Brandon Glick

Bregman is a pull-hitter with power. Will his numbers improve as he takes aim at the Green Monster after so many years of punishing the Crawford Boxes? View full video

The Red Sox's incumbent third baseman has made it clear he won't change positions, even for the reigning Gold Glove winner. Will Boston suffer in 2025 because of their star's stubbornness? View full video

How should the Red Sox handle their infield logjam with Alex Bregman now in tow? View full video

The Red Sox are set to introduce their latest star free agent addition to the team after signing Alex Bregman to a three-year, $120 million contract. View full video

Rumors have been swirling around the third baseman in recent weeks, but the Red Sox haven't been mentioned all that often. Are they still in the running for Bregman? View full video

Three players made the Hall of Fame this year. Next year's ballot isn't looking as promising. View full video

Alex Bregman remains available in free agency. It feels like the Red Sox should do whatever they can to change that. View full video

This is a work of satire. Please enjoy. The Boston Red Sox came into this offseason with a clear mission: improve the starting rotation. Though the team finished the 2024 season tied for seventh in rotation ERA (3.81), their FIP (4.10) ranked in the middle of the pack. It was clear to any onlookers that, outside of breakout right-hander Tanner Houck, the team lacked impact talent. Well, thus far, the team has accomplished its goal, trading for Garrett Crochet and signing free agent pitchers Walker Buehler and Patrick Sandoval. With Lucas Giolito set to return from injury in 2025, the rotation is both deeper and more talented. Dig a little deeper, however, and you'll notice a common characteristic among the new arrivals: all four have undergone Tommy John surgery in the last three seasons. While that isn't that uncommon in a day and age where it seems that everyone and their mother is taking a ticket and waiting for their number to be called to get the privilege to go under the knife, it is peculiar that the Red Sox seem to be exclusively targeting starters with scarred elbows. It applies to relievers like Liam Hendriks and Justin Wilson. I caught up with chief baseball officer Craig Breslow during our monthly book club meeting — this month's book was the Merriam-Webster dictionary, chosen by Breslow himself — and asked about the reasoning behind the club's apparent predilection. He pulled me aside, saying nothing, and merely pointed at a humongous poster of famed surgeon Dr. James Andrews on his wall. Intrigued, I decided to investigate the matter further. I visited Dr. Andrews' home and was greeted at the door by Theo Epstein, architect of curse-busting teams in both Boston and Chicago. Epstein escorted me inside, and I bore witness to a poker game between Epstein, Cubs POBO Jed Hoyer, and Dr. Andrews. Tommy John, the 26-year MLB veteran, was dealing the cards. There was a fifth chair at the table, but no executive seated in it. As he played with "his boys," Andrews explained to me that the empty seat usually belonged to Breslow. Apparently, Breslow lost a rather high-stakes hand of poker in December 2020. "It was the middle of the pandemic," said Andrews, "so you have to understand that everyone was getting desperate. The Winter Meetings were canceled that year. Craig just got promoted by these two buffoons," he cackled, pointing at Hoyer and Epstein, "and he was so excited to finally get in on our little game here. I knew his reputation as a wunderkind, so I took him for a ride. He's still paying off the debt." I asked the good doctor whether it wasn't enough to be a world-renowned surgeon. Did he really have to grift the Cubs' assistant general manager too? The entire table, except for Tommy John, laughed. "I took no pleasure in resurrecting any of those careers," Andrews explained. "Fixing knees and elbows was just a job. But drawing to a full house and forcing Craig to spend his entire career signing only pitchers with a Tommy John on their chart? Now that was fun." Processing this new information, I started to ask whether Breslow's debt was officially paid, now that he'd signed half a dozen such pitchers and Andrews was retired from his "just a job." Tommy John must have sensed it coming, though, because he shook his head and escorted me out the front door before I could say another word. In other news, next month's book club assignment is Roget's Thesaurus. View full article

The Red Sox have had a productive offseason, but have they done enough to compete in an ultra-competitive AL East in 2025? View full video

