Red Sox Interested In Left-Handed Bullpen Depth
The Red Sox may not yet be completely done with their offseason, as Sean McAdam of MassLive reports that the club remains interested in improving their left-handed bullpen depth before the season begins. McAdam adds that Boston intends to have scouts monitoring players in other organizations during camp as they conduct their search.
That the Red Sox might want addition left-handed bullpen help isn’t exactly a shock. The team is incredibly deep in right-handed bullpen options, with Garrett Whitlock, Justin Slaten, Greg Weissert, and Zack Kelly all more or less already assured of roles and a plethora of non-roster invitees including Vinny Nittoli, Kyle Keller, Osvaldo Bido, and Hobie Harris. From the left side, however, Boston has just three credible options: Aroldis Chapman, Jovani Moran, and Tyler Samaniego. Chapman, of course, is locked into the closer role. That leaves only Moran and Samaniego as an option to serve as a matchup lefty prior to the ninth inning. Moran has just four innings of work at the big league level over the past two years, and Samaniego has yet to make his big league debut.
Sensible as it would be for the team to look to add more lefty bullpen help, the Red Sox seem committed to doing so only on their terms. McAdam notes that the club has made clear neither of the team’s top left-handed pitching prospects, Payton Tolle and Connelly Early, will be considered for moves into the big league bullpen. Both Tolle and Early are currently squeezed out of Boston’s deep rotation on paper, but it’s not hard to see why the team might prefer to have them stay stretched out at Triple-A, where they won’t need to adapt to a new role and won’t garner big league service time.
Likewise, McAdam indicates that the team doesn’t have much interest in adding a free agent on a major league contract at this point. Experienced, big league caliber southpaws including veteran Danny Coulombe and Jalen Beeks remain available in free agency, but McAdam suggests that those free agents are currently holding out for big league deals. Perhaps that stance could change in the coming weeks as Spring Training drags on, but for now that seems to leave the Red Sox scouting for waiver claims and trade additions.
Few clubs are going to willingly surrender relief depth at this point in the calendar given the possibility of injuries in their own bullpen before Opening Day. With that being said, there are some options who could plausibly be available. Ryan Borucki (White Sox), Cionel Perez (Nationals), Tayler Saucedo (Angels), Cam Booser (Rays), and Genesis Cabrera (Phillies) are among the notable non-roster invitees in other camps this spring who might be unable to secure a spot with their current club. Meanwhile, Tyler Gilbert (White Sox) and Ryan Rolison (Cubs) are among the 40-man lefties who are either out of options or could otherwise be squeezed out of their team’s roster at some point this spring.
One other possibility worth giving a particular mention to is Cardinals lefty JoJo Romero. Romero has been a known trade candidate all throughout the offseason, and while at this point he appears to be the favorite to serve as St. Louis’s closer in 2026, the rebuilding Cardinals have traded every other pending free agent from their 2025 roster this winter except for the southpaw. It certainly stands to reason that president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom would part ways with Romero in the right deal, and successful trades of both Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras from St. Louis to Boston earlier this winter show that Bloom and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow are certainly comfortable working with each other.
Red Sox Could Trade From Rotation After Suárez Deal
The Red Sox went big with their first free agent signing of the winter, adding Ranger Suárez for five years and $130MM on Wednesday. That followed trade acquisitions of Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo, meaning the Sox could enter the season having replaced 60% of their rotation.
Even with Lucas Giolito departing in free agency, the Red Sox have eight to ten viable options. They’ll be anchored at the top end by Garrett Crochet, Suárez and Gray. It’s unlikely that Boston would flip Oviedo within a few months of giving up a reasonably well-regarded outfield prospect (Jhostynxon Garcia) to acquire him. Beyond that, the Sox could dangle any of their starters on the trade market.
Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic and Sean McAdam of MassLive each wrote this week that a rotation trade was a possibility. The Sox don’t need to force one unless overwhelmed by an offer. Starting pitching depth can quickly thin, and most of Boston’s back-end arms have minor league options remaining. They can load up the rotation at Triple-A Worcester to prepare for injuries over the course of a 162-game schedule.
