Alex Mayes

It could be argued that the Red Sox have lacked the best starting pitching depth in the last few seasons. Craig Breslow set out on a mission to turn the team's biggest weakness into one of its biggest strengths. The Boston Red Sox have been busy this offseason, at least on the pitching front. It’s no secret that the starting rotation has grown in numbers and strength thanks to three new faces who will don the home whites in 2025: Garrett Crochet, Patrick Sandoval, and Walker Buehler. All three add depth to a stellar starting rotation for the first half of the 2024 season but began to fall apart post-All-Star break. However, Sandoval is not expected to join the big league club until the second half of the season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery. Let’s look at the projection for the starting rotation and the depth options that will likely make spot starts during the 2025 season. 1. Garrett Crochet Crochet should be the Opening Day starter for the Red Sox, considering the price paid to trade for him. Ideally, the Red Sox will lock him into a long-term contract before spring training begins to solidify the top of the rotation for years to come. 2. Tanner Houck Had the Red Sox not traded for Crochet, Houck would have been the Opening Day starter. His 2024 season proved that he has the stuff to be a number one on a contending team, and it would be shocking to see him take a step back this year. Houck finally found his footing last season and should continue to be a major impact arm in 2025. 3. Brayan Bello I debated between Bello and Walker Buehler for the third spot in the rotation but ultimately landed on Bello as he is here for longer and is a homegrown talent. Bello was the bright spot of the second half of the season after a brief reset in July and looks primed to continue that success in 2025, making that extension look even more team-friendly. 4. Walker Buehler Buehler adds a veteran presence to a fairly young starting rotation, bringing in a winning mentality and championship pedigree. He’s looking to build off a strong post-season performance and play his way to a long-term free-agency deal in 2026 if both parties don’t exercise the mutual option. 5. Lucas Giolito Giolito is coming off a lost season after requiring an internal bracing procedure last spring, and he’s looking to bound back with a vengeance. He adds another veteran voice to the clubhouse and has a semi-recent track record of success when healthy. Yes, his drop-off in performance in 2023 was severe enough that he was DFA’d, but that can likely be blamed on the elbow injury that finally came to a head last spring training. Look for Giolito to be a man on a mission and prove to the Red Sox and the entire league that he’s a name to pay attention to. 6. Kutter Crawford You should be in a good situation if Crawford is your fifth starter, let alone your sixth. His home run totals were through the roof last year, but he’s an innings eater and can likely be counted on to take the ball every six days and give you a shot at winning the ball game, as long as the ball stays in the yard. Don’t be surprised if Crawford is moved to the bullpen once the team decides that a six-man rotation isn’t in the cards for most of the season. 7. Cooper Criswell Criswell, along with the next two on this list, are kind of interchangeable here. All of them figure to be called up throughout the season and then sent back down as starters return from injury or spot starts are no longer necessary. Instead of relying on pitchers like Criswell to take the ball every five days, though, the Red Sox are in a much better situation that allows him to start in Triple-A Worcester and continue to grow as a pitcher while knowing that he’s only a phone call away should anyone need an extra day of rest. 8. Richard Fitts Richard Fitts was the surprising starting pitcher of the 2024 season. After a late-season call-up, he carried a scoreless streak into the season's final game and seemed to impress Alex Cora and the front office. Fitts will likely begin the season at Triple-A Worcester but should be used as a spot starter when extra days of rest are necessary during long stretches of few off days. He will likely be the first name called up should any of the five pitchers above him go down with an injury. He has proven that he is more than capable of being a contributing big-league pitcher, so we should see quite a bit of him in 2025. 9. Quinn Priester I debated flipping Fitts and Priester on this list because both offer similar upsides. Still, I think that to start the season, Fitts will be the first name called up from Triple A. Priester, in my opinion, has a higher ceiling than Fitts and will likely surpass him on the depth chart at some point during 2025, but both are likely to be big time contributors when needed. Spot starts are a way of life in the MLB now, and Priester has just enough experience to show that he can take the ball when necessary. Don’t be surprised to see him flip-flopped with Fitts when spot starts, or opener-type games happen close together. What once looked like a glaring weakness for the Red Sox looks much more like a huge strength going into the 2025 season. We all know that pitching injuries are unavoidable, so counting on all of these pitchers to stay healthy for a full season isn’t a smart thing to do, but knowing that the team has depth even beyond these nine starters should make most fans feel comfortable with the direction this team is beginning to head in. View full article

