For the Red Sox, One-Year Deals Are the Order of the Day

For the second year in a row, this was the offseason when the Red Sox were going to turn it all around. They were going to put the pedal to the metal, sign all the big free agents, and get back to competing for a World Series trophy. However, it hasn’t exactly happened just yet, and that sounds familiar too. The Red Sox didn’t do much of anything before the 2024 season. This offseason, they have made several moves, but I don’t think you could argue that they represent an all-out effort to build a championship team. Although the Red Sox have been linked to a galaxy of star players, they've signed just two players from FanGraphs’ list of the top 50 free agents. Neither was in the top 20, and both signed one-year deals. In fact, I’d argue that fear of commitment has been the running theme of this offseason. Here are the free agent contracts the Red Sox have awarded so far:

Abraham Toro, one year
Walker Buehler, one year
Aroldis Chapman, one year
Justin Wilson, one year
Austin Adams, one year
Sean Newcomb, one year
Patrick Sandoval, two years

See the pattern? Keep in mind that Sandoval is coming off Tommy John surgery, and he’ll need to ramp up slowly after missing the first half of the 2025 season. In other words, everybody here is either literally or effectively on a one-year deal.

The Red Sox also went into the season with young stars like Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, and Triston Casas on rookie contracts, and it would have made sense to engage in contract extension talks with them. They chose not to do so, buying out Duran’s 2025 and 2026 arbitration years only to avoid a hearing.

The Red Sox did add some players with more than one year left on their contracts – trading for catchers Blake Sabol and Carlos Narváez, reliever Jovani Moran, and ace Garrett Crochet – but only Crochet is an impact player. The Red Sox are already engaged in extension talks with Crochet, which isn’t nothing, but still, January is drawing to a close and the reinforcements don’t seem to be coming. I would argue that the bullpen is worse than it was in 2024, and there’s no one to take the place of Tyler O’Neill or to fill the hole at second base.

This isn’t how the other championship hopefuls are acting. The Mets went out and signed Juan Soto for 15 years, and the Yankees, Giants, Diamondbacks, Blue Jays, and Dodgers have all handed out contracts of at least four years. The Royals, Astros, Rangers, Orioles, and Athletics also handed out three-year deals. You have to take risks to land great players. We’re way past the point when you can argue that the Red Sox just haven’t found the player they’re looking for. Despite being linked to seemingly every single free agent under the sun, they have failed to make a splash. It just seems like they won’t commit to long-term deals.

The Red Sox have a great farm system poised to make an impact in Boston this season, and they clearly believe in the pitching development machine they’re building. Maintaining financial flexibility is helpful. So is getting a discount for players on pillow deals, and so is avoiding albatross contracts. All the same, it’s important to keep in mind that a team with the resources of the Red Sox doesn’t have to conduct business this way. They’re choosing to build their team on a one-year-at-a-time basis, risking the entire season on recently injured pitchers finally staying healthy. All these one-year deals, all these trades for replacement-level players, all these stars who sign elsewhere even though the Red Sox were “interested,” or “engaged,” or “in the mix.” They’re choices.