On Wednesday night, news broke that the Red Sox had reportedly agreed to terms with former Astros third baseman Alex Bregman on a three-year, $120 million contract, reuniting the two-time World Series champion with his former bench coach Alex Cora in Boston.
The addition of Bregman is the capper on an offseason that saw the Red Sox front office operate in a way more reminiscent of the early days of John Henry’s ownership, as the team made deals to bring aboard big name starting pitchers Garrett Crochet and Walker Buehler, and were a part of the free agent negotiations for mega star Juan Soto - reportedly offering the now-Met a 15-year deal “in the neighborhood of” $700 million.
They’re not quite the Dodgers, and a flirtation with signing a superstar didn’t exactly make “Truck Day” a place to be seen earlier this month. But it’s signs of life for an ownership group that has now spent half-a-decade more concerned with avoiding the luxury tax than actually fielding a World Series-contending roster on Opening Day.
Bregman, Crochet and Buehler join a roster that went 81-81 in 2024, with almost its entire team returning for 2025. This upcoming season will also mark the Boston-debut of starting pitcher Lucas Giolito, who missed all of 2024 after undergoing successful UCL surgery on his right elbow shortly after signing with the team. Add the possibility of the Red Sox adding three of the top prospects in baseball to their roster at some point this summer, and you have a team with more buzz than its had in years heading into Spring Training in Fort Myers, FL.
But for WEEI’s Jermaine Wiggins, it goes beyond buzz.
“There’s been a shift in the hierarchy of teams getting close to the championship,” said Wiggy on Thursday’s edition of The Greg Hill Show. “And because, obviously, the addition of what the Red Sox have been able to do this offseason puts them second when it comes to ‘closest teams to being back in the hunt for a championship.’
“We obviously know that the Celtics - they’ve been there, done that, and they’re right back in the mix. But now it looks like the Red Sox, I would say, are the second team closest to a ’ship. Let’s see what the Patriots do this offseason - you guys are on the clock. The Bruins, I feel like they might be on the bottom right now, because I don’t know what direction they’re going. I feel like, at least the Patriots coaching-wise kind of made the direction of -”
“They upgraded at coach, they clearly upgraded at quarterback, when it came to Drake Maye,” WEEI’s Greg Hill interrupted.
“And so, they’re headed in the right direction in the sense of like, ‘Alright, they got the coach and they got the quarterback,’” Wiggy added. “Now, are they gonna put the pieces around the quarterback?
“So, good for the Red Sox to get back in the mix.”
While the sentiment here from Wiggy isn’t all that crazy, there’s still a lot to unpack.
With the Red Sox missing the playoffs the last three seasons, going a combined 237-249 over that span, it may feel like a bit of a reach to put them just behind the defending NBA champions in that No. 2 slot for championship-readiness in the city.
But when you look at where the Sox sit compared to the rest of the American League combined with their roster upgrades this offseason, on top of the fact that the Bruins have been publicly flirting with the idea of a rebuild after firing head coach Jim Montgomery earlier this season, you can’t help but put the middling baseball team ahead of the middling hockey team in these hypothetical rankings.
Where Wiggy will turn the most heads with his rankings is having the Patriots third and the Bruins fourth.
We all know the story with the team down in Foxborough.
After going 4-13 in 2023, the Patriots mutually parted ways with Bill Belichick in favor of hiring inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo as their next head coach.
After picking Maye third overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Patriots proceeded to have another 4-13 season. This time around, it felt more painful, as they controlled their own destiny for the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft heading into Week 18. Ultimately, they beat the Bills 23-16, falling to the No. 4 pick and inevitably leading to Mayo’s firing.
Despite the obvious mess at 1 Patriot Place, there’s optimism surrounding the team.
After firing Mayo, the Kraft family moved quickly to hire 2021 NFL Coach of the Year Mike Vrabel as their 16th head coach in franchise history. In the span of a week, the reins of the team were handed over to a proven commodity in the coaching ranks, with fans and media alike expecting a newfound culture of professionalism to follow.
In addition to the upgrade at head coach, the team is sporting an NFL-leading $123 million in cap space, with reports surfacing this week of intentions to sign top-free agent wide receiver Tee Higgins. Add in the trade rumors linking the Patriots to Pro Bowlers Deebo Samuel, Cooper Kupp and Myles Garrett, and we could see this team undergo a full facelift overnight.
Plus, there’s the specter of drafting a stud in the first round for a third consecutive season, with Maye making the Pro Bowl as a rookie and cornerback Christian Gonzalez being named an All-Pro in year two.
So while the football team has had two consecutive seasons picking in the top five of its league’s draft, there’s a handful of factors that point the team’s arrow in the right direction.
The hockey team, on the other hand, has suffered devastating playoff losses in consecutive seasons to the Florida Panthers - seasons in which the team had 135 points and 109 points, respectively.
The record-setting 135-point season came in 2023, with the Bruins losing in seven games to Florida after leading the series 3-1.
The 109-point season came in 2024, with the Bruins losing in the second-round in a six-game series, losing 2-1 at home in game six to the eventual Stanley Cup champions.
That sluggish effort against Florida in the postseason carried over to start the 2024-25 season, as the team started the year 8-9-3 under Montgomery. By mid-November, Bruins brass had seen enough, and the lame duck head coach was fired early into his third season at the helm.
To make matters worse, former Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy won the Stanley Cup in his first season away from the team, forcing everyone to wonder where this franchise would be if they hadn’t made a change on the bench.
So even with all the recent regular season success of the Bruins, Wiggy’s assertion that they’re sitting in fourth place in his hypothetical rankings is almost inarguable.
One thing that’s indisputably inarguable:
Baseball season in Boston just got a lot more interesting, and we’ll have every second of it right here on 93.7 WEEI.
UPDATE - On Saturday morning, the Red Sox officially announced the signing of Bregman in a press release.