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Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox

Time is running out for the Boston Red Sox to complete what their fans and local media would see as a successful offseason. With 37 days until the start of Spring Training, and 80 until Major League Baseball’s official Opening Day, Boston still has not, as one Red Sox blogger put it, “gone for the jugular.”

“The Red Sox have had a good offseason so far. As currently comprised and with full health they are at worst a playoff spot contender,” wrote Jake O’Donnell of the Pesky Report podcast and Beyond the Monster blog. “The problem is, I think, the American League as a whole has gotten demonstrably worse and the Red Sox could really seize the moment but they haven’t gone for the jugular — yet.”

Longtime Red Sox beat writer and columnist Sean McAdam echoed those sentiments, writing in a Sunday MassLive column that the Red Sox are presented with a rare opportunity in the AL, if they just decide to go for it.

“All around the American League, there’s been regression this winter,” McAdam wrote. “The Yankees lost Juan Soto, arguably the best hitter in the game. The Baltimore Orioles lost Corbin Burnes. The Toronto Blue Jays haven’t improved a bit. The Houston Astros appear poised to do without Alex Bregman.”

Red Sox Have Done Nothing to Fill Righty Bat Gap

At the same time, the Red Sox have yet to address one glaring need identified by chief of baseball operations Craig Breslow himself — a right-handed bat.

Breslow has said that the Red Sox are willing to get “uncomfortable” in order to improve the team — meaning making financial commitments to players that may seem like overpayments — but so far this offseason they have not ventured far out of their comfort zone. As one local Boston columnist put it, “the Red Sox lead the world in reasons to say no.”

To acquire a right-handed hitter who would help, in Breslow’s phrase, to “balance” Boston’s heavily left-handed lineup, most attention has been focused in recent days on Houston Astros free agent Alex Bregman. But what if the Red Sox don’t land Bregman? Here is one perhaps more comfortable right-handed alternative.

One Year of Starling Marte Could be Boston’s Solution

If the Red Sox are averse to long-term financial commitments, according to Empire Sports Media the New York Mets are looking to “salary dump” their 36-year-old outfielder Starling Marte. The 13-year veteran has struggled with injuries, but has only one year remaining on his four-year, $78 million contract with the Mets — and the Red Sox may not even need to pay the entire $20.75 million he is owed for 2025.

“He is quite expensive and injury-prone (he has missed 144 contests in the last two years alone) for a 36-year-old outfielder, but there is still talent on his bat and legs,” wrote Andres Chavez of Empire Sports. “The Mets might have to pay most of his salary to net a solid reliever or a B-level prospect for Marte.”

As recently as 2022 the former Pittsburgh Pirate posted a solid .814 OPS with 16 home runs while stealing 18 bases. Would the Red Sox be willing to part with a “B-level” prospect to get Marte, if they were on the hook for only about half of his $20.75 million paycheck with no obligations beyond 2025?

On the pitching side, they took a similar approach with Aroldis Chapman, shelling out a $10.75 million one-year deal for the 36-year-old fireballer. If the need for a right-handed bat is as pressing as Breslow has said it is, the Red Sox may work a similar deal, albeit with a lower-level prospect involved, to bring Marte to Fenway.

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. Vankin is also the author of five nonfiction books on a variety of topics, as well as nine graphic novels including most recently “Last of the Gladiators” published by Dynamite Entertainment. More about Jonathan Vankin