The Red Sox had a very quiet offseason, as their big moves were trading away one starting pitcher and signing another, though the latter of the two eventually required season-ending surgery.
Major League Signings
- RHP Lucas Giolito: Two years, $38.5MM (Giolito can opt-out after ’24; includes conditional option for ’26)
- RHP Liam Hendriks: Two years, $10MM (includes buyout of ’26 mutual option)
- RHP Chase Anderson: One year, $1.25MM
- RHP Cooper Criswell: One year, $1MM
2024 spending: $23.25MM
Total spending: $50.75MM
Option Decisions
- IF Justin Turner declines $13.4MM player option in favor of $6.7MM buyout
- Team declines $11MM option on RHP Corey Kluber
- Team declines $4.25MM option on LHP Joely Rodríguez in favor of $500K buyout (later re-signed on minors deal)
Trades and Claims
- Acquired right-hander Isaiah Campbell from Mariners for IF Luis Urías
- Traded OF Alex Verdugo to Yankees for RHPs Greg Weissert, Richard Fitts and Nicholas Judice
- Acquired OF Tyler O’Neill from Cardinals for RHPs Nick Robertson and Victor Santos
- Acquired INF Vaughn Grissom from Braves for LHP Chris Sale
- Claimed RHP Max Castillo off waivers from Royals (later lost off waivers to Phillies)
- Claimed IF/OF Romy González off waivers from White Sox
- Acquired C Tyler Heineman from Mets for cash
- Traded RHP John Schreiber to Royals for RHP David Sandlin
- Acquired RHP Naoyuki Uwasawa from Rays for cash
Notable Minor League Signings
- Joely Rodríguez (later selected to roster), Mark Contreras, Jorge Benitez, Wyatt Mills, Roberto Pérez, Mark Kolozsvary, Dalton Guthrie, Michael Fulmer, Lucas Luetge, Jason Alexander
Extensions
- RHP Brayan Bello: Six years, $55MM (includes buyout on club option for ’30)
Notable Losses
- Turner, Kluber, Adam Duvall, James Paxton, Richard Bleier, Adalberto Mondesí, Christian Arroyo, Shane Drohan, Ryan Fernandez
The Red Sox franchise has seemingly decided that it does not want to be a powerhouse anymore. For the first two decades of this millennium, they were incredibly aggressive, running top five payrolls for most of that time. That aggression paid off handsomely, as the Sox broke their 86-year curse and won the World Series four times from 2004 to 2018.
But since then, their top priority has seemingly been to cut the budget. After the fourth title in 2018, they seemingly wanted to trim the payroll but president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski wouldn’t do it, so they let him go. That led the club to bring in Chaim Bloom from the Rays, hoping that he could bring some small-market tactics to their large-market club. Shortly after he was hired in October of 2019, he traded Mookie Betts and David Price to the Dodgers in what was largely a cost-cutting move.
In 2023, the payroll had fallen to middle of the pack as they started the season 12th out of 30, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. In September of 2023, the fourth season with Bloom in charge, the Sox were about to finish last in the American League East for the second time in a row and for the third time in the four Bloom years. This was apparently enough for the franchise to make another change, as they let Bloom go before last year’s season was up.
This meant Boston started the offseason looking for a new person to head up the baseball operations department, but it was a tough pitch, with many candidates quickly withdrawing their names or declining to be interviewed. After all, who would want to work for a club that’s going to provide you with few resources and then put your head under the axe when things don’t go well? But in the end, they settled on Craig Breslow, a former player and Yale graduate who had been an assistant GM in the Cubs’ front office. They also brought back old friend Theo Epstein, but he’ll be in a part ownership and advisory role, seemingly not active in the baseball decisions on a day-to-day basis.
Some wondered if the move from Bloom to Breslow would lead ownership to sign off on a bigger budget, in order to convince fans they were moving away from nickel-and-diming and returning to their aggressive ways. Chairman Tom Werner seemed to fan these flames in November when he declared that the club was going to “be full-throttle in every possible way.” Breslow did promise to be aggressive, particularly in targeting starting pitching, but the offseason ended up being mostly about shuffling deck chairs. They sniffed around the markets for Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto but never seemed to be the favorites in those markets.
In the rotation, where the club was reportedly looking to shop at the top of the market, their big splash was to sign Lucas Giolito. It was a sensible buy-low move, since he had previously looked like a borderline ace but hit a rough patch before free agency. If he could get back to his form from a few years ago, it would be a steal.
