The Boston Red Sox aren’t shying away at all with the hot stove about to heat up across Major League Baseball.

Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow spoke to the media on Monday with the General Manager Meetings beginning and made his priorities clear. Boston was a No. 2 starting pitcher and a slugger and isn’t afraid of anyone knowing that.

“Because of the depth that we’ve built up over the last couple of years, we feel pretty good about just overall starting pitching and numbers 3-ish through 10-ish (on the depth chart),” Breslow said, as transcribed by The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey. “That’s not to take away from guys who are certainly capable of doing more — but I don’t think we’re going to spend a ton of time trying to add a No. 4 or No. 5 starter. If we’re going to make a starting pitching addition, I think it should be somebody who can pitch at the front of a rotation and start a playoff game for us…

“Because of the depth that we’ve built up over the last couple of years, we feel pretty good about just overall starting pitching and numbers 3-ish through 10-ish (on the depth chart),” Breslow said. “That’s not to take away from guys who are certainly capable of doing more — but I don’t think we’re going to spend a ton of time trying to add a No. 4 or No. 5 starter. If we’re going to make a starting pitching addition, I think it should be somebody who can pitch at the front of a rotation and start a playoff game for us.”

It certainly sounds like Boston wants a starter and Breslow’s comments make it sound like the team isn’t afraid to spend on one in free agency, as he acknowledged that the farm system took a hit to acquire Garrett Crochet.

The Red Sox want to add

That’s not all, though. Breslow’s comments were equally as clear when it came to adding some pop to the order.

“I think someone who is a threat who can hit in the middle of the order, can lengthen our lineup, is going to be something we’re going to pursue,” Breslow said. “That is absolutely a path to improving our team.

“I don’t want to get so anchored to this idea that the only way to score runs is home runs; we showed that isn’t the case,” he said. “That said, a disproportionate number of runs in the postseason are scored via the home run, and that’s not something that we can ignore. And there’s just something about an at-bat in the middle of the lineup that forces another team to game plan against it, that I think has a compounding effect on the rest of the roster. We didn’t slug nearly as much as I think we can or we will, and we’ll pursue opportunities to improve that.”

What makes these comments stand out so much is the fact that Breslow was very candid. Breslow could’ve danced around the ideas and said the Red Sox were just looking around, but he specifically made it clear that they are looking to move the needle and that a No. 4 or No. 5 starter wouldn’t do that.

If you’re a Red Sox fan, getting these types of messages early in the offseason is a good sign for moves to come.

More MLB: Rival Executives ‘Monitoring’ Potentially Explosive Red Sox Reunion