Red Sox Pre-Offseason Mega Thread

[Randy Red Sox]

On 10/23/2026 at 10:20 AM, moonslav59 said:

That was really good, but in terms of total production (not rings) Brez's is better.

It wasn't guy on the addition list that let the team down, except for maybe just Mead & Oviedo.

Some of the single most productive players were Schilling before 2004, Beckett before 2007, Lackey before 2013, and Sale before 2028- who all led to rings. JD was big. Manny was big, but years before 2004. Papi was a huge add. Victorino for that one year.

No doubt Theo did better but he had JH's wallet open more too to be fair to the latest flunkies we have used since DD

[Randy Red Sox]

17 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

+ Contreras

+ Gray

+ Suarez

+ Bennett

+ Mead

+ Rutschman

+ Durbin

+ Gasper, Seigler, Monasterio, Jones, White and others.

Mead and Rutschman were flops. Gray was good but he is another in the long list of 1 and done likely. Suarez overall was a good pickup. Durbin had his moments but some bad stretches too. Bennett was fine but so was the guy we gave up for him.

[JoeBrady]

29 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

Mead and Rutschman were flops.

Mead had a .500 OBP which we desperately needed, as well as a 300 Rdrs/yr.  Ceddanne, Abreu & Durbin combined only had a 58.

[notin]

1 hour ago, Randy Red Sox said:

Mead and Rutschman were flops. Gray was good but he is another in the long list of 1 and done likely. Suarez overall was a good pickup. Durbin had his moments but some bad stretches too. Bennett was fine but so was the guy we gave up for him.

We gave up RHP Luis Perales for Bennett. Perales had an 11.45 ERA and a 2.545 WHIP across 11 IP for the Nationals.  

I’d say he fell just short of what the Sox got out of Bennett…

[Bellhorn04]

I've been spoiled by success, I have come to realize it. Winning in the high 80's and making the playoffs in itself just doesn't get it anymore.  The postseason is a big deal.  The 2021 team probably wasn't a lot better than the 2025 and 2026 teams, but they knocked out the Yanks and Rays and had a real sniff at the ring, so I think of that team fondly.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

3 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

I've been spoiled by success, I have come to realize it. Winning in the high 80's and making the playoffs in itself just doesn't get it anymore.  The postseason is a big deal.  The 2021 team probably wasn't a lot better than the 2025 and 2026 teams, but they knocked out the Yanks and Rays and had a real sniff at the ring, so I think of that team fondly.

The past two Red Sox years haven't even felt like the playoffs, partly because they didn't even play in October this season.

But here's the real deal: I don't care what anyone says about MLB's current playoff alignment -- any team that makes the playoffs should be rewarded with at least ONE HOME game.

[Old Red]

29 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

I've been spoiled by success, I have come to realize it. Winning in the high 80's and making the playoffs in itself just doesn't get it anymore.  The postseason is a big deal.  The 2021 team probably wasn't a lot better than the 2025 and 2026 teams, but they knocked out the Yanks and Rays and had a real sniff at the ring, so I think of that team fondly.

Agree 100% the first part, but not so much on the 2021 team. The 2021 team was a better hitting team with Raffy, and JD in the middle of it, and Renfroe had a pretty good year also, and not to mention Kike had a hot spell too. Bogey was also still there. Can’t forget Flintstone either.

[Old Red]

13 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

The past two Red Sox years haven't even felt like the playoffs, partly because they didn't even play in October this season.

But here's the real deal: I don't care what anyone says about MLB's current playoff alignment -- any team that makes the playoffs should be rewarded with at least ONE HOME game.

I like the format as it is now. It makes finishing ahead like the Yankees has done to the Red Sox the last two years more meaningful just like the Red Sox playing at home in 2021.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

16 minutes ago, Old Red said:

I like the format as it is now. It makes finishing ahead like the Yankees has done to the Red Sox the last two years more meaningful just like the Red Sox playing at home in 2021.

Best of two, with ectoplasmic extra inning if necessary. Game 1 at WC team with the worst record, Game 2 at WC team with better record. 

