At the Boston Red Sox’s October 6 end-of-season press conference, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and Co. issued the usual promises to upgrade the team for 2026.
Breslow attested that Boston’s front office will bolster the lineup in a few ways, including through internal moves, the free agency and trade markets. Breslow has previously put the trade market and the Red Sox’s deep farm system to good use with possibly the best move of last offseason — he gave up four top prospects (Kyle Teel, Chase Meidroth, Wikelman Gonzalez, Braden Montgomery) for Garrett Crochet, and just one season in, the move was well worth it.
Breslow didn’t rule out potentially making another move to acquire more pitching of Crochet’s caliber (or close to it).
“Every team gets better if you can bring in a starter or develop a starting pitcher that could pitch at Garrett Crochet’s level, right?” he said during the presser.
“There’s no running from that and we’ll be as aggressive as we can in chasing that down while also ensuring that we’re doing everything we can to develop our players internally.”
Craig Breslow notes that much of Red Sox's top young talent has already made their major league debut
Breslow emphasized that he feels the Red Sox organization has the talent to make more big trades even after the Crochet deal slashed some of their top prospect pool. He also noted that not all of Boston’s best young players are still in the minor leagues.
“I think we feel good about the farm system…” Breslow said. “Also, if you were to look at some of the public rankings, it’s probably misleading a bit because a lot of our really young talent is in the big leagues and contributed this season, and that’s a really good place to be as well.”
That statement suggests that Breslow might be willing to trade from the major league roster. Roman Anthony is almost certainly off the table after the many trade discussions he’s already made it through and his long-term extension with Boston, but that doesn’t mean other top prospects who’ve debuted are untouchable. Marcelo Mayer, Jhostynxon Garcia, Payton Tolle, Connelly Early, and even Kristian Campbell could potentially be traded. Franklin Arias, Mikey Romero, Brandon Clarke, Kyson Witherspoon, and other top prospects who haven’t debuted could also be in the mix — Breslow said at the presser that "everything has to be on the table."
The Red Sox were linked to Minnesota Twins All-Star Joe Ryan at the trade deadline, and it would take an expensive combination of a few of those players to bring him, or another similar pitcher, to Boston. After trading away nearly their whole major league roster at the deadline, the Twins could also seek experienced major league help, like Jarren Duran or Wilyer Abreu.
Regardless of the team(s) Boston ends up negotiating potential trades with, it has enough top prospects and experienced big leaguers to get a major deal done. Whether Breslow will make such a move two offseasons in a row is yet to be seen, but his comments from the end-of-season press conference suggest it could happen.