Dustin Pedroia received enough votes to remain on the 2026 Hall of Fame ballot. Can recent voting trends help us determine whether he has a chance of being elected again? Dustin Pedroia received a respectable 11.9% of Hall of Fame votes in his first year on the ballot. This means he will appear on at least one more ballot during his eligibility period and could potentially stick around for quite a while as long as he remains over the five percent threshold for eligibility. Seeing Red Sox alumni Billy Wagner get elected on his final year on the ballot got me wondering just how likely it is that we get a chance to see Pedey or Pee Wee, if David Ortiz has anything to say about it, take the stage in Cooperstown to accept his gold plaque. I decided to do some digging into past votes and see how many players in the last ten years started around the same percentage, plus or minus two percent, and follow their voting trends to help determine if Pedroia has a chance of getting into the Hall during the next ten years. Billy Wagner Starting Percentage: 10.5% in 2016 Elected? Yes, 2025 The most recent example could be found on the same ballot as Pedroia. In Wagner’s first year of eligibility, he garnered 10.5% of possible votes in 2016. His percentages stayed under 20% until 2020, when he jumped from 16.7% in 2019 to 31.7% in 2020. It jumped again in 2021 to 46.6%, up to 51% in 2022, to 68.1% in 2023, to 73.8% in 2024, to finally 82.5% this year. The fact that Wagner lasted all ten years on the ballot more than likely gave him the momentum he needed to reach the 75% threshold for induction finally. The groundswell of support from fans and the media likely aided it as well, which will benefit Pedroia as we go through the next few years as his personality has a national spotlight shone on it during the election periods. Scott Rolen Starting Percentage: 10.2% in 2018 Elected? Yes, 2023 Scott Rolen shot up the ballot counts during his six years of eligibility. Starting at 10.2% in 2018, we see the second example of someone beginning with a lower percentage than Pedroia and ending up getting into the Hall of Fame. Unlike Wagner, Rolen never faltered in his support, gaining votes each year. In 2019, he jumped to 17.2%, 35.3% in 2020, 52.9% in 2021, 63.2% in 2022, and 76.6% in 2023. Rolen likely benefitted from a run of weak voting classes, many of which consisted of notable PED users who are still struggling to gain traction with many voters. While Pedroia won’t have to deal with the number of PED users being eligible during his entire tenure on the ballot, he should benefit from a handful of weaker classes coming up over the next couple of years. Many considered Rolen a fringe Hall of Fame player during his first couple of years on the ballot, and that’s the same situation Pedroia finds himself in. Andy Pettitte Starting Percentage: 9.9% in 2019 Elected? Not yet, eligible through 2028 Andy Pettitte is a tough player to project for the Hall of Fame. His vote percentages have ebbed and flowed since his first year in 2019. He made a slight jump in 2020 to 11.3%, then another small jump in 2021 to 13.7%, but then fell to 10.7% in 2022 before gaining ground to a flat 17% in 2023, before losing ground again in 2024 to 13.5%, and finally landing at an impressive 27.9% this year. That jump should mean that he has positive momentum and will continue to climb over the next three years. This also shows that the “small hall” voters are becoming fewer and fewer while the “large hall” voters are starting to become the main voting class. This should also bode well for Pedroia down the line. Torii Hunter Starting Percentage: 9.5% in 2021 Elected? Not yet, eligible through 2030 So I fudged the minus two here by just a bit, but I thought not including Hunter wouldn’t be beneficial as, so far, he is trending in the wrong direction, and it seems as though the 2026 ballot will be his final chance to remain on the ballot. He started with 9.5% in 2021, fell hard to 5.3% in 2022, gained some in 2023 to 6.9%, and made another slight gain in 2024 to 7.3%, but fell drastically to 5.1% this year. While Hunter was a respectable player, he never really stood out on a national level, which is now reflected in his vote totals. Don’t be surprised to see him not reach the five percent threshold in 2026. Mark Buehrle Starting Percentage: 11% in 2021 Elected? Not yet, eligible through 2030 Mark Buehrle has also had a bit of ebb and flow in his voting percentages. He started with a flat 11% in 2021, fell to just 5.8% in 2022, rebounded to 10.8% in 2023, fell again to 8.3% in 2024, and bounced back to 11.4% in 2025. Unless there’s a similar groundswell to Wagner, it’s hard to envision Buehrle getting to the 75% of votes required to be elected to the Hall of Fame, although he should stick around longer than Hunter above. Both Buehrle and Hunter should offer Pedey a bit of pause if he’s looking at recent trends in voting, although his case for the Hall should be stronger than theirs. The majority of the recent voting trends seem encouraging for Pedroia. The voting pool adds younger voters every year, which should also help him move in the right direction as younger voters have become more “large hall” voters and likely grew up watching Pedroia play during his prime. I project Dustin Pedroia to be elected to the Hall of Fame, but it will likely take until late in his eligibility. The next couple of years of first-time candidates aren’t incredibly strong, which should help push his percentage totals higher. Don’t be surprised if Pedroia starts to receive more grassroots support that begins to force the voting panel’s hand just a bit as well. Much of Boston’s fan base would want to see Pedey enshrined with the highest honor in baseball. Hopefully, the BBWAA voters feel the same way. View full article

