{"id":275846,"date":"2025-11-11T07:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T07:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/275846\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T07:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T07:04:08","slug":"breslow-red-sox-looking-for-front-of-the-rotation-starter-middle-of-the-order-bat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/275846\/","title":{"rendered":"Breslow: Red Sox Looking For Front-Of-The-Rotation Starter, Middle-Of-The-Order Bat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has already admitted<\/a> that the Sox will be looking for starting pitching this offseason. He met with reporters at the General Managers Meetings in Las Vegas today, including Tim Healey of The Boston Globe<\/a>, and provided a more specific target area.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the depth that we\u2019ve built up over the last couple of years, we feel pretty good about just overall starting pitching, maybe No. 3-ish through No. 10-ish,\u201d Breslow said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s not to take away from guys who are certainly capable of doing more, and more just to say I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to spend a ton of time trying to add a No. 4, No. 5 starter.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a logical framing, considering the guys currently on the roster. Garrett Crochet<\/a> gives the club a clear ace but then there\u2019s a notable gap to the rest of the group. Brayan Bello<\/a> is probably the #2 guy on paper right now, but he\u2019s not really the kind of dominant force that one thinks of for that kind of role. He has a low-strikeout, high-grounder profile that should make him more of a solid back-end guy than a front-of-rotation killer.<\/p>\n

Behind him, there are guys like Kutter Crawford<\/a>, Cooper Criswell<\/a>, Tanner Houck<\/a>, Patrick Sandoval<\/a>, Kyle Harrison<\/a>, Payton Tolle<\/a>, Connelly Early<\/a> and others. Crawford has some intriguing numbers but his ERA has landed north of 4.00 in each of the past two seasons. Criswell is a low-strikeout swingman. Houck had Tommy John surgery in August and is going to miss most or all of 2026, meaning he might get non-tendered. Sandoval missed the entire 2025 season due to his own elbow surgery. Harrison, Tolle and Early are all intriguing young arms but they\u2019re not established at the big league level.<\/p>\n

Given the question marks in that group, it\u2019s understandable that the club would be looking for a surefire upgrade. It also perhaps explains why the club didn\u2019t make a qualifying offer to righty Lucas Giolito<\/a>, who is now a free agent. Giolito posted a 3.41 ERA with the Sox this year but his 19.7% strikeout rate was subpar. He benefited from a .273 batting average on balls in play and 76.7% strand rate, which were both to the fortunate side. His 4.17 FIP and 4.65 SIERA suggested he deserved worse. He also finished the season on the injured list with an elbow issue. Bringing him back would have arguably been adding another No. 4 or No. 5 starter, as Breslow put it.<\/p>\n

The Sox surely feel they can and need to do better than that. They were connected to Joe Ryan<\/a> of the Twins before the deadline and perhaps they will revisit that pursuit. Ryan has a career 3.79 ERA with a 27.6% strikeout rate and 5.7% walk rate. The Twins appear to be doing some kind of reset and only control Ryan for through 2027, so he could be attainable this winter. Other impact starters potentially available on the trade block include MacKenzie Gore<\/a>, Freddy Peralta<\/a>, Sandy Alcantara<\/a> and others.<\/p>\n

Acquiring any of those players would involve giving up talented prospects or big leaguers. The Sox had one of the top farm systems in baseball not so long ago but they traded some notable talent to the White Sox in the Crochet deal and have also graduated a bunch of their top prospects to the majors.<\/p>\n

A simpler path would be to just sign a free agent. This winter\u2019s market has notable names such as Dylan Cease<\/a>, Framber Valdez<\/a>, Tatsuya Imai<\/a>, Ranger Su\u00e1rez<\/a>, Michael King<\/a>, Brandon Woodruff<\/a> and others. Those players would cost more than the trade targets financially but wouldn\u2019t require the Sox to give up prospects, though everyone in that group aside from Imai rejected a qualifying offer, meaning the Sox would be hurting their prospect pipeline<\/a> in a different way.<\/p>\n