Around the same time, they also subtracted from their rotation by sending Chris Sale to Atlanta for Vaughn Grissom. The young Grissom came up as a shortstop prospect, with great offensive skills but questions about his defense. Atlanta decided to roll with Orlando Arcia at short last year, but moving Grissom to second wasn’t an option for them with Ozzie Albies there, which made Grissom more useful as a trade chip.
The two moves together looked like a fine bit of business for Boston. In the rotation, they swapped in Giolito for Sale, arguably a wash depending on your opinions of those pitchers. Alongside that, they added a potential everyday second baseman, a position that’s been a bit of a carousel for Boston since the Dustin Pedroia days.
Unfortunately, Giolito was later diagnosed with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament and a flexor strain. He required internal brace surgery and will miss the entire 2024 season. The Sox didn’t pivot and add another starter, so the rotation that was a clear priority all winter is essentially the same as last year but minus Sale. Grissom still hasn’t made his debut with the Sox thanks to a groin strain, though he should be with the club in a few weeks.
Although that bad news about Giolito didn’t drop until early March, the Sox still had a chance to pivot. Thanks to a surprisingly slow offseason, pitchers like Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell were still available in the later stages of the winter. The fit with Montgomery and the Sox had been speculated upon all winter, especially since he was spending some time in the area as his wife was doing a residency at a Boston hospital. But the Sox decided not to rush out to the market to replace Giolito, letting Montgomery go to the Diamondbacks on a one-year deal and even letting a back-of-the-rotation guy like Michael Lorenzen sign with the Rangers for a mere $4.5MM.
In addition to Montgomery, the club had plenty of interest in other free agents, including Yariel Rodríguez, Seth Lugo, Teoscar Hernández, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Robert Stephenson, Shota Imanaga and many others. Ultimately, their other most significant moves were somewhat similar to the Giolito/Sale swap. They traded outfielder Alex Verdugo to the Yankees for a collection of arms, while also flipping a couple of other pitchers to St. Louis for Tyler O’Neill.
Both outfielders are impending free agents, so the two moves don’t make a huge difference to the franchise right away, but it’s a sensible enough swap for them to make. Verdugo has seemingly established what he is at this point, a solid defender with an average-ish bat, a good but not excellent player. His value wasn’t going to get much higher, as even a hot couple of months early in 2024 would come with some skepticism.
O’Neill, on the other hand, has borderline MVP upside. He finished eighth in National League MVP voting after hitting 34 home runs, stealing 15 bases and providing excellent defense that year. He’s been hampered by injuries in the two seasons since, but it makes sense for the Sox to give him regular playing time and see what happens. If he can get back in good form by the end of July, he could have more trade value than when they acquired him. He’s also making $5.85MM this year compared to Verdugo’s $8.7MM.
The Sox also considered some further teardown moves, with Kenley Jansen, Chris Martin and Masataka Yoshida’s names all floated in rumors throughout the winter. None of that trio ended up leaving Boston, though the Sox did trade reliever John Schreiber to the Royals for pitching prospect David Sandlin.
Ultimately, it seems the franchise is focused more on the future than the present. None of the free agents they signed added any money beyond 2025 and their second-largest free agent deal was for reliever Liam Hendriks. He’s recovering from Tommy John surgery and won’t pitch until around the trade deadline, at the earliest, but he could give the club a future closer with Jansen and Martin set to become free agents after 2024.
Their most significant contract was an extension for right-hander Brayan Bello, who they inked to a six-year, $55MM pact. It’s a bit of a risk since his major league work has been more decent than great so far, relying on a ground ball approach without many punchouts. But he had more strikeout stuff in the minors and could take a step forward in the years to come.
Extending other young players was also discussed, though without anything getting done so far. Right-hander Tanner Houck and first baseman Triston Casas were frequently mentioned as candidates for such a deal but nothing was finalized before the 2024 season started.
For the time being, it seems the club is content to roll with their internal options and see how things go. The 2024 season will involve a lot of playing time going to young guys like Grissom, Houck, Casas, Bello, Garrett Whitlock, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu and Kutter Crawford. At the same time, the club will surely be keeping a close eye on prospects like Marcelo Mayer, Kyle Teel, Nick Yorke, Wikelman Gonzalez and Roman Anthony, who are all starting this year at Double-A and could be pushing for big league debuts throughout the year.