The Yankees and Red Sox have mirrored each other’s moves this winter, with no clear winner between them, yet. Let’s get this out of the way up front: New York and Boston haven’t had identical offseasons. The Yankees actually lost Juan Soto, whereas the Red Sox merely failed to sign him. And the Bronx Bombers have also added to their offense, acquiring Cody Bellinger in a swap with the Chicago Cubs, whereas the Red Sox have only brought in backup catcher Carlos Narváez to replace the departing Kyle Teel…in a trade with the Yankees. Besides that, though, these two longtime rivals have mirrored each other closely in how they’ve chosen to operate this winter. The Red Sox signed Aroldis Chapman (before Soto’s deal became official) and traded for Garrett Crochet, while the Yankees signed Max Fried and traded for Devin Williams. Both franchises have added an ace and a closer, though they’ve done it through different means. Are one side’s acquisitions clearly better than the other? Let’s start with the acquisition costs. The Red Sox only surrendered money to sign Chapman, giving him a one-year, $10.75-million contract. As for Crochet, Boston dealt four top-15 prospects — Teel, outfielder Braden Montgomery, infielder Chase Meidroth, and pitcher Wikelman Gonzalez — and they’ll have him under team control for his final two years of arbitration. The Yankees, on the other hand, gave Fried a whopper of a contract: $218 million over eight years. They paid a comparatively smaller price in their trade, losing out on just one season of Nestor Cortes Jr. and second base prospect Caleb Durbin in exchange for one year of Williams. Starting with the relievers, Williams is obviously better than a 37-year-old version of Aroldis Chapman, but they’re not being brought in to fill the exact same roles. Williams will be the unquestioned closer in New York. Over the last three seasons, he’s run a 1.66 ERA and 2.29 FIP in 141 innings, with a 39.5% strikeout rate and 48.3% groundball rate. Just take a look at his Statcast page, and you’ll start getting sick of the number 99. Chapman, meanwhile, has only racked up 20 saves over the past two seasons, with numbers that are more “great” than “best in the league. He's run a 3.45 ERA and 2.78 FIP, with a 39.1% strikeout rate but a sky-high 14.6% walk rate. With both relievers under contract for one year, the Yankees are going to get more juice for their squeeze, but does that offset the larger cost they paid? You could probably argue that it does, especially since their bullpen was in flux after losing Clay Holmes in free agency. Still, Chapman is no pushover, nor is he a stranger to the ultra-competitive AL East. As for the starters, Crochet and Fried exist on a similar tier. Fried has a longer track record of success, but he’s never had the putaway stuff the 25-year-old Crochet possesses. The former Atlanta Braves starter is a master of inducing soft contact and groundballs. He throws seven different pitches, and can retire a batter with any of them. On the other hand, Crochet's sinker is one of the very best in baseball, and his 35.1% strikeout rate was the best among all starters in 2024. However, he’s susceptible to giving up hard contact, doesn’t have a deep repertoire of pitches, and has never exceeded 150 innings pitched in a season (something Fried has done four times). Fried’s deal is fascinating because he’ll turn 31 before it even starts and he'll spent the rest of his career in New York. Crochet won’t even be 26 until the middle of next season, but the Red Sox will have to pay handsomely if they want to keep him beyond the 2026 season. Is one pitcher significantly better than the other? Despite pitching very differently, they get similar results, but would you rather be paying a 38-year-old Fried $27.25 million in 2030, or would you rather watch Crochet walk away before he’s even really in his prime? Perhaps the more interesting takeaway from all of this is that both of these teams pivoted to pitching after losing out on Soto. The Red Sox were always going to have to reinforce a pitching staff that lacked impact talent, but the Yankees chose to pivot in this particular direction hard. If you believe what's been reported, they effectively stole Fried from Boston by offering him an eighth year. Their pitching staff will be among the league's best in 2024, but they may find it challenging to score runs with an offense that consists of Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, Giancarlo Stanton, and a whole bunch of question marks. If nothing else, this offseason has breathed new life back into baseball’s oldest rivalry. Only time will tell which side made the better calls, but next season should offer a prominent look into which side is pulling ahead. View full article

