They missed out on their chief free agent target, Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Now what?
When it comes to the Red Sox' approach to any of the remaining high-priced free agents - such as pitchers Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell - Craig Breslow is now offering some insight into his approach.
Appearing on the 'Baseball Isn't Boring' podcast, the Red Sox' chief baseball officer explained the organization's current approach to diving into the deep-end of the free agent pool, summarizing the current reality by saying, "The timing didn’t work in our favor thus far but, again, I think it’s worth reiterating that I wouldn’t say this is predictive or indicative of how we intend to operate going forward."
Breslow also responded to Tom Werner's recent comments to MassLive, in which the team's chairman said, "In the end, we don’t have a line in terms of our payroll that we look at as much as trusting that Craig (Breslow) is going to deliver on his assurance that we’re going to be competitive."
"We absolutely anticipate being competitive in 2024," I think we also recognize it’s really important to give our young emerging core a chance to take a step forward. I think we need to hold ourselves accountable to that. I know that Tom has had a chance to speak to the statement that he made and he has talked about how that statement embodied an aggressive pursuit of improving the long and short-term outlook of the team, which is something that is shared throughout all of Red Sox leadership. Exactly how it manifests itself, it can take a number of different pathways. But I think the most important thing to appreciate. We do expect our team to be competitive. We also have an exciting group of players to build around. Our goal is to not only be competitive in 2024, but to be competitive for a really long time and to vie for World Series championships for a really long time. And that is going to take a combination of growth from the players we have who are currently under control, and it’s also going to take internal additions and it’s going to impact power and star players, alongside the development of the guys that I have talked about. And the development of a pitching pipeline. It doesn’t really change the direction we’re headed. I knew walking into this role there is an expectation among fans that has been build up over a ton of success the last 20 years. I get that. I get that last-place finishes are unacceptable. They are as unacceptable to me and our front office and our coaching staff as they are to our fans, and that’s what is driving us every single day."
Breslow added, "Stopping short of speaking in detail of spending parameters, the execution of the strategy is what is driving this parameters and importantly not the other way around. I think there is evidence of transactions we have made this offseason that demonstrates that. But, again, the balance I have to strike in this position is both the long- and short-term outlooks. We believe that we are absolutely making progress toward this exciting core of really dynamic and athletic players, some of those guys who have contributed to major league wins already. Some who have contributed to major league wins in the future, and some who are going to be needed to be added externally."
To date, the biggest Red Sox' free agent signing has been pitcher Lucas Giolito, who inked a two-year, $38.5 million deal (that has an opt-out after the first season) and a $14 million vesting option for 2026.
"What I would say is that signing the impact free agent has not come together thus far. And there are a number of factors that go into that, some within our control, some beyond our control," Breslow noted. "What is true is we haven’t lined up on that kind of impact free agent. Obviously, we brought in Giolito and we’re really excited about that. But I think the most important thing to say that isn’t going to necessarily be predictive of behavior going forward. I was on teams with star players, impact players that made a difference when it came to wins and losses over the course of the season. We are going to be active in those markets. But I also think there is a timing component. There is a time to pursue those types of players as aggressively, getting uncomfortable as one is willing to do. And there is a time it’s probably not the most proven path. In order to make those decisions we have to balance where we are, where the core is, and the right way to supplement it."
