Red Sox Pre-Offseason Mega Thread

[Brandon Glick]

I don't have much to say that hasn't been said. That was just a lifeless showing over two days by the Red Sox.

Thank you all for another great season that deserved a better ending. We hope you enjoyed our coverage at TS throughout the year -- it's our favorite thing to interact with the readership and fellow fans. There were plenty of memorable moments worth celebrating, and there should be ample time for this team to actually get healthy before next season.

We'll have more to share about our offseason and, eventually, lockout plans in the future. For now, we'll use this space as our mega-thread so people can chat about this team in whatever manner they want before we officially get to the end of the playoffs.

See you all for some more Red Sox baseball in 2027 (hopefully)...

[NHNative]

Yup.

[a700hitter]

Please someone tell me that this is from the Babylon Bee!

 

[mvp 78]

8 minutes ago, a700hitter said:

Please someone tell me that this is from the Babylon Bee!

The poster wrote that himself. While Breslow has his faults, he did not say those words in a press conference today. 

[a700hitter]

16 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

The poster wrote that himself. While Breslow has his faults, he did not say those words in a press conference today. 

Thank goodness .

[a700hitter]

Is there a link to hear his statement?

[moonslav59]

I will say, no two games should ever determine a change in strategy or evaluations of high ve moderate vs low need areas.

[Behindenemylines]

We still need to add power to this lineup. Even if the bullpen didn't blowup the Sox still only scored 2 runs in two games. Early in both games I kept wishing that the Sox could get someone on and that someone could hit one in the short right field porch. Never happened! It is hard to string three or four hits in a row against good pitching. The Sox we saw in the PO were April and May Sox.

[moonslav59]

21 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I will say, no two games should ever determine a change in strategy or evaluations of high ve moderate vs low need areas.

The bad offense was more than 2 games- granted.

[moonslav59]

5 minutes ago, Behindenemylines said:

We still need to add power to this lineup. Even if the bullpen didn't blowup the Sox still only scored 2 runs in two games. Early in both games I kept wishing that the Sox could get someone on and that someone could hit one in the short right field porch. Never happened! It is hard to string three or four hits in a row against good pitching. The Sox we saw in the PO were April and May Sox.

It should also be mentioned our SP'ers let up just 3 runs in 2 games.

[Behindenemylines]

8 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

It should also be mentioned our SP'ers let up just 3 runs in 2 games.

I had no issues with the starters other then they were pulled to early. Both of them should have been left in because we needed 6 plus from both with the shape that the bullpen was in.

[notin]

32 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I will say, no two games should ever determine a change in strategy or evaluations of high ve moderate vs low need areas.

Absolutely.

like I said before, the highest-scoring team in MLB this year scored 1 run in two postseason games. And they weren’t exactly facing Cy Young candidates either.

Should the Sox tear down? Absolutely not.  Add a missing piece or two.  You get Crochet, Houck, Crawford and Oviedo back (hopefully).

Some faces will go.  My first thoughts are Bennett and either Duran or Abreu might have played their last games for Boston…

[moonslav59]

Just now, Behindenemylines said:

I had no issues with the starters other then they were pulled to early. Both of them should have been left in because we needed 6 plus from both with the shape that the bullpen was in.

Agreed. I'd have rather we left them in too long that that.

[moonslav59]

29 minutes ago, notin said:

Absolutely.

like I said before, the highest-scoring team in MLB this year scored 1 run in two postseason games. And they weren’t exactly facing Cy Young candidates either.

Should the Sox tear down? Absolutely not.  Add a missing piece or two.  You get Crochet, Houck, Crawford and Oviedo back (hopefully).

Some faces will go.  My first thoughts are Bennett and either Duran or Abreu might have played their last games for Boston…

Every year, we say, "We'll get _____, ______ and ______ back." Half the time we don't. The other half we do and they suck, then as Yogi might say, the other half of the time, others get hurt or unexpectedly decline.

I'm thinking we might see a Contreras trade. I'm not sure how they viewed his antics and attitude. I'm sure if he sucked or was meh, they would not have liked them. They could go with...

1B: Mead, Sogard, Romy, Casas

2B: Story, Mead, Seigler, Romy

SS: Arias, Story, Monasterio, Cheng

That's big drop in offense, and we are looking for ways to boost the O, so this seems counterintuitive. I think it's likely Contreras declines some at his age. 2026 was also his 3rd most PAs in his career, but he was a catcher before.

I think we keep Bennett but might trade Suarez. His big raise may scare too many teams away.

I'm sure we'll hear trade Duran- trade Yoshida- trade Story all winter long, but we might get lucky to trade just one- likely Duran. I know many will view a Duran trade as a hit to the offense, but not if you look at just his 2025 numbers. Just non tendering him should/could be addition by subtraction. Replacing his PAs with more from Anthony, Yoshida, Jones and White should be a plus. Adding a LF'er or DH could see an even bigger boost.

Brez seems to swapping out pitchers every winter, so maybe we see Weissert, Slaten, Moran (out of options) or even Guerrero dealt away. Look at last winter:

Clarke, Fitts & Galle for Gray

Perales for Bennett

Hicks and Sandlin for Ziehl.

______________________

Trades of bats for pitchers:

Jh  Garcia and Travieso for Oviedo & Samaniego

Mayer for Miller (and Gutierrez)

______________________

Trades of pitchers for bats:

Hoppe for Heyman

Bernardino for Ward

Murphy for Ro. Hernandez

L Guerrero for Tristan Gray

Dobbins, Fajardo & Aita for Contreras

Harrison & Drohan for Durbin and others.

Early for Mead

Eyanson, Witherspoon & Azocar for AR

That's a lot of dealing.

[notin]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Every year, we say, "We'll get _____, ______ and ______ back." Half the time we don't. The other half we do and they suck, then as Yogi might say, the other half of the time, others get hurt or unexpectedly decline.

I'm thinking we might see a Contreras trade. I'm not sure how they viewed his antics and attitude. I'm sure if he sucked or was meh, they would not have liked them. They could go with...

1B: Mead, Sogard, Romy, Casas

2B: Story, Mead, Seigler, Romy

SS: Arias, Story, Monasterio, Cheng

That's big drop in offense, and we are looking for ways to boost the O, so this seems counterintuitive. I think it's likely Contreras declines some at his age. 2026 was also his 3rd most PAs in his career, but he was a catcher before.

I think we keep Bennett but might trade Suarez. His big raise may scare too many teams away.

I'm sure we'll hear trade Duran- trade Yoshida- trade Story all winter long, but we might get lucky to trade just one- likely Duran. I know many will view a Duran trade as a hit to the offense, but not if you look at just his 2025 numbers. Just non tendering him should/could be addition by subtraction. Replacing his PAs with more from Anthony, Yoshida, Jones and White should be a plus. Adding a LF'er or DH could see an even bigger boost.

Brez seems to swapping out pitchers every winter, so maybe we see Weissert, Slaten, Moran (out of options) or even Guerrero dealt away. Look at last winter:

Clarke, Fitts & Galle for Gray

Perales for Bennett

Hicks and Sandlin for Ziehl.

______________________

Trades of bats for pitchers:

Jh  Garcia and Travieso for Oviedo & Samaniego

Mayer for Miller (and Gutierrez)

______________________

Trades of pitchers for bats:

Hoppe for Heyman

Bernardino for Ward

Murphy for Ro. Hernandez

L Guerrero for Tristan Gray

Dobbins, Fajardo & Aita for Contreras

Harrison & Drohan for Durbin and others.

Early for Mead

Eyanson, Witherspoon & Azocar for AR

That's a lot of dealing.

They never trade anyone I think they should trade, and certainly no one I suspect will get traded.  So why not Contreras?

But if they do, they are getting someone back.  Romy isn’t going to start at 2b next year.  Mead can play anywhere but SS, so he’s not a clue…

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, notin said:

They never trade anyone I think they should trade, and certainly no one I suspect will get traded.  So why not Contreras?

But if they do, they are getting someone back.  Romy isn’t going to start at 2b next year.  Mead can play anywhere but SS, so he’s not a clue…

Yes, they won't hand Contreras away. The idea is we get someone back at another position. Maybe we add a piece or two and get a much better player. Then, we move Mead to 1B.

I don't see Romy getting a FT role, but I doubt we gave up on him as a top platoon bat vs LHPs. He could platoon with Gasper or Yoshida at DH. Gasper-Romy at 1B would be a big ask. (Casas would be the depth.)

I think the Sox really like Sogard, but asking him to play 1B and hit like one is too much. Plus, he's not a great hitter vs RHPs, which happens to be about 70% of all pitchers.

[moonslav59]

I know a certain poster who thinks Rafaela is a minus on offense, and CF could be upgraded on offense, but consider this:

Out of 270 batters with 300+ PAs (9 batters x 30 teams=270) Rafaela places:

102 in OWAR (Fangraphs)

104 in wRC+ (109)

80th in SLG (.442)

147th in OBP (.319)

He placed 30th in overall fWAR thanks to his defense (15th best in DWAR.) He should not be someone we look to trade, unless we see a decline coming. (I could see a drop off, but he has not been up and down like Duran was. He's younger than Duran was when he declined.)

 

[notin]

40 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Yes, they won't hand Contreras away. The idea is we get someone back at another position. Maybe we add a piece or two and get a much better player. Then, we move Mead to 1B.

I don't see Romy getting a FT role, but I doubt we gave up on him as a top platoon bat vs LHPs. He could platoon with Gasper or Yoshida at DH. Gasper-Romy at 1B would be a big ask. (Casas would be the depth.)

I think the Sox really like Sogard, but asking him to play 1B and hit like one is too much. Plus, he's not a great hitter vs RHPs, which happens to be about 70% of all pitchers.

Hoping the Sox shed themselves of some of their utility infielder types that are about as difficult to replace as head lice.  Sogard seems to be a fan and Tracy favorite.  But Romy, Monasterio, Cheng and Seigler feels like a bit too much of the 40 man roster dedicated to backing up 2b/3b/SS.  Also the Replaceables could include players like Gasper and  Jones.  I do see Yoshida returning because he isn’t tradable but he can hit.  I (hope I) don’t see him starting, even in a platoon.  
 

Much to my chagrin, I think Cheng will be the first player I mentioned in this post to depart.  I wish him well.😢

[moonslav59]

19 minutes ago, notin said:

Hoping the Sox shed themselves of some of their utility infielder types that are about as difficult to replace as head lice.  Sogard seems to be a fan and Tracy favorite.  But Romy, Monasterio, Cheng and Seigler feels like a bit too much of the 40 man roster dedicated to backing up 2b/3b/SS.  Also the Replaceables could include players like Gasper and  Jones.  I do see Yoshida returning because he isn’t tradable but he can hit.  I (hope I) don’t see him starting, even in a platoon.  
Much to my chagrin, I think Cheng will be the first player I mentioned in this post to depart.  I wish him well.😢

If someone likes Monasterio or Seigler enough to offer Brez something useful, I could see trading one and keeping Cheng. Chengs plus of those two plus Sogard and Mead is he can play SS. (I'm not happy with Story's D at SS, too, so keeping Cheng and the Arias back-up make sense to me, too.

Sogard might get the most return value, and maybe the "step down" to Seigler, Monasterio, Cheng and Gasper is not that much. I agree, we need to shed at least one. Funny, how we shed DHam but added 3 infielders in that deal.

Since Arias is not Rule 5, we don't really have to add him over the winter. We may wait until opening day for that call. I'd like to hand him the job, but have someone capable in the wings. I suppose Story as a back-up SS is fine. He could play 2B in the meantime while Mead DHs.

[Marc]

Agree with what I have read thus far.

Sox simply weren't trending well heading into the playoffs.  Be it injuries, bullpen fatigue, reliance on young - inexperienced bullpen arms...

Agree - pulled Gray way too early, and possibly Tolle too.

BUT - one thing I also noticed was that the Yankees were ready to hit pitches below the strike zone.  Red Sox swung and missed on those same pitches.  The Yankees preparation for this series was volumes better than ours.  Hate to say it.  Sox fan ever since Yaz took over for Ted.