On the other hand, dealing a starter could get the Sox their finishing piece in the infield. They lost the bidding for Alex Bregman, leaving them short at least one player on the dirt. Even if they’re comfortable turning the hot corner to Marcelo Mayer, they don’t have a clear answer at second base. They don’t want to take Ceddanne Rafaela out of center field, where he’s one of the best defenders in the sport. Kristian Campbell struggled defensively as a rookie, and it seems the organization prefers him in the outfield. A platoon of David Hamilton and Romy Gonzalez is underwhelming for a win-now team in a competitive division.
If the Suárez signing was their one big free agent move in the budget, the Red Sox should find a way to add an infielder on the trade front. The Sox were tied to Ketel Marte before the Diamondbacks pulled him from the market. They’ve been linked to Brendan Donovan, although Ari Alexander of 7 Boston News suggests they’d prefer a right-handed bat and thus may not be as motivated as some other teams on Donovan (e.g. Giants, Mariners).
The Red Sox have been tied to Houston third baseman Isaac Paredes throughout the winter. Astros GM Dana Brown has downplayed the club’s interest in moving an infielder, but that hasn’t stopped teams from calling. Brian McTaggart of MLB.com wrote this week that teams continue to engage the Astros to see if they can change their minds on Paredes. Houston has added a pair of potential mid-rotation starters, Mike Burrows and Tatsuya Imai, but they remain light on controllable starting pitching.
Let’s take a run through the possibilities if chief baseball officer Craig Breslow does move a starter.
If the Sox deal from their rotation, these would be their two most valuable trade chips. Tolle and Early both debuted late in the 2025 season. Early was very good over four abbreviated starts. Tolle struggled over seven appearances, but that’s not going to deter teams from having interest in a 23-year-old who pitched his way to the big leagues within his first full professional season.
Tolle and Early respectively rank as the Sox’s top and third-best prospects at Baseball America. Tolle has bigger stuff, averaging 97 MPH on a heater that plays up even further based on his excellent extension and above-average life at the top of the zone. Early also gets good extension and has fantastic secondary stuff, headlined by a plus changeup. His 94 MPH fastball is closer to average, but he’s a superior strike-thrower to Tolle.
Both pitchers have six years of club control and a trio of minor league options. Teams are loath to part with starters who have this level of talent. It’s unlikely the Sox would trade either pitcher for a player who is a year from free agency. Would they entertain it for a controllable star hitter? McCaffrey and McAdam both floated the possibility of the Sox trying to reengage with Arizona on Marte by dangling one of Tolle or Early alongside an outfielder like Jarren Duran or Rafaela. Even if the Diamondbacks are committed to moving forward with Marte, the general idea is that the Sox would only move one of their most talented starters for an impact bat.
Bello will make $6MM next season and is signed for a total of $50.5MM over the next four years. There’s a club option for 2030 that gives the Sox a fifth season of control. Bello would be locked into the fourth starter role if he’s not traded. The 26-year-old righty has briefly come up in conversations this offseason, albeit with uncertainty about how willing the Sox are to move him.
Last season, Bello ranked second on the team with 166 2/3 innings. He turned in a 3.35 earned run average but didn’t have as favorable reviews from estimators like FIP (4.19) and SIERA (4.55). That’s due to a career-low 17.7% strikeout rate. Bello’s 8.6% swinging strike percentage was also a personal low and ranked in the bottom 25 among all MLB pitchers (min. 100 innings pitched). It’s difficult to maintain mid-rotation results with that level of swing and miss.
Bello has good velocity, averaging 95 MPH on his sinker and four-seam fastball. The sinker is the better of the two offerings, and he leans on it more as a ground-ball pitch than one that gets a lot of whiffs. While Bello has missed more bats in previous seasons, he has always had more of a ground-ball approach. There’s volatility baked into that, and the Sox don’t project to have a great infield defense behind him. Bello is probably closer to a league average arm than the ERA would indicate. That’s still valuable at the remaining $12.625MM average annual value on his contract. Notably, if the Sox chose to move Bello, they’d be trimming what’s currently a $9.166MM luxury hit from their current books (the overall AAV of his extension, which covers the 2024-29 seasons).
