Presser: Alex Cora, Craig Breslow and Sam Kennedy join
This wasn't going to be the kind of press conference where definitive paths were presented. We need this. We need that. We're going to do this or that.
Nope.
The tone and tenor of this season's post-mortem with Red Sox manager Alex Cora, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, and president Sam Kennedy can be summed up in Breslow's answer to the simple question of what exactly will be the priority when it comes to 2026.
"Well, we want to prioritize improving the team," Breslow said. "I think there are going to be a few paths to doing that."
There were a few definitive takeaways.
- Carlos Narvaez is the one player to have a postseason medical procedure, having surgery on the meniscus in his left knee.
- There was no definitive commitment to Triston Casas serving as the club's starting first baseman. "I don't think it makes a ton of sense on October 6 to say someone is or isn't our first baseman," Breslow said. "We'll see how things play out. Unfortunately, Triston has missed a significant amount of time over the last two years. We've also seen what he's capable of doing when he’s healthy."
- Will Alex Bregman opt out of his current deal with two years, $80 million left? There has been no hand-tipping yet. "I think it’s best to keep those conversations internal," Breslow added. "Obviously, Alex has the right, kind of as structured in his contract, to opt out, and he's going to do what's best for his family. At the same time, I will not miss an opportunity to talk about his contributions on the field, in the clubhouse, to the coaching staff, to the front office. Every conversation we've had, I learned something. I think that impact and influence has rubbed off on his teammates, and by all accounts, he's loved his time in Boston as well."
- There might be some debate when it comes to exactly how much the Red Sox need to improve their defense, which ranked 12th in the big leagues in Defensive Runs Saved. (Their outfield was the best in the majors, while the pitchers were second-to-last.)
Breslow: "I think what some of our defensive lapses have done is caused us to take a look internally around the way that we are developing players, the focus on defense in the Minor Leagues, and we've identified some opportunities to maybe change some of the methods and focus on defensive conversion to a greater extent. And I think we're going to see the rewards of that."
Cora: "We made errors, but we were a lot better. You ask around the industry and we were one of the best defensive teams in the big leagues. There were a lot of things we didn’t do early in the season; we got better, especially in the outfield group. We dropped a few balls. Obviously, everybody is going to talk about October and the playoffs, and we didn’t play good defense there. But overall, it’s a good defensive unit. I think Trevor (Story), although his slump at the end, he was solid. Alex (Bregman), when he played was great. (Abraham) Toro when he played first, he was amazing. Narvy was a lot better. As far as defensive runs saved, and that’s what people talk about, we have one of the best in the big leagues."
- Having the money from the Rafael Devers trade certainly isn't going to be a bad thing. "I think about this from a baseball perspective and that is trying to build this athletic, dynamic team, and giving ourselves and the baseball operation as much flexibility as we possibly can to do that," Breslow said. "What I have seen as a player and what I've seen over the last couple of years is that with this ownership group, when there is a chance to build a winner and a team that can contend for the postseason, resources aren't a problem. And I think we've talked a lot about how this window of contention is upon us."
All well and good. But what is truly next for an organization that clearly took a significant step forward in 2025?
If you wanted to simply roll out perceived priorities, it really shouldn't be that complicated.
- The Red Sox need to figure out the Bregman situation, first and foremost. While murmurs around baseball keep suggesting it will be almost certain that the third baseman opts out of his deal, some in the organization still believe there is a good chance he stays. Bregman's agent Scott Boras told WEEI.com a month ago that the market would undeniably be different this time around for his client with no qualifying offer attached.
"The qualifying offer for (Pete) Alonso or (Matt) Chapman or (Blake) Snell, teams have gotten together and said for a 30-or-whatever-year-old player and said we’re not going to give them a long-term contract we would normally give because we’re not going to give up the draft pick and the long-term," Boras said. "Now that that is over with, obviously, it’s much easier for teams to plan and look at how they sign their players because there is no detriment to it. It’s only a positive add.
"I can tell you in Chapman’s case, Snell’s case, Correa’s case, the minute the qualifying offer was gone the market expanded probably from a couple of teams wanting to do short-term to 10 or 15 teams wanting to do long-term contracts. We saw that in every case."
But the difference is that Bregman seems to be heading into the offseason carrying much more value to the Red Sox than he might in the open market due to a season of solid but not eye-popping numbers. In other words, while he is seemingly really important to the construction of the Red Sox, potential suitors looking for a third baseman might not be willing to allocate the years the 31-year-old will be looking for.
- The importance of keeping Bregman isn't only because of his clubhouse intangibles. It's also because he represents the kind of middle-of-the-order certainty the Red Sox are starved for. While the last image of the Sox's lineup was far from imposing, when they were rolling out the top four of Roman Anthony, Bregman, Jarren Duran and Trevor Story, it worked just fine.
Anthony manned the leadoff spot in 31 games, totaling a .336 batting average and 1.003 OPS. It allowed Duran to thrive in the No. 3 spot, where he had an .863 OPS. It worked, until it didn't. When the rookie was shelved for the season, the dynamic became a bit more difficult. There was no safety net when it came to scoring runs. For most teams, of course, can usually be found in the form of home runs. After Anthony's injury, the Red Sox hit the third-fewest homers in all of MLB.
- All the good teams have that power-hitting safety net, the kind the Red Sox pivoted away from with the Devers deal. It would seem rediscovering something along these lines might be the other big priority going forward.
"We faced some significant injuries during the course of the season to guys that have shown that they can hit the ball out of the ballpark, whether that was in the big leagues or internally," Breslow said. "And so I think we'll actively look to improve the roster. That means we have to be willing to look in free agency, trade and internally."
With the uncertainty of Casas's role, the logical avenue to fix what ails the Red Sox in regards to the power-hitting problem is taking a run at another one of Boras's clients - Alonso.
This isn't Juan Soto, but, like Bregman a year ago, this is a really good fit.
Alonso is a player you don't have to worry about. He has played in the second-most games of anybody in MLB over the past four seasons, hitting the fourth-most homers of any player. Yes, the "models" might not suggest it's worth allocating such a big chunk of change to a corner infielder, but some of those same narratives were also in play when it came to Bregman a year ago. Sometimes, it's just about being the right guy at the right time for the right team.
That would seem to be Alonso and the Red Sox.
The page is once again turning. It's just that this time around it's a bit murkier when it comes to knowing what the next chapter might look like.