Red Sox fans have long known about the highly-touted Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, and Marcelo Mayer. Now, even more national attention is focusing on the quick-rising young stars. Earlier this week, Baseball Prospectus released its 2025 Top 101 Prospects list, and the Boston Red Sox continue to rate highly. Roman Anthony leads all prospects as the number one overall prospect, and he’s followed incredibly closely by Kristian Campbell at number three, and Marcelo Mayer coming in at 24. All three prospects made jumps up the rankings since last year's list. Anthony moved from number eight in 2024 to number one in 2025, Mayer jumped from 32 to 24, and Campbell rocketed from unranked to the number three spot. It has been quite a while since Red Sox fans have had so much to be excited about, and Baseball Prospectus seems to be just as excited as we are. In fact, they even laid out their thinking, revealing that the number one overall prospect in baseball was a toss-up between Anthony and Campbell. Ultimately, they went with Anthony as they felt that Campbell still had a bit more to prove before being crowned as the top overall prospect but the fact that he jumped from unranked to third and then had a serious discussion surrounding him as the top overall prospect in baseball shows that even outside of Boston, the hype around Campbell is real and needs to be taken seriously. During this week's Rookie Development Program, FanGraphs' David Laurila caught up with Campbell, who explained how optimizing his swing to get more lift allowed his career to take off. For good measure, Baseball America also recently ranked Anthony and Campbell as the best overall prospects at their respective positions. The Dodgers (of course) were the only other team with three players in BP's top 25. Campbell and Anthony both stand chances to break camp with the big league club, even though there is a strong argument to be made for both of them starting the season at triple-A Worcester to get just a bit more experience first. Mayer is going to begin seeing time at new positions in 2025 to increase his versatility, which makes a midseason call-up all the more likely. While it's far from a lock that all three prospects will end up succeeding at the big league level, we need only look across the division at the Orioles for precedent of such a thing happening. Having Anthony, Campbell, and Mayer flying up the rankings just means that, hopefully, the Red Sox are the next team to benefit from an influx of young talent hitting the major league roster in quick succession. As Maddie Landis highlighted earlier this week, Boston seems to be loosely following Atlanta’s game plan for roster construction and this youth movement is just the next step in hopefully bringing another World Series title to Boston. View full article