Kutter Crawford/Patrick Sandoval
Both pitchers missed the entire 2025 season. Crawford, who is signed for $2.75MM in his second of four arbitration years, began the year on the shelf with right knee discomfort. He injured his right wrist a couple months later and underwent surgery. Crawford had been a swingman for his first couple seasons but stepped into a full-time rotation role in 2024. He pitched well for a few months until a second-half home run spike pushed his ERA to 4.36 across 183 2/3 innings.
Crawford had slightly above-average strikeout and walk marks a couple seasons ago. The home runs and injury history are concerns, but he’s cheaply controllable through 2028 and could be a league average starter if he’s healthy. He also has a pair of minor league options, so there’s a decent amount of roster flexibility for the Sox or any team that acquires him. He’s well behind Tolle, Early and Bello in terms of trade value but would have some appeal if the Sox tried to swap him for a utility infielder or controllable bullpen piece.
The Sox knew that Sandoval was unlikely to pitch much (if at all) in 2025 when they signed him to a two-year, $18.25MM contract early in his rehab from June ’24 Tommy John surgery. They backloaded the deal, paying $5.5MM for his rehab year and a $12.75MM salary for the upcoming season. The 29-year-old Sandoval was a mid-rotation starter over his final three seasons as a member of the Angels. He pitched to a 3.84 ERA with a 21.9% strikeout rate in nearly 400 innings between 2022-24. His command is fringy but he sits around 94 MPH and has above-average secondaries with his changeup and slider.
Boston may not want to trade Sandoval for a modest return after paying more than $5MM to cover his rehab year. The front office liked him enough to sign him to that deal in the first place. Yet the rotation picture has changed, and Sandoval’s five-plus years of service mean he can’t be sent to the minors. They might be better off trusting Oviedo or Crawford as the fifth starter and getting some of Sandoval’s contract off the books for a utility or bullpen pickup.
Of the players acquired from the Giants in the Rafael Devers trade, Harrison was probably the centerpiece. The deal was mostly about moving on from Devers and shedding his contract. The Sox kept Harrison in Triple-A for much of the ’25 season even as their rotation was being hit by injuries. They finally brought him up in September. Harrison pitched well over his first two outings before getting knocked around in his third. The Sox carried him on their Wild Card Series roster but didn’t use him, opting instead to go with the rookie Early in a must-win Game 3.
Harrison has a decent arm, sitting in the 94-95 MPH range. His secondary stuff and command have been inconsistent, and he owns a 4.39 ERA across 194 2/3 career innings. Harrison is under club control for at least five seasons and has a pair of options remaining. There’d be plenty of teams interested if the Sox shopped him, but his stock has dropped since he was one of the sport’s top pitching prospects a couple seasons ago. Boston is probably better served holding him and hoping for a step forward in his age-24 season.
An offseason Houck trade wouldn’t accomplish much and feels unlikely. He’s coming off a terrible year that culminated in an August Tommy John procedure. He’s expected to miss the ’26 season and would have minimal appeal to another team. Houck agreed to a $4.1MM salary to avoid arbitration and should make the same amount for his final year of club control . They can place him on the 60-day injured list once Spring Training opens.
Red Sox Interested In Isaac Paredes; Astros Showing Interest In Payton Tolle, Connelly Early, Mike Burrows
With Framber Valdez now a free agent and the rotation still smarting from an injury-plagued season, the Astros are known to exploring the market for young, controllable starting pitching. As per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, pitchers on Houston’s radar includes the Pirates’ Mike Burrows, and Red Sox left-handers Payton Tolle and Connelly Early.
Adding to the intrigue is Boston’s interest in Astros infielder Isaac Paredes, as Rosenthal writes that the Red Sox view Paredes as a candidate to play third base, or to cover first base if Alex Bregman re-signs with the team. “Bregman still appears to be the Red Sox’s No. 1 target,” according to Rosenthal, but the Sox are casting a wide berth for other infield candidates in the event that Bregman signs elsewhere.