[mvp 78]

14 hours ago, Behindenemylines said:

We still need to add power to this lineup. Even if the bullpen didn't blowup the Sox still only scored 2 runs in two games. Early in both games I kept wishing that the Sox could get someone on and that someone could hit one in the short right field porch. Never happened! It is hard to string three or four hits in a row against good pitching. The Sox we saw in the PO were April and May Sox.

Yup. Add two power bats. Reduce some of the dead wood in the lineup. Figure out the replacement for Sonny. 

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, Marc said:

Agree with what I have read thus far.

Sox simply weren't trending well heading into the playoffs.  Be it injuries, bullpen fatigue, reliance on young - inexperienced bullpen arms...

Agree - pulled Gray way too early, and possibly Tolle too.

BUT - one thing I also noticed was that the Yankees were ready to hit pitches below the strike zone.  Red Sox swung and missed on those same pitches.  The Yankees preparation for this series was volumes better than ours.  Hate to say it.  Sox fan ever since Yaz took over for Ted.

Welcome to TalkSox!

[mvp 78]

12 hours ago, notin said:

Hoping the Sox shed themselves of some of their utility infielder types that are about as difficult to replace as head lice.  Sogard seems to be a fan and Tracy favorite.  But Romy, Monasterio, Cheng and Seigler feels like a bit too much of the 40 man roster dedicated to backing up 2b/3b/SS.  Also the Replaceables could include players like Gasper and  Jones.  I do see Yoshida returning because he isn’t tradable but he can hit.  I (hope I) don’t see him starting, even in a platoon.  
 

Much to my chagrin, I think Cheng will be the first player I mentioned in this post to depart.  I wish him well.😢

When I looked in ST, they had 2-3 more IFers on the 40 man than any other org. 

[mvp 78]

14 hours ago, notin said:

Absolutely.

like I said before, the highest-scoring team in MLB this year scored 1 run in two postseason games. And they weren’t exactly facing Cy Young candidates either.

Should the Sox tear down? Absolutely not.  Add a missing piece or two.  You get Crochet, Houck, Crawford and Oviedo back (hopefully).

Some faces will go.  My first thoughts are Bennett and either Duran or Abreu might have played their last games for Boston…

Hoping on Houck, Crawford and Oviedo? I'm not falling for that this time. Injured guys stay injured or unproductive. 

[JimEd]

14 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

It should also be mentioned our SP'ers let up just 3 runs in 2 games.

and they were removed because anal itics said so. thanks nerds.

[JimEd]

13 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I know a certain poster who thinks Rafaela is a minus on offense, and CF could be upgraded on offense, but consider this:

Out of 270 batters with 300+ PAs (9 batters x 30 teams=270) Rafaela places:

102 in OWAR (Fangraphs)

104 in wRC+ (109)

80th in SLG (.442)

147th in OBP (.319)

He placed 30th in overall fWAR thanks to his defense (15th best in DWAR.) He should not be someone we look to trade, unless we see a decline coming. (I could see a drop off, but he has not been up and down like Duran was. He's younger than Duran was when he declined.)

 

im open to trading literally anyone on this team except CR. 

[JimEd]

16 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

When I looked in ST, they had 2-3 more IFers on the 40 man than any other org. 

i thought Breslow was trying to corner the market on AAAA middle-infielder, utility guys. it was absurd.

[mvp 78]

16 minutes ago, JimEd said:

im open to trading literally anyone on this team except CR. 

I don't think anyone is untradeable. Tolle would be the hardest to give up though. 

[mvp 78]

15 minutes ago, JimEd said:

i thought Breslow was trying to corner the market on AAAA middle-infielder, utility guys. it was absurd.

Those guys did keep the team afloat for a lot of the summer. 

[JAG]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Those guys did keep the team afloat for a lot of the summer. 

I don't understand the "settling" mentality. This season was a failure. John Henry is happy because he made a ton of money. Breslow is happy because his bench players made it interesting for a few months. The millionaire players are happy popping their champagne after a loss. The fans get another failed embarrassing beating handed by the f***ing bronx *******s.

The RedSox need full time professional ballplayers. Spend money! Start with Brandon Lowe at 2nd base and put Arias at short. I don't care what they do with Story or Duran but they have no job in Boston next year.