Breslow also pointed to a plan on the offensive side of things. \u201cThere is just something about a bat in the middle of the lineup that forces another team to game plan against it that has a compounding effect on the rest of the roster,\u201d Breslow said. \u201cSo we didn\u2019t slug nearly as much as I think we can, or we will, and we\u2019ll pursue opportunities to improve that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the entire 2025 season, the Sox finished ninth in the majors in slugging percentage and tenth in isolated power. They\u2019ve also lost some key bats in the past few months. They traded Rafael Devers<\/a> to the Giants midseason. Alex Bregman<\/a> opted out of his deal last week and became a free agent.<\/p>\n

There are many potential options in free agency, though the Sox have a crowded outfield. The most logical spots to add would be the infield corners. Bregman\u2019s departure leaves third base open. First base is a question mark with Triston Casas<\/a> still injured. Nathaniel Lowe<\/a> was holding that spot by the end of the 2025 season but he could be non-tendered this month.<\/p>\n

Bringing back Bregman would be one straightforward solution, though it\u2019s unclear if the Sox want to commit to him long-term. He is presumably hoping to land a longer deal this time around, after settling for a three-year, opt-out-laden pact last time. Besides Bregman, other corner infield free agents with big bats are Munetaka Murakami<\/a>, Pete Alonso<\/a>, Eugenio Su\u00e1rez<\/a>, Josh Naylor<\/a>, Ryan O\u2019Hearn<\/a> and others. Willson Contreras<\/a> and Christian Walker<\/a> might be available on the trade market.<\/p>\n

The free agent market also has Kyle Schwarber<\/a>, who previously had a brief stint with the Sox that included some memorable time at first base. However, it may be hard to outbid the Phillies. There\u2019s also the fact that Schwarber hits left-handed and the Boston lineup is already loaded with lefties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a perfect world, I suppose we want to balance out the lineup a bit,\u201d Breslow said on the subject. \u201cThat said, when you can hit the ball out of the park, it doesn\u2019t really matter.\u201d Murakami, Naylor and O\u2019Hearn are also left-handed, whereas Alonso, Su\u00e1rez, Contreras and Walker are righties.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear what the Red Sox plan to spend on the 2026 squad. According to RosterResource<\/a>, the club had a $207MM payroll in 2025 but a competitive balance tax number of $245MM. RR projects those numbers for $180MM and $216MM in 2026. Non-tendering Lowe and Houck would add more than $17MM of extra wiggle room.<\/p>\n

One area of the roster where Breslow doesn\u2019t plan to make big changes is the shortstop position. Per Christopher Smith of MassLive<\/a>, Breslow said that Trevor Story<\/a> will be the shortstop next year. Story recently decided<\/a> not to opt-out of his contract. He is signed through 2027 with a club option for 2028.<\/p>\n

After being injured for most of his first three seasons in Boston, Story had a nice return to form in 2025, despite a slow start. He hit .289\/.334\/.492 for a 124 wRC+ after the month of May. However, his season-long defensive numbers weren\u2019t great. He was credited with minus-7 Defensive Runs Saved and minus-9 Outs Above Average. Despite that, Breslow and the Sox plan to keep Story out there next year.<\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t many great options for external upgrades. Bo Bichette<\/a> is the top free agent but he\u2019ll be expensive and his defense was worse than Story\u2019s this year. Ha-Seong Kim<\/a> is a solid defender but his offense wasn\u2019t great in his first season after shoulder surgery. CJ Abrams<\/a> is arguably the top trade candidate but is also not a great defender.<\/p>\n

Internally, there\u2019s an argument for trying Marcelo Mayer<\/a> at short with Story bumped to second, though Mayer is still fairly unproven. He hit just .228\/.272\/.402 in his first 136 big league plate appearances. He missed more than a month due to a right wrist sprain.<\/p>\n

Breslow also spoke about Mayer and said he needs to add strength. \u201c[Getting stronger] will just help him manage the workload of a full season and just be able to withstand the demands of a full season, which is, frankly, something that he hasn\u2019t been able to do,\u201d Breslow said, per Healey<\/a>. \u201cAnd some of those have been just kind of these freak injuries, but others seem to maybe just be the accumulation of workload.\u201d With Story returning to shortstop, Mayer could find playing time at second or third, depending on what moves the Sox make this winter.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has already admitted that the Sox will be looking for starting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,30569,462,82,13308],"class_list":{"0":"post-275846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-marcelo-mayer","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-trevor-story"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275846","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=275846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}