Red Sox Pushed to Target $199.9 Million Southpaw Ace to Support Garret Crochet

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Garrett Crochet of the Boston Red Sox shakes hands with manager Alex Cora.

Based on comments coming from chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, the Boston Red Sox will be hitting the market hard in a search for starting pitching this offseason. Before the 2025 season, Breslow pulled off a blockbuster deal that brought lefty ace Garrett Crochet to Fenway Park — a move that was arguably the most important single factor in getting the Red Sox back to the postseason for the first time since 2021.

But with a third-place finish in the American League East, and an early playoff exit in the Wild Card round, it was clear that Crochet alone is not enough to turn Boston into a serious World Series contender. At minimum, the Red Sox need a genuine No. 2 starter to support their ace, take additional innings from the bullpen, and provide greater consistency in the starting rotation.

A wide range of names have already come up in trade rumors and speculation, from the Cincinnati Reds’ Hunter Greene, to Seattle Mariners ace Luis Castillo, to Tarik Skubal, the reigning AL CY Young winner and potential frontrunner to win a second one.

Free Agent Signing Would Save Player Assets

All of those possible candidates for acquisition, however, would need to arrive via the trade route. The Red Sox would need to surrender core players from their Major League team or highly-ranked prospects to get any of them. Likely both.

But there is another route that Breslow could take, according to Gabby Maljanian — host of the Locked on Red Sox podcast — and that is to sign a free agent pitcher qualified to serve as the second-best starter in the 2026 Boston rotation.

A free agent acquisition would allow the Red Sox to hold on to their player assets, possibly for use in another trade for pitching later in the offseason.

Astros Ace Brings Postseason Experience

So, who does Maljanian believe hat Breslow should be targeting?

“Houston Astros pitcher Framber Valdez could be the right answer for the Boston Red Sox. He’s a top tier arm that could help stabilize the starting rotation,” Maljanian said on the Tuesday Locked on podcast. “Left-handed pitcher who made $18 million this season and he’s projected to be one of the biggest names on the free agent market this season.”

According to the sports business site Spotrac, a market value contract for the 32-year-old southpaw would come in at six years for $199.9 million. Whether the Red Sox, who have been historically reluctant to invest long term in pitchers, would be willing to offer a deal in that neighborhood is certainly open to question.

Nonetheless, Maljanian notes, Valdez is “a two-time all-star known for his elite ground ball pitching and consistency in big moments. You want the guys who, you know, can pitch well in big moments, especially because this Red Sox team is hopefully going to be looking to make a deeper playoff push in 2026. So, that’s a good quality for him to have.”

Second-Half Collapse a Red Flag?

Valdez, pitching his eighth season in 2025, suffered a significant fall-off in effectiveness as the season wore on. His monthly ERA numbers of a sterling 1,74 in June and 2.16 in July gave way to a 5.64 number in August and a disastrous 6.51 in September when Valdez allowed six home runs in 27 2/3 innings — more than one every five innings.

“That second part of the season there after the trade deadline, should we be concerned about getting that version of him? Possibly,” Maljanian admitted. “But despite the meltdown that he had late in the year, his numbers in general still remain impressive because his ability to command innings and keep runs in check has made him one of the most reliable arms in baseball. And the Red Sox do need reliability.”

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin