Baseball Isn’t Boring
BIB on the Radio: Deciphering What The Red Sox Are Doing (And Not Doing)
13 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Yeah, there should be some passion. This doesn't have to be boring.
Hey, one thing the game needs is more people like you. You. You. You. You. You.
You. You. You. You. You. You.
Welcome to Baseball Isn't Boring. Here's your host, Rob Ratcliffe. When it comes to the Red Sox, what does this mean? Well, it means you lost what would have been a really good fit. I mean, we can't ignore this. The fact of the matter is that the Red Sox were interested in this guy. He fit what they needed very, very well. They knew that, and they lost out to the Orioles.
Now, did they come up a day late, a dollar short? as they have last year at this time with Max Freed, same thing. Same thing.
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Chapter 2: What are the Red Sox's offseason strategies for player acquisition?
You just didn't get the job done. You didn't seal the deal. And at some point, you have to identify the guy who is just going to be the guy, understand the market, and understand you've got to pay the piper. You've got to get uncomfortable. And the Red Sox weren't willing or didn't get as uncomfortable as they needed to get.
I'm feeling it. It's Friday night. We're ready to party. Rob Bradford is here.
Wow. 2005 mega.
Oh, yeah. 2005 mega was way cuter than this.
I'm just talking about like dancing, going out Friday night.
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Chapter 3: How did the Red Sox lose out on Pete Alonso?
Going out to, I don't know, five guys. I was in high school.
Okay. I don't know what you do in Maryland. Who knows?
Go out to Five Guys.
Five Guys is pretty good.
You know, maybe you try to steal some liquor out of your parents' cabinet.
Hold on. Let me write that down. Yeah.
Go to someone's basement. Maybe go to a bonfire.
You know what that sounds like? All the things that you're describing? Sounds like the winter meetings. Baseball isn't boring, but the Red Sox are tri-gay.
You steal some liquor, you go to a bonfire in a field.
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Chapter 4: What challenges does the Red Sox front office face in free agency?
Anyone who watched that video, just put the sound down. They didn't care.
Well, what you said there was a real bummer.
I can do better than that.
You've been talking about this on the station nonstop this week with all your reports on all the day parts. But what jumped out to me about what you said there is... is how unwilling it seems like the Red Sox are to get uncomfortable when making a deal. And I am so tired of hearing that, regardless of whoever is pulling the strings in the front office.
Because it used to be something that we would attribute to the GM. and say, like, oh, well, he's not cut out for this or he doesn't understand the sandbox that he's playing in. But I thought that Breslow, at least in the offseason, had shown us last year that he was willing to, quote, overpay a little bit or get a little uncomfortable.
And I think that's why, on top of all the rumors and the expectations that some people set going into this week, that's why there's a lot of frustration out there.
Yeah, I mean, there's... There's a lot to pick through here because it's not just as simple as the Red Sox are cheap. This is exactly the same thing as Haim Bloom did. It's because it's not. You give Breslow credit for last offseason. So his supporters would say, well, look at last offseason. He got uncomfortable with crochet, which they did. Okay. And it worked out awesomely.
Yeah, and they got Bregman. Now I would say this, is that what they haven't proven is is that when they go after a big-name free agent, and I'm not counting Bregman because they played the market on Bregman. Bregman fell to them, right? Good for them. But ultimately, you might end up with him for one year. That's not winning out on Bregman.
So in terms of winning the battle for a top-name free agent like Max Freed last year, which he didn't, and you didn't with Pete Alonso, you haven't proven you can do that. And why haven't they proven they can do that? You can say it's not willing to get uncomfortable, but it's also going by their system. It's going by this modeling where we're going to model. We think that this is worth this.
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Chapter 5: Why is there frustration with the Red Sox's current approach to building the team?
In other words, we don't have to commit all these years to that guy when we can get this guy for one year. And that's good enough. So I think that's why they don't get the Dylan Cease thing. With Alonzo... They're going to do something, right? They're going to do something.
I mean, we hope so.
They'll do something. They're going to pivot to something, like you said, plan A, B, C, D, whatever. The problem is, is that when you have Pete Alonzo, like Bregman last year, who fits so perfectly, he's a flawed player, but he fits so perfectly for what you need, then you just say, we're going to do what it takes to get that guy. And you can't tell me
that Pete Alonzo, if you said, Pete, five years, 155, play in Boston or Baltimore, that he would be absolutely, no, no, I'm going to go play in Baltimore. His wife is from Massachusetts. So if you identify the right guy... and you start your offseason from there, then that's the way to do it.
But the problem is that they're saying, we think he's worth this, and we're going to get over it, and we're going to find the next good solution in the Jorge Polanco or the Suarez or whoever. Contreras. Contreras, whoever. But the difference in losing out on Max Fried of last year was that you could pivot to other players who were like Max Fried, which they did. Good for you.
With Pete Alonzo, yes, again, flawed player in a lot of ways, but his skill set and what he represents for what this team needs, you can't pivot to that unless I'm missing something. The closest I would say is honestly Bo Bichette, who they aren't going to get either, and the reason is because you're going to have to compete for the Toronto Blue Jays, who aren't going to be modeling his contract.
