Red Sox 2025 Season Review/Offseason Preview Thread

[UtahSox]

1 hour ago, Kimmi said:

It's tough to know what we're going to get from Casas and Anthony, but they could potentially provide the big bats that we are in need of.  The dilemma, IMO, is in knowing how to balance signing big free agent contracts (likely to aging players) against going with our young and cost-controlled players.  Casas and Anthony could provide more production than anyone we could reasonably acquire, or they could not.

Breslow did promise that the Sox would repurpose the money saved from trading Devers.  They have used some of that to extend our young players, but I think some of that money needs to be spent on newly acquired players as well.

Breslow also promised to be aggressive at trade deadline, he also promised to fix the pop in the middle of the lineup. Dude is a chronic cuckold. 

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, UtahSox said:

definitely not better, We can’t expect Crochet to be THAT dominant again, bullpen most likely regresses some. And our young players get better, but our older players might regress. Oh and NOTHING HAPPENS IN A VACUUM:

BlueJays: improved pitching, might get Bichette or Tucker back. Went to WS better than us.

yankees: get Cole back. Probably will sign Bellinger back. TBD but they handled us last year so we are not better right now. 

orioles: Added 70+ HR’s probably the deepest 1-9 in league….. and have young pieces/ money to still add. 

sweet deal Breslow/JH.

I agree with this, but if you want to count guys like Cole coming back, we can say a lot about our returning players, too. None are like Cole, but the sheer number is daunting:

Sandoval, Crawford, Dobbins, Slaten plus guys like Moran and rookies like Early, Tolle and maybe Perales and others.

Anthony, Mayer, Casas, Yoshida, Abreu. Maybe Campbell busts out.

I'd rather not rely on hopes for returning injured players to get back to form, quickly. We need to add healthy and high quality players.

Players better than Bregman or two Bregmans.

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, UtahSox said:

Breslow also promised to be aggressive at trade deadline, he also promised to fix the pop in the middle of the lineup. Dude is a chronic cuckold. 

We need serious action- not dubious words.

[JoeBrady]

16 minutes ago, UtahSox said:

They’re posting paper losses from bonus depreciation

I think the IRS, and the SEC, and FINRA, etc., frown upon making up depreciation numbers.  I've done some fancy footwork on impairment write-downs, but depreciation is locked in.

[JoeBrady]

2 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

We need serious action- not dubious words.

• 12/11/24 we traded for Crochet.
• 12/10/24 we signed Chapman
• 2/15/25 we signed Bregman

It's early.

[UtahSox]

40 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

• 12/11/24 we traded for Crochet.
• 12/10/24 we signed Chapman
• 2/15/25 we signed Bregman

It's early.

I think a lot of people’s frustration comes down to this: there were two really straightforward ways to make this team legitimately scary, really fast.

1. was Pete Alonso — an absolutely perfect fit for our offense and our ballpark. You couldn’t draw up a better match on paper. And to find out we lost him not because he went back to his old team, but because he signed with a division rival for $31 million a year… that’s brutal. He just had an all-time season and only just turned 31.

2. IS  Ketel Marte.

We have extra outfielders. We have a surplus of starting pitching — ten guys who can realistically start — and a few strong up-and-coming prospects. The pieces are there. This is a move that feels both obvious and entirely within reach. So what’s the hold up? 

These two upgrades felt so clear, so logical, and honestly, exactly like the type of moves JH would’ve made without hesitation ten years ago.

Imagine this lineup with Marte and Alonso in it? At that point, you could even go to Bregman and say, “Look, let’s do a one-year, $40M deal,” and actually have the negotiating leverage to make that conversation work.

But now? If we lose Bregman, this turns into a full-on mess. There is no chance this scared-to-spend ownership group suddenly steps up and commits 7 years, $210M to Bo Bichette. That’s just not who they are right now.And that’s the problem — we had a clear, simple path to building a contender, and now everything hinges on unlikely scenarios because we didn’t execute the obvious ones.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, UtahSox said:

I think a lot of people’s frustration comes down to this: there were two really straightforward ways to make this team legitimately scary, really fast.

1. was Pete Alonso — an absolutely perfect fit for our offense and our ballpark. You couldn’t draw up a better match on paper. And to find out we lost him not because he went back to his old team, but because he signed with a division rival for $31 million a year… that’s brutal. He just had an all-time season and only just turned 31.

2. IS  Ketel Marte.

We have extra outfielders. We have a surplus of starting pitching — ten guys who can realistically start — and a few strong up-and-coming prospects. The pieces are there. This is a move that feels both obvious and entirely within reach. So what’s the hold up? 

These two upgrades felt so clear, so logical, and honestly, exactly like the type of moves JH would’ve made without hesitation ten years ago.

Imagine this lineup with Marte and Alonso in it? At that point, you could even go to Bregman and say, “Look, let’s do a one-year, $40M deal,” and actually have the negotiating leverage to make that conversation work.

