\u2217 Craig Breslow has helped make the Red Sox relevant again.<\/p>\n
Through his trades for Garrett Crochet and Carlos Narvaez, his pitching development program and his series of contract extensions, the chief baseball officer has built the Red Sox into a playoff contender. Brief though it was, the Red Sox made a postseason appearance last fall, their first since 2021.<\/p>\n
They matter and once again, fans care.<\/p>\n
Thus, the Sox have set themselves up with a strong foundation and, with a mix of established players and highly-regarded young stars in the making, are well-positioned for the future. <\/p>\n
Now comes the hard part.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one thing to conduct a rebuild and assemble all the necessary parts, which Breslow \u2014 with the help of a handful of top prospects who arrived under his predecessor, Chaim Bloom \u2014 has done.<\/p>\n
But as tough as it is to make a team good, it\u2019s harder still to make a team great. That\u2019s what\u2019s on Breslow\u2019s plate this winter. Eighty-nine wins were enough for a return to the playoffs, but as we saw, the Sox were not in the same class as the teams that met in the World Series. There are plenty of teams good enough to win 90 games and qualify for October; there are far fewer who can win closer to 100 games and be threats to win it all.<\/p>\n
Already, Breslow has further improved the rotation this offseason with the addition of Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo. That\u2019s a start. But he still needs two bats to improve a rather punchless everyday lineup. He still needs bullpen additions, an upgrade at backup catcher and improved infield defense.<\/p>\n
This week is an opportunity to fill those needs, either through free agency or trades. The Blue Jays have improved and, one presumes, the Yankees will, too. And that\u2019s just within the division. There\u2019s also Seattle and Detroit and other teams in the American League to worry about.<\/p>\n
The first step is complete. But the Red Sox still have some work to do to become World Series threats.<\/p>\n
\u2217 The prospect of the Red Sox trading for Ketel Marte intrigues me. Marte is an elite, complete player who would offer well above-average defense at second base, a position that\u2019s been unsettled for the franchise since Dustin Pedroia retired. He has terrific pop for a middle infielder \u2014 he\u2019s had a slugging percentage over .500 in three of the last five years and is a switch-hitter \u2014 and would give the Red Sox a power bat at a reasonable price.<\/p>\n
Yes, there are five guaranteed years remaining at a cost of $101 million, but the CBT number would be under $17 million annually.<\/p>\n
Two hurdles: acquiring him would freeze out Marcelo Mayer \u2014 that\u2019s assuming Alex Bregman returns to play third, no guarantee. Secondly, there are questions about his makeup after some issues with teammates in Arizona.<\/p>\n
But, as I said: intriguing.<\/p>\n
\u2217 The Patriots had better be spending time during their break figuring out two issues, which are sort of related: their struggles in the red zone and their short-yardage run game.<\/p>\n
Against quality opponents in the postseason, they can\u2019t be leaving so many points on the field. And they sure can\u2019t be coming up empty on seven tries from inside the one-yard line, as they somehow did against the Bengals a few weeks back.<\/p>\n
\u2217 Some 57 million watched the Cowboys-Chiefs games on Thanksgiving Day, setting a record for viewership for a regular season game \u2014 more evidence that this is the NFL\u2019s world and we\u2019re all just living it.<\/p>\n
You could argue, if you wish, that a lot of people had the game on as mere background noise, either before, during or after dinner. But it\u2019s still a staggering number.<\/p>\n
\u2217 The whole issue with the Olympic hockey rink is embarrassing for the NHL, which upended its regular season schedule this year to accommodate its participation in the Milan-Cortina Games. First came news that the rink may not be ready in time, and later came the revelation that ice surface is somehow smaller than the standard 200\u2032 x 85\u2032 size for the league.<\/p>\n
Shouldn\u2019t there have been more oversight here, given the commitment and the stakes for the league?<\/p>\n
\u2217 I\u2019m taking it as a troubling sign that Elias Lindholm, in the second year of a seven-year, $54.25 million dollar contract, did not have a single five-on-five goal through his first 19 games this season.<\/p>\n
While defenseman Nikita Zadorov has turned things around in his second year in Boston, the same cannot be said of Lindholm. Lindhold battled back issues in his first season with the Bruins and it was hoped that a more healthy version of himself would produce. But no so far.<\/p>\n
\u2217 Kudos to Jordan Walsh, who, through a lot of hard work in the G League, is emerging as a physical, defensive force for the Celtics. This should serve as important lesson: too often, the NBA tends to skim over anyone who\u2019s not a lottery pick.<\/p>\n
Given coaching, time and patience, players in their early 20s can \u2014 shock! \u2014 evolve and improve.<\/p>\n
\u2217 Undefeated No. 1 Ohio State and undefeated No. 2 Indiana met in the Big 10 Championship game Saturday and the game meant absolutely nothing. Regardless of the result, the two schools will make the college football playoff and earn a first-round bye \u2014 a reminder that no matter how much tweaking the NCAA does to its playoff format, no system is perfect.<\/p>\n
\u2217 A year ago \u2014 and the year before that, now that I think about it \u2014 the Patriots\u2019 bye week was a welcome respite from a string of uninspiring performances and uninteresting games. Now, there\u2019s an emptiness on the weekend sports docket.<\/p>\n
And that, as much as anything, tells you quickly things have changed in the last 12 months.<\/p>\n
\u2217 I\u2019m late to this, but Task on HBO\/Max is well worth your time \u2014 as is just about anything starring Mark Ruffalo.<\/p>\n
\u2217 The Usual Suspects had its share of plot twists and sleight-of-hand storytelling. But I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d publicly admit that I needed to see it three times to figure out the identity of Keyser Soze \u2014 the way former Bruins coach Jim Montgomery did this past week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2217 Craig Breslow has helped make the Red Sox relevant again. Through his trades for Garrett Crochet and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[367,1558,363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-335150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-american-league","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}