Craig Breslow’s first offseason as Boston’s chief baseball officer has been marked by one notable free-agent signing (Lucas Giolito’s two-year, $38.5M deal) and a number of other vital trades, with the likes of Tyler O’Neill and Vaughn Grissom becoming a member of the roster and Chris Sale, Alex Verdugo and Luis Urias all leaving Fenway Park. With extra work on the pitching workers nonetheless to be achieved, the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier writes that the Pink Sox may once more flip to the commerce market, although with some limitations on the scope of their talks.
Quite than pursue pitchers who’re just below group management by the 2024 season (i.e. Corbin Burnes or Shane Bieber), Speier studies that the Sox are attempting to amass pitchers who’ve a number of years of management. Naturally, such hurler come at a excessive asking worth in commerce talks, but Boston is unsurprisingly cautious about parting methods with its high prospects. It doesn’t seem that any of Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, or Kyle Teel can be found in talks, although it isn’t clear if the Pink Sox could be extra open to dealing from the subsequent tier down on their record of minor leaguers. Speier cites outfielder Miguel Bleis and second baseman Nick Yorke as among the many a number of different Sox prospects who’ve drawn commerce curiosity from rival golf equipment.
Between these comparatively lesser prospects and different potential youthful commerce chips on the large league roster, the Pink Sox would possibly have the ability to swing some sort of deal for a extra confirmed improve, whether or not within the rotation or maybe even some other place on the roster. Nevertheless, as Speier writes, “there’s little sense they’ll push within the chips to land a longtime top-of-the-rotation starter both through commerce or free company. Additional additions seem extra seemingly within the center or again of the rotation to enhance depth and reliability.”
This isn’t markedly totally different from previous studies about Boston’s offseason plans, although the Sox had been no less than considerably engaged on sufficient big-ticket names (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jordan Montgomery, Blake Snell) to create the impression that the group was prepared to splurge in the suitable circumstance. Even with Montgomery and Snell nonetheless unsigned, it doesn’t appear like the Pink Sox will emerge as an actual suitor until both starter drops his asking worth — although in that state of affairs, one would think about quite a lot of different golf equipment may also step up their pursuits.
One of many lingering questions of Boston’s offseason is how a lot Breslow has been licensed to spend, contemplating that some degree of payroll limitation seems to be in place. The Sox at present have roughly $177.5M on the books for 2024 in response to Roster Useful resource, so that they’re fairly near matching their $181.2M Opening Day payroll from 2023. That determine from final yr ranked twelfth in all of baseball, the primary time within the twenty first century that the Pink Sox weren’t no less than within the high ten in Opening Day spending.
This relative hesitation in direction of bigger spending has manifested itself not solely within the lack of motion on Montgomery or Snell, but additionally in Boston’s pursuit of Shota Imanaga. Granted, it seems as if the league as a complete maybe had some issues over Imanaga’s viability as a significant league starter, provided that his four-year, $53M deal with the Cubs fell beneath business expectations. Nevertheless, Imanaga’s contract may change into a five-year, $80M pact if the Cubs train a membership choice for 2028, they usually’ll should make that call following the 2025 season and 2026 seasons or else Imanaga can set off an opt-out clause.
The Pink Sox additionally had curiosity in a extra artistic deal for Imanaga, however Speier studies that their provide included solely two assured years “with the potential for 2 further vesting years.” Imanaga will earn $23M ($22M in wage and a $1M signing bonus) over his first two seasons in with the Cubs and Speier writes that Boston’s provide paid him greater than that $23M quantity by 2025, although it isn’t stunning to see why Imanaga determined to take the Cubs’ provide.
There’s nonetheless loads of offseason left for Breslow to make extra strikes, and an argument could possibly be that made that the Pink Sox roster is already wanting higher than it did in 2023. That mentioned, merely being higher doesn’t essentially translate to a group able to contending for a championship or perhaps a playoff berth, and persistence is operating skinny amongst the fanbase after consecutive last-place finishes within the AL East.
