He was a . He converted to an infielder. One of the best base runners I have been around, and he was a big hitter in a big market protecting a superstar like .

“He does a lot for our group and touching a lot of areas, so as much as it seems pitching and catching heavy, Napoli is going to be that guy that’s kind of going to push more to what he’s comfortable with. But I see him gravitating toward the hitters.”

Napoli has been retired for two seasons and was looking to get back into the game. Working with Ross, a close friend from their days with the Red Sox, is a perfect fit.

The players ultimately set the tone in any clubhouse. But Napoli will be good to have around to help guide that. He was a big part of the spirit that drove the 2013 Red Sox to a championship.

■ In deciding to be a manager, Ross leaned heavily on and Yankees manager for advice. Ross played with Cora with the Dodgers from 2002-04 and with the Red Sox in 2008.

Ross also jumped from ESPN to the dugout, as Boone and Cora did.

“There is definitely a lot of communication with those guys and there is a lot of respect for those guys,” Ross said. “I know they’re going to want to win and kick my butt on the other side of it, as well as I want to beat them, but there is a respect there that is mutual.”

The Sox play the Cubs in Chicago June 19-21. The Cubs play the Yankees in New York June 26-28.

■ played it smart in signing with the Mets for one year and $10 million. After the worst season of his career, he can reestablish his value and go back into the market heading into his age-32 season.

Porcello had a 5.52 ERA last season, but he allowed four or fewer earned runs 22 times. He also had a 6.32 ERA in the first , which seemed to be at least partially a product of the Red Sox field staff and analytics department not always being in synch when it came to game-planning.

A new league, some bigger parks, and a chance to manage lineups without a DH should help Porcello. Beyond his reliability — Porcello hasn’t missed a start since 2015 — the Mets will get leadership and a guy with a little edge. They could use that.

Porcello was worth every dime of the $95 million the Sox paid him over five seasons. He led the with 159 starts during that time and was second with 964 . The Sox were 94-65 in games he started.

■ Oakland executive vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane has Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray on his fantasy football team. The Athletics took Murray in the first round of the 2018 draft and signed him to a $4.66 million bonus. But Murray won the Heisman Trophy for Oklahoma that fall and never played for Oakland.

“I texted him,” Beane said. “I said, ‘I got you again.’ ”

■ One of the behind-the-scenes traditions with the Winter Meetings is that the hotel suites are assigned based on the seniority of each team’s general manager or president of baseball operations.

So the Red Sox and rookie chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom had the smallest and least luxurious suite in the Grand Hyatt. It was on the seventh floor, so there wasn’t much of a view, and the furnishings were a bit drab.

■ Padres general manager A.J. Preller, who’s under pressure to produce a winner after four consecutive seasons of 91 or more losses, loves the back end of his bullpen with and .

“We can point to that every single night as a real competitive advantage every night with our club,” Preller said. “I think the way Drew pitched at the end of last season, what Kirby’s done the last three years and especially last year, we feel really good about the back part of our bullpen.

“If that ends up being something that plays out for us over the course of Drew’s four years, and we have lights out back of the bullpen, that would be ideal honestly.”

■ It’s not official yet, but commissioner Rob Manfred said the proposed rules changes for next season would be put in place. All will be required to face three batters or finish a half-inning. Injuries, obviously, would be an exception. Rosters also will expand to 26 players.

A more impactful change will be that the for pitchers will go to 15 days. Pitchers optioned to the minors will not be eligible to return for 15 days unless they replace a going on the injured list.

That will cut down on the roster manipulation going on with what were largely phony injured list stints.

In September, rosters will expand only to 28.

■ New Angels manager on using cameras to steal signs: “I want to believe that MLB will do something to eradicate that. I like a level playing field, period.

“Good old-fashioned sign stealing from your eyeballs, that’s not cheating; it’s just good baseball. When you use electronic cheating, that’s not good. It’s almost tantamount to steroids in regards to an imbalanced playing field.”

Phillies manager said he’s suspicious about every park.

“The players on the field, it’s their job to guard against the players on the field,” he said. “You can’t guard against technology and players off the field.”

Manfred said MLB has talked to 60 witnesses and reviewed 76,000 e-mails in its investigation of the Astros. There is no timetable for a report but the unofficial goal is before the start of .

Several managers said privately they expect the league to come down hard on the Astros as a warning to every team to knock it off once and for all. The suspicions and paranoia are out of control.

ROSTER REVISIONS Bogaerts braces for some changes

When agreed to a six-year, $120 million extension with the Red Sox last March, he said a big part of the reason was how much he enjoyed his teammates.

Now he’s facing the very real possibility of Jackie Bradley Jr. and/or being traded and going into his free agent year with seemingly little interest in an extension.

“It’s just disappointing, maybe,” Bogaerts said during a stop at the Winter Meetings when he was named to the All-MLB team. “You can’t play together for 20, 25 years. It’s going to be a sad moment if anyone leaves. They have their own lives; they should know what choices are good for them in the future.

“Obviously, the relationships I’ve built with these guys, especially Jackie and Mookie, those are the main guys there’s a lot of talk around. Those are the guys I came up knowing a lot about . . . you feel like they’re your brothers and you hope they’ll be with you forever.”

Bogaerts, who can opt out of his deal after the 2022 season, has been in Arizona working out. The Sox want him to focus on his first-step quickness in the field.

Bogaerts’s twin brother, Jair, was with him. The former Red Sox minor leaguer has left the Beverly Hills Sports Council agency and is working with young players in Aruba.

That one brother was represented by and the other was working for BHSC wasn’t necessarily a problem. But it wasn’t always comfortable, either.

A few other Red Sox observations:

■ Via their Instagram story, the Red Sox released their schedule of promotional giveaways for the coming season.

Maybe this is a stretch, but it seems to reveal something about their in-house expectations.

Of the 12 giveaway days, only four are centered on a current player. There are Bogaerts socks (May 5), a Betts bucket hat (May 26), a bobblehead (June 26), and a J.D. Martinez backpack and notebook (Aug. 18).

There are four items featuring retired stars David Ortiz, , and Pedro Martinez, and four others with just team logos or the mascots.

■ was at the Winter Meetings for two days as a member of the Hall of Fame’s Veterans Committee. After Chaim Bloom was hired, Dombrowski reached out to him via text message to wish him well.

“He was extremely nice,” Bloom said. “He could not have been classier and more gracious. I can’t say I’ve been particularly close with him over the years. But that’s consistent with all my interactions with him.”

Dombrowski has a year remaining on his contract with the Red Sox and plans to spend it with his family and traveling. For somebody who has worked in baseball since 1978, it will surely be strange to be away from the game.

■ Coaching staff assistant J.T. Watkins will take on a larger role next season by working more with the hitters. Watkins, 30, has been on the major league staff since 2017 and has a bright future.

■ Brian Johnson is a good guy. The Red Sox outrighted him off the 40-man roster on Nov. 27, but he followed through with a commitment to represent the team at a holiday caravan for two days last week. Johnson, Mike Shawaryn, and Josh Taylor visited children at five hospitals.

■ Dombrowski traveled with the Sox on almost every road trip during the time he was in charge, which is unusual for a GM or president of baseball operations. The Sox plan to split it up this coming season with Bloom, Brian O’Halloran, and the four assistant GMs taking turns.

■ donated $1 million to the Florida Gulf Coast University athletic department last week. Sale played there for three years before he was a first-round pick.

“That’s really, really cool to see him want to give back like that,” Bloom said. “It deserves to be recognized.”

As for how Sale is feeling, the reports on his elbow are positive after he was shut down for the rest of last season in mid-August.

“Physically he’s in a good spot. Mentally he’s in a good spot,” manager Alex Cora said. “I hate to say he’s on a mission, but obviously he wasn’t happy with the way the season went last year. He was trending up when he got hurt at the end. So hopefully he can bounce back, be ready for spring training, and be ready for the opening series.”

■ The signing of versatile free agent Jose Peraza doesn’t officially close the door on returning to the Red Sox. But it sure looks like a sign the Sox are moving on.

Fans won’t like it much. Holt had a .772 OPS the last two seasons and is beloved by many in Boston for his charitable work. But Peraza is almost six years younger, cheaper, under control for three seasons, and offers defensive versatility and speed on the bases.

ETC. Hall has difficult decision on Miller

The Modern Era Committee ended 16 years of petty exclusion when it voted the late into the Hall of Fame last Sunday.

The longtime head of the MLB Players Association was one of the most impactful figures in baseball history and deserved to be inducted when he was first eligible in 2003.

But he was kept out seven times by committees stocked with owners still spiteful that Miller ended what was essentially feudal control of players by organizing a union and using collective bargaining to gain free agency.

In 2008, an angry Miller told the Globe’s Stan Grossfeld he no longer wanted to be considered for election and vowed to never step foot again in the Hall. He asked his two children to respect those wishes after his death.

Now Miller has been voted in and the Hall of Fame faces a difficult decision as to who will represent him.

The induction ceremony is July 26 and perhaps over time somebody from Miller’s family will elect to take part. Or the MLBPA could ask former executive director Donald Fehr, one of Miller’s top lieutenants, to speak.