The performance of those players will likely dictate how the club decides to proceed next winter and beyond. Whether that will even see them returning to a top-five payroll remains to be seen. Like last year, they came into 2024 with their payroll 12th in the league, per Cot’s. If that is your definition of “full throttle,” raise your hand.
While that plays out, there’s another unanswered question surrounding the club, as manager Álex Cora is now in a lame duck position as 2024 is the final year of his contract. He’s been coy about his future plans, with some suggesting he wants to move into a front office position while others believe he wants to take the Craig Counsell route and max out his next contract as a manager. Whether either of those paths lead to him staying in Boston is something that will have to be revealed in time.
Solid 73 win team
Typo. Solid 7-3 team.
7-10 split in the form of a baseball team.
So far not a single A on the survey? Interesting.
Shouldn’t you have to actually DO something to get an A? I considered a B, but hard to justify even that when ownership is going cheap. I would give Breslow an A for what he has done within the constraints, but ownership balances that with an F.
I would give Breslow an A for what he has done within the constraints, but ownership balances that with an F.
===================
That’s 100% accurate.
It’s April 5 and they still don’t have a starting MLB-level second baseman.
They do, he is on the DL. Valdez is a fine reserve.
Grissom started 2 games at 2B last year for the Braves. 2.
That’s the starter? And Story just went down tonight, so Grissom or yet another garbage reserve will need to play SS.
They have no legitimate MLB depth because of cheapness.
@Mike In defense of any team needing a 2B last year and this year, market has been unbelievably thin. Schoop was ranked a top 5 FA 2B which is telling.
This is where I have to give a ton of credit to Rangers. With the bleak outlook of 2B for a few yrs in 2021 they go out and sign both Semien and Seager and solidified their middle infield for years to come.
You too often resort to insults, but you are 100% correct on that one. Their front-line players aren’t awful, maybe good enough to win 80-85 games, but because they didn’t spend any money they are very short on depth.
They needed Giolito (or preferably a better starter) for the depth and innings, not because he is necessarily a more effective pitcher than Whitlock or Houck when on the mound. They needed a solid RHH 1B/3B who is better than Dalbec. Wouldn’t hurt to have another good reliever or two in the pen, better than Joely Rodriguez and Chase Anderson.
The other issue is that they are short on star talent. They have competent players at most positions as long as they stay healthy (oops), but after Devers they have no established stars. You can maybe play .500 baseball like that but you can’t run with the top teams in the league.
Can’t keep star talent in town if you don’t pay them. Can’t attract star talent if you don’t pay them. The top priority of ownership at this point is a cheap roster.
Grissom could be moved back to SS if Story goes under the knife.
Duran/O’Neill/ Casas/Masa all have offensive upside.
Others have suggested that as well, but Grissom was REALLY bad defensively at shortstop last year.. Nor do they really have a superior alternative at 2B. I would keep Grissom at the position where he is most likely to be successful, and then sort through the alternatives to fill the remaining position. Reyes, Hamilton, Gonzalez? Not saying it will be pretty, but better than playing a defensive black hole at both SS and 2B.
TFF-Fine comment. I really wanted Davis, but he was probably looking for a starting gig. I think Joely will give way to Bernandino, but Anderson is pretty much on the edge. But maybe that isn’t the end of the world for a cheap guy to get thrown to the wolves.
I agree. Don’t create a 2nd problem to resolve your first problem. Honestly, if Grissom settles into a 2.0 bWAR 2B in his rookie year, I will be very happy.
As long as Cora can get Anderson innings without costing the team wins, I’m on board with that. Picking up three inning saves in blowouts is a good role for him. (Or finishing the last few innings in games that we get blown out.)
They could have snagged Davis off waivers if they were willing to eat his full contract, but I can understand why they didn’t. Just need Devers and Casas to stay healthy.
Somebody will get injured soon enough and we can carry both Joely and Bernardino?
Lowest ERA in the league right now. Hmmm … all the naysayers. Overpaying for perceived talent and value does not equal winning
Small sample size. No one is handing the 2024 World Series title to the Pirates right now, either.
Let’s see where they’re out at the end of April. Best case scenario, they’re battling for a wild card spot.
No one is that stupid.
NB4 the trolls
That’s depressing!
The Sox are literally tied for first.
It’s early and three games were against a team that could easily lose over 100 games.