The Red Sox have stated they aren't done adding to the bullpen, but with free agents signing quickly, where can the Red Sox turn? Left-handed reliever Tanner Scott signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday morning. Insert surprised Pikachu face here. Scott and the Red Sox had been connected to each other throughout the offseason, and for good reason. On paper, bringing in the All-Star closer made sense after the departures of both Chris Martin and Kenley Jansen. Earlier in the offseason, the Red Sox inked Aroldis Chapman and Justin Wilson, both left-handed relievers, to one-year deals to help solidify the bullpen, but there’s still work to be done. Where can the Red Sox turn for bullpen help now that the free-agent market has gotten incredibly thinner since this time last week? Two free agents on the market, David Robertson and Kirby Yates could still offer a decent upside for Boston. Both offer a decent amount of upside in a few different ways should they end up with the Red Sox. Robertson posted a flat 3.00 ERA in 2024 while going 3-4 over 72 innings pitched with 99 strikeouts and a 1.11 WHIP. Yates came in at a 1.17 ERA in 2024 while going 7-2 over 61.2 innings with 85 strikeouts and a 0.83 WHIP, all while notching 33 saves. If the Red Sox were to bring Robertson in on a one-year deal, he is entering his age 40 seasons in 2025; he would likely be used as a set-up reliever for whoever is manning the closer role during the season. In truth, the Red Sox already have enough of those pitchers in the bullpen. His ability to still get strikeouts is impressive, but with Garrett Whitlock and Justin Slaten both slated for middle relief roles, there likely isn’t much room to bring in someone like Robertson on a short-term deal. Yates, on the other hand, makes a bit more sense. The Red Sox are relying on Liam Hendriks to close out ball games this season, and while that seems like a fine idea in theory, in practice, they are relying on someone who has missed the bulk of two full seasons to step into one of the most demanding positions on the team and just hope that everything still plays like it did when he was with the Chicago White Sox. In short, that’s a very big ask of him. Bringing in someone like Yates would give the Red Sox a recently proven closer and allow Hendriks and the other bullpen arms recovering from injuries to ease into the season and work underneath a closer with a recent successful track record. The Red Sox find themselves in a bit of a bind regarding relievers left on the free-agent market. There are a couple of decent options left, with Yates being a better fit than Robertson, but expect both of them to sign fairly quickly now that the top two relievers on the market, Scott and Jeff Hoffman, are locked into contracts. View full article

Agreed. I think the biggest concern was that he already wears his heart on his sleeve so taking him to arbitration could have made him take a step or two back.

The Red Sox and Jarren Duran have avoided arbitration. What does this mean for his future in Boston? Ken Rosenthal reported on Friday that the Boston Red Sox and Jarren Duran have avoided arbitration, agreeing to a $3.75 million contract with an $8 million club option for 2026. The deal has a $100,000 buyout included if the club deems it unnecessary to pick up the second year of the deal. The option salary has incentives based on MVP votes received that max out $12 million. On top of that, there are performance bonuses built in, paying out at $50,000 increments at 400, 500, and 550 plate appearances and maxing out at $150,000. Duran will likely hit those performance bonuses as long as he stays healthy, something he proved capable of during the 2024 season. Duran had filed for a $4 million deal while the Red Sox came in at $3.5 million, leaving many to question what the front office was doing, haggling over a mere $500,000, myself included. It turns out that much of that was an overreaction, and we need to remember that we are not baseball experts in these situations. On the surface, it looked like the Red Sox were being cheap and quietly working to put together a deal that benefits both sides. It gives the team a very team-friendly deal for one of the best players in the league in 2024, with an option to bring him back at a more than fair rate for 2026, and it gives Duran the confidence that the Red Sox, for the time being, believe in him. However, my gut tells me there’s more to this deal than we see on the surface. Duran is entering his age-28 season and has an option for his age-29 season; he will reenter the arbitration process as a 30-year-old. If recent free agency has proven anything, teams are hesitant to pay for players entering their 30s, especially the Red Sox. I can’t foresee the team wanting to make a multi-million dollar commitment to anyone in arbitration in their age 30 and 31 seasons. I’ll preface this next statement by saying I don’t agree with it, but it seems like this deal makes Duran the odd man out in the outfield for the next two seasons. Should a team call about him, my gut says he will be available for the right price. There has been a very recent vote of confidence in Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu has survived the trade market, and Roman Anthony is primed to make his big league debut sometime in 2025. If the Red Sox are serious about a major youth movement to drive them to title contention, it’s not difficult to see why Duran may be the one on the outside looking in as we get further down the road. Duran is locked into a team-friendly deal for the next two years unless things go incredibly sideways this season. Look for him to continue to pay dividends for the Red Sox this season and make this deal look like the biggest underpay of the offseason. View full article

