The Boston Red Sox have been delivering some great moments so far in spring training. Marcelo Mayer has now made his spring debut, hitting a home run in his second at-bat during a performance that Roman Anthony told reporters looked “comfortable as always,” right after calling him a stud.
It’s still unclear where Mayer will spend most of his time this season, with Alex Cora even suggesting he’s not a lock to make the Opening Day roster. Mayer has been many reporters' and fans' pick to play either second or third base heading into 2026, with the front office chasing after free agent or trade options to fill the other glaring hole in the infield defense.
Craig Breslow has acquired a heap of infield talent this winter to do just that, leading David Schoenfield calling the Red Sox his pick to lead the AL East. Speaking to Buster Olney, Schoenfield chuckled a bit when talking about the Red Sox as a sleeper pick to cast a threatening shadow over the potent offenses in New York and Toronto. But he quickly backed up that assertion with a laundry list of moves he really liked from Breslow and the Sox’s front office.
David Schoenfield makes the case that the Red Sox had an underrated offseason: pic.twitter.com/tLM98XjzdX
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) February 23, 2026
The Red Sox's offseason has been a rollercoaster ride, with sneaky good improvements throughout
Schoenfield heaped praise on the Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras trades, noting that both players raise the floor for Boston significantly. Adding right handed power that can mix in throughout the defensive alignment offers plenty of upside and versatility.
On the mound, Gray is a veteran starter with a seven-pitch mix and quality game management and swing-and-miss characteristics (Baseball Savant lists an 81st percentile in chase rate, 93rd in walk rate, and a 97th percentile breaking run value) with a 1.20 career WHIP over 13 seasons (and over 200 strikeouts the last two years). Both will notably improve the roster. But Schoenfield was particularly excited about the role Caleb Durbin will play.
He’s poised to become an even better replacement than expected for Bregman, and has been working on adding power to his swing to take full advantage of the Green Monster to his pull side. Schoenfield suggested that he’s a “similar player to Bregman… contact hitter, can run a little bit, solid defender.” Fortunately, Durbin is under team control until 2031 and just turned 26. He’s coming off his rookie season with Milwaukee, meaning there’s a lot of upside potential Boston fans may get to see from the infielder over the coming years.
The frenzied pace of Breslow’s offseason maneuvering brought in plenty of talent while maintaining the core makeup of the team’s farm system. Guys like Richard Fitts and David Hamilton have played undersized roles in Boston and others like David Sandlin and Jhostynxon Garcia saw their path to meaningful contributions at the major league level effectively blocked. They’ll now get opportunities to showcase their stuff in The Show while the Sox have meaningfully improved the roster, shed weighty contracts, and shored up notable weak spots both in the batter’s box and beyond.