Right.
So you brought up something, a phrase there that stuck out to me, which is 2026 championship run.
Which we've heard a lot from Breslau League.
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Chapter 6: What does the term 'getting uncomfortable' mean in the context of player contracts?
to the majority of players who reach free agency, speaking not specifically of Alonzo, but of the team's general free agency exploits, and talked about, this was the quote, they don't believe in long-term deals.
For guys in their 30s. I think Cotillo actually classified. Context around that.
So when you say 2026 championship run, this is something to me that is interesting across all professional sports. But with the MLB in particular, are you saying that you think your championship window is one year? And so you're not going to commit to...
Long term deals for a guy who's in his mid 30s because you don't see it as like a possible three to five year window with the young guys that you've been promising to everyone who's coming up in the farm system and now they're here. Like you've got to stretch yourself a little bit, even if, as you said, it doesn't exactly fit the perfect philosophy of how you want to do every deal.
No, but I think that this goes back to the Dylan Cease scenario, right? It's the same thing. I mean, this is – you're talking about Pete Alonzo, those free agents. It's the same thing.
Why would we have to go and commit the long-term deal, which Sean mentions, when we can get this guy in the short-term deal and then do it over again and then do it over again and get the sweet spot of this guy's performance where instead of – Instead of saying, well, this guy, we're not going to have to worry about it for the next five years, six years.
Honestly, Bradfo, that feels kind of gross.
Yeah.
It feels kind of gross to say, like, we're going to leverage this guy's health and, I don't know, like competitiveness and whatever. It's one thing for a guy to go into a contract and say, this team isn't really giving me what I need, so I'm going to bet on myself for a year and try to get a better contract situation the next year. But when the team is trying to go...
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Chapter 7: How do the Red Sox's decisions compare to teams like the Blue Jays and Dodgers?
Just watching who he was for the team last year, it's not like you're talking about a guy who's 40.
No, but I – go ahead, John. Well, they should know better, though. And what I mean by that is, like, you're talking about they've got to decide, identify guys. This ownership group has won four championships. And in the four they've won, all four times they were top three in payroll. Like, they know better. This isn't a new ownership group that's like, hey, we're going to model this.
Like, this is a conscious decision over the last five years to do things differently than they did before. 2018 had the biggest payroll in the game. And it's a conscious decision to do it differently.
I don't get hung up on the payroll stuff because they're going to be near the top of the payroll. I get hung up on not just finding the guys who you say, these are the guys, you mentioned previous teams, finding the guys who you think are going to carry you through. Carry you through. Like Bregman.
If you said to me last year that you signed Alex Bregman to a five-year, even a six-year deal, I would have been okay. That's cool. Because he fits what you have. He fits what you need. And this is what these other teams are doing. This is what teams in your division are doing. They'll probably still be a good team. That's fine.
But at the same time, I just would like them to say, this is the guy that we're identifying. And I'll tell you what, if you want a guy who is going to fit sort of what they're talking about and fit what I'm talking about, it is Bo Bichette. But here's the problem, is that what they have proven is that when they get into these
Back and forth with free agents, which other teams actually have interest in. A bidding war. And, guys, it is frustrating in the sense that I remember citing this with the old Red Sox. And I don't want to be like, oh, look at the old Red Sox. Look how it is.
People are looking at the old Red Sox because those were the ones that won championships.
It was amazing because they never, if they wanted a guy, they never didn't get him. Ever. The only guy they didn't get was Teixeira. I mean, that's how far away they were.
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Chapter 8: What is the significance of the 2026 championship run for the Red Sox?
Right. But again, it comes back to my Fabia. I'm trying to think of a male model take. Oh, the modeling agency. The modeling agency. That's what they are. They're a modeling agency.
That to me, like if you had told me that five years ago, I would say that's inconceivable. Like did Baltimore change markets? Like that doesn't... Did the Orioles move somewhere else?
That doesn't make sense. It's funny because the Orioles are run by Mike Elias, who is viewed as sort of more along the lines of what we're talking about, this new age. He came from Houston and everything else. But they also understood that for business, this was really important, much like the Red Sox understood for business how it was important to make the crochet trade last year.
Now, once again, they have proven they can make trades. They have proven they can make smart signings. All I'm saying here is that, in my opinion, where Pete Alonzo fits the exact player that you were talking about in that suite in Las Vegas about you're going to get a number two and we're going to get a middle-of-the-order hitter and a corner infielder is probably going to be that guy.
then he fit that mold. And it's even worse, the fact that, like you said, your Baltimore Orioles, I don't know, Washington National?
No, you know I'm an O's girl.
I'm an O's girl. Yeah, so it makes it worse that, I'm sorry, it just does, that Cease went to Toronto. by the way, the Los Angeles Dodgers of the American League, all orals, they had a down year, but now they're looping back and making trades and making signings. So it's just, that's a bad look too.
They're getting better and you're not doing anything.
Yeah, and I will say this, is that They might go out and get whoever. Get Bregman. Get whatever.
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