Extra bases Baseball, a sport slow to change, is picking up some speed. The drug policy with the Players Association has been amended to include testing for opioids. Positive tests will result in treatment, not suspension. Major and minor league players also will not be tested for marijuana. Before the change, minor league players were subject to testing. Marijuana abuse will be treated the same way as alcohol-related issues. In another positive step, the amateur draft will move in Omaha so it can be held in conjunction with the College . The draft was previously held at an MLB Network studio in New Jersey. MLB also is working on an off-season awards show, something the NBA and NHL have done with great success . . . The are an afterthought in the loaded East. But at least they’re trying. The Marlins traded for Baltimore Jonathan Villar, absorbing what is expected to be a $10.4 million salary through arbitration. They also claimed Jesus Aguilar off waivers from Tampa Bay knowing his salary would be $2.5 million. Aguilar 35 home runs for the Brewers in 2018 . . . Happy birthday to Mo Vaughn, who is 52. The Hit Dog played for the Red Sox from 1991-98 and mashed. He had a .936 OPS, 230 home runs, and 752 RBIs. My favorite memory of Mo was playing for Seton Hall in the 1987 Big East baseball tournament at Muzzy Field in Bristol, Conn. Facing UConn pitcher and future big leaguer Charles Nagy in the first round, Vaughn hit a majestic home that cleared the top of a grove of pine trees in right-center field. Vaughn was a freshman that season and hit .429 with 28 home runs in 53 games. He was, as you can imagine, terrifying with an aluminum bat. The Pirates scored 34 runs in three games and Vaughn was the MVP. Vaughn retired after the 2004 season and went on to a career in trucking, real estate, and other ventures. He has attended several Red Sox games in recent seasons.

Why David Price still seems the likeliest Red Sox pitcher to get traded

Alex Speier

SAN DIEGO — On Thursday, the Red Sox featured pitcher David Price in a tweet intended to promote ticket packages for the 2020 season. The choice seemed an odd one given the team spent the just-concluded Winter Meetings actively seeking a trade partner for the lefthander.

There’s little secret about the Red Sox’ intention to trade one or more high-priced players to get under the $208 million luxury-tax threshold, while also addressing other roster needs. While the idea of dealing superstar Mookie Betts was on the table at the start of the week in , Sox officials expressed a belief that it seemed less likely by the time the members of the industry scattered Thursday following the Rule 5 draft.

A lot of that has to do with what appears to be growing confidence that a can be dealt. The Red Sox have suggested a willingness to listen to proposals involving virtually anyone on their roster for Rafael Devers, but officials from other teams believe the focus is narrower.

A National League executive said that when his team brought up — owed three years and $51 million — as a trade candidate, the Sox showed little inclination to discuss the righthander. They wanted to keep discussing Price.

That’s not to say that Price will be dealt and that another pitcher won’t be. But a number of factors appear to have Price as the top candidate to go.

The Sox still view Chris Sale as an elite talent. His five-year, $145 million extension (which counts for $25.6 million against the luxury tax) is modest if he is healthy and can return to something approaching career norms.

The Sox have little eagerness to sell low on Eovaldi, who in the 2018 postseason displayed considerable upside, but whose 2019 season was derailed by injuries and an inability to replicate the phenomenal command he showed in late 2018. With a healthy, normal winter, the Sox hope for a significant bounce- back.

It’s worth noting that Price outperformed Eovaldi and Sale in 2019; he was 7-5 with a 4.28 ERA, and 10.7 and 2.7 walks per nine innings. But Price averaged fewer than five innings per start, while dealing with elbow issues and a cyst in his wrist.

As he enters his age-34 season with more than 2,000 innings under his belt, Price’s knowledge of and feel for pitching is not in question. But his durability is, and his diminished velocity shrinks his margin for error.

He remains an asset, and could still slot comfortably into the middle of a rotation, including that of the Red Sox. But if he were a free agent, there’s no chance he’d get the three years and $96 million he still has left on the seven-year deal to which the Sox signed him after 2015.

Yet a team may be willing to offer half of that — maybe more in baseball’s surprisingly inflationary climate for starting pitching this winter. That valuation offers a foundation for conversations the Sox might have about potential salary relief they could get by dealing him.

It’s also worth noting that Price is within a year of having 10/5 rights — 10 years of big league service, and five with the same team — that would allow him to veto a trade. While there’s a chance his value could increase with a return to health in 2020, Price would be impossible to deal midseason if he gets injured, and if they don’t deal him this offseason, the Sox will lose the freedom to choose their deal.

Right now, the team holds the cards in a potential Price deal; the pitcher would have them after the 2020 season.

And so, the Sox are talking to teams about Price. All the same, they aren’t so motivated to deal the lefthander that they’ll compromise other parts of their talent base to do so.

There had been industry chatter that the Sox might seek to package Price with , to achieve greater salary relief and garner a greater prospect return. Some forecasted a match with Cincinnati, Benintendi’s hometown and a team whose pitching coach, Derek Johnson, remains close to Price from their time together at Vanderbilt.

But a team official threw water on that idea, suggesting the Sox see Benintendi as the sort of contributor they need moving forward, particularly given the dwindling control over post-2020 free agents Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr.

Meanwhile, while the Sox and Padres exchanged ideas about swapping Price for change-of-scenery candidate , the Sox don’t see the outfielder/first baseman — who is owed $60 million over three years, and counts for $13.83 million in average annual value — as a desirable return coming off a .239/.321/.418 line in 2019.

The Sox seemingly would prefer younger, controllable talent around which to build, even if it means subsidizing Price’s contract.

It remains to be seen whether they’ll be able to get it, but by all indications, they are doing their best to figure out what they might get for the pitcher.

In the meantime, the Sox are moving forward, creating depth. The one-year, $3 million agreement with Jose Peraza gives the Sox a 25-year-old potential second baseman or utility option, who followed a solid 2018 season (.288/.326/.416, 14 homers, 23 steals) with a down 2019 (.239/.285/.346) that resulted in the Reds’ decision to nontender him.

But Peraza is a defensive upgrade over Michael Chavis, buys development time for Marco Hernandez and C.J. Chatham, and if he plays well, he would remain under team control via arbitration for up to two additional years.

Beyond what he does on the field, Peraza represents the Sox’ commitment to let their prospects develop toward the big leagues at their own pace, rather than having big league needs dictate that progression.

The Sox also reached agreement with lefthanded starter Martin Perez on a one-year, $6 million deal that includes a $6.25 million option or a $500,000 buyout. Perez went an unspectacular 10-7 with a 5.12 ERA for the Twins last year.

But he produced a 48.0 percent ground-ball rate that was 20th among qualifying starters, had some bad luck (Baseball Savant suggested that, based on the quality of contact against him, Perez had the biggest negative gap between his actual outcomes and the expected outcomes of any pitcher in the game), and essentially had a year much like Rick Porcello, albeit with more walks and fewer homers.

He gives the Sox a back-of-the-rotation starter for 2020 and perhaps 2021, providing time for prospects Bryan Mata, Tanner Houck, and Thad Ward to develop.

The Rule 5 selection of utility infielder Jonathan Arauz gives the Sox a player whose glove and contact skills could allow him to stick on the roster in 2020, while offering a longer-term upgrade as a utility option over Hernandez (who has an option left) and Tzu-Wei Lin (out of options).

None of these moves is particularly dazzling, but they do represent a depth-focused departure from what executives around the game saw as Boston’s stars-and-scrubs approach of recent years. Even so, they remain precursors to the bigger drama of this winter: Whom will the Sox trade, and what will they get back?

Might Price be moved as soon as next week, viewed by some as a realistic possibility based on the state of trade talks at the meetings?

This strange drama — built chiefly around subtraction rather than addition — awaits resolution.

In the meantime, Sox Pax are now on sale, even if there’s no longer any sign of Price in advertisements for them.

The hot corner belongs to Rafael Devers

Julian McWilliams

An error in May of last season helped shape Red Sox Rafael Devers.

The Red Sox were leading the , 4-3, in the bottom of the ninth inning. On a 2-and-2 pitch with one out and the bases empty, the Red Sox’ spun an 86-mile-per-hour and induced a weak grounder from Jose Rondon.

Devers charged and attempted to field it on his glove side, but the ball popped out of his mitt and Rondon reached safely. It was just the start of May, but it was Devers’s ninth error of the year.

So first baseman phoned his former teammate, Adrian Beltre, to ask if he could help guide the young third baseman. It also served as a wake-up call and the start of a regular conversation.

“Adrian talked to Raffy, and from there on, the communication was on an every-other-week basis,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said.

Devers’s defense improved, but there’s still a ways to go.

Offensively, though, he was dominant.

Devers hit .311 with 32 homers and 115 RBIs. He posted a .916 OPS. He had 201 hits and set franchise records for hits and extra-base hits (90) in a season before age 23. Devers’s 32 homers were also the most by a Red Sox third baseman.

The point here? He can flat-out hit and does it to all fields. If there’s a player who is untouchable in the Sox’ attempt to get under the luxury-tax threshold this offseason, it’s Devers, who isn’t arbitration eligible until 2021.

“Raffy improved so much because of the work Raffy put in, in the offseason,” assistant general manager Eddie Romero said. “He dedicated himself nutritionally and conditioning-wise. He really got himself in good shape and got himself a lot more agile.”

The Sox have their third baseman of the present and future. But, back to the defense. It’s important to note that defensive metrics can be a little misleading — particularly at Fenway. He was minus-6 in defensive runs saved, but had an ultimate zone rating of 2.7, which ranked eighth among third basemen.

To the eye test, Devers’s defensive lapses still exist. He plays deep, which he learned from the ’ Matt Chapman, who’s the best defensive third baseman in baseball. But unlike Chapman, some of Devers’s pre-pitch prep steps are off. He can sometimes stay on the heels of his feet, or is too flat-footed. When the ball is hit, Devers will rush some of his movements, crashing in too hard to make a play, or because of his setup, get burned on plays going to his right.

Devers is really good when ranging to his left and can sometimes take balls away from Xander Bogaerts. Nonetheless, the work won’t stop for Devers.

“There are a few things that Adrian told him to do in the offseason and what he should do in spring training,” Cora said. “I’m looking forward for him to work that way and see where it takes him.”

The backup situation at third base isn’t that complicated. The Sox could plug in Michael Chavis or even Bobby Dalbec, who has a chance to make the team out of spring training.

