{"id":477602,"date":"2026-02-16T01:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T01:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/477602\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T01:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T01:52:08","slug":"werner-kennedy-discuss-red-sox-offseason-bregman-devers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/477602\/","title":{"rendered":"Werner, Kennedy Discuss Red Sox Offseason, Bregman, Devers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Sox president\/CEO Sam Kennedy spoke with reporters (including the Boston Globe\u2019s Tim Healey<\/a> and MassLive.com\u2019s Christopher Smith<\/a>) today at the team\u2019s Spring Training camp, while Sox chairman Tom Werner also took part in an interview with the Boston Globe\u2019s Peter Abraham<\/a>.\u00a0 The two executives covered many of the same topics, with much of the focus naturally centered around Boston\u2019s offseason.<\/p>\n

One of the matters discussed was Alex Bregman<\/a>\u2019s decision to leave Fenway Park and sign with the Cubs for a five-year, $175MM contract.\u00a0 Reports<\/a> indicated that the Sox offered Bregman a five-year, $165MM contract that (like Chicago\u2019s offer) included a lot of deferred money, though Boston\u2019s deferral plan covered multiple decades.\u00a0 The bigger issue seemed to be Bregman\u2019s insistence on a full no-trade clause, which the Cubs were willing to give but Boston wasn\u2019t, apparently due to an organizational policy.<\/p>\n

Werner and Kennedy each pushed back on these reports, with Werner flatly saying that the Red Sox \u201cdon\u2019t\u201d have any policy against no-trade protection.\u00a0 Kennedy was more circumspect in saying that \u201cwe try not to talk about organizational policies and the finer points of negotiations because it just doesn\u2019t serve you well if you do that,\u201d but also said that \u201cif Alex Bregman wanted to be here, ultimately he\u2019d be here.\u201d\u00a0 Kennedy also essentially ducked the question of whether or not the Red Sox would\u2019ve offered Bregman a no-trade clause if asked, saying \u201cit\u2019s theoretical.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to know.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than the no-trade clause or \u201cthe fact that he was offered a bit more money in Chicago,\u201d Werner felt Bregman was \u201chappy to be in Arizona [for Spring Training] where his family is. I have enormous respect for Alex, but it wasn\u2019t meant to be and we moved on.\u201d\u00a0 Likewise, Kennedy praised Bregman\u2019s contributions over his one season in Boston, and said \u201che chose a different path, and we wish him well.\u201d<\/p>\n

These statements probably won\u2019t do much to soothe Red Sox fans still upset that Bregman is playing elsewhere, after the third baseman\u2019s leadership and on-field production (at least prior to a right quad strain) was so widely acknowledged as a key factor in Boston\u2019s return to the postseason.\u00a0 Signing Bregman last winter to take over at third base also sparked the chain reaction of events that led to Rafael Devers<\/a> being traded to the Giants last June, following a lot of hard feelings from Devers over first being pushed off the hot corner into a DH role, and then being asked to learn first base once Tristan Casas went down with what ended up being a season-ending knee injury.<\/p>\n

Kennedy expressed regrets over how the Devers situation played out, saying better communication was needed between both sides, and that \u201cWould we have done things differently leading into it?\u00a0 Absolutely.\u201d\u00a0 Werner\u2019s statement (his public comments since Devers was dealt) may again spark more controversy, as while Werner said that Devers is \u201ca wonderful person,\u201d the chairman found it \u201cextremely discouraging\u201d that Devers wasn\u2019t willing to take over at first base.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a discouraging episode.\u00a0 Just pick up a glove,\u201d Werner said.<\/p>\n

While the Devers trade and Bregman\u2019s departure may be talking points in Boston for years to come, the Red Sox are more concerned with how the team will fare in 2026.\u00a0 Trades (for the likes of Willson Contreras<\/a>, Sonny Gray<\/a>, Johan Oviedo<\/a>, and Caleb Durbin<\/a>) have been a big part of the team\u2019s roster remodel, and the Sox made a big free agent strike by signing Ranger Suarez<\/a> to a five-year, $130MM contract.<\/p>\n

Kennedy described the winter as \u201ca successful offseason\u2026long, arduous, lots of scenario planning, but excited that we improved the club in many ways.\u201d\u00a0 Werner was similarly positive, pointing to the team\u2019s improvements on defense and a pitching staff that \u201cI think\u2026is elite.\u201d\u00a0 In regards to further upgrades at the trade deadline, Werner said the team is still open to more spending, saying \u201cwe actually have the powder to execute some more moves during the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

After completing the 2025 season with a roughly a $208.9MM payroll and a $246.5MM luxury tax number, the Red Sox are projected (via RosterResource<\/a>) for $195.5MM in payroll and a $263.7MM tax figure.\u00a0 The latter puts the Sox just a hair under the second luxury tax penalty threshold of $264MM, so it would seem like Boston will probably finish in the second tier of tax penalization for the first time since the 2019 season, assuming the team indeed contends and bolsters the roster throughout the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Sox president\/CEO Sam Kennedy spoke with reporters (including the Boston Globe\u2019s Tim Healey and MassLive.com\u2019s Christopher Smith)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[7679,49,48,462,1493,34801,82,193621],"class_list":["post-477602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-alex-bregman","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-rafael-devers","tag-sam-kennedy","tag-sports","tag-tom-werner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477602","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=477602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}