Chapter 1: 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
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Chapter 2: 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 –
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Chapter 3: 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. One, especially for some of our younger guys, I think it's important for their development. And then two, it's just always easy to shorten guys up if that's the path that we want to take than it is to go the other route and have guys prepare to throw in shorter blasts and then all of a sudden ask for them to throw 80 to 100 pitches in an outing.
Do you anticipate Sandoval and Crawford being ready to pitch on the same timeline, I guess, as the rest of the other guys?
So far, they're ramping up, and the feedback has been really good. Both guys are off the mound right now. So that's the way that we're going to proceed.
Following up on some of the earlier questions, do you have a preference as far as whether you'd rather get a third baseman or a second baseman?
The way that our roster is currently constructed, so many of our infielders have versatility that it gives us additional flexibility. You look at whether it's Marcelo, Romy, Hamilton, Sogard, all those guys are capable of moving around.
And so we should take advantage of that and just find the player or the players that can most improve our team, and then we'll be able to fill in the pieces around that.
It's the biggest free agent deal you've given out. Is there any sense on a personal level, like after the way it happened with Alex and this happening a couple of days later, is it like, do you let yourself feel you've got to win or like relief?
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Chapter 4: How does the Red Sox prioritize player acquisitions?
We beat it up and we think through it, and if it turns out that we didn't, we question how we arrived at that decision. Obviously, there are kind of more significant financial implications to this one relative to some of the others, but we hope we got this one right the same way we hope we got all the others.
Yeah, Craig, you talk a lot about optimizing pitchers' performances.
is is ranger maybe somebody that there really aren't changes or have the conversations led to we might change him this way for asking that change yeah he does a pretty good job of optimizing both kind of usage uh intended locations and shapes um i guess all three of those things uh but that's not to say that we can't continue to you know help provide the most information that we possibly can because he's clearly a guy who's got the ability to execute and
kind of pitch to a scouting report and a game plan, and so we want to make sure that we're giving him the best information. And then I just think as pitchers evolve physically over the course of the contract, there may be opportunities to tweak usage or shapes.
So he's been very successful with what he's done, and we're not here to reinvent his success, but we'll make sure that we can supplement that if possible.
I can't say I've heard you extol the virtues of guile before.
Yeah, well, when there's somebody who has this track record of success and someone that we think can be as good going forward, You don't want to overcomplicate this, right? And, you know, like I said, his command gives him, you know, room for error as well, right?
The ability to execute multiple pitches, you know, to sequence and tunnel and pitch to a game plan and really exploit hitters' weaknesses. You know, we talk a ton, and Andrew talks a ton about making sure we lean into a pitcher's strengths, and Ranger is kind of one of the rare examples where his strength is the ability to exploit a hitter's weakness. So we'll make sure to lean into that.
Have you guys dived into it all? You know, you've got one lefty who throws very hard, and now you've got a lefty who doesn't throw so hard. Is there anything to be gained using them back-to-back and throwing off hitters from the other team within a series?
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Chapter 5: What is the strategy behind the backloaded contract for Ranger Suarez?
When you guys acquired Sonny Gray, did you think you were going to make a big free agent pitching spin?
I don't know that I would handicap in a particular way. I felt like we were still going to do whatever we could to improve the team. And I think that's the outcome that it's really important we work backwards from. Because when you narrow the options, given that trades and free agency are so unpredictable, you're just cutting yourself off from possible paths to improvement.
So we work backwards from... We need to put a better team on the field. We need to win more games than we did last year. How do we do that, right? And offense was a fairly obvious one. But preventing runs is another way. I joke with Pete that hopefully we're making his job easier too, right, by not putting such demands on the offense.
But I think the most important takeaway here is just there are a number of different ways to make a team better. And leaning into this one seems to be the one that makes sense for us right now.
Yeah, handedness aside, are Sonny and Ranger much the same pitcher?
I think probably similar in terms of managing contacts, Sunny, and a little bit more kind of strikeout.
potential you know and then Sonny's secondary to rely on spin whereas you know Ranger changeup is has been a really good pitch for him so you know I think kind of raw raw spin total spin edge goes to Sonny but ability to execute you know both guys have been really successful maybe small edge to Ranger there.
Is Christian Campbell like a candidate or would you prefer him playing every day whether he's in the majors or the minors?
Yeah, you know, I think like most of the other questions, it's premature at this point to say, hey, this is the guy who's going to do that. And Ref played a really prominent role both on the field in terms of his production against left-handed pitching and then also as a leader in the clubhouse.
