Craig Breslow

The reality is the decision after Alex was not terribly dissimilar to kind of how we proceeded before Alex, which is let's make sure we are aware of every path that exists to improve our team.

And, you know, there's a push and pull at any given time through the offseason.

You know, and then when one of those options obviously became eliminated, you know, when there were narrower options in front of us, you know, we proceeded and we were able to get one over the line.

I do think what I said earlier where these were independent decisions is really important in terms of one decision being a reaction to another.

I think if that were the case, we wouldn't have had conversations with Scott and Ranger dating back months.

Yeah, I think it was like a Tuesday morning into kind of,

evening and then Wednesday morning, you know, felt like there could be something here.

There was a chance that we could line up between, you know, where we thought it would make sense for us in terms of, uh, you know, length and, and commitment, um, and Boston being a desirable destination for, for Ranger.

And it takes both of those things, right?

I never, uh, I never discount the reality that in free agency players have a choice about where they, they want to, um,

where they want to sign, where they want to bring their family, what kind of future they want to hold.

And we're super excited that Ranger chose Boston.

I think the improvements that we've made on the pitching side are significant.

It can be difficult at times to fully appreciate the impact of having dominant starting pitching, but going into a game feeling like we can just play our game offensively and on the bases because our pitching is going to keep us in the game is such a huge advantage for the team.

And I think no matter who we're playing on any given day, we're going to feel like we've got a chance to win.

We have more work to do, but appreciate everyone's efforts and I'll turn it over to Brez.

Sure.

Thanks, Sam.

Good morning, everyone.

Welcome.