That said, starting pitching has surprised me so far. While I don’t expect them to continue the season as they are I don’t think the rotation will be nearly as bad as first predicted.
Absolutely agree, their pen is quality and the rotation has the potential to be upper third. The problem is that they need the starters to stay healthy and stay strong, and most of them have never thrown a 160 inning season before. So fatigue and/or injury are almost certain to take them down a notch, and the depth starters are marginal.
If Henry had any shame he’d be ashamed of himself. Pathetic! Ahahaha!
Upgraded from an ‘F’ to a ‘D’ for Bailey’s contributions and O’neill so far. Time will tell.
The Red Sox are currently 5-2, and have the lowest ERA in the MLB. Yes, it is a small sample size, but not bad for a team that has NO starters. (The starters have gone at least 5 innings in every start, and their strikeouts/walk ratio is 38/1.)
They played a series against the A’s. That really shouldn’t count. They could have won all 4 in Seattle. That’s a positive, but it’s a long season.
D-
This was a brutal hack job, but they earned it.
Not entirely. Some of this article is pure bull. First off the Betts trade wasn’t as much about cutting salary as taking a player at his word that he was going to ride things out to free agency and see where it went from there. Secondly, faulting the Sox for not remaining in the top 5 in total payroll when so much insane spending has been happening, with 3 teams sitting past the top CBT level in the 110% tax bracket and others approaching the 3rd level, most of them not getting any sort of payoff on the money spent in terms of WS championships, and some not even making the playoffs (both NY teams and SD last year) why try and match the insanity? At least Boston cashed in the crazy spending with the WS win in 2018. Trying to maintain that with the deals to Sale, Eovaldi and Bogaerts on the heels of that along with the JDM contract they could never shed was a major contributing factor to some of the down years as much of that wound up being underperforming wasted money. Meanwhile Tampa Bay and Baltimore blew past the Sox in on-field accomplishments while spending a fraction of the payroll. The mantra of the Sox being cheap is mostly pointless whining from spoiled fans.
KingKen – 1000% accurate! Big payrolls do not guarantee WS wins or even playoff appearances. Last year Padres, Mets, and Yankee teams were not at all well constructed, and lmao that they missed the playoffs. Teams that do well are ones that have a strong home grown core. Dombroski spent a lot of money and won a WS in 2018, but it took a while to unwind those contract. Thanks to the Dodgers for paying David Price the last $48,000,000 of his $217,000,000 seven year deal from Boston, the Red Sox could start the rebuild a couple years earlier. The only 40-man roster spot remaining from 2018 is Devers, and the old un-athletic, error prone team has transformed itself into what will likely be of top defensive teams in the MLB in 2024.
I think the reason it is such a problem is because they could’ve afforded *some* good FAs in recent years, and they certainly didn’t need to trade Betts in hopes of keeping him. He is one of the best players in the game.
But, I think the bigger problem has been the FO’s false assertion that it is going to do what the Yankees, Pads, Mets, and other top spending teams have done, while doing almost the complete opposite. I believe if they had just been honest with the fanbase they would’ve garnered more support; however some fans would have undoubtedly disagree with their small market approach.
While I agree that spending does not equal winning (see Yankees as example #1), they are operating more like Pittsburgh than any large market team.
The reality is that they’ve not been in serious contention for any top FAs since….Story(?), when they’ve had clear needs that could be filled with proven talent in FA.
Clipper: I would rather build through the farm system. I’ve had enough of seeing huge free agent contracts go bad. The Red Sox CBT payroll is over $200M again. I think that should be enough to field a very competitive team if spent well.
Suit: I completely agree that it could be just as effective to build that way, and if done right, more sustainable over the long-term. My comments were just referencing my perception of why the fanbase (as a whole) is angry.
From my position it seems that if they had said they were rebuilding through the farm when Breslow came in, there would’ve been initial blowback, but not the added perception by the fans they were lied to.
I could be off on my assessment of the Boston fans’ reactions too. I didn’t mean to imply I was negatively criticizing their approach….just stating my observations of the fans that are. Hope that makes sense, Suit.
Honestly, I think they’re going to surprise some people this season (including me). And Breslow has done a good job with what he was handed so far, imo.
Clipper: I see what you are saying. Yes, it was a mistake for Werner to say they are going full throttle. I was actually relieved to see them show some financial restraint. I also don’t take seriously what people say. I wait and see what happens. So, Red Sox ownership didn’t really bother me this offseason like they bothered other people.