“We saw Bobby toward the end of the season, those 10 days in Fenway, and we talk about making some adjustments,” Cora said. “After that, he actually went to Arizona to work out. He worked out with Dustin [Pedroia] a little bit. He did a good job.

“It’s a guy that we do believe controls the . Obviously, there are going to be swings and misses, we know that. I do believe he doesn’t chase as much as people think and he can have an impact sooner than later for us.”

Dalbec hit 27 homers in 2019 to go along with an .816 OPS in Double A and Triple A. Chavis proved himself to be a powerful bat at the major league level, hitting .254 with 18 homers in 382 plate appearances.

Like Dalbec, he is prone to swing-and-miss and strikeouts, but he would be more than a capable backup to Devers because he has big-league experience and spent four games at third in 2019. The Sox want to create as much depth as possible, and the recent acquisition of Jose Peraza serves as another option at third.

Devers played in 151 games at third, so with the exception of occasionally resting, the position is his.

Third base outlook

Primary 2019 starter: Rafael Devers

Projected 2020 starter: Devers

Major league depth: Michael Chavis, Jose Peraza

Prospects to watch: Bobby Dalbec

Just call Kevin Youkilis ‘the Greek god of hops’

Stan Grossfeld

LOS GATOS, Calif. — Without spilling a drop, the owner of Loma Brewing Company delivers a tray of nine craft beers to the table.

Amidst the gleaming tanks, stylish bar, and hip West Coast menu, there is zero Red Sox memorabilia. No framed Kevin Youkilis uniforms or photos of the Red Sox Hall of Famer jumping into the pig pile while winning two World Series. No cutouts of his crazy batting stance with the bat coiled toward the center-field bleachers and the fingers creeping dangerously toward the barrel. No YOOOUUUCK chants at the bar, either.

“That’s my past life. And you know I’m not a baseball player anymore,” says Youkilis, who retired in 2013 with a .281 career batting average, 150 home runs, and a Gold Glove at first base.

“It’s a gimmick,” says the three-time All Star. “And I don’t want this place to be a gimmick.”

It’s high noon and Youkilis sits down to taste-test each brew and talk beer, baseball, and the Brady bunch.

Now 40, he looks the same as he did when he legged out a triple in his last at-bat for the Red Sox in 2012. But now when he talks about hops, he doesn’t mean bounces.

Youkilis was immortalized as the “Greek god of walks” in the book “Moneyball.” It was a nickname given to him by Oakland A’s vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane for Youkilis’s on-base percentage and Greek-sounding name. Now the Jewish kid from Cincinnati is having fun with the moniker.

Leading off is the “Greek God of Hops” — a double IPA with floral, pine, and lemon hop aromas and a dry bitter finish.

He takes a big sip.

“Problem is it’s so smooth for a double IPA that you don’t think it’s a double IPA,” says Youkilis. “This one is 9 percent alcohol. It will get you in trouble.”

If needed, there’s a Loma Coffee Bar in the back room and fresh Ethiopian beans to crush.

Batting second is “Youks Kolsch,” a hybrid of ale and a lager that’s named after family members who were bootleggers in Ohio.

“They went up to Toronto and ran the illegal alcohol down to Cincinnati. So we kind of paid homage to the family for doing it illegally, but now we’re doing it legally.”

Next up is the “Oktoberfest,” a Marzen type (traditionally brewed in March) German beer. Youkilis only takes one sip of each beer.

He’s not on a pitch count, but he says he can’t drink like he did in college. He returned to the University of Cincinnati and completed his business degree last year. He says he did it for his three kids.

“Once you start something, you’ve got to finish it,” he says. “I got a degree and now and forever I’m in the alumni association. That’s cool.”

Batting cleanup is the “Hefeweizen,” which literally translates to wheat beer with yeast. This one is spiced with mostly clove and banana.

“It’s kind of a funny name, but this one’s a great beer,” he says.

Concern for youth What really drives Youkilis bananas is the specialization of youth sports and the unrealistic expectations of parents against long odds.

“The biggest problem we have right now is youth sports has become a multibillion-dollar business. The burnout rate is going up, kids are quitting earlier than ever. surgery has gone up 300 percent. And that’s a problem,” he says.

Youkilis is also concerned that 13-year-olds now worry about their exit velocities and other sabermetrics.

“We’re not letting kids just go out and have fun. We’re helicopter parenting. We’re trying to control everything,” he says.

Youkilis says his dad built him a wooden batting cage in the backyard but never made him hit. “He never said, ‘Hey you got to take 100 swings today.’ ”

He also regrets that he doesn’t see kids playing Wiffle ball much anymore.

“The Wiffle ball moves way crazier than a baseball, so you build eye-hand coordination and a love for the game.

Up next is the “Big Sabroski,” a hazy pale ale named after the movie “The Big Lebowski” — one of Youkilis’s favorites.

“It’s super fruity, almost like a tangerine and grapefruit juice,” he says.

Talk turns to the Hall of Fame selection, which will drive anyone to drink.

It bothers him that , his boyhood hero, banned from baseball for life for gambling, is not included in the Hall of Fame, which includes players from the Amphetamine era.

“Yeah. I think everybody should be in the Hall of Fame if they were great,” he says.

Steroids or no steroids.

“It’s a museum,” he says. “You can always put them in a wing that is different.”

Youkilis says that he never did steroids.

“Steroids don’t make you a player because I played with guys in the minor leagues that did steroids. They never made the major leagues. You’ve got to be a super talent like and Manny [Ramirez] and all those guys. And yes, it does help . . . ”

He also defends Ramirez, who put up Hall of Fame numbers in Boston before forcing a trade to the Dodgers in 2008.

“We would not have won in ’04 and ’07 without him,” he says. “I watched everything about that guy. And if I didn’t have that guy as a teammate I don’t think I would’ve been the player I was.”

He downplayed his June 5, 2008, scuffle with Ramirez in the Red Sox dugout.

“People get into it, you know? Some of the best teams I ever played on were not the most healthy as a group, right?” he says. “You don’t have to be best friends, but you have to respect each other and play as a team when those lights go on and that first pitch is thrown.”

Next up is the “Jew-Jitsu,” a hazy IPA.

“So this is named after me being a Jewish guy and I actually do Jiu-Jitsu,” after suffering yet another herniated disk.

“I’m still paying for the price of baseball, but it was worth it in the end,” he says. “So this is our staple hazy IPA. Being from Boston, everyone’s drawing a hazy IPA is now. It’s just a New England thing.”

Catching up with Ortiz Youkilis says he visited David Ortiz in August and they had grilled steaks.

“I was dying to see him. I just wanted to give him a big hug and see how he’s doing,” he says. “But, yeah, he’s doing great. It’s crazy what life can bring at times.”

Next up is “Appeasement,” an IPA with modern American hops, blueberry notes, and stone fruit hop flavors. In 2017, it won the American India Pale Ale category at the State Fair and Loma was chosen the 2017 California Commercial Beer Brewery of the year.

“This put us on the map,” says Youkilis.

“My wife [Tom Brady’s sister, Julie], who never really drank IPA, she likes this IPA.”

Youkilis says he loves being in the Brady bunch. He has even played catch with TB12 twice.

In 2013, he and his family stayed at Brady’s Los Angeles house while awaiting season-ending surgery to repair a herniated disk suffered during his brief stint with the Yankees.

“So Tom was like, ‘Hey, do you want to catch some balls?’ He gave me these gloves that are sticky. He’d start throwing the ball and I was just like, ‘Man, this is fun to kind of see how an NFL quarterback throws the ball and puts a little bit on it.’

“He’s joking around. He’s like, ‘Damn. You’ve got pretty good hands. You might have the best hands on the team next to Gronk.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ It’s funny— Gronk came over that night to have dinner.”

When Brady was suspended in 2015, they worked out together at Los Gatos High School.

“He works his butt off and that’s what I respect most about him,” says Youkilis. “He’s willing to sacrifice everything — you know, hanging out, partying, drinking all that stuff — for the betterment of his career.”

Youkilis says that he was at a family event in Montana when the Brady bunch decided to have a race.

“I was like, ‘This family is way too competitive and I think I could smoke them all.’ So I just book it and I win,” he says. “My mother-in-law was laughing and cheering and she’s like, ‘I watched you play baseball, I knew you’re so fast.’ And I was like, ‘I never heard that.’

“I mean I ran well and David [Ortiz] always complimented me. I would always score from first for him when he hit the ball to left-center field. I studied the base paths. I really, really worked on it a lot.”

Brady and Youkilis also competed in Ping-Pong, pool, and golf.

“He’s got the same competitive juices I have. It gets heated and fun, but at the end of it everyone gets along,” he says. “Tommy definitely wins in golf. He is a better golfer than me.”

Fans visit brewery Next to last is the “Red Rye Ale.”

“It’s hard to make the rye when you put it in the mash, it gets rough and gooey,” says Youkilis. “So it takes a lot of work.”

He says fans come to the brewery to meet him and tell him they wish he were still playing third base.

He tells them that [current Red Sox third baseman Rafael] Devers is special.

“I remember watching him a couple years back and I was like, ‘Oh, this guy can hit.’ He’s just a puppy. He’s still so young. You’ve got a great third baseman there for a long time, so they’re going to hopefully lock him up for a while,” he says.

Youkilis says the Sox have got to sign Mookie Betts.

“I told that to [Red Sox president and CEO] Sam [Kennedy],” he says.

Last, but not least is the “Oatmeal Stout.”

“I love this. That’s a beer you drink in the winter. Dark beers are usually wintertime beers,” he says.

Youkilis says he will always appreciate the sendoff Red Sox fans gave him on June 24, 2012. With a trade to the White Sox pending, he tripled to right-center and was pinch-run for by Nick Punto. The Fenway Faithful gave him a standing ovation and then demanded a curtain call.

