The 2023-24 offseason has not been the hot stove that Boston Red Sox fans imagined.
While the team has been active in the trade and free agency markets, the Sox have yet to make any specific moves that fans can cite as a reason to think the team will improve on last year’s last-place finish in the American League East. Meanwhile, teams like the rival New York Yankees have made moves such as acquiring Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo in hopes of bolstering its roster ahead of next season. The other AL East teams have all made an effort to build a winning club ahead of the 2024 campaign. Yet, Boston seems stagnant in comparison to their peer’s transactions.
Perhaps the biggest move that the Red Sox made this offseason was the firing of their former President of Baseball Operations, Chaim Bloom, in favor of former pitcher and Yale graduate Craig Breslow. The New Haven native received praise in the past from many league officials, given his intuition and level of intellect surrounding the game of baseball. Bringing an executive of Breslow’s caliber was thought to lead to turnover within the team’s roster.
Instead, the moves that the Red Sox have made with Breslow have been, let’s say, perplexing. Not due to the players they’ve acquired themselves, but because of the way that the moves have left Boston’s roster.
So far, the Sox have acquired outfielder Tyler O’Neill from the St. Louis Cardinals and infielder Vaughn Grissom. They received pitcher Greg Weissert plus two minor league pitchers in the trade that sent Verdugo to the Yankees and signed free agent pitcher Lucas Giolito to a contract. Aside from Verdugo, other notable losses include P Chris Sale and designated hitter Justin Turner while outfielder Adam Duvall and P James Paxton remain free agents. Whether Boston’s additions are able to outweigh their subtractions remains to be seen, but in just the handful of moves that the team has made, their roster may have more question marks now than it did before.
Verdugo’s time as a team favorite died suddenly as the end of his tenure with the Red Sox turned sour, so there was no denying that the team needed to move on from him. Acquiring O’Neill as a potential bounce-back bat can help replace Verdugo, but the team has a plethora of outfielders as is. The team still has Jarren Duran and Masataka Yoshida on its roster to occupy the left and center field positions. Perhaps O’Neill serves as a fourth outfielder and rotates with younger Wilyer Abreu, whose late-season production drew attention last season, in right field. Still, that leaves budding prospect Ceddanne Rafaela without a spot in the outfield. Although Rafaela can also play in the infield, it’s difficult to imagine where he fits into a lineup that already includes starters Rafael Devers, Trevor Story, Triston Casas and now Grissom.
Hopefully you can start to see where the team’s roster problems lie; Boston currently has too many outfielders who will all cut into each other’s playing time. This becomes problematic when considering that it may be in the team’s best long-term interest to let its younger players, such as Abreau and Rafaela, play now to garner valuable experience for the future. With all of these players taking away each other’s playing time, will the Sox’s young prospects have a chance to show that they have a future as a solid contributor or will they be relegated to utility work?
The loss of Sale leaves the Red Sox without a true ace, a mantle that is likely in line for Brayan Bello to claim. The team added Giolito this offseason to help an ailing pitching staff, though it’s needless to say the team wouldn’t mind being on the receiving end of more arms. This is where another problem arises: instead of addressing their pitching needs, the Sox are relying on their average pitchers to carry them to the promised land. “At the end of the day, the Whitlocks, the [Kutter] Crawfords, the [Tanner] Houcks, the Bellos, they have to take a step forward,” team manager Alex Cora said Friday night at the team’s annual Winter Weekend event. Aside from Crawford, Houck, and Whitlock, you can add names like Nick Pivetta and Josh Winckowski to that list. While there’s no denying the talent that some of Boston’s pitchers have, simply put these expectations are unreasonable for many of their guys.
It’s not that these players aren’t good pitchers. In fact, that’s exactly the problem with the BoSox pitching staff: there are too many guys who are just good. If the Red Sox really want to win, they need to acquire a pitcher who is great. They need that no-doubt ace who can act as a leader. Right now, the pitching staff has no clear-cut leader and are more like a band of misfits than an organized orchestra. It seems that with guys like Whitlock, Houck, Crawford and Pivetta, the Sox can’t even decide if they operate best as starting pitchers or if they are better suited for the bullpen. How many more seasons can they roll out these arms with the same uncertainty constantly lingering?
What the Red Sox need to do, and what fans would love to see, is the team acquire a star-caliber pitcher by drawing from its plethora of outfielders and perhaps packaging one or two of their good-but-not-great pitchers. In addition, if the team wants to play its budding prospects in shortstop Marcelo Mayer or outfielder Roman Anthony on their big league squad in the near future, they’ll need to clear those positions for them. Just another reason for the team to package some players for another notable arm.
That would be the best case scenario for Boston. With the moves they’ve made right now, the team has a roster problem that will haunt them throughout the regular season. The time is now for the team to address those problems with a few moves here or there.