So what, you think everyone heard Werner say they were going full throttle and were absolutely convinced it was true? No one thought that. Everyone waited to see what would happen. And when it turned out that was a lie, people got mad. Not because they believed it, but because they got lied to. You’ve somehow convinced yourself that doing the same thing everyone else did makes you smarter than them.
I only spoke about myself and my approach.
I don’t view the full throttle comment as a lie as much as a miscalculation. When the comment was made the Sox considered themselves very much favorites to land Yamamoto, as they were one of the earliest teams to try and establish a relationship with him going back a couple of years. What they couldn’t predict was the contract Ohtani would sign with LA and have it structured in a way to help lure Yamamoto there. So yes, it was certainly foolish to make a comment like that when it all rested on the whims of one player but it wasn’t the outright lie many made it out to be. Because after Yamamoto there wasn’t any pitcher on the free agent market worthy of a huge splash contract, which is why no other pitcher got a deal like that.
Red sox Nation is the best fanbase in all sports
Actually they are about the worst:
wokq.com/new-survey-says-red-sox-fans-are-among-th…
You are confusing good with obnoxious. I would agree with that linked survey that Red Sox and Yanks fanbases are both good and obnoxious.
How did they quantify an annoying fan? According to Crestline annoying fans:
Are fair weather/bandwagon fans
Having suffered through them tonight:
Drunk
Loud profanity
Starting fights
The only two series in Anaheim with fights are the Sux and Dodgers.
G+
Let the season play out and see how they do. A little Burdi told me to say that, but I know it’s a wild pitch,
random place to take a shot at the yankees.
NC-17
Hard to argue anything above a resounding F for the Sox offseason. After Warner’s comments then the FO being pressed to even know the range of offer made to Yamamoto and declining to say anything other than “We feel like we made a strong offer.” The fans are once again left with what is once again a last place team and hoping for John Henry to finally sell the franchise.
While I know a lot of people want to point to their start as a bright spot, They have played one borderline playoff team who has yet to get there and a team so bad that next year they will be playing in a AA ballpark. The Red Sox will be expected sellers once again this trade deadline and can look forward to another year of lost confidence from the fan base.
FULL THROTTLE
Well, technically……you can go full throttle in reverse too.
Sometimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make. I do think Kutter and a couple other guys will emerge as solid starters and giving them playing time will pan out.
That said, this ownership group has set expectations they aren’t meeting. They could’ve added some talent to the young group.
C at best but probably a D.
Justin Slaten was left off the list of acquisitions and he looks like he could possibly be an important bullpen piece. Maybe there could have been a discussion about the belief that the current group of starters would do well this year?
Especially when the author tries to paint taking a pass on someone like Michael Lorenzen as being cheap vs. simply not considering him any sort of an upgrade over who they currently have. The author spends far too much time trying to paint everything as having to do with money. Even the swap of Verdugo for O’Neill he tries to paint that way, when that has much more to do with balancing out the right/left mix of players in the lineup. Overall this was a weakly researched and written article, pandering to the whiny faction of the Sox fan base.
I almost never pay any heed to MLBR RS articles. At this point, it is impossible to prefer Lorenzen over Whitlock, though that could change tomorrow.
This team is much better than their fans give them credit for. The rotation will be better. The OF is better. They’ll have an actual 2B with Grissom when he’s healthy. Story *should* be better.
The problem is how long those arms hold up and the AL East is a buzzsaw, so unless the other regress (I’m not sold on TB and TOR), then they’re still probably a last place team.
I think every starting rotation in the AL East has some question marks. So, I think the Red Sox will be right in the dog fight with everyone.
They look good so far..defense is vastly improved
Haters on here gonna hate because they are caught up in their feelings. Could it be that John Henry was right about his analysis of the club and saw a young core that was ready? This team looks very athletic and could possibly lead the league in stolen bases. Tyler O’Neil and Cedanne Rafaela have been a breath of fresh air in the outfield. Could it be that the fans are wrong? I’m beginning to think we were….
How do you think we are wrong when they played all bad teams so far. Oakland is by far the worst team in the league so I’m not surprised Boston swept them. Let’s wait till they play good teams and then we will find out if we were wrong. I’m not sold on this rotation.
Seattle has the best starting rotation in baseball. Any 4 of their rotation would be our Ace. They did split with a 90 win team, Houston and Texas barely beat Seattle in the final week.
