BOSTON \u2014 Craig Breslow isn\u2019t sure how he and the rest of the Red Sox\u2019s front office will approach the off-season coming off their\u00a0first appearance in the post-season\u00a0since 2021.<\/p>\n
But Boston’s chief baseball officer feels a lot better about the roster pieces he will be moving around this off-season as they look to continue this year’s momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve talked a lot about how this window of contention is upon us,” Breslow said Monday during the front office’s season-ending news conference.<\/p>\n
He said that ensuring the Red Sox stay in a position to compete will feature a holistic approach. He’s focused on fortifying their pitching staff and continuing to develop the young position players that made big impacts this season.<\/p>\n
Those younger contributors will become even more relevant as Boston attempts to hold onto right-handed starter Lucas Giolito this off-season. Giolito was 10-4 with a 3.41 ERA in 26 starts this season. He was left off the post-season roster after experiencing some\u00a0late-season discomfort in his elbow.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old and the team have a mutual option to work out this off-season.<\/p>\n
He joins veteran third baseman Alex Bregman and shortstop Trevor Story, who both have player options to ponder.<\/p>\n
Bregman\u00a0signed a three-year, $120 million deal\u00a0in February that included the chance to become a free agent following both the 2025 and 2026 seasons.<\/p>\n
Story\u00a0signed a six-year, $140 million deal\u00a0in March 2022 that included a player option following this season. But if he does, the Red Sox would have the right to exercise the club option then and make the deal worth $160 million over seven seasons.<\/p>\n
Breslow declined to say whether discussions are already ongoing with Bregman’s agent, Scott Boras.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, Alex has the right as structured in his contract to opt out, and he’s going to do what’s best for his family,” Breslow said. \u201cAt the same time, I will not miss an opportunity to talk about his contributions on the field, in the clubhouse, to the coaching staff, to the front office. Every conversation we’ve had I think I’ve learned something about how his impact and influence have rubbed off on his teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n
What was also prevalent during this resurgence was the contributions of Boston’s young up-and-comers. The list included rookie outfielder\u00a0Roman Anthony\u00a0and infielder\u00a0Marcelo Mayer, who both had their seasons cut short by injuries.<\/p>\n
But Cora said there is just as much optimism about what’s ahead for young pitchers like Connelly Early, who\u00a0got a taste of meaningful post-season baseball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we took the steps in the right direction,\u201d Cora said. \u201cLast off-season, during the season, not only as far as what the front office did, but what we did on the field. It was a much better team than the last few years. But that thing that excites me going into the off-season is the pitching. … What we have in player development is real.\u201d<\/p>\n
Breslow said that catcher Carlos Narv\u00e1ez will undergo a \u201cclean-up\u201d procedure to repair the meniscus in his knee sometime this week.<\/p>\n
But he said the expectation is for him to be ready to go in time for spring training.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 Craig Breslow isn\u2019t sure how he and the rest of the Red Sox\u2019s front office will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-194020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}