This offseason is going to be an extremely important one for the Boston Red Sox, as they can't afford to spend the majority of the 2025 campaign in neutral like they were throughout this past season. With the Yankees and Orioles here to stay, Boston's got to improve their roster this winter and get back into contention soon.
With a boatload of players from their big-league roster hitting the open market and Nick Pivetta potentially close behind, the Red Sox are set to experience a ton of roster turnover year-over-year.
A smaller aspect of their roster and upcoming roster decisions revolves around players on their 40-man roster without minor league options remaining. If a player is out of options, they are not able to be freely sent down to the minor leagues. Instead, they must be placed on waivers first, where another ballclub could claim them out of Boston's system entirely.
Just because the Red Sox may want to use that 40-man spot elsewhere doesn't necessarily mean they want to lose the one they exposed to waivers on the wire. Let's check out which Red Sox are out of options heading into next season and whether their spot on the roster is safe or in jeopardy.
Which Red Sox players are out of options heading into 2025?
Cooper Criswell
Criswell, 28, may not have had the shiniest stat line at season's end in 2024, but he deserves some praise for how he performed. The right-hander took on a variety of different roles in the starting rotation and bullpen and wound up with a 105 ERA+, which puts him five percent above league-average on the mound.
That's not too bad for a player who's struggled to secure a consistent role in the big leagues up to this point. In the end, Criswell made 18 starts and eight relief appearances, and went 6-5 with a 4.08 ERA and 4.15 FIP. Again, these are not numbers that scream, "the Sox have to keep this guy around," but he handled any role the Red Sox threw his way admirably and surprisingly fared much better as a starter than a reliever.
Criswell is a player the Red Sox could keep for another go-round next season. If he breaks camp with the big-league squad, he deserves a chance to start games but if he falters, it won't be an expensive breakup between team and player as he's still in his pre-arbitration days.
Bryan Mata
Mata's case is a bit more unclear, as he has yet to even make his big league debut. The right-hander has been in the Red Sox organization since 2016 and was a part of MLB Pipeline's top-30 Red Sox prospect lists in 2018 (No. 4), 2019 (No. 8), 2020 (No. 4), 2021 (No. 5), 2022 (No. 8) and 2023 (No. 7) before finally seeing his prospect shine fade in the latest rankings, where he didn't even make the cut.
Over the course of his professional career, Mata has seen some high highs and some low lows. At one point, he was supposed to be the next big thing out of the Red Sox's rotation but inconsistent performance and a slew of injuries have slowed his development significantly. As of February 2023, the Red Sox were worried that sending Mata to the minor leagues when he's out of options would result in him being lost on the waiver wire.
But multiple setbacks made it so the Boston brass didn't have to worry about that, as Mata's progress was stunted every time he made it into game action. His 2024 season ended up being just 11 games and 22.2 innings long, as he posted a 4.37 ERA with 20 strikeouts and nine walks while making outings at four different levels in the Red Sox system.
Mata is no longer the shiny prospect he once was and has yet to prove he can be a durable enough option to even make the big league roster. Unless he shows up to spring training in 2025 looking like a whole new player, the Red Sox may have no choice but to cut bait with a player who was supposed to be great for them.