Presser: Craig Breslow Explains The Red Sox Strategy
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What challenges does Craig Breslow face during the offseason?
I feel like my answer is the same disappointing answer, which is it's so hard to tell because there are moments over the course of the offseason where you feel like you're minutes away from a trade coming together, a free agent signing, and then you look up a couple hours later and the whole thing dissolves. I think we've been pushing all offseason, trying to have as many conversations as we can. If it's free agency, it's getting uncomfortable. If it's trade, it's putting guys in the conversation that we would much prefer to hold on to. But until I feel like you get a yes from the other side or we give the yes, it's just so hard to know. I think that said, we'll continue to stay engaged and Our hope is that there's some continued opportunities to improve the team.
With the understanding that the free agent class is thinned out, do you get a sense that, I don't know what your answer is going to be, but trade or free agent, if it's trending toward one or the other?
Teams call about some of our depth, which I think is a good indication of where we stand. We have to be willing to have those conversations, whether it's
How does the Red Sox plan to improve the team this offseason?
starting pitching or outfield. But I think we've prioritized the near term, 2026, pretty significantly. And so any trade that we make, if we were to go down that path, I think we're mindful of making sure that we come out better in 2026 as a result of doing it.
Craig, as you look at the infield, do you pencil Marcello into one of those spots?
I'm reluctant to commit to things at this point outside of saying that we know Marcel is going to play a very important role for us. His defensive skills and also versatility are going to be really, really useful for us. He's such a functional piece on a roster. He's still acclimating to the big leagues and he's having a productive offseason, bigger, stronger, moving really well. So I think those types of questions will get answered as we get into spring trading and we see what comes together. But in some capacity, he's going to be a big contributor to our success this year.
Well, I guess sort of taking him out of the equation for a minute, you look at it as you could use two infielders or could you get away with one and then work with other guys that you have?
Yeah, I don't think we're in a position where we have to get two infielders. What... we are constantly balancing is what is the most impactful piece or pieces, and also how do we ensure that we have enough depth that if guys were to get injured, as unfortunately has happened a couple times over the last two years, that we're not taking a massive step backward. We want to... We want to take advantage of the young core of guys that are emerging and continuing to get better in the big leagues and the starting pitching that we have. And we need to make sure that an injury and some unfortunate outcome doesn't derail the season.
Why did it make sense to backload this deal the way you guys did?
Yeah, I think just trying to give ourselves as much flexibility as we can and just looking at the way that – you know our commitments line up like this was the way to do that last year there was a lot of talk about using a six-man rotation before i just kind of took that off the table so with all the options you have right now is that something you'd consider it's something that we've discussed and we'll continue to discuss it because we do feel like our rotation is you know is potentially an advantage for us um and we'll have to balance you know the
What role will Marcello Mayer play in the Red Sox infield?
the benefits of giving guys extra rest with the impact that that could have on the bullpen over the course of the season between off days and weather like most pitchers don't actually operate on a kind of pretty rigid five-man schedule so that rest tends to get baked in but there may be times where we where we choose to employ that at this point is there anybody from that group that
you are going to bring to camp as a reliever? Has anything changed on that, or is it still?
No, we'll build those guys out for a few reasons.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What challenges does Craig Breslow face during the offseason?
0:00–1:14
2
How does the Red Sox plan to improve the team this offseason?
1:14–3:36
3
What role will Marcello Mayer play in the Red Sox infield?
3:36–5:47
4
How does the Red Sox prioritize player acquisitions?
5:47–8:20
5
What is the strategy behind the backloaded contract for Ranger Suarez?
8:20–10:21
6
How does the Red Sox plan to manage their pitching rotation?
10:21–11:55
7
What is the importance of clubhouse dynamics for the Red Sox?
11:55–13:40
8
How does Craig Breslow evaluate the current roster's strengths?
13:40–18:20
Speakers
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