Paredes is projected for a $9.3MM salary via the arbitration process this winter, and he has one further year of arb control remaining as a Super Two player. Between these two years of affordable control, Paredes’ ability to handle either corner infield slot as well as second base, and his potent bat makes him a valuable asset, though he has already been traded four times in his career, including twice within the last 18 months. The Rays dealt Paredes to the Cubs at the 2024 deadline, and Chicago then included Paredes as part of the Kyle Tucker blockbuster last winter.
In his first season in Houston, Paredes spent two months on the injured list due to a severe hamstring strain, but mostly lived up to expectations by hitting .254/.352/.458 with 20 home runs over 438 plate appearances. As such, Astros GM Dana Brown said last month that moving Paredes “would be weakening our lineup. So right now, we have no interest in trading him.”
Of course, the “right now” left the door open, and the lure of one of Boston’s young southpaws could make the Astros more amendable to a trade. Moving Paredes would have the side benefit of clearing some space within the crowded Houston infield, which has Paredes, Christian Walker, Jose Altuve, Jeremy Pena, and Carlos Correa all lined up for four infield positions since the Astros are planning to primarily use Yordan Alvarez as the DH. Dealing Paredes also shaves $9.3MM off of the payroll, freeing up more money for the Astros to address other needs.
Early and Tolle each made their MLB debuts in 2025. A second-round pick in the 2024 draft, Tolle made it to the Show just 13 months after his draft date, thanks to some standout numbers at three different levels of Boston’s farm system. It might have been a bit too much too soon for Tolle, as he posted a 6.06 ERA across his first 16 1/3 innings in the bigs, and the Sox soon transitioned him into a bullpen role both in September and for the Wild Card Series against the Yankees.
Early, a fifth-round pick from the 2023 draft, made the better first impression, delivering a 2.33 ERA, 46.7% grounder rate, 5.1% walk rate, and 36.1% strikeout rate across four starts and 19 1/3 innings. Due in part to a lack of healthy rotation depth, the Red Sox even entrusted Early with the start in the pivotal Game 3 of the Wild Card Series, and the young southpaw was tagged for four runs (three earned) over 3 2/3 innings in a 4-0 New York victory that ended Boston’s season.
The Sox wouldn’t normally have much interest in moving either of these highly-touted young hurlers, and it might still be unlikely that either Tolle or Early are actually dealt. However, the additions of Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo have added to Boston’s rotation depth, and those two pitchers now look set to join Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello as the top four in the projected rotation. This leaves Tolle and Early as two of several pitchers (i.e. Kutter Crawford, Patrick Sandoval, Kyle Harrison and more) competing for perhaps just one rotation job.
Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier and other reporters that the club had indeed received calls about their starters, as “I think teams have recognized that there’s appeal to controllable starting pitching. If there are opportunities to use some of that depth in order to address other areas of the roster, we’d be willing to do it.”
The Red Sox and Pirates lined up on a notable pitching-for-hitting trade earlier this week, as Oviedo was the primary return heading to Boston while the Bucs picked up a promising young outfielder in Jhostynxon Garcia. In the wake of that trade, Rosenthal wrote that Pittsburgh was still willing to discuss trading other starters besides Paul Skenes, and Pirates GM Ben Cherington said the same Monday at the Winter Meetings.
“We’ll have a high bar” for such trades, Cherington told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Colin Beazley and other reporters. “Will more likely consider that if [the return is] something that’s coming back immediately into our lineup. [We’re] also open to adding pitching. We’re not only engaged on position players; we’re talking about adding pitching, too. If we did trade a starter, [it] probably increases the motivation to add back to the pitching also.”
Moving Burrows could therefore be the first step in a chain reaction of moves for the Pirates, who are intent on upgrading their lineup this offseason. This has manifested itself in a surprising pursuit of Kyle Schwarber and interest in other notable free agents and trade targets like Kazuma Okamoto, Ketel Marte, Brendan Donovan, Jorge Polanco, Ryan O’Hearn, and more.
Entering his age-26 season, Burrows still has less than a full year of MLB service time under his belt. The right-hander made his big league debut in the form a single-game cup of coffee in 2024, and then posted a 3.94 ERA over 96 innings with Pittsburgh this year, starting 19 of his 23 appearances. Burrows backed up his ERA with a solid 24.1% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate.
