Question of the week: grade the offseason

[Brock Beauchamp]

What grade do you give the Red Sox this offseason?

[VMac]

Would have been an "A" if they cleared up some of the imbalance (4 quality OF, plus K Campbell, plus Yoshida), which I suspect they will do either before the season or at the trade deadline.  

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, VMac said:

Would have been an "A" if they cleared up some of the imbalance (4 quality OF, plus K Campbell, plus Yoshida), which I suspect they will do either before the season or at the trade deadline.  

I wouldn't be at all concerned about Duran being the DH, provided they can move Yoshida for a RH DH/OF.  I'd have given the RS a B+ pending that move, but still had to round it up to an A.

[moonslav59]

12 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

I wouldn't be at all concerned about Duran being the DH, provided they can move Yoshida for a RH DH/OF.  I'd have given the RS a B+ pending that move, but still had to round it up to an A.

If we move Masa, it won't be for anything but salary relief.

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

If we move Masa, it won't be for anything but salary relief.

Or we play the long game and eat all the salary to get a better prospect.  But the key would still be getting the righty equivalent of Masa, with a better glove.

[mvp 78]

20 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Or we play the long game and eat all the salary to get a better prospect.  But the key would still be getting the righty equivalent of Masa, with a better glove.

If you have RHB Masa with a better glove, why would you trade him for Masa? 

[notin]

On a scale of echidna to okapi, I give them a solid quagga +

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

If you have RHB Masa with a better glove, why would you trade him for Masa? 

Fair enough.  Just obtain a RH bat instead of Masa.

[Kimmi]

4 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

I wouldn't be at all concerned about Duran being the DH, provided they can move Yoshida for a RH DH/OF.  I'd have given the RS a B+ pending that move, but still had to round it up to an A.

I was thinking A-, which of course rounds up to an A.

Starting pitching is always my priority.  The Red Sox addressed that very well.  We could perhaps have upgraded the offense a little more, but at what cost?  The types of moves that Breslow made are the types of moves that are right up my alley.

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

Or we play the long game and eat all the salary to get a better prospect.  But the key would still be getting the righty equivalent of Masa, with a better glove.

I could see a Hicks+ Sandlin type deal with Masa, too. We have a logjam of SP'ers and some team must like one of two of our farm arms as much or more than we do.

I doubt Uberstine, Cespedes and Masa knock of a lot of millions, but someone like Phillips, Valera or even Holobetz might.

I'm not a Masa hater. I think he can hit .775 to .800, this year. That might be a higher OPS than Duran gives us- not that I want him more than Duran. I just think with 4 OF'ers, Romy, Campbell and Casas on the 40, we don't need a DH only guy on the 26.

We aren't trading Duran.

[moonslav59]

13 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

I was thinking A-, which of course rounds up to an A.

Starting pitching is always my priority.  The Red Sox addressed that very well.  We could perhaps have upgraded the offense a little more, but at what cost?  The types of moves that Breslow made are the types of moves that are right up my alley.

If you could, would you sub Gray ($21M) and IKF ($6M) for Bregman ($27M?)

I know it's 6 years vs 1, but the AAV is close.

(Still make the Durbin trade and have Durbin/Mayer at 2B.)

[Bellhorn04]

B+ seems fair.  For some reason B+ feels like a really cool grade.  Technically A- is better, but there's something about having a + instead of a -.

Actually I think Craig did a great job.  He was busy as heck and we're spending again.  Now we just have to put those darn wins on the board.  

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

I'm really looking forward to all the frozen white stuff to melt and baseball to begin. I'm excited to watch the young Red Sox develop and the new additions to contribute. But come on.

I watched the worst batting order in Red Sox postseason history and then heard the CBO say Boston needed big bats.

He "pivoted." 

Failing the exam but doing an extra-credit essay to bring up the grade rarely gets anyone an A. If that paper eventually gets published and wins a national award, then it's ok to reassess.

B-.

[moonslav59]

12 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

B+ seems fair.  For some reason B+ feels like a really cool grade.  Technically A- is better, but there's something about having a + instead of a -.

Actually I think Craig did a great job.  He was busy as heck and we're spending again.  Now we just have to put those darn wins on the board.  

I was torn between B+ and B. 

I think we failed to fill a big need better than adequately and left a position log-jammed.

Otherwise, we'd have gotten an A or A-

[JoeBrady]

18 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

If you could, would you sub Gray ($21M) and IKF ($6M) for Bregman ($27M?)

I know it's 6 years vs 1, but the AAV is close.

(Still make the Durbin trade and have Durbin/Mayer at 2B.)

It's a pure hypothetical since I think they always intended on making Mayer a FT starter.  If we signed Bregman, I think there is no chance we trade for a short-side platoon player.

That said, the answer is no.    If, for discussion purposes, Gray + IKF = Bregman, then Bregman becomes a $124M/4 guy at age 33.  I wouldn't do that.