If they split, the tiebreaker is played right after at the Game 2 park like extra innings with ghost runners until there is a winner to decide who advances. So the best team gets the advantage of having last at bats.

The networks and gambling sponsors will love it.

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, Randy Red Sox said:

Mead and Rutschman were flops. Gray was good but he is another in the long list of 1 and done likely. Suarez overall was a good pickup. Durbin had his moments but some bad stretches too. Bennett was fine but so was the guy we gave up for him.

Mead got hurt and has several years of control left. He wasn't a rental. Calling someone a flop before their time is up is not true. Saying and injured player has been "a flop, so far" is debatable, too, but at least it makes some sense..

AR improved on Narvaez by about 150 OPS pts. I did expect better, but he did bring stability to our weakest link.

Both should be healthy for 2027.

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, notin said:

We gave up RHP Luis Perales for Bennett. Perales had an 11.45 ERA and a 2.545 WHIP across 11 IP for the Nationals.  

I’d say he fell just short of what the Sox got out of Bennett…

Mead is a "flop" but somehow Perales was something good? (He might end up being good, but the shifting judgement criteria always baffles me.)

[Old Red]

6 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Mead got hurt and has several years of control left. He wasn't a rental. Calling someone a flop before their time is up is not true. Saying and injured player has been "a flop, so far" is debatable, too, but at least it makes some sense..

AR improved on Narvaez by about 150 OPS pts. I did expect better, but he did bring stability to our weakest link.

Both should be healthy for 2027.

Badley  RUSTman has been injured the last two years why should 2027 be any different?🤔

[Old Red]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Mead is a "flop" buy somehow Perales was something good? (He might end up being good, but the shifting judgement criteria always baffles me.)

Mead has been going from team to team to team to team the last few years. Nothing baffling about that considering what he put up for stats. Yes he had some success this past year, so we’ll see what player shows up in 2027.🤫

[moonslav59]

12 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Mead has been going from team to team to team to team the last few years. Nothing baffling about that considering what he put up for stats. Yes he had some success this past year, so we’ll see what player shows up in 2027.🤫

It's not like he's been up and down. That's when I usually ask that question.

His first 3 years in MLB, he had 92>133>264 PAs and was far from being impressive or even promising. I totally understand the doubts and concerns. He was 23-25 years old those years, so it's not like it was a 20-22 year old getting off to a slow start, but it was still a sample size under 500. The same sample size people, including you, have doubts on Casas being over .800 in.

No way am I projecting he's going to be great, but 35 XBHs in 285 ABs was pretty awesome, last year. To those who seem to value recency over almost everything else, they should be excited. MVP made a good point: his "recency" was being on the IL, so there is that concern, too. 

I get the Red Sox fan fatigue on stockpiling players with multiple concerns or questions. I am one of them, too. I tend to be more optimistic than most, but we have a hell of a lot of players that have already shown they can put up good to great numbers over pretty long sample sizes within the last 2-3 years. This is not wishing and praying on unproven prospects or "suspects" as you like to call all of them. These are players who have done very well, recently.

I've been saying for over a couple months we need a more proven and elite bat, in part because we have too many doubtful but promising players on the 26 and 40. In now way should we plan on or expect every Sox player to do as well as their best sample size in the last 3 years, but with so many of them with recent successes, we may only need 5-7 out 13-15 do do it. It's not really against the odds we see 7-8 do very well. Add one more and 8-9 might look probable.

[Bellhorn04]

1 hour ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Best of two, with ectoplasmic extra inning if necessary. Game 1 at WC team with the worst record, Game 2 at WC team with better record. 

If they split, the tiebreaker is played right after at the Game 2 park like extra innings with ghost runners until there is a winner to decide who advances. So the best team gets the advantage of having last at bats.

The networks and gambling sponsors will love it.

Not the worst radical idea I've ever heard.

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, Randy Red Sox said:

No doubt Theo did better but he had JH's wallet open more too to be fair to the latest flunkies we have used since DD

I was making the point about one singular November to November. Not a whole era.

