The Boston Red Sox are in a division where you have no chance of keeping up if you did not add in the offseason. After the New York Yankees traded to acquire Juan Soto and the Baltimore Orioles added Corbin Burns to their rotation, you had to believe the Red Sox would do everything possible to get out of the AL East basement.
They added Lucas Giolito to their rotation, but that was short-lived, as he now faces season-ending surgery. They made a trade to acquire the young second baseman Vaughn Grissom, but that was at the expense of surrendering Chris Sale. Trading Sale did open some space on their payroll, but they did not use it for anything.
Outfielder Tyler O’Neil, pitcher Isiah Campbell, and reliever Liam Hendriks rounded out the Red Sox’s key additions during the offseason. Still, many fans know that is not enough to do anything with. The national writers aren’t much impressed either.
David Schoenfield of ESPN graded all 30 MLB teams’ offseasons (Subscription Required). Rightfully so, he gave the Red Sox a big fat F for their efforts. As Schoenfield points out, minority owner Tom Werner started the offseason exclaiming that the team would do whatever it takes to be back on top. He then turned right around and did very close to nothing.
The Sox fell short in their public pursuit of Yoshinoby Yamamoto. Everything after that was seemingly all talk and no action. They could still show signs of life by signing one of the two big free agents left on the market: pitchers Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell. That would repair some of the damage, but doing nothing would only worsen it.
Red Sox fans are livid, as they should be. Players have expressed their frustrations with the lack of moves as well. Rafael Devers just signed a lengthy extension to stay in Boston for the foreseeable future. If they’re not careful, they may force him to request out. If that happened, the whole organization might implode.
The Red Sox need to make some more additions to give them a better shot of making the postseason. According to FanDuel Sportsbook, they are +1600 underdogs to win the AL East. If you want to take lock-in of these odds, head over to FanDuel Sportsbook and claim your sign-up bonus.