[davidrw]

I’m at a solid B. I love that they finally put real effort into the pitching, but it still feels like they left a big clean lineup fit on the table. If the new arms hold up and one more move happens, I’ll happily bump it up later.

[mvp 78]

I'm just going to change my vote in the poll every day. 

[Kimmi]

22 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

If you could, would you sub Gray ($21M) and IKF ($6M) for Bregman ($27M?)

I know it's 6 years vs 1, but the AAV is close.

(Still make the Durbin trade and have Durbin/Mayer at 2B.)

No, I don't think I would do that.  I still prefer the stronger pitching over the stronger offense.

[Duran Is The Man]

i give Bres an "A" for upgrading the pitching staff and an "F" for adding the "big bat" we desperately need. so i averaged them out and gave him a "D".  

[notin]

On 2/18/2026 at 10:01 AM, VMac said:

Would have been an "A" if they cleared up some of the imbalance (4 quality OF, plus K Campbell, plus Yoshida), which I suspect they will do either before the season or at the trade deadline.  

Not sure why this is a problem…

[notin]

On 2/19/2026 at 10:43 AM, mvp 78 said:

I'm just going to change my vote in the poll every day. 

You're so Florida…

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, notin said:

Not sure why this is a problem…

Having depth is not a problem, and if we had a gaping hole somewhere else, one could argue there is a problem, but I don't see one anymore.

I wish we'd have gotten a better infielder than Durbin, but he's pretty good.

I wish we got a bigger bat than Contreras, but he is pretty good, too.

We did better than I ever expected on improving the rotation, so hopefully that makes up for the possible shortcomings I mentioned.

I think our roster looks pretty solid. We have no major weak areas. We might have the best rotation in MLB along with a top five 1-2 or 1-2-3 RP'er punch. We balanced the left-righty issue a little bit, despite losing Refsnyder. I think our overall infield defense will be better. The OF defense is A #1.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

42 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

We did better than I ever expected on improving the rotation, so hopefully that makes up for the possible shortcomings I mentioned.

Don't sell yourself short! Remember, it was Moon research that ranked all MLB starters by WAR way back on October 11 that inspired Breslow's plan for the offseason... after my reply post, of course:

"That is a lot of work, and makes me want to trade for Sonny Gray even more now. Plus, sign Cease or Suarez (because Dombro "can't keep them all")."

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Don't sell yourself short! Remember, it was Moon research that ranked all MLB starters by WAR way back on October 11 that inspired Breslow's plan for the offseason... after my reply post, of course:

"That is a lot of work, and makes me want to trade for Sonny Gray even more now. Plus, sign Cease or Suarez (because Dombro "can't keep them all")."

It was shocking how much we focused on SP'ers. Even Oviedo might become a surprise.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

It was shocking how much we focused on SP'ers. Even Oviedo might become a surprise.

It's not impossible that the star in a World Series-winning season is The Rotation. But it's been 20 years since over half a world champion's best regular season players were pitchers.

Based on the Top 8 bWAR of annual champs, the 2005 Chicago White Sox were the last to feature 5 of 8 on the mound. That includes their Big Four starters who threw four straight complete games to win the ALCS (after an ALDS sweep of the Red Sox).

Since '05, only one other ring winner has had as many as 4 pitchers outright among its top 8 bWARs... you guessed it -- the 2018 Boston Red Sox: Sale, Price, Porcello and Rodriguez.

There's no Mookie this year, but there's an Anthony. And there is a JD. But while monitoring the BoSox' trek back to the top, check their bb-reference page often, and the mugshots from left to right --- if at least 4 of the top 8 WARRIORS include the likes of Crochet, Suarez, Gray and Bello, plus even Chapman again, we could be alright...

[moonslav59]

25 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

It's not impossible that the star in a World Series-winning season is The Rotation. But it's been 20 years since over half a world champion's best regular season players were pitchers.

Based on the Top 8 bWAR of annual champs, the 2005 Chicago White Sox were the last to feature 5 of 8 on the mound. That includes their Big Four starters who threw four straight complete games to win the ALCS (after an ALDS sweep of the Red Sox).

Since '05, only one other ring winner has had as many as 4 pitchers outright among its top 8 bWARs... you guessed it -- the 2018 Boston Red Sox: Sale, Price, Porcello and Rodriguez.

There's no Mookie this year, but there's an Anthony. And there is a JD. But while monitoring the BoSox' trek back to the top, check their bb-reference page often, and the mugshots from left to right --- if at least 4 of the top 8 WARRIORS include the likes of Crochet, Suarez, Gray and Bello, plus even Chapman again, we could be alright...

I'd add Whitlock as the leagues highest fWAR #2 RP'er.

I really like Slaten, too. Our SP'er depth looks very nice, as well.