Theo had a longer era than any other Sox GM, too. I'm not slighting him, at all. He started this whole winning culture. I think he was with BOS for 9-10 years, not counting the brief hiatus. Others have been GM for just 3-4 seasons.

If you go from the post Sale trade (12/31/23) to today, Brez's adds vs losses compares pretty well with any Sox GM's 3 year run. Maybe 12/10/24 to today is a better sample size- the day we signed Chapman and the day before the Crochet trade. That's an impressive 2 years, and maybe a record amount of trades, adds and subtractions.

[Bellhorn04]

43 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I was making the point about one singular November to November. Not a whole era.

Theo had a longer era than any other Sox GM, too. I'm not slighting him, at all. He started this whole winning culture. I think he was with BOS for 9-10 years, not counting the brief hiatus. Others have been GM for just 3-4 seasons.

If you go from the post Sale trade (12/31/23) to today, Brez's adds vs losses compares pretty well with any Sox GM's 3 year run. Maybe 12/10/24 to today is a better sample size- the day we signed Chapman and the day before the Crochet trade. That's an impressive 2 years, and maybe a record amount of trades, adds and subtractions.

But all the average fan really cares about are wins and losses and postseason performance.

Brez has made a bunch of good moves but his teams have yet to win 90 games or win more than one postseason game.

Expectations of Sox fans are high, admittedly.

[Randy Red Sox]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

Mead is a "flop" buy somehow Perales was something good? (He might end up being good, but the shifting judgement criteria always baffles me.)

mead was a flop this season.  that was my point. 

[Randy Red Sox]

3 hours ago, notin said:

We gave up RHP Luis Perales for Bennett. Perales had an 11.45 ERA and a 2.545 WHIP across 11 IP for the Nationals.  

I’d say he fell just short of what the Sox got out of Bennett…

i didn't say i didn't like Bennet as he was good but 11 ip is hardly a sample to assess

[Old Red]

21 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

But all the average fan really cares about are wins and losses and postseason performance.

Brez has made a bunch of good moves but his teams have yet to win 90 games or win more than one postseason game.

Expectations of Sox fans are high, admittedly.

Bingo on the average fan, and I think there are more average fans out there than any other kind.

[UtahSox]

25 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

But all the average fan really cares about are wins and losses and postseason performance.

Brez has made a bunch of good moves but his teams have yet to win 90 games or win more than one postseason game.

Expectations of Sox fans are high, admittedly.

I do agree that Breslow is doing a good job with the task he’s been given… to me this fall squarely on JH and the constraints he’s fictitiously put on his baseball capital. I imagine Breslow wishes he could have signed Alonso, Bregman, and Suarez last year. And given the constraints he has Breslow has shown initiative, creativity, and some balls. 
 

I just feel like Red Sox ownership is so performative nowadays. Even to the way they choose to stay in the luxury cap by a ridiculously small amount . It feels like it’s a production, to say we’re doing all we can when the reality is I don’t believe there’s a baseball team in America that makes as much net profit as the Boston Red Sox (maybe the Chicago Cubs). 

[moonslav59]

38 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

But all the average fan really cares about are wins and losses and postseason performance.

Brez has made a bunch of good moves but his teams have yet to win 90 games or win more than one postseason game.

Expectations of Sox fans are high, admittedly.

I agree, but I'm not one to say our roster sucks based on two seasons of losing two 3 game series when it counts.

It's also impossible to say adding X and Y will guarantee better playoff results, or if we had added x , y and Z, we'd have won a playoff series or two.

Not having Crochet, Mead and Anthony made it hard, but we lost to a team missing Judge, so blaming injuries seems off base.

A GM builds a team that looks good on paper then leaves it to them to produce, We saw too many returning vets decline or get hurt. That's on them, IMO. To some extent you expect a GM to know when players are about to decline and trade them at the exact right time. That is a gift some GM seems to have- maybe it's just luck.