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Chapter 6: How does the Red Sox plan to manage their pitching rotation?
Like, I don't want to sit here and say, hey, we'll replace Ref with this player. But, you know, I think Christian is a guy that we're going to give a look to in the outfield. You know, Nate Eaton is a guy who came up and did a really nice job for us. And, you know,
While a lot has been made of our outfield depth, it's also a strength of this team and making sure that we preserve that strength, both offensively and the ability to go run down. You know, anything that's hit in the air that stays in the yard is something that we're mindful of.
And so, you know, we need to make sure that we don't take a step backward defensively in favor of trying to chase offense.
Where are you with the lefty bullpen on?
Yeah, I mean, we like what we have in Aroldis and Giovanni.
I guess beyond Aroldis. I've been turning down interviews all week. Hoda Kotb reached out, Oprah, George Stephanopoulos. So I said, no, I was booked on the Deitch podcast before the Taylor Swift phenomenon. I must live up to my responsibility. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Yeah. And also we have a number of guys that I think – Some have pitched out of the pen, some can pitch out of the pen. Our initial approach will be to stretch out the guys who we think can start as starters, but if it does make sense at some point to shorten guys up and have them pitch out of the pen, we'll do that.
We'll also stay engaged with the possibility of making some external additions.
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Chapter 7: What is the importance of clubhouse dynamics for the Red Sox?
So, I mean, not to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like you're okay with what you have, but you would be open to potentially adding... Yeah, I think that's a fair assessment. You know you value clubhouse dynamics. I mean, you've taken out Brightman, Ref Snyder. How do you view the clubhouse taking out those guys, and what kind of priority is anybody you acquire going to be in that respect?
Or maybe it's not a big name, but how do you view the clubhouse going forward?
Sure. You know, with Rob and Alex going elsewhere, you know, their leadership and their impact and influence in the clubhouse is going to be missed. But I think that there's a void that's also capable of being filled by some of the guys that we have. I know Trevor is looking forward to the opportunity to become more of a vocal leader. And it's something that he's talked pretty openly about.
It was something that was difficult for him while he was injured and at times away from the team. I think there are young guys who have a lot of leadership potential, though I think we have to caution ourselves against thinking that it's a fair expectation for a 22- or 23-year-old to emerge as kind of the outspoken leader of the team.
And then also those things are important, and they will be part of the equation when we look at additions. But I think outside of making sure that we're doing everything we can to bring in good teammates, I still think that there's an unsettled argument or debate about whether or not great performances on the field tend to breed great clubhouses or the other way around.
We'll try to strike the balance and accomplish both. But I think we have strong personalities. We have guys who are focused on the right thing.
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Chapter 8: How does Craig Breslow evaluate the current roster's strengths?
And I think if we win a lot of games, then the rest tends to take care of itself.
You talked about it too.
how ranger is improving in the team and the rotation that you guys have but as you look towards strength training maybe your approach to improving the team some more how do you view i guess time winding out and just having an opportunity to build a more improved team yeah we we like the the guys that we have we like the team that we have we think we're gonna be able to to pitch with anybody and that that keeps you in every game um you know we
got a really strong offensive group we've got a great kind of anchor at the back end of our bullpen and guys like whitlock and others who who stepped up and helped us preserve leads throughout a game uh you know it's not a secret that we'll continue to uh to look for opportunities to improve and add to the infield group um exactly what that looks like i'm not sure right now uh but we're engaged we'll remain engaged and uh you know we look forward to getting to spring and you know the players that we have coming together to put the best roster on it that we possibly can come up with
You obviously had everyone here for Fenway Fest, right? Or at least a significant number of people. So, can you, you know, from that Was there a meeting, like front office meeting, anything on Sunday just to kind of like recalibrate where things were once you knew that Greg and Melissa turned back?
We had a meeting. Major League staff was here. Front office was here. Largely just to check in on players, you know, to make sure that we would find no surprises come a few weeks, you know, when everybody gets to Fort Myers. And I think everybody – understood that Alex and Reagan and their family had a decision to make and they made it and we understand and respect that.
We also have a job to do here and that's put the best roster together that we can and give ourselves every chance to compete for a World Series. So I think our staff and our players have shown over the last 12 months or so that they are incredibly resilient and they will be again.
Was it clear to you guys? Did you even need to have a discussion of, like, do we double down on pitching versus kind of seeing about concentrating resources on a position player after Brinkman?
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.
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