Since signing J.D. Martinez to a five-year deal in 2017 in the wake of insanely hot stretch of two months for the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Boston Red Sox sat back and watched other teams make large expenditures for free agents.

It is a strategy that has netted one 11-game playoff run in 2021, one other season of 84 wins in 2019 as defending World Championships, consecutive 78-84 finishes and an 81-81 record last season with a young core surrounding Rafael Devers, who was signed to an 11-year, $331 million deal following the 2022 season.

The Red Sox made smaller free agency moves in adding the likes of Trevor Story, Justin Turner, Hunter Renfroe, Martin Perez, Michael Wacha, James Paxton, but none that would necessarily move the needle.

After playing last season with a $190 million payroll, the Red Sox are reportedly amongst the teams meeting with Juan Soto, who last was heard from in a public setting at around 1:15 am on Oct. 31 inside a crowded Yankee clubhouse talking about his free agency in generalities such “I will listen to any team interested”.

It was hardly tipping his hand and a smart strategy for any free agent especially one of Soto’s stature. Soto is a free agent following his age-25 season – five years younger than Aaron Judge’s free agent campaign which resulted in a $360 million deal. Soto turned about $100 million more from the Washington Nationals shortly before being dealt to the San Diego Padres.

So far, Soto has met with the Red Sox for three hours according to reports out of Boston. In the duration it takes for a typical NFL game to finish, the indications are it was a productive meet and greet session with key players on the Boston side such as team president Sam Kennedy, chairman Tom Werner, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and manager Alex Cora.

The presentation reportedly highlighted the Red Sox history, likely their four titles since losing Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS at Yankee Stadium. It reportedly highlighted some recent history with Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, fellow Dominicans who enjoyed tremendous success with the Red Sox.

It was a feeling out thing just like what the Mets reportedly did on Saturday and what the Yankees will be involved with this week with their contingent that includes manager Aaron Boone after his option for 2025 was picked up. It was similar to what the Blue Jays did a year after thinking they were close to getting Shohei Ohtani only to see him sign a massively deferred $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Perhaps the fact that the Red Sox are amongst the meeting partners of Soto and agent Scott Boras indicates some newfound aggressiveness. At least it is the perception based on comments of others, including Liam Hendriks, who went on the “Foul Territory show” and indicated that fact by saying:

“From all I know, we’re going full metal and hopefully, we can make those big moves and big splashy moves,” Because it’s the AL East. It’s not exactly a division where you can just kind of coast by.”

Soto is a free agent at the same point as Manny Machado and Bryce Harper were following the 2018 season as well as Alex Rodriguez following the 2000 season. Harper and Machado signed deals with the Philadelphia Phillies and Padres respectively that were in the 300 million range and the baseball world expects the outlay for Soto to be double if not more than those figures.

“You look at it from a roster breakdown point of view, does it make the most sense,?” Hendriks said on the show. “No. But how many times does a guy of Juan Soto’s caliber – at his age – come up on the free agent market? And when you’ve got pockets enough to be able to delve into it, you may as well check it out,”

Hendriks’ final point is accurate and it seems the Red Sox may be doing slightly beyond due diligence with Soto. Whether the meeting turns into adding a generational slugger is unknown and whether it turns into the Red Sox making noise on the free agent market is unclear until they actually sign someone prominent.

So far, the Soto sweepstakes in the preliminaries and will likely heat up at next month’s Winter Meetings at about the same time the Yankees acquired him from the Padres in a seven-player deal. Until then morsels of details about meetings with trickle out with the internet trying to grasp if there is any meaning to them.