Many posters blaming Brez did not want us to trade away one of our best offensive players in Duran, last winter or the one before, but now it's his fault he did not. Many posters blamed Brez for putting too much faith in Anthony, Mayer and KC, but then again, he didn't trade  away Duran, who plays the same position as Duran. He added 4 infielders to hedge against Mayer & KC's non-production: Durbin, Seigler, IKF and Monasterio. I don't see that as slotting these 3 into FT roles while expecting ,800 from all 3.

How many posters have been bashing the Sox FO for their complete lack of understanding of how to acquire and develop good young pitchers. Once could point to the 3 years under Brez as adding more and better pitching than the previous 7-10 years combined- maybe even going back as far as Theo's last couple years with BOS (15-16 years back.)

Same with defense and bone-head baserunning.

Same with losing control of our young and talented players without getting value in return. I'm not sure I've ever seen a more and longer controlled set of everyday players as we have now, unless you go back to pre-FA MLB. We can argue that they are mostly mediocre or barely better, but the fact is we have a solid foundation in place with just a few clear slots needing serious upgrading. Under Bloom, every winter saw the need for 5-8 major upgrades and a budget limit allowing 1-2 significant upgrades. Under DD's last season, we saw us lose Kimbrell and Kelly with no replacements, at the same time aging vets were nearing the end of control with very little farm replacements in sight. Under Ben, we saw the building of a farm but way too many holes in the 26.

I'm not happy with the early playoff eliminations, but I simply cannot blame Brez for improving the team from top to bottom. Our defense, pitching and batting is better than 2022-2023. Our farm was better, until this summer, when he made two bold moves (Mead & AR) and a few significant smaller ones (Miller, White & Jones.) No GM has made so many deals in such a short time. He's the opposite of complacency (Ben) and paralysis by indecision (Bloom.)

 

[moonslav59]

40 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

i didn't say i didn't like Bennet as he was good but 11 ip is hardly a sample to assess

You were the one who said "look what we gave up," so it seemed like you assessed Perales as a real value we lost.

Would you trade Bennet back for Perales, now?

If no, I can't see why you selected that trade as one to criticize. There were several others you could have chosen that are more worthy of criticism.

To me, is till view the Crochet, Bennett, Mead, Contreras, Gray, Miller and other as good deals that are still TBD. The Durbin, AR, Holobetz, and others are more 50-50ish. The Sale trade is a big loss in hindsight. The Devers trade was forced. (We did get Harrison, so if you hate the Durbin trade because of Harrison, then the Devers dump is not so bad.)

[moonslav59]

47 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

mead was a flop this season.  that was my point. 

 

47 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

mead was a flop this season.  that was my point. 

Ok, maybe I'm arguing semantic, as you meant He's been a flop, so far.

I tend to not blame GMs when a player  not know for being injury prone gets hurt. 

Even so, since early never pitched another inning after the trade how is that trade a flop? At worst, it's a push.

Explain how nothing for nothing is a "flop?"

[moonslav59]

39 minutes ago, UtahSox said:

I do agree that Breslow is doing a good job with the task he’s been given… to me this fall squarely on JH and the constraints he’s fictitiously put on his baseball capital. I imagine Breslow wishes he could have signed Alonso, Bregman, and Suarez last year. And given the constraints he has Breslow has shown initiative, creativity, and some balls. 
 

I just feel like Red Sox ownership is so performative nowadays. Even to the way they choose to stay in the luxury cap by a ridiculously small amount . It feels like it’s a production, to say we’re doing all we can when the reality is I don’t believe there’s a baseball team in America that makes as much net profit as the Boston Red Sox (maybe the Chicago Cubs). 

While I think it's unrealistic to think any owner other than LA's and NYM's would okay those three signings, I do think signing Alonso and Bregman (no Suarez)  while still making every trade other than Durbin would have given us Harrison and Drohan back. Maybe MIL takes DHam and Duran for Durbin to play 2B, and we keep Early for the future.

