{"id":4339,"date":"2024-09-26T07:10:24","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T07:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=4339"},"modified":"2024-09-26T07:10:24","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T07:10:24","slug":"out-of-playoffs-for-third-straight-year-red-sox-exec-discusses-teams-offseason-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=4339","title":{"rendered":"Out of playoffs for third straight year, Red Sox exec discusses team’s offseason plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Red Sox lost to the Blue Jays on Wednesday night, minutes after wins by the Royals and Tigers. That officially eliminated Boston from playoff contention and turns their attention completely to the offseason. Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow met with the Boston beat before the game. While he didn\u2019t go into too many specifics, he offered a few hints about where the Sox could turn in the winter.<\/p>\n

Breslow pointed to the rotation, bullpen and a desire to balance a lefty-heavy lineup among the areas of focus,\u00a0via Sean McAdam of MassLive. That not coincidentally overlaps with the Sox\u2019s impending free agents.\u00a0Nick Pivetta,\u00a0Tyler O\u2019Neill,\u00a0Kenley Jansen,\u00a0Chris Martin,\u00a0Danny Jansen\u00a0and\u00a0Lucas Sims\u00a0are all headed to the open market. That\u2019s a pair of right-handed bats, one of their top starters and multiple high-leverage relievers.<\/p>\n

Asked about O\u2019Neill specifically, Breslow said the Sox are \u201cdefinitely interested in having some of those conversations\u201d about a new deal, via\u00a0Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. Boston hit on a buy-low acquisition of the slugger from the Cardinals last offseason. O\u2019Neill leads the team with 31 home runs and sports a .240\/.335\/.512 slash across 469 plate appearances. He had a trio of brief injured list stints but has been one of the Sox\u2019s best hitters when healthy. O\u2019Neill has been a particularly key piece of maintaining some amount of lineup balance. He has obliterated lefty pitching at a .313\/.429\/.750 clip in 156 trips to the plate. He\u2019s tied with\u00a0Aaron Judge\u00a0for second in MLB (one behind\u00a0Ketel Marte) with 16 home runs off southpaws.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill is eligible for a qualifying offer. There\u2019s a good chance the 29-year-old left fielder would accept a one-year offer worth more than $21M. That\u2019d be a massive jump over this year\u2019s $5.85M arbitration salary. The Sox may prefer a three- or four-year deal that comes at a more manageable annual rate. O\u2019Neill\u2019s camp will probably look to top the respective $42M guarantees secured by\u00a0Lourdes Gurriel Jr.\u00a0and\u00a0Jorge Soler last winter.<\/p>\n

Even if they retain O\u2019Neill, that\u2019d leave the Sox with the same lefty-leaning lineup they trotted out this year. They\u2019ll need more contributors via some combination of free agency, trade and internal improvement.\u00a0Vaughn Grissom\u00a0is one of the higher-upside righty bats already on the roster. Grissom\u2019s first season in Boston was underwhelming, as he battled injuries and struggled for most of the year. (Chris Sale, for whom the young infielder was traded, pitching his way to the NL Cy Young in Atlanta only adds to the disappointment.)<\/p>\n

The Sox have split time at second base between Grissom and lefty-hitting\u00a0Enmanuel Valdez\u00a0with the season winding down. Breslow was noncommittal on whether the 23-year-old will enter next season as the favorite at second base.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s absolutely got the potential to do that,\u201d the chief baseball officer said of Grissom being an everyday player, via Speier. \u201cBut ultimately it\u2019s going to be the play on the field that dictates who our everyday second base is.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ha-Seong Kim, who\u2019ll also draw attention as a shortstop, and\u00a0Gleyber Torres\u00a0headline the free-agent class at second base.\u00a0Jonathan India\u00a0will probably be the subject of trade speculation yet again. It seems unlikely that the Sox would devote a ton of resources to the position. That\u2019d impede Grissom and speedster\u00a0David Hamilton\u00a0next season. With top shortstop prospect\u00a0Marcelo Mayer\u00a0potentially on the radar for a 2025 debut, the keystone could be the long-term home for\u00a0Trevor Story.<\/p>\n

The pitching staff is a clearer area for free-agent investment. Jansen and Martin have been two of Alex Cora\u2019s top three leverage arms for the past couple of seasons. Rule 5 pick\u00a0Justin Slaten\u00a0will be back in the late innings.\u00a0Liam Hendriks should be healthy and could compete with Slaten for the closing job. The Sox will probably look for multiple additions to solidify the setup corps in front of that duo. A reunion with Martin wouldn\u2019t be surprising.<\/p>\n

A rotation built around\u00a0Tanner Houck,\u00a0Brayan Bello,\u00a0Kutter Crawford\u00a0and hopefully a healthy\u00a0Lucas Giolito\u00a0has promise.\u00a0Richard Fitts\u00a0has had decent results in his first four MLB starts. Pivetta has absorbed a lot of innings while flashing strikeout stuff over the past few years, though. The Sox will need to replace that volume if he walks.<\/p>\n

Corbin Burnes,\u00a0Blake Snell,\u00a0Max Fried\u00a0and\u00a0Jack Flaherty\u00a0headline the free-agent rotation class.\u00a0Sean Manaea,\u00a0Nick Martinez,\u00a0Luis Severino\u00a0and old friend\u00a0Nathan Eovaldi (assuming he declines a $20M player option with Texas) are among the middle-tier starters who\u2019d more closely mirror last winter\u2019s Giolito pickup.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Red Sox lost to the Blue Jays on Wednesday night, minutes after wins by the Royals and Tigers. That officially eliminated Boston from playoff contention and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nOut of playoffs for third straight year, Red Sox exec discusses team's offseason plans - Sport News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=4339\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Out of playoffs for third straight year, Red Sox exec discusses team's offseason plans - Sport News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Red Sox lost to the Blue Jays on Wednesday night, minutes after wins by the Royals and Tigers. 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