“That was a good sendoff,” says Youkilis. “Behind the scenes, it was rough. It was tough on my family. My wife was 7½ months pregnant and I got traded to a place where I saw her for one week and I didn’t see her for two months until my child was born.

The trade hurt him.

“I didn’t feel like the organization in a lot of ways cared about me as much as I cared about them,” he says.

Youkilis played for the White Sox in 2012, the Yankees in 2013, and in Japan briefly in 2014.

“There’s still people that hate me because I went to the Yankees and I think it’s funny because [they’re] the same ones that were asking to trade me on WEEI. So you know you can’t have it both ways,” he says.

He admits it was weird at first to wear the Yankee pinstripes. “Yeah it looks slimmer, but it’s funny,” he says. “No one ever talks about my pinstripes for the White Sox.”

Youkilis still goes to spring training as a special adviser for Theo Epstein’s Cubs.

“I throw BP, hit fungoes, and try to just be another set of eyes and ears to the players and coaches,” he says.

But his heart will always be in Boston. Youkilis last week made a public request to the craft beer community to raise a pint on Friday in honor of Peter Frates.

Frates, the former Boston College baseball player whose eight-year battle with ALS helped make the ice bucket challenge a national phenomenon, died last Monday at age 34. His funeral was Friday.

At Boston-based Harpoon and Sam Adams, $1 was donated by the breweries for every pint sold to ALS research and awareness. Youkilis also tweeted, “Let’s keep the fight going to find a cure by donating to peterfrates.com/donate.”

Grateful for the fans “You know, I didn’t have an easy path,” says Youkilis of his early days in the majors. “I didn’t play every day until I was 27 years old.”

Boston fans loved his passion. “What I’m most grateful for is the fans to this day still are super appreciative of everything I did,” he says.

He’ll never have to buy a beer in Boston.

“Yeah,” he says hoisting a glass. “I just bring them with me.”

Behind the scenes with player agent Scott Boras at baseball’s Winter Meetings

Michael Silverman

SAN DIEGO — Scott Boras sits on the white leather couch in his fifth-floor hotel “war room” at the Winter Meetings, scrolling through the photo album on his phone.

It’s a couple hours past midnight, and Boras is red-eyed from another day in a three-week span in which he’s averaging about 3-4 hours of sleep a night. He is determined to find the video of his and daughter Natalie’s dance at her wedding two months ago.

Twelve hours earlier, Boras had wrapped up ’s record-setting seven-year, $245 million contract with the Nationals.

Later that night, he would finish off ’s record-smashing nine-year, $324 million deal with the Yankees.

One evening later, he bookended the meetings with ’s seven-year, $245 million deal with the Angels.

A three-client, $814 million trifecta. The most high-profile agent in baseball is at the top of his game.

With a large-screen TV on mute tuned to the MLB Network showing talking heads breaking down the Strasburg deal and nearby dishes of the chocolate- and powdered-sugar-dusted almonds and peanuts that Boras says team owners and general managers can’t resist, Boras is laser-focused on finding the video.

A question about the last time he had put away his phone over the last couple of months had served as the primary trigger for wanting to find the dance video.

Answer: He had handed the phone to a colleague before the wedding with instructions to keep it away from him — unless he got a message that sounded urgent.

Just a few weeks before the wedding, while Boras was jetting around the country conducting business, Natalie had asked her dad to learn a Luis Miguel song for their dance, a 3½-minute number with a daunting number of steps, dips, and twirls.

Boras could not say no. In his hotel rooms and at home, Boras practiced, breaking the dance down to 47 steps, which he broke down into small segments, committing the steps to muscle memory, one by one.

The bandwidth required to learn, never mind perform, the dance — on top of the mounting pressure of laying the groundwork for the deals he would consummate in San Diego — sent Boras into a pitch of high anxiety.

When he finds the video, Boras presses play and holds out the screen, a beaming smile on his face. He is a perfectly competent dad dancer. He is not without rhythm. He doesn’t trip, he doesn’t step on or drop Natalie. Afterward, he reports, his daughter told him, “That was perfect, Dad.”

Boras lingers on the topic of the dance and the wedding. Besides being a source of such happiness, it also serves as a gateway to a greater point he wants to make about his work uniting players with owners. But before he can quite get there, Boras, in his patented deliberate and patient negotiating style, circles around this moment, this war room, these meetings, and the industry-shaking deals he is orchestrating.

He is eager to describe what’s in and what goes on in the war room — this war room, that is. He has another room set up in a different San Diego hotel for clients and teams to meet without setting off alarm bells among the media, teams, and agents swarming the lobby and hallways here at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, headquarters for the meetings.

The room had been filled with a dozen Boras Corp. members when a visitor entered, but they quickly dispersed. Unsurprisingly, they left behind no traces of their work. No names of teams, no lists of offers — the room’s been scrubbed and all but wiped down for fingerprints. Only a bottle of Advil sitting by a closed laptop hints at the groundwork and preparation that goes into the complex courtship ritual of a free agent signing.

Complete team The Boras Corporation has 137 employees, 70 based in Newport Beach, the rest in scouting and development spread out across the country, plus Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. A 35-member research staff has been crunching statistics and financial data to prepare Boras and the crew who made the trip to San Diego.

“We have different responsibilities for everyone for what they do here” at the meetings, said Boras. “Tracking existing signings, interest levels, fielding the phone calls from the teams and essentially be able to be in contact with all major league teams at all times through this process. You have to have a large staff to do that, you have to be very comprehensive and prepared, and their job is to prepare me as I shift through the meetings.”

The room is well stocked, and alcohol-free. Bowls of apples, oranges, bananas, goldfish crackers, bags of Clean Snax, with Melissa’s brand red grapes kept in the fridge.

Never far from Boras’s reach is his go-to snack, a bag of dried prunes.

Boras points to a table, with disconnected wires and cables underneath it, remnants of a high-speed link to the stored data banks in his Newport Beach office 85 miles to the north.

A couple of “Anthony Rendon” aluminum-covered three-ring binders are lying around, each overflowing with compelling data and statistical information pitched for a team to sign Rendon at the valuation Boras wants.

Two black-covered binders contain 15 tabs and sections each, one for the National League, one for the American League.

Boras opens one to the Red Sox section and starts flipping through, more quickly on the pages that contain proprietary information.

“I’ve got their entire budget for the next three years, I’ve got their roster, so I can tell you what their amount of guarantee is, I have their ranks — offense, defense, pitching — in the MLB, what their strengths and weaknesses are at each level of the minor leagues, the luxury-tax dynamics of what they do, the overage penalties, I have minor league players, who’s coming, going forward, then I have their franchise values, I have their revenues, gate receipts, attendance, local rights and TV value — all those kind of things that give a general summary, and I have that for each team in baseball,” said Boras. “I really know everything about every club as far as basic data.”

The meetings with owners and top executives on Strasburg, Cole, and Rendon took place in the weeks leading up to the Winter Meetings. Those in on Rendon flew to Texas (Rendon’s wife is pregnant), while the others flew to southern California for Cole, Strasburg, and/or another top pitching free agent client, Hyun-Jin Ryu, based in Korea.

As Boras is talking, the chyron under the TV talking heads speaking in the lobby below asked, “Why has there been so much early action in this market?”

“Why? Because Toronto, Cincinnati, the White Sox, the Marlins, the Yankees, the Dodgers, they’re all in the market — and, there are elite starting pitchers in the market that will not be available next year,” said Boras. “That’s why.”

Boras described the high-level meetings among clients, their wives, and teams as imperative to discovering a mutual comfort level before the economic discussion can begin.

“Teams would come in and we’d have literally 6-7 meetings,” said Boras. “They’d make presentations. I take notes, 30, 40 pages of notes. I listen to conversations. I make sure I have the player and his wife talk and ask questions. I have a list of things they want to ask. We prepare the list for them, but often it’s a dialogue, a good conversation. The team comes in and talks about their franchise for two or three hours. Owner, GM, assistant GM, the manager often comes, they usually bring some of their veteran players who are historical to the franchise and then they talk about what it means to be a member of that franchise.

“We talk clubhouse rules, travel, trainers, medical, you name it. Then I have a list of questions that I direct to the team after I listen to everything, to ask them questions to make sure that we’ve given them an appropriate view of the club.”

Boras probes owners about what kind of players they want, whether they’re willing to add players mid- season, and asks managers about how they motivate and how they coach.

When the meeting ends, Boras listens for his client’s impressions — good or bad.

“A player comes out of the meeting and he’s like, ‘Not for me,’ ” said Boras. “And the owners think the meeting went great. The player goes, ‘I didn’t like this, I didn’t like that, I didn’t like what he said, I can’t trust him.’ ”

When the sides click but the team on the player’s wish list does not make a good enough offer, that’s when the player tells Boras to do his job, telling him, “Make sure one of those teams does do that.’’ Which they often say. And the answer is, you have a job of advocacy.

“Like with J.D. Martinez, I met with [Red Sox chairman] Tom Werner a couple times, got [principal owner] John [Henry] on the phone,” said Boras. “I really just said, ‘This guy can make a monstrous difference to your team, and our algorithm metrics indicate your probability to win a World Series is much higher with this player.’ And it took time. Then Dave [Dombrowski] and them, they finally agreed. And at Dodger Stadium, at the end of the [2018] World Series, they were very kind and we enjoyed a glass of champagne together to talk about that. That helps your credibility going forward when you’re dealing with owners and people.”

Big moments It’s the success stories, the pre-meetings deal he had struck with longtime client and the Reds (four years, $64 million), the Strasburg deal, and the Cole and Rendon deals that are on the verge of being finalized, that bring Boras back to his daughter’s wedding.

After trying to convey the magnitude of the deals he works on, the pressure he feels to make his clients happy, and the thrill and contentment he gets when a deal gets made, his eyes glisten. He is reminded of how he broke down when he made a toast to Natalie and her husband, Luke.