The Boston Red Sox drafted Conrad Cason in the eighth round of the 2024 draft, and they're going to let him play as both a pitcher and a shortstop. According to Chris Smith of MassLive, the Red Sox are preparing to enter spring training with Conrad Cason as a true two-way player. This arguably makes Cason, an 18-year-old whom the Sox took in the eighth round of the draft, the most interesting player to watch once he arrives in Fort Myers in February. Although the practice is slowly becoming more common around the league thanks to the monumental success of Shohei Ohtani, no other two-way player has found success yet. Kansas City's Michael Lorenzen attempted to pitch himself as a two-way player during free agency, but that was mainly as a roster manipulation strategy. As Cason is a teenager without any professional experience, projecting him to be an impact two-way player is tough, but there’s some belief that he will jump the Florida Complex League and start his professional career with the low-A Salem Red Sox. That’s a pretty high vote of confidence for a teenager. We’ve already briefly profiled Cason here at Talk Sox, but for those unfamiliar with him, he was a four-sport star for the Greater Atlanta Christian School in Norcross, Georgia. During his senior year, the 6-foot-2 Cason led the school to a regional title and was named the stat's Gatorade Player of the Year, with good reason. He went 7-1 an absurd 0.48 ERA as a pitcher, and batted .364 with three home runs and a .519 on-base percentage. He signed a letter of intent to play at Mississippi State, but chose to sign with the Sox. He was drafted as a pitcher/shortstop who sits around 92-95 mph with his fastball, but tops out in the high 90s. He’s an athletic shortstop who could shift to center field if necessary and has quite a bit of pop in his bat, especially to the pull side. (Plus, he’s right handed, and these days, it never hurts to be a righty hitter in the Boston system.) Cason is extremely young, and the two-way plan presumably makes his path too the majors even longer. However, he should be extremely fun to watch. The allure of a pitcher touching 100 mph on the radar gun while being able to turn around and hit for power was too much to pass up, and the Red Sox are hoping their bet pays off. Despite his age, Cason is a prospect to keep on your radar for the upcoming season. If his status as a two-way player can stick, the Red Sox may just have the next big thing on their hands. View full article

David Sandlin, Talk Sox Podcast MVP

The Red Sox locked in salaries for three of their four arbitration-eligible players but failed to reach an agreement with All-Star Jarren Duran. Do they have room to keep adding? On Thursday, the Boston Red Sox avoided arbitration by agreeing to 2025 salaries for three of their four arb-eligible players: Garrett Crochet ($3.8 million), Tanner Houck ($3.95 million), and Kutter Crawford ($2.75 million). This means that the entire starting rotation is locked into deals for the 2025 season. However, the Red Sox are headed to arbitration with Jarren Duran. Before we dive into what this means for each player, a quick refresher on arbitration: The arbitration system is spelled out in the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the owners and the Players Association, and it is a way of artificially suppressing salaries for younger players. This appeals both to veteran players (who make up most of the union reps and who feel that they have earned the right to make more) and to owners (who never want to pay anyone). According to the CBA, any player with three years of service time may submit the issue of the Player’s salary to final and binding arbitration without the consent of the club. In simpler terms, the player comes to the team with a number they want to be paid and the team has a number they want to pay the player. If they can find common ground between the two numbers, then they sign a one-year deal and everyone moves on. If they can't agree to terms, both sides submit a number and present a case to an independent arbitrator, who picks one of the two numbers. It doesn’t always come to this though. Even if the team and player do not agree on a number before the deadline, they can agree at any point before the hearings begin later this month. Back to the Red Sox, according to MLB Trade Rumors Tanner Houck was projected to receive $4.49 million, Kutter Crawford was projected for $3.5 million, and Garrett Crochet was projected for $2.9 million. Unsurprisingly, Crochet was paid more than his projection, likely as a sign of good faith as the two sides begin negotiations for a possible extension. Houck and Crawford both came in under their projections though. Obviously, the Red Sox value both pitchers very highly and Houck became the de facto ace of the staff last season, so it’s a bit surprising to see his actual number come in below his projection. Crawford’s number is more in line with his production, especially considering that he led the league in home runs allowed in 2024. The difference between Duran’s ask and the team's number is $500,000. Duran came in at $4 million and the Red Sox came in at $3.5 million. Haggling over such a small amount from the best player on the 2024 team isn’t a good look, but it’s not all bad news, as an agreement can still be reached before the two sides head to a hearing. It's important to keep in mind just how underpaid Duran will be either way. Last year, Duran made $760,000 despite the fact that, according to FanGraphs, his on-field value came to a staggering $53.9 million. These agreements obviously have impacts on the payroll moving forward. According to FanGraphs, the Red Sox currently have a projected payroll of $171 million after the agreements, coming in at $13 million less than their 2024 mark. This leaves plenty of room for the Red Sox add an impact bullpen arm or a right-handed hitter without a year-over-year increase in payroll. It also puts them third in the AL East in terms of money spent, leading both the small market teams of Baltimore and Tampa Bay, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Lastly, it leaves them nearly $40 million shy of the first luxury tax threshold, which the team publicly said it would not be afraid to cross. The front office has been extremely clear about its desire to compete, and the best way to do that is to spend money when necessary. It’s now necessary. There is ample room in the payroll to add both a right-handed bat and a high-leverage bullpen arm. Agreeing to terms with three of the four arbitration-eligible players is great, but haggling with Duran is decidedly less so. Here’s to hoping the Red Sox and Duran can come to an agreement before the arbitration hearings later this month. Many thanks to MLB Trade Rumors, FanGraphs, Cot’s Baseball Contracts, for being invaluable resources. View full article