Over 291 1/3 innings in the Pirates’ farm system, Burrows had a 3.58 ERA, 27.2% strikeout rate, and 9.18 BB%. He missed big chunks of the 2023-24 seasons while recovering from Tommy John surgery, which is probably why the righty hasn’t gotten as much attention as some of the other top-100 hurlers in the Pirates’ farm system. This could conceivably make Burrows a little more available than the likes of Braxton Ashcraft or Thomas Harrington, though only the Bucs know how they’re internally ranking their various rotation candidates.
Lucas Giolito Unlikely To Pitch Again This Season
9:02 pm: There is no structural damage to Giolito’s UCL, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. He is dealing with flexor irritation as well as a bone issue, which will require rest for a while.
3:51 pm: Right-hander Lucas Giolito is likely out for the year with an elbow injury, manager Alex Cora told reporters at today’s media session (link via Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic). The elbow issue had already kept Giolito off the Wild Card roster. It will now seemingly cost him the rest of 2025. Cora told reporters that rookie Connelly Early will likely draw the starting nod in Game 3 against the Yankees, if needed.
The elbow injury will bring an untimely end to a resurgent season for Giolito. The 31-year-old shuffled between three different MLB organizations in 2023, posting a 4.88 ERA across 33 starts with the White Sox, Angels, and Guardians. He then missed the entirety of the 2024 season following surgery to repair his UCL. Giolito bounced back with a 3.41 ERA over 26 starts with the Red Sox this season. His 4.59 xFIP and 4.65 SIERA suggest he performed above his head, but his contributions helped solidify a staff that dealt with injuries all year.
Boston inked Giolito to a two-year deal ahead of the 2024 season, with the second season being a player option. After missing the entire year, Giolito picked up the option. By triggering that player option, he gave the club a $14MM option for 2026, though with a vesting clause that would convert it to a $19MM mutual option if Giolito reached 140 innings pitched. He exceeded that mark in his second-to-last outing of the regular season. Giolito seemed destined to decline his end of the option and return to free agency, but the elbow injury could lead Boston to reject it on their end.
If either side balks at the mutual option, Giolito would enter free agency in a peculiar position. He’d be coming off his best season in terms of run prevention since his breakout 2019. While he fell short of the above-average strikeout numbers he posted during his White Sox tenure, Giolito cleaned up the home run issues that plagued him in his wayward 2023 season. On the other hand, this is the second elbow problem in two years for Giolito. Even if this specific injury is minor, anything elbow-related is a red flag, especially for a pitcher who will be 32 years old next summer.
Early starting a playoff game would’ve seemed like a long shot heading into the season, but he’s now the clear top candidate to fill Giolito’s vacated spot. The rookie has impressed in four big-league starts, allowing two earned runs or less in every outing. He burst onto the scene with 11 strikeouts against the Athletics in his debut and has continued to rack up punchouts at an above-average clip. After posting a strikeout rate above 30% at each minor league stop, he’s at 36.7% through 19 1/3 innings with the Red Sox.
The Yankees will present a challenging task for the young lefty, especially in what would be a series-deciding game. New York led the league in OPS and wOBA against left-handed pitching in the regular season. They slugged 70 home runs off southpaws, matching the Dodgers for the league lead. The Yankees elected to roll out a lineup with just three left-handed hitters against Garrett Crochet in Game 1. That starting nine does not feature Jazz Chisholm Jr. While a strict platoon between Chisholm and righty Amed Rosario seems unlikely, New York appears willing to play matchups in this series. It’s a tiny sample, but Early has struck out an absurd 13 of the 22 lefties he’s faced this season. He’s held left-handed hitters to a meager .150/.227/.150 slash line.
Kyle Harrison and Payton Tolle are also on hand as potential options to replace Giolito. Tolle also impressed in his MLB debut, striking out eight Pirates over 5 1/3 innings. He’s posted a 7.36 ERA since that outing and has been used in a relief role in recent outings. Harrison came over from San Francisco in the Rafael Devers trade. He spent the majority of the season with Triple-A Worcester, but did make three appearances for Boston in September. Harrison tossed a quality start against Tampa Bay in his penultimate outing and is likely the most stretched-out member of the bullpen.
