(Photo courtesy of Over The Monster) “The Red Sox prepare for another season ahead.”
Jake Messer
Connector Editor
After a long, cold winter, the snow is beginning to melt away and the flowers are beginning to bloom once more. This can only mean one thing, that baseball is back!
Spring Training is officially underway for all 30 major league clubs and many teams are hopeful to contend for the World Series after a fruitful offseason. One of these teams with high hopes is the Boston Red Sox.
After missing the playoffs for the third straight season, fans were becoming restless, as many were beginning to believe that ownership was content with mediocrity and staying around .500 for the time being. Going into the offseason, hopes weren’t high.
That all changed when reports began to surface that the Red Sox were in pursuit of the top free agent last offseason, outfielder Juan Soto. They ended up falling well short of winning the coveted free agent, as he ended up accepting a 15-year, $765,000,000 deal with the New York Mets, the largest deal in professional sports history.
Final estimates put the Red Sox final bid around $700,000,000. A valiant effort that should be commended, but this setback will not hurt the franchise, as that money can be better used elsewhere in the future.
After that saga was over, the Red Sox moved onto much more pressing matters, bolstering the pitching staff, which showed solid improvement last season thanks in part to a change in approach from Pitching Coach Andrew Bailey.
“We speak a lot about the fastball in general being a jab and equating that to boxing,” Bailey said. “If you’re going 12 rounds or eight rounds, you’re not going to win by throwing jabs the whole time. The damage is done by throwing your haymakers in your best sequences. Jabs need to be located supremely to do any damage. So when you look at that through a baseball lens, it’s knowing where and when to use your fastballs and leveraging your best off-speed weapons to do the most damage against the hitter.”
The Red Sox saw an improvement in team ERA, hits allowed and home runs allowed, all while striking out more batters last season. It’s clear that the system is now in place, the front office just needed to get the right pieces to bolster the pitching staff.
The first splash the team made was trading for a future ace in Garrett Crochet. To acquire the 25 year old lefty from the Chicago White Sox, they had to give up Kyle Teel (No. 25 overall prospect), Braden Montgomery (No. 54 overall), Chase Meidroth (BOS No. 11 prospect) and Wikelman Gonzalez (BOS No. 14 prospect).
A decent haul of prospects for one pitcher, but if Crochet can improve upon his 3.58 ERA, .222 opponent batting average as well as 209 strikeouts from the previous season, then the trade will be well worth it as the Red Sox have acquired their future ace of the franchise.
“I think that the opportunity to play for the market of Boston, the fanbase that’s representing the Red Sox, is about as great of an opportunity as you can come by in this game,” said Crochet.
In addition to this trade, the Red Sox also went out and signed starting pitcher Walker Buehler for a one-year, $21,050,000 deal.
Buehler isn’t the same player he once was due to numerous injuries, but this is a great signing for the team, as it is a low-risk, high-reward kind of deal.
If Buehler is unable to regain his edge, then it’s just one year and there is no large contract hanging over the team for years. However, if Buehler is able to find his rhythm again and reach his potential, then the Red Sox would have one of the better one-two starters in all of baseball.
Right as it seemed like the Red Sox were done making moves for the offseason, they came out and signed coveted free agent infielder Alex Bregman to a three-year, $120,000,000 contract.
Bregman, who hit 26 home runs and had 75 RBIs last season, is a monster signing for the team, as it adds a big bat to a lineup full of quality hitters. Bregman will most certainly be able to live up to his expectations, making this hitting lineup one of the best the Red Sox has had in recent memory.
These moves, coupled with a loaded farm system filled to the brim with promising prospects, have the Red Sox in a relatively new position they haven’t seen in the past few years. The Red Sox are now in a position to compete.
