If MLB commissioner Rob Manfred ever decided to start giving out a “Team Most Linked to Free Agents” trophy, the Boston Red Sox would likely be a minus-odds favorite to be the winner.
In the newly created FanGraphs “We Tried Tracker,” which attempts to catalog each MLB team’s reported pursuit of free agents, Boston is linked to 12 names - the most on the list.
But all that reported activity by chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and the rest of the front office has yielded a comparatively small number of offseason additions. Outside of their acquisition of White Sox pitcher Garrett Crochet and the signing of Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler, the biggest fish have been caught by other teams.
But according to the newest round of rumors and reports, there’s a chance for that to change.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that the Red Sox make “the most sense” as a destination for Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado following the 33-year-old’s trade request, but that the two teams are at an impasse regarding the remaining money on his contract.
Passan also reported that the Red Sox are still pursuing free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman.
Should Red Sox fans fall for another report linking them to a star player?
WEEI’s Adam Jones and Rich Keefe say “no.”
“At this point, I would be surprised, and I'm the biggest sucker there is when it comes to the Red Sox,” Jones said on Jones & Keefe on Tuesday. “Like, I expected to do all kinds of stuff this off-season.
“At this point, I would be very surprised if they added Bregman, Arenado, names like this that you keep seeing them linked to. I honestly just get annoyed at it every time I see them linked to it.”
Breslow’s press conference comments from the famed Fort Myers picnic tables Tuesday - where he shooed away questions about any potential free agents - didn’t seem to help the belief that the Sox are done for the offseason.
Reports from The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham on the dynamics within Fenway lead Jones to believe there may be a clash between Breslow and ownership on one side, and manager Alex Cora and team president Sam Kennedy on the other.
“There's this divide within the organization where Cora obviously wants it to win games, and he has a connection to Bregman,” said Jones. “Kennedy may want it for the marketability, jerseys and all that kind of stuff, getting asses in the seats.
“I'm not surprised Henry doesn't want to spend money, and Breslow wants the kids there. So there's disagreement within the Red Sox, and dysfunction within the Red Sox, which is just so Red Sox.”
Keefe mentioned the awkward relationship between Cora and Breslow, in which the ownership group stuck him with a manager he didn’t hire.
“It’s classic Red Sox, but it's also the situation they've all been put in, because Craig Breslow didn't pick Cora, and Cora wasn't hired by Breslow,” said Keefe. “So [in] any sport, we talk about that, that's a weird setup.
“So those guys don't have to agree on every single item, every single player, they don't have to be in lockstep. You want some disagreement, but we don't even know if their overall outlook is the same.”
That “overall outlook” difference may be a fundamental issue with the Red Sox, where one side wants to win now with a mix of homegrown talent and free agents, and the other is keen to wait and see with prospects.
“If you really believe in them and they're ready - well, then bring them up here,” said Jones. “And they're part of the team and play them day one, right?
“But the Red Sox aren't going to do that. They’re jumping through these financial loopholes because - you're right, it's Breslow and Henry on one side, and that's the side that's going to win. So when Cora says, ‘Yeah, I think we might still sign somebody,’ I don't think that, and I think Cora is going to lose out.”