Red Sox Promote Connelly Early, Place Dustin May On Injured List
5:50pm: Early’s promotion is official. May lands on the 15-day IL, retroactive to September 6, with elbow neuritis. Boston created the necessary 40-man spot by recalling infielder Vaughn Grissom from Triple-A and placing him on the 60-day injured list. Grissom’s season is over due to plantar fasciitis.
10:46 am: The Red Sox will promote pitching prospect Connelly Early to make his major league debut tonight versus the A’s, as first reported by Foul Territory. Katie Morrison-O’Day of MassLive.com noted earlier in this week that Early, a 2023 fifth-round pick, was scratched from his start at Triple-A Worcester because the Sox wanted him to be ready if the big league club had a need this week. MassLive’s Chris Cotillo wrote yesterday that Early was “very much in play” to make his MLB debut within the next couple of days.
Early isn’t on the 40-man roster, so Boston will need to make corresponding transactions to open space on both the active and 40-man rosters. Righty Dustin May will head to the injured list to open an active roster spot, per Foul Territory and Cotillo.
The 23-year-old Early has thrived in both Double-A and Triple-A this season, combining for 100 1/3 innings with a 2.60 earned run average, a huge 31.9% strikeout rate and a 9.7% walk rate. The 6’3″, 195-pound lefty is sitting 93.4 mph on his four-seamer, complementing the pitch with a deep variety of secondary offerings including a slider, changeup, sinker, cutter and curveball (listed in descending order of usage rate). He’s kept the ball on the ground at a strong 50% clip and has thus far posted an excellent 14.3% swinging-strike between Double-A and Triple-A.
Early entered the season ranked tenth among Boston prospects at Baseball America but has climbed to sixth, even after the draft added several new entrants to the top tiers of every system in the sport. Scouting reports at BA, FanGraphs and MLB.com tout Early’s changeup as a plus offering. There’s a wider range of opinions on his slider, but the general consensus is that it at least has the potential to be an above-average, if not plus offering. The Virginia product will join fellow rookie Payton Tolle as a fairly high-profile September addition who could not only help into and throughout the postseason but could very well be auditioning for a 2026 rotation spot.
Although Early wasn’t on the 40-man roster on Sept. 1, he’ll still be eligible for postseason play. Players only need to be in the organization to have eligibility. The Sox will technically need to petition to have Early added to their postseason roster as an injury replacement, but teams do that every year. Depending on May’s timetable, he could simply be added as a replacement for the same pitcher he’s replacing on the active roster today.
There was at least one scenario where the Red Sox wouldn’t have had Early as an option to call up. When speaking with the Diamondbacks about Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen prior to the trade deadline, Early was of interest to Arizona’s front office, Alex Speier and Tim Healey of the Boston Globe report. The Sox were willing to discuss lefty Brandon Clarke but deemed Early too steep a price to pay in those talks, per the Globe duo. Kelly went to the Rangers for a package of three pitching prospects. Gallen stayed in Arizona and will likely receive a qualifying offer.
As for May, it’s not yet clear exactly what type of injury he’s facing. Boston acquired him from the Dodgers at the trade deadline, sending 2024 first-round pick James Tibbs III (whom they’d acquired from the Giants for Rafael Devers) back to Los Angeles in return.
That trade hasn’t gone at all as the Red Sox hoped. May has made six appearances, five of them starts, and pitched to an ugly 5.40 ERA with a lower strikeout rate (19.5%) and higher walk rate (9.8%) than he’d logged in what was already a shaky season with Los Angeles (4.85 ERA). He’s a free agent at season’s end and doesn’t necessarily have a spot on the postseason roster set in stone, so if May needs even three weeks on the injured list, it’s at least feasible that his Red Sox tenure is effectively over. Certainly, both he and the organization will hope he can get back in minimal time and pitch his way into postseason consideration, but time will tell whether that’s plausible.