With so much smoke, it's getting harder to believe that there's no fire. The Red Sox seem eager to ship out the young slugger, but doing so would hurt the major league roster. I’m going to start this off by saying that I absolutely do not want to trade Triston Casas for pretty much anyone who isn’t named Vladamir Guerrero Jr. To me, there’s very little benefit in getting rid of a young, potential All-Star-caliber first baseman. The only trade that makes sense is to send him to Toronto straight up for Vladdy with the promise of an extension as soon as his plane touches down at Logan. That’s not going to happen, so Casas shouldn’t be traded. If the constant swirl of rumors is to be believed even a little bit, however, the powers that be in Boston seem to disagree. Craig Breslow has said said publicly on more than one occasion that the Red Sox are not shopping Casas, and I’m sure that he didn’t draft an email to every GM in the league saying that Casas was on the trading block, but it’s starting to look obvious that Casas is likely to be involved in any major deal. In rumors, he’s been attached to the Mariners, Cardinals, and Marlins, and it’s been reported that the reason the Red Sox haven’t signed Alex Bregman because Casas is still on the roster. That's one way to drive a wedge between the team and an up-and-coming, homegrown star. It boggles the mind to think that someone with the potential Casas has shown could fall so far out of favor that the team is willing to sell low or attach him to Masataka Yoshida in a salary dump. The market for first basemen is about as stagnant as pond water; just ask Pete Alonso. Selling a cost-controlled Casas to make room for a high-priced free agent like Bregman would be incredibly shortsighted. The organization has very few options who could step up to play first base to begin the season should Casas be traded away. Blaze Jordan hasn’t done enough in the minors to warrant a look, and as it stands right now the only free agent you’d even think about looking at would be Pete Alonso. That’s not a perfect fit either, although his right-handed power would play well in Boston. The other side of this is that on some level, regardless of how laid back Casas seems, having his name constantly brought up in rumors can't be helping his relationship with the team. Would you enjoy going to work every day if you kept hearing that the people above you saw you as expendable? Casas is confident in his abilities, but even the strongest-willed person would be subject to questioning themselves after months of this. I asked Maddie Landis, co-host of the Talk Sox Podcast and our resident Triston Casas super fan, to chime in on this, and I thought she brought up some incredibly valid points: “Casas has the potential to hit 40+ home runs and trading him for *insert pretty much any name that isn’t Vladdy* leaves a sizable hole in the lineup.” That’s spot on. Trading someone with the power and bat-to-ball skills as Casas leaves Rafael Devers as sole power threat currently on the roster. It makes the Red Sox a weaker team offensively, and while the pitching staff has been much improved, you can’t win games if you can’t score runs. While Alex Bregman or Nolan Arenado would improve the infield defense, they can’t replace the power that Casas would take with him elsewhere. At the end of the day, the team will do whatever it feels it has to do with Triston Casas, but selling on him when his value is at an all-time low without a ready replacement would be shortsighted. Even if the rumors that Vladamir Guerrero Jr. wants to come to Boston are true, there isn’t much in recent organizational history that points toward the deal actually getting done. If the rumors are to be believed at all, the organization seems intent to trading Casas to the highest bidder, even if that bid is a drastic underpay, and if they do it they’ll regret it by the end of the season. View full article

