Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has already admitted 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, and provided a more specific target area.
“Because of the depth that we’ve 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,” Breslow said. “And that’s not to take away from guys who are certainly capable of doing more, and more just to say I don’t think we’re going to spend a ton of time trying to add a No. 4, No. 5 starter.”
That’s a logical framing, considering the guys currently on the roster. Garrett Crochet gives the club a clear ace but then there’s a notable gap to the rest of the group. Brayan Bello is probably the #2 guy on paper right now, but he’s 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.
Behind him, there are guys like Kutter Crawford, Cooper Criswell, Tanner Houck, Patrick Sandoval, Kyle Harrison, Payton Tolle, Connelly Early 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’re not established at the big league level.
Given the question marks in that group, it’s understandable that the club would be looking for a surefire upgrade. It also perhaps explains why the club didn’t make a qualifying offer to righty Lucas Giolito, 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.
The Sox surely feel they can and need to do better than that. They were connected to Joe Ryan 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, Freddy Peralta, Sandy Alcantara and others.
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.
A simpler path would be to just sign a free agent. This winter’s market has notable names such as Dylan Cease, Framber Valdez, Tatsuya Imai, Ranger Suárez, Michael King, Brandon Woodruff and others. Those players would cost more than the trade targets financially but wouldn’t 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 in a different way.
Breslow also pointed to a plan on the offensive side of things. “There 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,” Breslow said. “So we didn’t slug nearly as much as I think we can, or we will, and we’ll pursue opportunities to improve that.”
For the entire 2025 season, the Sox finished ninth in the majors in slugging percentage and tenth in isolated power. They’ve also lost some key bats in the past few months. They traded Rafael Devers to the Giants midseason. Alex Bregman opted out of his deal last week and became a free agent.
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’s departure leaves third base open. First base is a question mark with Triston Casas still injured. Nathaniel Lowe was holding that spot by the end of the 2025 season but he could be non-tendered this month.
Bringing back Bregman would be one straightforward solution, though it’s 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, Pete Alonso, Eugenio Suárez, Josh Naylor, Ryan O’Hearn and others. Willson Contreras and Christian Walker might be available on the trade market.
The free agent market also has Kyle Schwarber, 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’s also the fact that Schwarber hits left-handed and the Boston lineup is already loaded with lefties.
“In a perfect world, I suppose we want to balance out the lineup a bit,” Breslow said on the subject. “That said, when you can hit the ball out of the park, it doesn’t really matter.” Murakami, Naylor and O’Hearn are also left-handed, whereas Alonso, Suárez, Contreras and Walker are righties.
It’s unclear what the Red Sox plan to spend on the 2026 squad. According to RosterResource, 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.
One area of the roster where Breslow doesn’t plan to make big changes is the shortstop position. Per Christopher Smith of MassLive, Breslow said that Trevor Story will be the shortstop next year. Story recently decided not to opt-out of his contract. He is signed through 2027 with a club option for 2028.
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’t 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.
There aren’t many great options for external upgrades. Bo Bichette is the top free agent but he’ll be expensive and his defense was worse than Story’s this year. Ha-Seong Kim is a solid defender but his offense wasn’t great in his first season after shoulder surgery. CJ Abrams is arguably the top trade candidate but is also not a great defender.
Internally, there’s an argument for trying Marcelo Mayer 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.
Breslow also spoke about Mayer and said he needs to add strength. “[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’t been able to do,” Breslow said, per Healey. “And some of those have been just kind of these freak injuries, but others seem to maybe just be the accumulation of workload.” With Story returning to shortstop, Mayer could find playing time at second or third, depending on what moves the Sox make this winter.
Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images