The Red Sox got their ace in left-handed starter Garrett Crochet. The price they paid, though, may prove to be steeper than initially feared. When the Red Sox lost out on Juan Soto, fans couldn't do much but chuckle at the size of his contract. When they missed out on Max Fried, it stung a bit more because he signed with the Yankees, but the Yankees were always going to do something inane as a reaction to losing Soto to their crosstown rivals. When it became clear that teams like the Cubs and Phillies had put in enticing bids for White Sox ace Garrett Crochet, Boston finally sprang into action, dealing a package headline by top prospect Kyle Teel to secure the flamethrower. Crochet is a 25-year-old stud with some more unrealized potential on top of the 2.38 xFIP he produced in 2024. He was always going to cost a lot, and the Red Sox will be a demonstrably better team in 2025 because he’s on their roster. The only issue facing the Red Sox now is that they might not have anyone capable of catching him. Teel, the 25th-best prospect in baseball according to MiLB.com, has an excellent arm (he caught 38% of attempted basestealers in his final season in college) and possesses improving framing skills. It would have taken some time, of course, but there was a world in which Teel learned to work in harmony with the staff in Boston, deftly handling all the duties of a starting catcher while swinging an above-average bat. Now, his future lies in Chicago and Boston’s future at catcher is nowhere to be found. Connor Wong is the holdover starter from the 2024 campaign, and while his bat is impressive for a backstop — he ran a .280/.333/.425 slash line, good for a 110 wRC+ — his defensive metrics are anything but. He ranked in the ninth percentile in framing last season, and according to Statcast's Fielding Run Value, he was worth a hideous -10 runs -10 run over 878 1/3 innings behind the plate. In about 2,000 career innings, he’s accrued -14 FRV. Suffice it to say, Wong is a nice player to have on the roster, but he shouldn’t be the team’s leading man at catcher. It’s promising that he was worth 1.1 fWAR despite his terrible work in the field, but that only further cements the notion that he should be getting more reps at DH and serving as an emergency third catcher when needed. Luckily, the Red Sox appear to have found their backup backstop in another, lesser-publicized trade from last week, securing Carlos Narváez from the Yankees in exchange for Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, along with some international bonus pool space. Rodriguez-Cruz is now the 12th-best prospect in the Yankees’ system, which highlights how highly Boston views Narváez. The 26-year-old catcher posted a .782 OPS (108 wRC+) in 96 games at Triple A, and he’s well-regarded behind the dish, especially for his strong arm. But, again, he’s a backup until proven otherwise. And both he and Wong (28) are in or approaching their late 20s. Neither is going to replace what Teel projects to bring to the table. Where else can Boston turn for their catcher of the future? Well, you can forget the free agent market. Danny Jansen (Rays), Carson Kelly (Cubs), Travis d’Arnaud (Angels), Kyle Higashioka (Rangers), and Gary Sanchez (Orioles) have all signed already, and they, along with every notable free agent catcher still available, are in their 30s. As a short-term fix, perhaps a defense-first option like Tucker Barnhart or (gulp) offensive black hole Martin Maldonado could make for a good band-aid, but that doesn’t solve the larger problem in the organization now that Teel wears the wrong color Sox. The trade market does hold better prospects, if only by default. The Pirates are loaded with high-upside options — former top prospect Joey Bart, former first overall pick Henry Davis, well-regarded youngster Endy Rodríguez — but none are proven options and all come with serious warts. The Cardinals would surely love to get out from under Willson Contreras’s contract, but his already-meh defense is only declining as he ages. Would the Braves be willing to move Sean Murphy for a huge return? Maybe the Phillies will make J.T. Realmuto available, though he’s already 33 and will hit free agency after next season. The point of this exercise is not to paint a doom-and-gloom picture of the long-term situation behind the dish in Boston. It’s simply to demonstrate that Teel, though no sure thing himself, is immensely valuable precisely because of how rare it is to find a legitimate two-way catcher. The cost for Crochet was always going to sting, and the White Sox were smart to target a player who can be their answer at catcher for the next half-decade or longer. How the Red Sox respond to losing him could define not just their 2025 season, but the foreseeable future in Boston. View full article

Still in need of a catcher and more pitchers, the Red Sox can't afford to stop adding reinforcements to their roster now. View full video