Craig Breslow gave both pitchers a public vote of confidence last week, but coming off internal brace procedures, what will they be able to contribute in 2025? Last week, Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow met with the media over Zoom to discuss the remaining items on the team's offseason to-do list. During the call, he mentioned that both Lucas Giolito and Garrett Whitlock should be available to pitch for most or all of the season, with Whitlock pitching out of the bullpen in a "leverage bulk role." This is undoubtedly good news, but both pitchers are coming off lost seasons and will need to work back up to full strength before they can be considered integral parts of the pitching staff. What can we expect their roles to be this season? Lucas Giolito The Red Sox signed Giolito before the 2024 season hoping that he could help anchor what was then a relatively young starting rotation. He never made it out of spring training, as an elbow injury required an internal brace procedure that kept him on the IL for the entire season. Still, Giolito spent time around the team and lent a veteran ear to those around him. Coming into 2025, Giolito himself says he is on track to have a full spring training and to go into the season ready to take on a starter’s full workload. Giolito struggled mightily in 2022 and 2023, combining for a 4.89 ERA and 4.70 FIP. However, from 2019 to 2021, those numbers were 3.47 and 3.54. It's unreasonable to ask Giolito to come back as the very best version of himself, but if he can bounce back to something approximating his old form, that would be a big win for the Red Sox. Even as he struggled over his past two seasons, he ran encouraging whiff and strikeout rates. We don’t know how his elbow will respond to a starter’s workload, and the team will try to manage his innings. Giolito should be one of many beneficiaries of the rumored six-man rotation, even though he has said he prefers preparing under the standard five-rotation schedule. Look for Giolito to slot in as a back-end starter for the Red Sox this season. If he fails to reach 140 innings in 2024, Giolito's contract gives the Red Sox a team option for 2026. He'll have a lot to pitch for this season.. Garrett Whitlock What exactly is a "bulk leverage reliever?" On paper, it makes some sense for Whitlock. He has starting experience and should be used to throwing multiple innings, even out of the bullpen. In my opinion, though, that’s a waste of Whitlock's ability. He has proven to be a dominant reliever in the recent past. Whitlock has a career 4.29 ERA as a starter, compared to 2.65 as a reliever. Giving him a full offseason to work with Andrew Bailey and letting him prepare to be a reliever is the best way forward for the Red Sox here. Whitlock only has nine saves in his career, but he very easily could be the first person to take the mound in the ninth inning once the coaching staff decides that Liam Hendriks is not the closer they had once hoped he would be. Whitlock isn’t a flame-throwing, strikeout pitcher (though his career strikeout rate jumps from 22% as a starter to 28% as a reliever). He tends to pitch to contact, and with a renewed focus on infield defense and a healthy Trevor Story, that should be a more successful strategy in 2025. That should allow Whitlock to feel comfortable stepping to the mound with the game on the line in the ninth inning, and barring another injury, that’s the exact position the Red Sox should hope for him to be in at some point during the 2025 season. It's not particularly comforting that the Red Sox are relying on so many pitchers with Tommy John surgeries or internal brace procedures in their recent past. All the same, Giolito and Whitlock have had enough success in recent memory that they're good bets to contribute as the team attempts to return to contention. View full article

Really appreciate the kind words. We're working hard to carve out our own space in the Sox podcast world.

Also, thanks for listening to the pod! Hope you're enjoying it.

You're correct. My fingers get going faster than my eyes sometimes. Thanks for catching that.

No hatred for Rob at all. I actually like him as a player but I went with Gonzalez and Grissom on the bench because it wouldn't shock me for Grissom to get looks in the outfield as they try and find a role for him and I like the flexibility Gonzalez brings to the infield mix along with Hamilton. If the Sox keep Wilyer and Anthony ends up getting called up early in the season or possibly breaking camp with the big league club, Refsnyder is the odd man out.