For the first time in years, the Boston Red Sox posted an offseason worthy of a big market team in one of the toughest divisions in MLB.
It took them months to pull it off. After whiffing on Juan Soto, Boston went the pitching route and traded for Garrett Crochet and signed Aroldis Chapman, Justin Wilson, Walker Buehler, Patrick Sandoval and a bunch of other depth arms. The Sox played an agonizing waiting game, but Alex Bregman finally signed a three-year deal on Feb. 15.
The Sox's rotation has elite stuff, the pitching staff, in general, is deeper than last year, and Bregman adds a much-needed righty bat and years worth of playoff experience. Red Sox fans seem largely happy with the team's additions and USA Today's A- offseason grade for the team reflects that.
But USA Today's grade opens with the words "forget Alex Bregman," and focuses mostly on the Crochet trade. Boston dealt four of its top prospects for the breakout starter and Crochet will hopefully be the ace of its staff for years to come (pending the contract extension the Red Sox have said they're working on), but the Bregman deal marks a significant change in the front office.
USA Today gives Red Sox offseason an A-, cite Garrett Crochet trade as the reason
The Bregman signing represents the first major free agent acquisition for the Red Sox in years. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow hadn't signed a single free agent bat since his tenure in Boston's front office began on Oct. 25, 2023. The Crochet move was huge and risky, especially since the Red Sox billed traded top prospect Kyle Teel as the team's catcher of the future, but the Bregman signing shows that the team is committed to building a winning team around their new ace.
For years, the Red Sox whiffed on every major free agent on the market, and it seemed like they were inches from missing out on signing Bregman. Regardless of how the pursuit went, Boston got the right-handed bat and veteran leadership it desperately needed and committed to quite the paycheck for it — on his three-year, $120 million deal, Bregman is making Aaron Judge money in terms of average annual value.
While the Crochet trade was possibly the blockbuster move of the offseason and the Red Sox needed to do it to instantly take their rotation to the next level, signing Bregman is a return to form for one of the biggest markets in MLB that had been stingy since the Mookie Betts trade in 2020. The Crochet trade may have been the Red Sox's biggest move of the offseason, but signing Bregman is the moment they took their offseason from a "B" into the "A" grade range.