“I had to stop and collect myself to go through it,” said Boras, unabashedly. “Of course I find out later, this is what women love. They love to see fathers cry at a wedding — it’s such a permissive event. But it was really something for me. I don’t think I’ve experienced something where you look at your life and you can say, ‘You know, the job I do is so personal to the people I represent because it’s their lives.’ And you do something in your family with your daughter, it’s a one-time event that wedding is, a special one-time event in their lives.

“And this process,” said Boras, meaning the war room and its surroundings, “is normally a one-time event.

“It is a big, big moment.”

Three big, big deals added up to three big, big moments for Boras’s clients, in what was hardly a war room.

Peace and prosperity reigned here.

So did Boras, who left town after dancing circles around everyone.

* The

Red Sox moves at the Winter Meetings reveal a new direction

Jason Mastrodonato

It’s getting more and more difficult to envision a truly competitive Red Sox team in 2020.

MLB’s Winter Meetings wrapped up on Thursday and the story of the week was starting pitching, with Stephen Strasburg staying with the Nationals and Gerrit Cole signing with the Yankees.

The local story of the week? The Red Sox are shopping at the Dollar Store.

Remember the spring training headlines of 2015, when former manager John Farrell infamously said that the Red Sox had five aces?

It’s starting to feel like that kind of year, with David Price on the trade block and a fourth left-hander added to the starting rotation this week.

Thursday morning, the Red Sox selected a 21-year-old shortstop, Jonathan Arauz, from the Astros in the Rule 5 draft. The utility infielder has just 28 career games above High-A and is now supposed to compete for a spot on the Red Sox roster in spring training, according to vice president of pro scouting, Gus Quattlebaum. Arauz, who hit 11 home runs last year, is officially listed at 6 feet tall and 150 pounds. He’ll be spending some time in the gym this winter.

“He has some work to do physically to get stronger,” Quattlebaum said.

The other position player addition was Jose Peraza, the former Reds shortstop and utility man who should replace Brock Holt on the roster, albeit with less pedigree and weaker bat skills. He was a .274 hitter with a .687 OPS over four years with the Reds.

Peraza was officially signed Friday to a contract that will pay him $3 million after the Reds released him. He’s an average to above-average fielder who can play everywhere, and a weak hitter who ranks in the bottom of the majors in exit velocity, hard-hit percentage and barrel percentage.

Study his video and it’s easy to see all of his power is to his pull side, which should work in Fenway Park. He’s also known as an excellent bunter with good speed.

Here’s what Reds superstar said about him last year: “Every day he keeps getting better,” Votto told Fox Sports Ohio. “He looked OK in spring training, then all of a sudden the season started and he clicked into another level. Looks like he’s making himself an everyday shortstop in the major leagues.”

As a depth piece, this works. But the most telling thing with Peraza, perhaps, is that he’s just 25 years old with three years of service time, thus making him eligible for arbitration in 2021 if the Sox choose to keep him around. This would be consistent with the messaging from new boss Chaim Bloom, who is emphasizing long-term sustainability.

If Peraza has a great year and develops a bit further, the Sox can keep him up to two more years via arbitration.

Finally, late Thursday as the meetings came to a close, the Sox dipped their toes into the robust starting pitching market and came out with Martin Perez, a 28-year-old lefty who has a career 4.72 ERA and, in 2019, had one of the worst rates in the majors (18 percent). A year ago, his 13 percent strikeout rate was the second-worst in baseball.

This is where it becomes a concern for the Sox’ chances in 2020.

Are the Sox really going to roll into 2020 with four lefties in their rotation? Not impossible, but unlikely, only adding fuel to the idea that they’d trade the injury-prone and oft-disappointing David Price. That’s the right move for the franchise, but doesn’t really make them better in 2020 unless they unload enough money via Price and perhaps Jackie Bradley Jr. to allow them to go after better pieces than Perez and Peraza.

It leaves them in a position of being reactive instead of proactive, perhaps leaning on their second and third choices.

Perez is a project who could help the Sox in the future, given his $6 million contract for 2020 comes with a $6.25 million option for 2021.

His 94-mph pairs with a cutter and to create excellent movement. His cutter moves two inches toward right-handed batters (double that of an average cutter) and his sinker moves 17 inches away from them (3 inches more than the average). So while he isn’t missing bats, often a mortal sin in today’s game, the Sox must see potential with his pitches.

Guys like Perez and Peraza look like buy-low opportunities with mid-level ceilings. They’re cost-effective moves an organization like, say the , might make.

It’s still a bit odd to see the Sox making them, but such is life when the books are loaded with big-money commitments for the next three to five years.

Friday, odds-makers at Bovada set the over-under on 2020 Red Sox wins at 84-½. We’ll take the under.

Either way, they’re not looking like a contender. Not yet, at least.

* MassLive.com

David Price trade rumors: How Boston Red Sox are impacted by , moves

Chris Cotillo

Two former award winners switched teams Sunday, with the Indians trading righty Corey Kluber to the Rangers for two players and the Diamondbacks coming to a surprise five-year, $85 million agreement with former Giants lefty Madison Bumgarner. The two transactions capped a busy week on the starting pitching market after Gerrit Cole (Yankees) and Stephen Strasburg (Nationals) came off the board during the Winter Meetings.

The Red Sox, who are desperately trying to trade lefty David Price and the $96 million remaining on his contract, will immediately feel the effects of Sunday’s moves. Here they are:

1. Texas is out, but the teams who fell short on Kluber and Bumgarner could quickly shift focus to Price

Earlier this winter, the Rangers were thought to be a perfect fit to acquire one of Boston’s starters in trades and even had internal discussions about the possibility of pursuing Price, Chris Sale or Nathan Eovaldi. Texas then filled its rotation by signing righties and and acquiring Kluber, filling their needs before the Sox made a move.

Consider them out along with the Diamondbacks, who never seemed like a good fit for someone like Price anyway.

The starter-needy teams that lost out on Kluber and Bumgarner (and Cole, Strasburg and before that) are likely getting more desperate, with the top options available at this point being Price, Arizona lefty Robbie Ray and free agents Hyun-jin Ryu and . The Angels, who have been in contact about Price and look like a perfect fit, were in on Kluber, and the Padres had reported interest in both Kluber and Bumgarner. Two other clubs linked to Price -- the Reds and White Sox -- were involved with Bumgarner to some extent. The Dodgers, who have seemingly unlimited resources and are in need of rotation help, have now lost on Cole, Bumgarner and Kluber, the Giants could look like a potential fit and the Twins could pivot toward Price if they’re unable to land Keuchel or Ryu.

On Sunday, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman listed eight teams that are still in need of starting pitching: the Angels, Dodgers, Giants, Padres, Blue Jays, Twins, White Sox and Braves. Considering Keuchel and Ryu are the only two top free agents left, teams with trade chips are in a great spot.

2. The market has been set

Though every pitcher is different, Price (at age 34) is more similar to Kluber (34 in April) and Bumgarner (30, but with only 183 fewer innings than Price) than Cole, Strasburg or Wheeler. Suddenly, the remainder of Price’s deal (3 years, $96 million) doesn’t look as much like an albatross considering the massive prices for free agents ($324 million for Cole, $245 million for Strasburg, $118 million for Wheeler and $85 million for Bumgarner).

The player return for Kluber -- who missed most of last year due to injury and is owed $17.5 million next season -- was significantly lowered by Texas’ willingness to pick up the entirety of his salary. While righty Emmanuel Clase is viewed as a potential top reliever in all of baseball, the package of him and outfielder Delino DeShields Jr. was considered light from a two-for-one standpoint.

Though Bumgarner’s average annual value ($17 million) is significantly lower than Price’s ($31 million), teams looking to contend in the next couple seasons would likely rather have the shorter-term deal (Price’s). Any deal, still, would likely require the Red Sox to pay down some of Price’s salary or attach an intriguing young player (probably not Andrew Benintendi) to increase the return.

3. The Red Sox are suddenly in a power position

It would have been hard to believe at the beginning of the winter, but the Red Sox suddenly find themselves in a great spot with Price. The amount of interest in the lefty at the Winter Meetings was a little bit shocking, with a bunch of teams expressing a serious desire to land him even before more of the starting pitching market shook out.

That level of interest has increased Boston’s confidence that a deal can be worked out, and, as a result, that Mookie Betts can stay put. Boston, a bit surprisingly, made its payroll situation worse by adding more than $9 million to the books in 2020 with the additions of Martin Perez and Jose Peraza late last week. It’s unlikely that would have happened without some confidence that a big contract was likely to come off the books.

With Peraza and Perez in the fold, the Sox’ projected payroll sits at more than $231.21 million for next year -- about $23.2 million past the $208 million luxury tax threshold. Finding a team willing to pay Price a total of $70 million over three years, $23.33 million annually) would largely solve what is considered to be a complex issue.

Boston Red Sox roster starting to come into focus -- even if big moves await | Chris Cotillo

Chris Cotillo

SAN DIEGO -- A quiet Winter Meetings for the Red Sox became busy late, as the team added three players -- infielders Jonathan Arauz and Jose Peraza and starter Martin Perez -- before departing San Diego on Thursday. All three additions filled clear holes on Boston’s roster, with Arauz and Peraza entering a wide-open second base competition and Perez replacing the departed Rick Porcello as the fifth starter.

The prevailing thought entering the Meetings was that new chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom would be handcuffed by the team’s goal of cutting payroll, and, as a result, have to subtract to the roster before adding. He downplayed that idea during his meeting with reporters on Day 1 in San Diego, foreshadowing how he’d spend the rest of his week at the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel.

