Committing to the bit is often better than half-assing, and right now the Boston Red Sox have yet to fully commit to themselves and to making it to the 2025 postseason.
Going into the offseason, the Sox had a clear picture of what they needed to do to fix the team. Owner John Henry and Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow have addressed a few items, but they haven’t executed moves boldly and confidently, or in a manner that screams playoff-bound. Instead of taking a bright marker to their to-do list, they’ve lightly applied a thin pencil line through each task.
Boston’s budget is a perfect example of them not going full-throttle to improve the team. The Sox knew they needed to add pitchers and a couple of righty sluggers, which should’ve cost them at least $100 million. Instead of closing multi-year contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, as every other big-market team in the league did, the Sox settled for short-term deals worth less than $80 million.
Alex Bregman is the only free agent the Sox signed that has a deferred contract structure, with half of his $120 million annual salary over three years deferred. While it might not make sense to offer deferred contracts to Walker Buehler and Patrick Sandoval, the Sox could’ve easily extended deferred contracts to high-caliber free agents to attract more talent.
Though the Sox should get credit for at least trying to go after a few aces, the result is the only thing that matters at the end of the day. Boston can spend, but instead, they’ve left too much money on the table.
Not committing to dramatic improvements to the team has been Red Sox’s biggest error this offseason
Another instance of the Sox not going all-in is the level of new talent they acquired, which goes hand-in-hand with their unexceptional spending. After Bregman, Garrett Crochet, and Buehler, who are the best players the Sox added in the offseason, the skill drops off. Aroldis Chapman is a controversial figure, to say the least, and Sandoval has a host of command issues. Although the Sox didn’t sign anyone who hasn’t shown they have enough skills to augment the team, gaining Bregman should’ve been the start, not the end, of their offseason splurge.
The Sox have played it too safe and haven’t taken enough risks. It’s almost as if they’re scared of becoming too dangerous. The Sox are fortunate to land Bregman, but they could’ve been more aggressive earlier in the offseason to acquire big names.
The money is there, but the effort isn’t. Come on, Boston, commit to playing in October.