As a Cardinals fan and big ONeill fan I thought the Red Sox did great with that trade. But why deal for ONeill then trade Sale? With Sale at least you maybe had an ace just like with ONeill you maybe have a star position player. But to trade Sale then sign Giolito that was dumb. The only thing Giolito had going for him was health and now he doesn’t even have that.
Black – seven years of Grissom for one year of ace who has pitched a full season since 2017 is your answer.
Then why trade 6 years of whoever that reliever the Red Sox gave up for ONeill?
Either you are trying to compete or you’re not. You gotta pick a direction.
I doubt the two pitchers traded for O’Niell will amount to much. Robertson’s ERA has been through the roof and Santos is a soft thrower who missed all of 2023 due to injury.
Grissom was one of Atlanta’s best prospects vs the pitchers St. Louis got for O’Neill are just plain not very good…..day and night difference….
he made, what, like 34 starts since signing his extension?
Sale’s contract was untradeable. Probably the best we could expect would be to trade him for nothing and eat maybe $14M. Instead we ate $17M and got Grissom.
It was unusual circumstances that Atlanta wanted to capitalize on a good 2B prospect that had no opening.
I don’t think Grissom is all that good of a prospect. Why not just keep Sale and then maybe you have an actual ace which Boston certainly needed and still needs.
To answer that question : 1/ 7 years of potential 2B stalwart which they’ve been searching for since Dustin 2/ they won’t win the division this year (Orioles ) let alone the WS so having an ace serves no purpose 3/ it’s a soft rebuild with hardly anyone over 30 and earning silly money and finally 4/ you need to let young SPs pitch to see if they have talent and the “chops” to be part of the future. My only remorse is that they didn’t really try to sign Yamamoto – he is young, talented and would be a great focal point for helping Bella and co. Improve – his arsenal is that varied.
I think it was already decided Yamamoto was part of the Ohtani package. Ohtani was Yamamoto’s mentor back in Japan, apparently they are really close. Whoever won Ohtani as long as they made a bid on par with the others, they were going to win Yamamoto.
Your best attribute is availability, Sale was always hurt, we need a 2nd baseman, and Grissom is young like the team is. He would be a great fit. Sale is in his mid-30s and frail…
ONeill was always hurt. And just like Sale now he’s not hurt and he’s playing well.
They are very similar players.
O’Neil wasn’t 35 and being paid 27.5 million either. Boston still on the hook for 17 million and really I think the Red Sox did Sale a favor while helping themselves by trading him to Atlanta which to me are still the World Series favorites. Albies is going to retire a Brave there was no spot for Grissom.
I am perfectly fine with the Red Sox off season approach with the exception of bringing Cora back….. if this team competes for a Playoff spot it will just be Gravy…. the time to spend and invest in Pitching is the next upcoming off season.
Seeing the Giolito pic makes me nauseous.
Bernardino has an option left and Rodriguez does not. So, it looks like they are stashing Bernardino in AAA as depth.
In simple terms, it’s about options to the minors. Joely 0, Bernardino more than zero.
Jorge Benitez and Cam Booser have looked better than Bernardino at AAA Worcester. Still this is a Cora call I would have Benitez his stuff is swing and miss stuff.
Whenever I’m having a bad day, I head on over to this comment section to remind myself that at least I’m not a whiny manbaby.
Sinister – as long as you wear the ankle monitoring device and stay at home everything should be ok.
Yes.
Red Sox Nation is juvenile as always, and this review isn’t much better. The crop of young starting pitchers is the best the team has had since Clemens, Hurst, Tudor, Ojeda and oil Can. One or more of the kids is likely to mature into an ace.. Last year’s team was on track to make the play-offs until everyone got hurt. The offense is strong, and the bullpen is deep. Signing free agents hasn’t worked for Boston in a long time, nor has long term deals. They got one god season out of Sale, one out of Schilling, one out of Eovaldi, one out of Hanley, one out of Napoli, none out of Sandoval. Going with the kids makes perfect sense. And they will contend in ’24.
I like this take. I watch 95% of Red Sox games year in and year out. This team looks good so far. I don’t think the offense has even scratched the service on what it could do. The pitching, I gotta admit, I didn’t have high hopes for but I definitely wasn’t throwing in the towel for 2024 just yet. There’s definitely a better “vibe” this year than last year and I hope it continues.