“I think certain acquisitions fit a narrower niche than others do,” Bloom said. “But I think it’s really more about trying to assess the whole landscape, trying to make sure we are active enough to understand the opportunities are available to us and react accordingly. That doesn’t necessarily mean the dominoes have to fall in a certain sequence. We just need to make sure we are doing things in an order that ultimately makes sense.”

In essence, Bloom was saying he was willing to make Boston’s payroll problem worse before working to make it better. If someone -- like Peraza or Perez -- was a good fit for the roster and was ready to sign this early in the offseason, the Red Sox were going to get deals done even if it meant the projected payroll would continue to skyrocket past their $208 million goal.

That never meant the Sox would ever be in on top free agents like Gerrit Cole or Stephen Strasburg, but it did allow the signings of Peraza and Perez to come together fairly quickly. Peraza, a versatile 25-year-old who projects to play mostly second base next season, was signed to a one-year deal in the $3 million range. Perez, whose advanced metrics paint a different picture of his 2019 season than his traditional numbers, got $6 million with a $6.25 million club option for 2021.

Suddenly, the Sox have their replacements for both Rick Porcello and Brock Holt at cheaper costs than it would have taken to retain both fan favorites. The second base picture is a murky one, with Peraza, Arauz, Marco Hernandez, Tzu-Wei Lin, Michael Chavis and maybe even Dustin Pedroia in the mix, but the Sox have a ton of different options to learn more about in spring training. As of now, Perez will be in the rotation, behind Chris Sale, David Price, Eduardo Rodriguez and Nathan Eovaldi unless one of those four is traded.

Boston now has just a few clear needs on the roster: a backup catcher, a first baseman and -- if the price is right -- a bullpen addition or two. There are some internal options at first (Josh Ockimey? Bobby Dalbec?) and in the bullpen (Tanner Houck? Travis Lakins? Colten Brewer?) and a few minor-league signees that will likely be in the mix come spring, while the organization is looking outside to find Christian Vazquez’s back up behind the plate.

Instead of subtracting before adding, it’s clear Bloom is looking to do both simultaneously. While the Sox were finalizing their deals with Peraza and Perez, they were working hard to trade left-hander David Price, who is reportedly drawing interest from multiple clubs (including the Cardinals, Angels, Padres and others) and are likely still considering the possibility of moving outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr.

The latest payroll projection has the Sox at over $231 million for next season, nearly $23.25 million over the $208 million mark. It’s clear Boston still intends to get there before the beginning of spring training, making a trade of someone like Price (owed $31 million), Eovaldi ($17 million), Bradley Jr. (projected at $11 million) or Mookie Betts (projected at $27.7 million) likely, if not inevitable.

Though the overriding theme of this winter is subtraction, the additions are notable too. Some tweaks could fully unlock Peraza, who the Red Sox like for his versatility and athleticism, and Perez is due to be more lucky than he was in 2019. The Red Sox could still contend in 2020 by keeping almost the entire core together, tweaking a few spots on the outskirts of the roster to save money and having some internal options step up to replace the production of a high-priced player who is traded.

Here are some other final thoughts from the Winter Meetings:

Price, not Betts, looks like key piece most likely to be traded

Entering the Meetings, the consensus choice for the Red Sox to trade was to trade Betts, who is projected to earn $27.7 million in 2020 and has not done anything to prove he’s serious about signing a long-term deal in Boston. By the end of the festivities, it was clear Price is more likely to be moved, with multiple reports linking a handful of teams (the Angels, Cardinals, Padres, White Sox and Reds among them) to the veteran lefty.

Previously, the prevailing thought was that Price -- due $96 million over three years, entering his age-34 season and coming off a year in which he missed significant time due to injury -- would not be attractive to other clubs. But the market has developed in Boston’s favor, with teams that lost out on both Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg forced to look at the trade market considering the lackluster options still available in free agency.

A handful of mediocre teams from 2019 (like the Angels, White Sox and Padres) are being aggressive early in the winter in a clear sign of going all-in for 2020. Teams in that position sometimes have to take big risks, and Price would certainly qualify.

It remains to be seen exactly how the Sox would frame a Price deal and whether or not they’d have to attach a promising young player or eat some of Price’s money to do so. But it’s clear they’re looking to trade him and beginning to look like Betts will stay put as a result.

Infield picture beginning to take shape

The two sides of the Sox’ infield -- a left side with stars Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts entrenched for years to come and a right side with a bunch of unproven options and question marks -- could not be more different in terms of how the front office must approach them this winter. With Mitch Moreland and Brock Holt likely signing elsewhere, retiring and Dustin Pedroia unlikely to ever play again, the Sox entered the offseason with a mix of top prospects (like Bobby Dalbec and Michael Chavis) and utility players (Marco Hernandez and Tzu-Wei Lin) as their options at first and second base.

That picture became even more crowded Thursday when the Sox added Arauz (a 21-year-old from the Astros’ organization who profiles as a utility player) and Peraza (a 25-year-old with offensive potential who can play a variety of positions) within a couple hours. Both should factor into the competition for playing time during spring training and come as low-risk, cheap options.

The moves also almost certainly signal the end of Holt’s tenure in Boston. He seems likely to receive a significant contract elsewhere.

Road to division title gets tougher with Cole signing

The Yankees made the biggest splash of the entire winter, inking Cole to a nine-year, $324 million contract. After a few years of building their core from the inside, the Yanks reverted back to the old versions of themselves and simply outspent everyone else to land one of the best pitchers in baseball.

New York was markedly better than Boston in 2019, winning 19 more games than Boston and winning 14 of the 19 head-to-head matchups between the clubs. The Cole signing, at least on paper, furthers the gap between the Yankees and Sox.

José Peraza signing: Boston Red Sox deal with infielder makes sense even though it likely means end of Brock Holt Era

Christopher Smith

The Red Sox made the signing of infielder José Peraza official Friday. He received a one-year contract but the Red Sox also can keep team control of him through the end of the 2022 season.

The signing makes sense, even though it likely means the end of the Brock Holt Era. Losing Holt isn’t easy. He produced offensively (career .340 on-base percentage) when healthy. He served as a vocal team leader and the Jimmy Fund captain for the past five years.

The Red Sox needed to make a decision: pay Holt, who turns 32 next June and has an injury history. Or choose a younger and cheaper option.

Peraza, who turns 26 in April and has two arbitration years remaining after 2020, represents the younger and cheaper option. He reportedly will earn around $3 million.

Peraza has some pop. He stroked 49 extra-base hits (14 homers, 31 doubles, four triples) in 2018. He makes contact. His 11% strikeout percentage ranked seventh among major league hitters with 400 or more plate appearances in 2018 and his 14.4% strikeout percentage in 2019 ranked 31st. He has a career 94.4% zone contact percentage.

He never has spent time on the injured list as a major leaguer. Holt has played more than 94 games just once in the past four years.

Peraza also has played every outfield position and every infield position except for first base. His most experience comes at shortstop (251 starts) and second (132 starts).

He batted well vs. left-handed pitchers even during a down year offensively in 2019. The right-handed hitter slashed .287/.336/.407/.744 in 116 plate appearances vs. southpaws.

The Red Sox have plenty of second base options: Peraza, Michael Chavis, Marco Hernandez, Tzu-Wei Lin, C.J. Chatham and Rule 5 Draft selection Jonathan Arauz.

First base options include Chavis, Bobby Dalbec and Sam Travis.

Chavis, who likely will share time at second and first base, hit better vs. righties (.266/.347/.427/.774) than vs. lefties (.226/.261/.481/.742) during his rookie year in 2019. He also hit better against righties in the upper levels of the minors.

Chavis’ reverse batting splits complement Peraza at second as well as Dalbec/Travis at first.

It’s still possible the Red Sox add a left-handed hitting first baseman with a low average annual salary. Travis Shaw and are potential options.

But in a year when the Red Sox want to stay under the $208 million Competitive Balance Tax, this group of infielders might be it.

Martin Perez signing: Boston Red Sox’s newest addition has stuff to dominate, including new cutter, but he never has consistently

Christopher Smith

Martin Perez brings plenty of potential to the Red Sox starting rotation. He always had had potential as ranked him No. 17 on its 2010 Top 100 list, 24th in 2011 and 31st in 2012.

But the lefty’s potential never has translated to dominance.

He has a 4.72 ERA with a 1.49 WHIP, 4.49 FIP and .286 in 173 outings (157 starts) during his eight-year career. Only once in his career has he posted an ERA below 4.00. He enjoyed a 3.62 ERA in 20 starts as a rookie in 2013.

The Red Sox and Perez reportedly have agreed to a one-year, $6-million contract. The deal includes a $6.25 million option for 2021.

Fans shouldn’t feel too excited about this move. Maybe Perez will end up being a pleasant surprise at the bottom of the rotation. Right now, though, this simply looks like a cost-effective signing that aligns with the Red Sox’s expected cheap offseason approach. Boston wants to cut the 2020 payroll below the $208 million Competitive Balance Tax threshold. Meanwhile, the Yankees signed Gerrit Cole to a nine-year, $324 million contract.

Perez either finally will figure it out with new Red Sox pitching coach Dave Bush and assistant pitching coach Kevin Walker or he’ll just continue to do what he has done his entire career.

He’s still only 28 years old. He turns 29 in April. His fastball averaged 94.2 mph and his sinker averaged 93.9 in 2019, the two top average velocities during his career, per Statcast.

His fastball got destroyed in 2019, as usual for him. The opposition batted .370 with a .740 slugging percentage against his four-seam fastball; and .302 with a .383 slugging percentage vs. his two-seam fastball. He has allowed a batting average of more than .300 against his four-seamer In every season except his rookie year (.194)

He added a cutter last season in his first and only year with the Twins. He spent his first seven seasons with the Rangers. The cutter ended up being his most effective pitch. He used it more often than any other pitch and held the opposition to a .214 batting average and .343 slugging percentage with it.

