The Boston Red Sox were in the running for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but for a fanbase jaded by the recent lack of interest in star talent, that is hardly comforting.
Boston was among the six or so teams showing some level of serious interest in the star pitcher, who ultimately signed with the Dodgers on a 12-year, $325 million deal. The Red Sox have an obvious need for starting pitching, specifically a top of the rotation arm, and Yamamoto certainly would have satisfied that need.
Although the Red Sox were in the mix, they never seemed to be as serious a suitor as the Dodgers, Mets or Yankees in their pursuit for the Japanese ace. Regardless of their perceived standing, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said on Baseball Isn’t Boring that, at the very least, Boston made as strong an impression as it could.
“I think that we were competitive, I think that we put our best foot forward,” Breslow said. “I think we, by all accounts, made a positive impression in terms of what we could offer. We’ve got a Japanese infrastructure here that I think has eased the transition for a number of players over the last 20 years or so. There are a number of Japanese players who have come over and had success and that made that transition as smoothly and quickly as one can hope.
“Ultimately, it obviously didn’t come together. Some of that is potentially within our control, some of it isn’t, right? We can only influence the preferences of others so much. I’m proud of the way that our group came together to demonstrate what we have to offer in Boston. Ultimately it didn’t work out, but as you kind of just generally think about a player who is in the prime of his career and should contribute over a meaningful period of time, that is the right type of player that I would argue that we should be targeting.”
If Yamamoto was hellbent on ending up in Los Angeles, then there really isn’t a whole lot the Red Sox could do. But he seemed open enough to going to New York that it raises the question of whether the Red Sox should have extended themselves further for Yamamoto.
In years past, Yamamoto is the type of player the Red Sox theoretically would get into a bidding war for. For Breslow, it’s about threading the needle of overall roster building.
“Probably pivoting away from (Yamamoto) and just kind of speaking more broadly, yes, there are always levels of discomfort that you have to consider in order to get a player -- especially in order to get a player via free agency or a trade,” Breslow said. “And we have to kind of figure out where do we cross over from discomfort – which I accept is part of the job – to irresponsible to the point of being kind of detrimental to the outlook of the team. That’s not a clear distinction, I have to use the tools that I have available, and use my judgment to make those decisions, and they’re really, really hard.
“But there’s going to be a moment in time where these things are going to come together and we are going to bring in impact star power that’s going to compliment this emerging core that we’ve been talking about, and we are going to be in our rightful place atop the division and vying for World Series championships.
Still, response from the fanbase about Boston’s cautious approach to free agency is not lost on Breslow.
“I definitely don’t want to gloss over the disappointment or frustration that fans feel in hearing about this or reading about this, and we do as well,” Breslow said. "In the office, I am as competitive in this position as I was as a player and I think that means that I and others around me are trying to uncover every opportunity. We just have to make sure that we’re balancing the building around an emerging core of players with the short-term impact.”