LAS VEGAS - A year ago, Craig Breslow sat in his suite at the Cosmopolitan Hotel overlooking all the host city's bells and whistles. The resorts. The lights. The Sphere. And with the Vegas spectacles serving as the backdrop, the Red Sox's chief baseball officer offered up his own brand of entertainment.
The Red Sox were targeting a top-of-the-rotation pitcher and a slugger who could boost the team's home run totals. As far as General Managers' Meetings went, this was a pretty good launch pad for what promised to be a pretty significant offseason. It all offered a healthy dose of excitement.
This time? It all felt different.
Maybe it was because once Breslow started his 25-minute get-together with the local Red Sox media, the curtains were drawn, immediately eliminating a pretty good view of the A's new ballpark (or at least what had been erected to date). But more likely the lack of electricity stemmed from all the uncertainty. The uncertainty regarding his current roster. And, of course, the uncertainty that waits at the end of November thanks to an impending lockout.
"I certainly understand the question, but don't have a great sense for how 29 other teams are going to act," said Breslow, when the subject was how he was approaching what might be a very different offseason due to a work stoppage. "We would always like to identify the players that can help us, and try and reach some resolution as quickly as possible. That's not any different. But things sometimes end up dragging out longer than you would expect, whether that's because the markets develop a little bit more slowly or they're incredibly competitive. It's just so hard to try and define timelines."
It is. In fact, it's hard to define a lot of things when it comes to this Red Sox's offseason.
Through all the player updates, player acquisition uncertainty and vague strategies, perhaps the one line offered by Breslow that truly stood out came when talking about possible lessons learned from the postseason runs of Milwaukee and Tampa Bay:
"I think it's important not to draw these absolute conclusions based on maybe one postseason. And also, I think we have to be careful not to chase what has been successful for other organizations," he said. "I think we've got core players that should be part of championship-caliber teams under control for multiple years here in Boston. And our job is to build around them."
In other words, Breslow believes the Red Sox have their base, certainly more than when he sat in that suite a year ago. Does that mean there isn't going be plenty of bobbing and weaving prior to the lockout-induced cliff in early December? Of course not. It's just that there is a feeling emanating from the Sox's front office that the uncertainty of this month isn't necessarily going to lead to the kind of roster shake-ups we witnessed last offseason.
So, what can we expect?
Trying to answer that question through deciphering Breslow's comments Monday afternoon is probably going to be an unsatisfying endeavor:
- They are going to be opportunistic and won't make changes just for the sake of change.
- Breslow is counting on full seasons from Willson Contreras, Curtis Mead and Adley Rutschman. He named Mead, Roman Anthony and Adley as possible "real power" solutions. Because of Wilyer Abreu's ability to hit lefty pitching, there isn't a worry about lefty-righty lineup balance.
- Breslow was far from ready to open up shortstop to a competition between Trevor Story and Franklin Arias, saying he was unwilling to speculate on a possible position change for Story.
"We know what Trevor is capable of doing when he's healthy and performing, this year was disruptive for a number of reasons. Injury, some struggles at times," he said. "I think we're always evaluating these things. We still have a ton of confidence in Trevor, but any decisions like that are going to take place between Trevor and me far before I speak to anything publicly"
- Roman Anthony will not need surgery, who will soon start a hitting progression after resting his injured right hand throughout the past month or so.
- The starting rotation is "in a really good place" and should be a 2027 strength, according to Breslow. He listed Crochet, Payton Tolle, Ranger Suárez, Jake Bennett and a reinvigorated Brayan Bello, with Johan Oviedo, Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck coming back healthy. Tolle, who finished third in the American League Rookie of the Year voting, was specifically singled out as being a "striking success."
- Triston Casas is participating in baseball activities and might play Winter Ball.
- Newly-hired Shelley Duncan will coach either first or third base, with that decision dependent on additional hires.
All of it wasn't exactly the vibe of an organization throwing caution to the wind, feeling like it needs to push even more chips into the middle of the table. There will be those teams heading into December, feeling big moves need to be made prior to MLB shutting down. Texas was that way back in November 2021, signing Corey Seager and Marcus Semien in an effort to energize its fan base before that lockout.
The Red Sox don't feel that desperation. That much was clear on Day 1 of this year's GM Meetings.