But now? If we lose Bregman, this turns into a full-on mess. There is no chance this scared-to-spend ownership group suddenly steps up and commits 7 years, $210M to Bo Bichette. That’s just not who they are right now.And that’s the problem — we had a clear, simple path to building a contender, and now everything hinges on unlikely scenarios because we didn’t execute the obvious ones.

There was a worry about what to do with Mayer, if we signed Bregman and traded for Marte, but now we hear AZ is asking for Mayer, so that would solve that issue.

Are Bregman and Marte enough? At this point, it's probably the best we could do, but "could" is so very far away from "will do."

In this scenario, I'd be fine hoping Casas returns to form, and we'd have Romy as a decent back-up out of the gate. He does seem better than Toro, Garrett Cooper and the like.

We'd still have Duran, so the O would not take the hit by trading him, but I still think it is wasteful playing him at DH, and that's not even counting the benching of an $18M .775 hitter, so the .775 Duran can DH.

1. L Anthony LF/RF

2. R Bregman 3B

3. L Duran DH

4. S Marte 2B

5. R Story SS

6. L Abreu RF/R Campbell LF

7. L Casas 1B/ R Romy 1B

8. R Narvaez C

9. Rafaela CF

Or, we trade Rafaela, save $6M a year, and DH Masa.

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, UtahSox said:

1. was Pete Alonso — an absolutely perfect fit for our offense and our ballpark. You couldn’t draw up a better match on paper. And to find out we lost him not because he went back to his old team, but because he signed with a division rival for $31 million a year… that’s brutal. He just had an all-time season and only just turned 31.

2. IS  Ketel Marte.

1-I picked Alonso for the RS in the FA contest.  But I believe Okamoto is a better fit because he can also play 3rd.

2-Marte would be a real nice fit.  But AZ has to trade him and I need to see the price before passing judgement.  I'm also not sure AZ is interested in another LH OF.  Thomas in CF is not a great option, but they seem to like his defense.

That said, I don't get caught up in wanting any one particular player.  There are still 9 FAs that could help us, and numerous trade possibilities.

[Larry Cook]

To recap, schwarber and Alonso are off the table! Bregman probably signs with the cubs.  Seiger and  paredes are not moving. Many teams are sniffing around Marte. Sox do not like the bichete price tag! 
 

We still have outfielders and young pitching in excess,  

Maybe Bres-slow needs to try and sign okimoto and trade for that elusive number 2 starter for the rotation! 

[Old Red]

3 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

We need serious action- not dubious words.

The troubling part is if the Red Sox wasn’t willing to spend on Alonso whom they were supposedly interested in I can’t see them spending much on anyone else except for Bregman.

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, Larry Cook said:

Maybe Bres-slow needs to try and sign okimoto and trade for that elusive number 2 starter for the rotation! 

I'd be very happy with that.  As I mentioned before, our problem this year wasn't hitting.  It was our #4-5-6-7-8 SPs.  They went 15-26.  With a better bottom half of our rotation, we'd have run away with the division.  I know our rotation is deeper now, and we lost some hitting, but I want our #1-4 SPs to be favored in almost every game.

[JoeBrady]

59 minutes ago, Old Red said:

The troubling part is if the Red Sox wasn’t willing to spend on Alonso whom they were supposedly interested in I can’t see them spending much on anyone else except for Bregman.

You don't know how interested they were, or if they were interested at all.  You don't know if we have $20M to spend, or if we have $40M to spend.  And you don't know which positions we are prioritizing.

[Larry Cook]

25 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

I'd be very happy with that.  As I mentioned before, our problem this year wasn't hitting.  It was our #4-5-6-7-8 SPs.  They went 15-26.  With a better bottom half of our rotation, we'd have run away with the division.  I know our rotation is deeper now, and we lost some hitting, but I want our #1-4 SPs to be favored in almost every game.

The Marlins are open for business if we want to hope alcanterra regains his stuff, 

ragans of the royals and gore of the nationals have been discussed before. 
 

king has incredible stuff and gallen could regain his stuff if we want to go the free agent route! 
 

I believe our hitters will be better in 2026 than 2025, if they are healthier!!  
 

But that hole in the number 2 spot in the rotation is really what is keeping us from being a World Series contender! 

[Old Red]

7 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

You don't know how interested they were, or if they were interested at all.  You don't know if we have $20M to spend, or if we have $40M to spend.  And you don't know which positions we are prioritizing.

Then why go through a dog, and pony show trying to get a face to face with someone if you are not going to make a legit offer? We’ve seen that act too many times.🤔

[Hugh2]

People seemed pissed, understandly so. 

Not that I have much faith in them doing anything significant BUT... 

If the Sox open up the year having signed Bregman/Okamoto.  Bregman/Bellinger.  Bichette/Ohamoto.  Bichette/Bellinger. Marte/Bellinger. or Marte/Okamoto

How would we feel overall about the offseason?  I'll just pick one.  Lets say we ended up adding  Sonny Gray/Alex Bregman/Cody Bellinger.