He posted a 7-1 record with a 2.95 ERA, .236 batting average against and .356 slugging percentage in his first 11 starts last year from March 31-May 23. But he went 3-6 with a 6.29 ERA, .300 batting average against and .479 slugging percentage in his final 21 starts.

Fangraphs.com’s Devan Fink pointed out some interesting stats on . He noted, “Pérez is a little weird because while his numbers are poor, it’s not because he got BABIP’d (.316) or because he got shelled (85.4 mph EV). His HR/FB% (15.0%) wasn’t all that high either. His 67.6% LOB rate, however, was the fourth-lowest among qualified starters.”

So opposing hitters had only an 85.4 mph exit velocity against him. He has allowed an 87.2 exit velocity for his career.

The Red Sox coaching staff perhaps can help him sustain what he did so well during the first two months last year. They need to solve his four-seam fastball location or eliminate the pitch.

* NBC Sports Boston

In appreciation of Brock Holt, whose job with Red Sox might be gone, but whose legacy is secure

John Tomase

The transactions came in quick succession as the winter meetings wrapped on Thursday in San Diego. First, the Red Sox selected infielder Jonathan Arauz from the Astros in the Rule 5 draft. A couple of hours later, they inked infielder Jose Peraza to a one-year, $3 million deal.

Both are utility infielders, and their arrivals increase the likelihood that we'll be saying goodbye to Brock Holt this winter.

From a bottom-line perspective, it's hard to argue. Holt turns 32 in June, has battled injuries the past four years and should make more than $3 million annually on a multi-year deal. The Red Sox need to get younger and cheaper, and that includes the bench.

Report: These teams were pursuing lefty Martin Perez before Red Sox signed him If this is it, though, Holt deserves more of a sendoff than a line in the transaction wire, because his impact on the field, in the clubhouse, and especially in the community far outstripped his modest 5-foot-10 frame.

From high school (where he barely broke 100 pounds as a freshman) to junior college to Rice University to the major leagues, Holt beat long odds each step of the way. That a throw-in acquired with Pirates Joel Hanrahan before the 2013 season could earn Rookie of the Year votes and then make an All-Star team defied reason. That the same player would hit for the cycle not once, but twice -- including in the postseason -- while winning two World Series and becoming a gritty heart-and-soul fan favorite, let's just say guys hit that lottery maybe once in a generation.

"I know and I've kind of gotten a taste of it coming here that certain players just really seem to bond with the fan base," said new baseball boss Chaim Bloom. "He's certainly been one of those. That's not something that's lost on any of us."

Holt brought a fun-loving energy to a clubhouse that needed it in good times and bad. Boston can be a meat grinder even when things are going well, and supporting players who take the edge off are essential. mastered that role in 2004, while Jonny Gomes followed suit in 2013. That was Holt's job, too, whether he was serving as Andrew Benintendi's All-Star publicist, re-christening the 10th month on the calendar as Brocktober, or wearing a Cobra Kai-inspired headband around the locker room that others soon copied.

Holt had a knack for cracking up his teammates. After Mitch Moreland's three-run homer delivered the team its first win of 2019 in Seattle, Holt sauntered past Moreland in the clubhouse with an ice cream cone, gave it a lick, and said, "Hey Mitch, my mom says, 'Way to go,'" and then just walked out. (His mom later confirmed this account on Twitter).

He famously asked a shorts-wearing Bill Belichick if he was, "going to put some pants on," before facing the Packers on a cold October night in 2018 when the Red Sox were honored by the Patriots as World Series champions.

The night he completed the first cycle in postseason history with a ninth-inning home run to complete a rout of the Yankees, the megawatt smile on Holt's face as he rounded third and returned to the dugout could've powered the sun.

Holt's joyful persona extended to his toddler son, Griff, a glasses-clad Instagram star who developed a cult following for giggling while raiding a box of Life Cereal in the pantry, or pointing at a billboard of David Ortiz and exclaiming, "Big Papi!" or hitting what he called, "Big bomb!" with an oversized whiffle ball bat.

Holt's many viral moments with his son became all the more poignant when viewed through the lens of his tireless devotion to children's causes. He's a four-time Award nominee for community service, and he routinely leads the Red Sox in charitable appearances. He served as Jimmy Fund captain for the past five years, and his Brock Stars ticket program brought a Jimmy Fund patient to every Tuesday home game for batting practice. Director of community relations Sarah Narracci has long referred to Holt as her "go-to guy" who never says no.

"He has a great heart," manager Alex Cora said when Holt was nominated for this year's Clemente award, and if this is indeed the end of Holt's Red Sox career, he'll leave an outsized legacy that "5-10, 180" doesn't begin to capture.

* Bostonsportsjournal.com

MLB Notebook: Assessing the best landing spot for David Price; predicting Mookie’s haul

Sean McAdam

While the rest of Major League Baseball embarked on a mad spending spree at the recent Winter Meetings in San Diego, the Red Sox mainly worked around the edges.

In fact, their activity was limited to the final day of the meetings, when they made a Rule 5 draft selection and later added two depth pieces to the roster — one in the infield, the other for the back of their rotation.

Then again, we knew from the outset that this was going to be a winter of (mostly) subtraction rather than addition as the Sox strive to cut payroll and get under the first luxury tax threshold.

Toward that end, the team will need to slash one significant salary from their roster. Having determined that it’s better — for now, at least — to hold onto free-agent-to-be Mookie Betts rather than accept 50 cents on the dollar in return, the Sox seem likely to trade starter David Price instead.

That makes sense on several fronts. Unlike Betts, who is eligible to hit the market after next season, Price remains under control for three more seasons, giving an acquiring team plenty of time to recoup its investment. Also, the financial explosion bestowed on high-end pitching (Stephen Strasburg, Gerrit Cole, Zack Wheeler) will undoubtedly trickle down to the next level of free-agent starters (Madison Bumgarner, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Dallas Keuchel) — like Price, all lefthanded and all solid No. 2-type starters when healthy — and make Price’s remaining money ($96 million over three seasons) seem less outrageous.

Already, a number of teams have been identified as having expressed an interest in Price. Here’s a look at the contenders, the likelihood of a fit and what the Sox might reasonably be able to command in return:

1.

The Padres desperately need a veteran starter to lead their rotation. They had hoped to entice Strasburg to return to his hometown, but weren’t prepared to spend in excess of $200 million. San Diego would represent a soft landing spot for Price – big, pitcher-friendly ballpark with little pressure generated from the fan base and a small media corps.

San Diego would like to unload Wil Myers in any such deal since he’s due $68.5 million over the next three seasons. But taking on such a big contract would negate the whole idea behind unloading Price’s money. If the Padres were to, say, assume half of what’s due Myers, that would make it somewhat more feasible for the Sox, who could use Myers as a first baseman, or, if they later moved Jackie Bradley Jr. and had to shift Andrew Benintendi from left to center, utilize Myers in left.

But Myers’ has had a troubling decline in his power numbers the last two seasons (14 homers in 155 games last year with an OPS+ of just 90). And it’s doubtful the Sox want to be stuck with a player making $11 million or so over the next three seasons just as he’s begun a decline at the plate.

On the other hand, the Padres have one of the game’s best farm systems and there must be someone the Sox could target. Perhaps a good prospect and the return of center fielder Manuel Margot (a potential Bradley replacement) would work.

2.

Having bid (unsuccessfully) for Cole and landing Anthony Rendon, the Angels are in win-now mode. They seem to finally grasp that they’re wasting the prime of (one career playoff series) and are determined to something about it. But having provided Trout with a strong supporting cast in the lineup, the focus now shifts to pitching.

Again, Price would be walking into a favorable environment — nice weather, scant media attention. And a trade would reunite him with his first manager, Joe Maddon.

Problem is, the Angels don’t have a lot that would interest the Red Sox. Their farm system, not great to begin with, has been further thinned in deals for and they just unloaded their most recent No. 1 pick so the would assume a bad Zack Cozart contract.

3.

As with the Angels, Price would be teaming up with someone from his past: president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, who made him the No. 1 pick out of Vanderbilt while with the Rays.

The Dodgers stand to lose two starters — free agents Rich Hill and Ryu — and while they still have and , could stand to upgrade their rotation as they attempt to snap a championship drought that has now reached 31 years. Once more, this represents a good fit for Price in terms of climate and setting (Dodger Stadium is pitcher-friendly and the lefty threw one of the best starts of his career there when he pitched the Sox to victory in Game 5 of the .

Perhaps more than any team on this list, the Dodgers have plenty to offer. They’re not about to give up their best prospects (infielder or starter ), preferring to use one or both in a deal for Cleveland’s . But the Sox could be swayed by outfielder Joc Pederson or perhaps .

4. ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

There would be some irony to this swap, since Price came very close to signing with St. Louis before committing to the Red Sox at the 11th hour in December of 2015. There may no more adoring fan base than that of the Cardinals, who enjoy broad, Midwestern support, and the city’s relative proximity to Price’s Tennessee home would be another benefit.

Like the Padres, the Cardinals would prefer to unload a contract of their own in order to fit Price into their payroll: Matt Carpenter. Carpenter is due $37 million over the next two years and had a vesting option for 2022 with a $2 million buyout. That’s $39 million that the Sox would be assuming for a player who is 34 and coming off a down year (.726 OPS). Then again, only the year before Carpenter had an .897 OPS and belted 36 homer. Carpenter could contribute at both first and second base and also seen occasional outfield duty, providing exactly the kind of positional

Again, there’s little doubt that the Sox would far prefer to get a prospect in return, but if the Cards took at least some of Carpenter’s money back — say $5 million annually — he would represent a decent return while still enabling the Sox to save nearly $20 million annually.

