{"id":29765,"date":"2025-01-28T10:58:05","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T10:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765"},"modified":"2025-01-28T10:58:05","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T10:58:05","slug":"espn-insider-has-overly-optimistic-assessment-of-red-sox-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765","title":{"rendered":"ESPN insider has overly optimistic assessment of Red Sox offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\">ESPN MLB insider Buster Olney is among the few baseball analysts commending the Boston Red Sox on their offseason moves.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\">The Sox have been the talk of the town lately, and not in a positive way. Between Alex Bregman free agency rumors dominating MLB drama and writers critiquing their precarious acquisitions, Boston has faced plenty of negative press despite its busy offseason. Until now, the Sox have been afforded little credit for doing what they were supposed to do.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\">Olney highly praised the Sox for their recent offseason adjustments, and he ranked them the second most-improved team behind the Reds (subscription required).<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\">\u201cBoston won the Garrett Crochet sweepstakes, making a deal with the Chicago White Sox for the power lefty, and then signed free agent Walker Buehler. Those additions thickened Boston&#8217;s rotation, which also includes Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello, and Kutter Crawford,&#8221; he wrote.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"inline-text-4\">Buster Onley ranks the Red Sox as second-most improved team this offseason despite no offensive additions<\/h2>\n<figure>\n<blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">This could be a sticking point in contract talks between free agent third baseman Alex Bregman and the Boston Red Sox. https:\/\/t.co\/zQLAB3RM2X<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NESN (@NESN) January 26, 2025<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\">While he\u2019s not wrong, Olney fails to see the Sox\u2019s improvement for what it is: heavily focused on its pitching and not on its lineup. With a rotation loaded with depth, the Red Sox are undoubtedly better in the pitching department. However, their lineup has a ways to go.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\">They still have their lefty-heavy lineup but now they don\u2019t have Tyler O\u2019Neill\u2019s powerful righty swing and Gold Glove defense. Trading away top prospects Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery also drained potential depth Boston likely would\u2019ve leveraged come July and August.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\">Additionally, the Sox\u2019s bullpen hardly changed. The Sox sent Cam Booser, who impressively held a 3.38 ERA and 1.34 WHIP in his first MLB season, to Chicago. They also welcomed Aroldis Chapman, who isn\u2019t the elite closer he was with the Yankees and Reds years ago, and Justin Wilson, who\u2019s had a volatile last five years. Though Garrett Whitlock is expected to move to the bullpen this year and Liam Hendricks is returning from Tommy John surgery, there\u2019s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the bullpen\u2019s advancement.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\">Olney\u2019s applause is premature and overzealous. While speculations about Sox signings and trades this offseason may have gotten overambitious given Boston\u2019s spending habits in the last few years, it\u2019s hard to say that the organization will do markedly better than 81-81, its 2024 record. The roster is by no means transformed, and it\u2019s not unlikely that the Sox don\u2019t see the best of Crochet, Buehler, Patrick Sandoval, and Lucas Giolito in their (hopefully) first full years at Fenway Park.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\">While there\u2019s still plenty of hope and optimism for the Sox to win a few more games than last year, the Sox still need to prove that talent on paper translates to the field.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"inline-text-11\">More Red Sox reads:<\/h2>\n<figure><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Buster Olney is among the few baseball analysts commending the Red Sox on their offseason. The Sox have been the talk of the town lately, and not in a positive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":29766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ESPN insider has overly optimistic assessment of Red Sox offseason - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ESPN insider has overly optimistic assessment of Red Sox offseason - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Buster Olney is among the few baseball analysts commending the Red Sox on their offseason. The Sox have been the talk of the town lately, and not in a positive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-28T10:58:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/avtvip-2025-01-28T175727.187.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765\",\"name\":\"ESPN insider has overly optimistic assessment of Red Sox offseason - NEWS USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/avtvip-2025-01-28T175727.187.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-28T10:58:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-28T10:58:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/avtvip-2025-01-28T175727.187.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/avtvip-2025-01-28T175727.187.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":900},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ESPN insider has overly optimistic assessment of Red Sox offseason\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"NEWS USA\",\"description\":\"Your Daily Dose of Sports News and Updates\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec\",\"name\":\"MrThanh\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"MrThanh\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?author=6\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"ESPN insider has overly optimistic assessment of Red Sox offseason - NEWS USA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"ESPN insider has overly optimistic assessment of Red Sox offseason - NEWS USA","og_description":"Buster Olney is among the few baseball analysts commending the Red Sox on their offseason. The Sox have been the talk of the town lately, and not in a positive","og_url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765","og_site_name":"NEWS USA","article_published_time":"2025-01-28T10:58:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/avtvip-2025-01-28T175727.187.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"MrThanh","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"MrThanh","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765","name":"ESPN insider has overly optimistic assessment of Red Sox offseason - NEWS USA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/avtvip-2025-01-28T175727.187.jpg","datePublished":"2025-01-28T10:58:05+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-28T10:58:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/avtvip-2025-01-28T175727.187.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/avtvip-2025-01-28T175727.187.jpg","width":900,"height":900},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=29765#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ESPN insider has overly optimistic assessment of Red Sox offseason"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/","name":"NEWS USA","description":"Your Daily Dose of Sports News and Updates","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec","name":"MrThanh","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"MrThanh"},"url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?author=6"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29765"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29767,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29765\/revisions\/29767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}