As spring training looms, many of the Boston Red Sox's early offseason goals remain unmet. The front office has successfully revamped the starting rotation, but that isn't enough to field the "90-95 win team" it hopes to see in 2025.
Boston's bolstered pitching will take it a long way, but its offense needs a lift to meet the front office's promises. Not only is the team heavily left-handed — the Sox slashed .245/.318/.409 as a team against lefty pitchers last year — but it lost 31 home runs worth of right-handed production when Tyler O'Neill signed with the Orioles.
Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow hasn't signed a major league bat since his tenure at the helm of the organization began in Nov. 2024. A recent report from Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe suggests he may not start now.
Agents have perceived that Red Sox manager Alex Cora and team president and CEO Sam Kennedy hope to sign a middle-of-the-order bat, while Breslow and team owners John Henry and Tom Werner are more hesitant, Abraham writes. This isn't the first report of different priorities within the Red Sox front office; rumors of an internal rift regarding the team's pursuit of Alex Bregman surfaced weeks ago.
Red Sox front office still disagrees on need for a right-handed bat
Abraham's reporting suggests the rift isn't specific to Boston potentially signing Bregman but signing a bat, in general. The Red Sox are banking on their "Big Three" prospects, Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer, breaking out and becoming stars, which may be the reason for their hesitancy to jump into a long-term deal for Bregman.
But it doesn't explain why they wouldn't pursue Teoscar Hernández, who could fill the same role O'Neill did last season but with even more pop and offensive consistency. His second deal with the Dodgers seemed like a sure thing after he won a World Series with them in October, but he signed for a perfectly reasonable price the Red Sox could've beaten. He wouldn't take up a valuable infield spot needed for the team's top prospects and he didn't demand $200 million, but, for some reason, Boston always thought of Bregman as the better fit.
I don't fault the Red Sox for not being willing to go past four years for Alex Bregman...
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) January 28, 2025
But it's the same story time after time. Gotta get uncomfortable one of these days.
From a new @FenwayRundown with @Sean_McAdam: pic.twitter.com/ikDDEC8RY5
It's also incorrect and incredibly risky to bank on Anthony, Campbell and Mayer thriving when they're called up. Mayer has played more than 80 games once in his four professional seasons and he's never seen a pitch at Triple-A, while Anthony and Campbell have only about a month of Triple-A experience from last season. Prospects can take weeks to months to adjust when they're promoted, especially to the majors, and banking on the production of three 20-22-year-olds, when a two-time World Series champion remains available, is inexplicable for a team that has missed the playoffs three years running.
It's well established that Bregman isn't a perfect fit for Boston. Signing him would require roster shuffling, he could block top infield prospects' paths to the big leagues and he demands more time and money than the Red Sox have given to a free agent in years, even before Trevor Story signed in 2021.
But Bregman would bring experience and instant credibility to the Red Sox clubhouse. If making the playoffs and winning the division are as big a priority as Boston claims (promises of Kennedy's, who wants to sign a bat), it should sign Bregman before another club does. And even if it misses out on Bregman, although it should never come to that, another righty bat will have to do the trick.