5. Chicago White Sox

The White Sox, in a bad division and having been aggressive early in the offseason (signing , re-signing Jose Abreu and trading for Nomar Mazara) need a veteran leader for their pitching staff, which features and former Sox prospect Michael Kopech, returning from Tommy John surgery.

Chicago’s farm system is a fairly good one, and while they have some young pitching to target, perhaps they could entice Boston with yet another former Red Sox prospect: outfielder Luis Alexander Basabe, who went to Chicago as part of the Chris Sale deal three years ago. ______

It’s always problematic to attempt to predict future salaries based on the present. Each year is different — for example, this has been a hyper-aggressive one compared to the last two winters, when the best players lingered on the market until well after the start of spring training.

Further complicating matters is that two of the three biggest contracts handed out this offseason have gone to starting pitchers (Strasburg and Cole).

But Rendon’s $245 million deal, staggering as it might be, augurs well for Betts.

Rendon, who is more than two years older than Betts, just hauled in a deal which will pay him an average annual value of $35 million. And in one fewer major league season, Betts has accumulated a career WAR of 42, compared to 27.3 for Rendon.

So if Rendon can get a seven-year deal with an AAV of $35 million, would it be much of a leap for Betts to land eight or nine years with an AAV of $38 million or even $40 million? Not at all.

The two biggest position players on last year’s market — and — each signed deals for at least 10 years. Betts will turn 28 weeks before he becomes a free agent next fall and can surely command 10 years.

Given that, he’ll almost certainly surpass the $330 million awarded to Harper for the biggest free-agent deal ever and especially if he had a season in 2020 less like his 2019 year and more like his 2018 breakout AL MVP season, it would hardly be out of the question for him to come close to, if not topple, the current benchmark held by Mike Trout — 12-years, $426.5 million with the Angels from last spring.

(Trout wasn’t a free agent at the time, choosing to extend with his current organization, but the contract still stands as the biggest in the game’s history). ______

There were plenty of reasons for the Red Sox’ disappointing 2019 finish, which saw them drop 25 games in the standings from the previous season.

Most obvious was the dropoff from the starting rotation, which saw Price, Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi suffer dips in performance and battled injuries and an off-year from Rick Porcello.

The bullpen, too, was a culprit, especially early in the season, when the relievers were asked to assume too large a workload to cover for the ineffective starters. And it didn’t help that neither Betts nor J.D. Martinez was as formidable as the year before.

But manager Alex Cora cited another critical component in the team’s slippage: defense.

“Inconsistent,” Cora told reporters earlier this week. “Yeah, we were inconsistent not only in the infield, but I think in the outfield. We saw that early in the season. For how great they are, I do believe that there’s more there, and we’ll address it. We’ll address it. I think (Andrew Benintendi) can become a complete player. I know he’s been in the final vote of the Gold Glove the last two years, but I think he can make some strides.

“I think early in the season we were a step slower than the other teams, and we paid the price because of that, as far as communication and the way we were moving in the outfield. We can do better.

“I think the next step for Xander (Bogaerts) is to become a better defensive player. For how sure-handed he is, I think his first step can be better. He’s that good of an athlete, so that’s the next challenge. If we do that, we’ll be better. Turnover play, we have to do that. It’s funny because I mentioned that in Orlando a few years ago. Double plays are game-changers. You don’t turn over the play, you pay the price. You turn over the play, you go and hit and score runs. So we have to do better than that.

“Defensively behind the plate, for how great he was, blocking wasn’t great for Christian (Vazquez). He’s working on that. There’s a few things that I have learned over the last two months that we didn’t do right, and we can do better. If we do that, we’re going to have a good season.”

* The Athletic

How will recent deals across MLB impact Red Sox roster-building plans?

Jen McCaffrey

With the Winter Meetings in the rearview mirror, baseball has officially shifted into the second half of the offseason — a phase that holds the potential for significant action.

Once thought of as the dormant months before spring training, the period from December to February has picked up in recent years with a slew of “late” signings and trades. That figures to be no different this year, especially for the Red Sox.

Boston’s only moves last week in San Diego were to sign utility infielder Jose Peraza and left-handed starter Martin Perez. At this point, those two moves seem to plug the holes in the infield and rotation, but there’s still plenty of time before pitchers and report for chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom to flex his creative muscles as he seeks to reduce payroll.

The most common cliches uttered by Red Sox front office members at the Winter Meetings were that they were monitoring the market, talking with clubs and preparing for several possibilities. So let’s assess how some of the moves other teams have already made this offseason affect the Sox.

The elite pitcher trade Indians send RHP Corey Kluber and cash considerations to the Rangers for OF Delino DeShields Jr. and RHP Emmanuel Clase (minors) News of the Kluber trade broke on Sunday afternoon. It’s one of the first significant pitcher trades of the offseason and the fact that it comes midway through December is notable for the Red Sox. So far, teams looking to add pitching have largely turned to the free agent market where monstrous deals have been signed for Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg and Zack Wheeler.

If the Red Sox are actively trying to trade starter David Price, as has been widely reported, it’s likely they’ve been slowed by teams’ desire to pursue free agents first. Perhaps the Kluber deal now opens the floodgates for more trades of starting pitching. At the very least, it offers some reference points for what the Red Sox could get in a Price deal.

Kluber had a rough 2019 with a fractured forearm and oblique strain limiting him to seven mediocre starts. But from 2014-18, he averaged more than 200 innings per season with a 2.85 ERA and 10.1 K/9. He won the AL twice in that span.

The righty, who turns 34 in April, is owed $17.5 million in 2020 with an $18 million vesting option for 2021 if he reaches 160 innings and is not on the injury list at the end of the season, according to The Athletic’s .

Price, 34, is coming off the worst year of his career ERA-wise, with a 4.28 ERA over 22 starts in an injury- shortened season. From 2014-18, Price posted a 3.32 ERA and 9.3 K/9. He’s owed $96 million over the next three seasons with an average annual value of $32 million. The Red Sox would likely have to include cash in any deal for Price, but the key is to get a solid player return.

The return the Indians got for Kluber, however, seems to indicate the Sox should temper expectations about potential return for Price.

The Indians acquired hard-throwing relief prospect Emmanuel Clase, whom MLB Pipeline compares to former Texas closer Neftali Feliz. Clase was the 23rd-best prospect in a deep Cleveland farm system. The Indians also got speedy outfielder Delino DeShields, who hit .249 with a .672 OPS last season.

Going forward teams will likely use this deal as a formula for talks on Price – a solid prospect and a mid- level major leaguer.

The elite free agent starter signings: Yankees sign Gerrit Cole to a nine-year, $324 million contract Nationals sign Stephen Strasburg to a seven-year, $245 million contract Phillies sign Zack Wheeler to a five-year, $118 million contract Diamondbacks sign Madison Bumgarner to a five-year, $85 million deal (pending physical) The Kluber deal probably more closely reflects what could happen regarding Price, but the recent free agent signings further define the picture for the starting market. As one executive noted last week, Price’s remaining $96 million total value looks much more palatable compared to the $230 million-plus deals signed by Cole and Strasburg. Add Wheeler and Bumgarner to the list, too. Again, the Red Sox would likely have to include cash in any deal for Price, but if this is the market for starters his remaining salary looks easier to move now.

The solid-addition-to the rotation starter signings: Blue Jays sign Tanner Roark to a two-year, $24 million contract Mets sign Michael Wacha to a one-year, $3 million contract (incentives to reach $11.35 million total) Rangers sign Kyle Gibson to a three-year, $30 million contract Mets sign Rick Porcello to a one-year, $10 million contract Twins sign to a two-year, $20 million contract The first takeaway here is that Rick Porcello is off the market. There was some speculation that Porcello, despite his career-worst season in Boston, would re-sign with the club on a low-guarantee, incentive-laden deal. Alas, he found more guaranteed money with the Mets, a team that’s much closer to his native New Jersey, too.

Wacha, Roark, Gibson and Pineda are all starters the Red Sox could have been in the mix for with deals in the $10-12 million average annual value range. Instead the Red Sox opted to go an unconventional route and sign the lefty Perez to a $6 million deal with a $6.25 million option for 2021.

Looking purely at the numbers, Perez doesn’t jump off the page with a 5.12 ERA in 32 games (29 starts) last season, but clearly the Red Sox see something enticing in him, like the upside he showed last year with his cutter:

It’s also possible Perez isn’t the only low-risk, low salary-type starter the Red Sox plan to sign. Regardless, it seems as if they’re more in the market for bargains than middle-of-the-rotation types.

The massive position player contact The Angels sign Anthony Rendon to a seven-year, $245 million contract

We took a deeper look last week at how Rendon’s massive deal, with its $35 million average annual salary, will likely be a talking point in any future extension negotiations Mookie Betts and his agents have with the Red Sox (or other teams if he enters free agency next winter).

The bullpen additions Dodgers sign to a one-year, $10 million contract Rangers sign Joely Rodriguez to a two-year, $5.5 million contract There have been other bullpen signings, but these two stand out for different reasons. Given that the Red Sox don’t seem inclined to spend $10 million on a starter, spending that much on a reliever seems even less likely. Treinen was an intriguing free agent when he was non-tendered by the Athletics because he seems healthy and due for a bounce-back year after a rough season. But the asking price for similar bullpen arms will likely remain in this range and therefore out of the Red Sox’ plan.

As for Rodriguez, it’s easy to wonder if the Red Sox are frustrated they missed out on this one. The Athletic’s noted that one National League executive labeled Rodriguez as the “most underrated move of the Winter Meetings.” This type of low-risk, high-reward deal seems like a deal Bloom would make.

Catching depth Tigers sign Austin Romine to a one-year, $4 million contract The Red Sox need a backup catcher following the departure of Sandy Leon. They’re likely still looking to stay in the $3 million range (which Leon was scheduled to make in arbitration) so Romine, while a much stronger bat that Leon, was probably not an exact match for them.