C AR

1B Contreras

2B Durbin

3B Bregman

SS Story/Arias

LF Anthony

CF Rafela

RF Abreu

DH Alonso

(No Duran, DHam, Seigler, Monasterio)

Wong, (IKF '26 only) Arias/Story, Yoshida, Sogard/Romy

SP Crochet, (Gray '26 only) Tolle, Bennett, Harrison, Drohan/Bello, Houck/Crawford/Oviedo (No Suarez)

RP Chapman, Whitlock, Miller, Slaten, Guerrero, Weissert, Moran

[Larry Cook]

Are we buying into the media’s idea that a power hitter is the panacea for our team??  
 

are we not learning anything from watching the brewers??  
 

pitching, defense and timely hitting seems to be a tried and true formula for success 

But perhaps even more important is health!!  

[Bellhorn04]

16 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

Are we buying into the media’s idea that a power hitter is the panacea for our team??  
 

are we not learning anything from watching the brewers??  
 

pitching, defense and timely hitting seems to be a tried and true formula for success 

But perhaps even more important is health!!  

Brewers were #2 in runs scored in 2026.  Sox were #23.

[Bellhorn04]

56 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I agree, but I'm not one to say our roster sucks based on two seasons of losing two 3 game series when it counts.

It's also impossible to say adding X and Y will guarantee better playoff results, or if we had added x , y and Z, we'd have won a playoff series or two.

Not having Crochet, Mead and Anthony made it hard, but we lost to a team missing Judge, so blaming injuries seems off base.

A GM builds a team that looks good on paper then leaves it to them to produce, We saw too many returning vets decline or get hurt. That's on them, IMO. To some extent you expect a GM to know when players are about to decline and trade them at the exact right time. That is a gift some GM seems to have- maybe it's just luck.

Many posters blaming Brez did not want us to trade away one of our best offensive players in Duran, last winter or the one before, but now it's his fault he did not. Many posters blamed Brez for putting too much faith in Anthony, Mayer and KC, but then again, he didn't trade  away Duran, who plays the same position as Duran. He added 4 infielders to hedge against Mayer & KC's non-production: Durbin, Seigler, IKF and Monasterio. I don't see that as slotting these 3 into FT roles while expecting ,800 from all 3.

How many posters have been bashing the Sox FO for their complete lack of understanding of how to acquire and develop good young pitchers. Once could point to the 3 years under Brez as adding more and better pitching than the previous 7-10 years combined- maybe even going back as far as Theo's last couple years with BOS (15-16 years back.)

Same with defense and bone-head baserunning.

Same with losing control of our young and talented players without getting value in return. I'm not sure I've ever seen a more and longer controlled set of everyday players as we have now, unless you go back to pre-FA MLB. We can argue that they are mostly mediocre or barely better, but the fact is we have a solid foundation in place with just a few clear slots needing serious upgrading. Under Bloom, every winter saw the need for 5-8 major upgrades and a budget limit allowing 1-2 significant upgrades. Under DD's last season, we saw us lose Kimbrell and Kelly with no replacements, at the same time aging vets were nearing the end of control with very little farm replacements in sight. Under Ben, we saw the building of a farm but way too many holes in the 26.

I'm not happy with the early playoff eliminations, but I simply cannot blame Brez for improving the team from top to bottom. Our defense, pitching and batting is better than 2022-2023. Our farm was better, until this summer, when he made two bold moves (Mead & AR) and a few significant smaller ones (Miller, White & Jones.) No GM has made so many deals in such a short time. He's the opposite of complacency (Ben) and paralysis by indecision (Bloom.)

 

Brez did great with the run prevention this year but lousy with the run production. A Red Sox team finishing #23 in runs scored is crazy.  

[notin]

1 hour ago, Randy Red Sox said:

i didn't say i didn't like Bennet as he was good but 11 ip is hardly a sample to assess

So is two plate appearances but it was enough for you to label Mead “a flop”…

[notin]

19 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Brewers were #2 in runs scored in 2026.  Sox were #23.

Brewers also hit fewer home runs than the Red Sox, but I’m told that is the only way to make up the difference….