Latest On Red Sox’ Pursuits

The Red Sox are considering adding a high-leverage reliever to bolster their bullpen, according to reporting from Ken Rosenthal, Will Sammon and Katie Woo of The Athletic. That aligns with recent reporting from Sammon that the Sox are interesting in Devin Williams. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow acknowledged this possibility, per Alex Speier of The Boston Globe, but maintained that the rotation is a bigger priority.

“We can do a better job of preventing other teams from scoring. There are a bunch of different ways to do that. We’ll be open-minded about all of them,” said Breslow. “The most straightforward is building out a better starting rotation. I’ve talked a bunch about that. Another way is to continue to improve our infield defense, and another is to make sure that when our starters hand the ball to our relievers, any leads that we have we’re preserving. So, I think we’ll look at it from all angles, but I think our priority remains starting pitching and position players.”

The Sox had one of the best bullpens in baseball in 2025. Their collective 3.41 earned run average was second only to the Padres. A lot of that was thanks to Aroldis Chapman being almost unhittable but they also got good results from guys like Garrett Whitlock, Greg Weissert and Brennan Bernardino, who are all slated to be back in 2025. Per The Athletic, the idea would be to add to an area of the roster that is already a strength to create a super bullpen, while keeping Chapman in the closer’s role.

That is one way they could go but Breslow has been pretty open about his desire to target a front-of-rotation arm and a middle-of-the-order bat. As with any baseball executive, it’s possible there’s some gamesmanship at play, but the rotation and the lineup are logical targets for Boston. Their rotation has a clearcut ace in Garrett Crochet but the other options are either uninspiring or unproven. The lineup has a lot of talent but they lost Rafael Devers and Alex Bregman in the past few months, so adding another bopper makes sense.

A baseball offseason can be unpredictable, so it’s understandable that Breslow would be open to pivoting as things change, but it’s probably fair to expect bullpen to be a lesser priority. Dylan Cease, Framber Valdez, Tatsuya Imai, Ranger Suárez, Michael King and Brandon Woodruff are some of the notable starters out there in free agency. MacKenzie Gore, Sonny Gray and Brady Singer could be available on the trade market. Bregman, Pete Alonso, Kyle Schwarber, Munetaka Murakami and Eugenio Suárez are some of the big free agent bats, with Taylor Ward and Adolis García some of the speculative trade candidates.

If the Sox eventually decide they do want to make a splash on the bullpen, they likely wouldn’t go after Edwin Díaz, with Chapman already in the closer’s role. Other notable free agent relievers include Williams, Ryan Helsley, Brad Keller, Robert Suarez, Raisel Iglesias, Kyle Finnegan, Luke Weaver, Tyler Rogers, Seranthony Domínguez and Pete Fairbanks. Some of the notable trade candidates include JoJo Romero, Jose A. Ferrer and Victor Vodnik.

RosterResource projects the club for a payroll of $180MM next year, with a competitive balance tax number of $216MM. They finished last year with a $207MM payroll and $245MM CBT number. Assuming they plan on spending at a similar level in 2026, they have a little more than $20MM in wiggle room but it’s possible their postseason finish in 2025 prompts them to take things up a notch.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images