Yes they look good against two teams that didn’t make the playoffs last year. Oakland could be beaten by many AAA teams. The best young crop of starting pitchers? Based on what? None of these guys are front line starters except possibly bello if he can take another step forward. The rest are back of the rotation pitchers. The Sox have no pitching in the pipeline, it’s all position players.
There is no “crop” of young starting pitchers. There’s Bello.
It’s the biggest problem with the organization and hopefully something Breslow will fix.
Look, I get that there are a lot of Red Sox apologists on online forums. This team did nothing this offseason. I hope it works out. Wins against bad teams count too and they’re taking care of business so far.
But don’t act like they did anything this offseason because they didn’t. It’s not strategy. It’s a budget. They’re not the same thing.
Jack – 100% true and look at 2018 as an example. The majority of position player starters were home grown! The rotation was through trades! Very few were free agents!
Home Grown:
Betts
Bradley
Benintendi
Devers
Bogaerts
Vazquez
Barnes
Brian Johnson
Workman
Trades:
Rick Porcello
Eduardo Rodriguez
Chris Sale
Nathan Eovaldi
Kimbrel
Joe Kelly
Hembree
Pomeranz
Steven Wright
Eduardo Nunez
Brock Holt
Free Agents:
Mitch Moreland
JD Martinez
David Price
F…. Doesn’t stand for Full Throttle!
Short memory people. This organization is BRILLIANT. 4 WS since 04 and u clowns think ur smarter. Dopes. They are going with a youth movement and have what’s called a strategy. They offered Betts 300 million and he declined. They no longer are offering idiotic contracts to has beens. Be patient. We are going to be excellent in near future for a lonnngggg time
Giolito’s contract was idiotic. The Story contract has been a complete bust. They’ve done plenty wrong and this offseason was pathetic. Cheapness is not a strategy.
No.
The day John Henry sells will be a great day for baseball.
And a great day for John Henry’s wallet.
By far the best owner in BB over the past 20 years.
Joe- I am shocked that the Trolls did not remind you that in 16 of those 20 years the Sox failed to win the WS.
Sox and Giants have the most titles the last 20 years. I’m telling ya John Henry knows something we don’t about this team. I think the only one he was interested in really spending on was Yamamoto. It’s a shame about Gioĺito, but let’s face it Snell and Montgomery did not.get their asking price for reasons other than punishing Boras.
LOL! Back in 2007, there were fans that opined that we should be winning a WS every year.
Even the Bill Russell Celtics only won 11 out of 13 NBA titles.
Problem for Henry and the Red Sox is actually one of their main assets – Fenway ! It’s a great park, beautiful, historical BUT so limited in size that payroll and investment is well just lessened that what it could be – they could have a 50k state of the art and add 20-30% in revenue but no one in Boston would accept that . Henry and co are also limited financially this year due to their PGA deal and Liverpool in the UK who need an investment to maintain their position as one of the leading teams in Soccer.
“Henry and co are also limited financially this year”
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Spending looks pretty consistent.
The Red Sox CBT player payroll per Spotrac:
2021: $207.6M
2022: $236.1M
2023: $225.7M
2024: $210.1M so far
I guess you could say spending is slightly down. However, I think the real question is: Are they spending enough to field a very competitive team?
I agree with what you are saying about Fenway.
All – Recently I have had some brain surgery and I realized coming back that you are still saying the same as before the surgery. I suggest as always, you consider quality players and acquiring then and not worrying about the payroll number because it does NOT mean anything. Boston is a bad team with a low talent level but some exciting players.
Whether it’s 2024 or 2026 or even 2030 before the talent level comes up the team will be inconsistent. The defense will be bad and maybe the pitching will improve. I like O’Neill, Duran, Rafaela and Casas on the hitting side and Houck, Crawford and maybe even Bello and Whitlock on the pitching side.
Their wins in 2024 can vary greatly based on how outstanding their starting staff is and how great O’Neill, Duran, Rafaela, Casas and Devers play. For me they could win 56, 66, 76 or even 86 based on their consistency.
It’s better than expected so far but injuries are already huge in 2024.
Don’t worry about access to money, focus on quality of players only and the rest will come.
I think you misunderstand me. I agree as before that acquiring quality players is the goal and the final payroll number does not matter as long as you are fielding a good team. I was not focusing on money. I was reacting to someone else focused on money.