Every November, baseball's top executives gather for the GM meetings, where front offices, agents and reporters compare notes and lay the groundwork for the winter. This year's edition is underway in Las Vegas, and it carries extra weight because the Winter Meetings will likely be canceled if no new CBA is in place by Dec. 1. That leaves Craig Breslow facing a fair question: would he dare to make a move as bold as the one Boston pulled off at this same event 11 years ago?
In November 2015, the Padres opened talks on Craig Kimbrel at the GM Meetings, and Dave Dombrowski closed the deal by Nov. 13. The price was steep (at the time), as Manuel Margot, Javier Guerra, Carlos Asuaje and Logan Allen all went to San Diego. In return, Boston landed a 27-year-old, four-time All-Star coming off his fifth straight season of 39 or more saves. Kimbrel had 225 career saves and was rocking a career 1.63 ERA that was the lowest ever through an age-27 season.
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Kimbrel was an All-Star in all three of his seasons in Boston, piling up 108 saves and 305 strikeouts over 184 1/3 innings in 187 relief appearances. His 2017 season was a masterpiece, with 35 saves, a 1.43 ERA and 126 strikeouts in 69 innings. A year later, he saved 42 games for a 108-win team, and while his October was shaky (a 5.91 ERA over 10 2/3 innings), he still collected six postseason saves on the way to a championship.
Then Boston let him walk — Kimbrel turned down the qualifying offer, didn't sign until June 2019 with the Cubs, and has since bounced through 10 major league clubs, most recently signing with the Royals this past August. The Red Sox got exactly what they paid for and moved on at the right time.
Breslow's need this winter is just as obvious. Boston ranked 26th in home runs and scored just two runs in a Wild Card sweep at the hands of the Yankees. Elly De La Cruz remains the dream, and the Reds have already turned down a prospect-heavy deadline offer because they wanted young major leaguers instead. Jim Bowden expects Boston to keep calling on De La Cruz and Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams, while MassLive's Sean McAdam wouldn't be surprised if Jarren Duran and Masataka Yoshida are moved to make it all work.
We've seen how all-in this front office was at the deadline, and there are moves Breslow could close quickly this week. Breslow himself admitted that anyone pretending to know where the labor talks will land is bound to be wrong, which is exactly why acting now under the current rules make sense.
It's happened once before for this franchise. If Breslow can work some magic in Las Vegas, he could give Red Sox fans something to hold onto through a dark lockout winter and a real reason for optimism heading into 2027.
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