This team has the options out there to have the offseason we mostly want. But they have lost off goodwill with most fans.  Until they do something, given their recent track record, I think they deserve the grief they get. 

[mvp 78]

14 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

I think the IRS, and the SEC, and FINRA, etc., frown upon making up depreciation numbers.  I've done some fancy footwork on impairment write-downs, but depreciation is locked in.

Why would they be booking tax depreciation on their financial books? It's two different depreciation numbers.

[notin]

11 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

1-I picked Alonso for the RS in the FA contest.  But I believe Okamoto is a better fit because he can also play 3rd.

2-Marte would be a real nice fit.  But AZ has to trade him and I need to see the price before passing judgement.  I'm also not sure AZ is interested in another LH OF.  Thomas in CF is not a great option, but they seem to like his defense.

That said, I don't get caught up in wanting any one particular player.  There are still 9 FAs that could help us, and numerous trade possibilities.

Exactly, although I would point out Alonso was seemingly ideal, but at Fenway he likely just pounds numerous line drives off the Monster.  Still, he’s a big step up over Toro.

 

Everyonevdesperate to offload all our prospects should take note of the Alonso deal (hint, hint drewski).  Baltimore finds Alonso easier to afford because they didn’t unload their prospects for veteran talent.  They kept them and found they can now budget any player they want…

[notin]

10 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

You don't know how interested they were, or if they were interested at all.  You don't know if we have $20M to spend, or if we have $40M to spend.  And you don't know which positions we are prioritizing.

You clearly have no idea who you’re replying to.  He always knows the Sox motivations…

[JoeBrady]

10 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

The Marlins are open for business if we want to hope alcanterra regains his stuff, 

Obviously everything depends on price, but Alcantara and Lodolo are my two primary foci.  I think they would be more reasonably priced, and could be extension candidates.  I'd prefer Burns or Chandler, but that would require a serious commitment of prospects.

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, Hugh2 said:

Lets say we ended up adding  Sonny Gray/Alex Bregman/Cody Bellinger.

Then we are the best team in the AL, imo.  And imho, if we add a #2 and either Okamoto or Marte, then we are the best team in the AL.

[JoeBrady]

49 minutes ago, notin said:

He always knows the Sox motivations…

Let me guess:

• Lowest payroll in baseball
• Sell off Fenway Park for housing
• Create environment destruction on a global scale

[moonslav59]

12 hours ago, Old Red said:

The troubling part is if the Red Sox wasn’t willing to spend on Alonso whom they were supposedly interested in I can’t see them spending much on anyone else except for Bregman.

I won’t be shocked if we settle on crumbs, again

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

I won’t be shocked if we settle on crumbs, again

Breslow's crumbs last season were pretty good. 

[Old Red]

4 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Breslow's crumbs last season were pretty good. 

I think that Bregman did not to really want to go to Detroit, so he took the 1 YEAR offer from Boston for something better this year, and maybe from Boston.

[Hugh2]

27 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Then we are the best team in the AL, imo.  And imho, if we add a #2 and either Okamoto or Marte, then we are the best team in the AL.

If John Henry did this and posted another photo of himself smoking a cigar shutting up his naysayers that would be awesome. 

I'd put the odds of that happening at slightly greater than zero.  Then again the odds of every atom in your body aligning perfectly with the wall and allowing you to walk thru the wall are theoretically greater than 0 percent.  It's about .0000000000000000000000000000001% I think the Odds of John Henry growing some balls is higher than that but not by much. 

[Hugh2]

8 minutes ago, Old Red said:

I think that Bregman did not to really want to go to Detroit, so he took the 1 YEAR offer from Boston for something better this year, and maybe from Boston.

5/125 would be more than fair for Bregman.  Maybe add in some vesting options if he stays healthy. 

[Old Red]

1 hour ago, Hugh2 said:

5/125 would be more than fair for Bregman.  Maybe add in some vesting options if he stays healthy. 

I agree, but I’ve just got a bad feeling that if the Red Sox resign Bregman it will be for more money than that. I thought the contract Bregman signed last year was right in the length.

[Hugh2]

9 minutes ago, Old Red said:

I agree, but I’ve just got a bad feeling that if the Red Sox resign Bregman it will be for more money than that. I thought the contract Bregman signed last year was right in the length.

What could possibly of happened over the last 6 years to give you any kind of bad feeling about the moves this team will make?

[drewski6]

1 hour ago, Hugh2 said:

5/125 would be more than fair for Bregman.  Maybe add in some vesting options if he stays healthy. 

Bregman didnt opt out of 2/80 to sign 5/125. I dont think he overplays his hand 2 years in a row.  I think he gets 150 easy.

[Hugh2]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

Bregman didnt opt out of 2/80 to sign 5/125. I dont think he overplays his hand 2 years in a row.  I think he gets 150 easy.

No he didn't he opted out because he thought he could get more than 80 million.  Any deal that is more than that makes it worth it for him.  I think what he signs for is below what him and Boras think but above $80 million.  So he'll make out inthe end, but that gap makes me think we will be waiting a while with him.......much like last year