After a late push this past season, the Red Sox were close to contending. But as their starting pitching situation continued to spiral out of control, they came five games short of cracking the Wild Card berth. Boston finished the 2024 season with an 81-81 record, good enough for third in the AL East. Now, president of baseball operations Craig Breslow is targeting the one man who could fundamentally change their lineup. That man of course would be Juan Soto.
And while Soto makes perfect sense for the Red Sox (there isn’t really a team he absolutely doesn’t make sense for), the contest for Soto is heated. At the same time, the BoSox have several problems that need to be resolved. Breslow will need to balance his Soto pursuit while filling these holes. Meanwhile, as this balancing act plays out, his pursuit of Garrett Crochet, which would work to solve Boston’s starting rotation woes and most notably their biggest problem, has reportedly hit a road bump amid growing competition. Where can Breslow look to find some budget players that won’t compromise his Soto pursuit?
I understand that Soto is far from a lock for Boston. So, just in case Soto doesn’t sign with the Red Sox, I made an ‘honorable mentions’ list of players the Red Sox can pursue with the monetary savings and the pedal-to-the-metal mentality.
3. Nathan Eovaldi
The name “Nathan Eovaldi” should be familiar to all Red Sox loyalists. But it’s not so much the gems he spun in the postseason that made him an unforgettable hurler to all Bostonians. Rather it was a six-inning relief appearance he made in the World Series, carrying the Red Sox deep into extra innings that resulted in him taking the loss against the Dodgers. Even with the loss hanging over his head, that late night/early morning created a Red Sox legend.
Since winning that World Series in 2018, Eovaldi has added another ring to his collection, this time with the Texas Rangers in 2023. This past season, he finished with a satisfactory 3.80 ERA and 166 strikeouts through 170.2 innings. His 3.80 ERA might not be the stellar performance Boston fans are hoping to get from a new starter, but Eovaldi’s performance in 2024 topped all but one Red Sox starter, that being Tanner Houck.
However, there is an equally compelling reason to sign Eovaldi besides stabilizing their fractured rotation. Eovaldi maintains a remarkable 3.05 postseason ERA with 82 strikeouts throughout 79.2 innings. If it’s postseason excellence the Red Sox want, it’s hard to do better than Eovaldi. Going into his age-35 season, the aging postseason hero is predicted to sign a deal worth $44 million according to Anthony Franco, Tim Dierkes, Darragh McDonald, and Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors.
2. Shane Bieber
This offseason, teams have a chance at signing a relatively young triple-crown winner at a shockingly modest price. That triple crown winner would be Shane Bieber. Bieber is coming off another season derailed by a repetitive series of injuries. In 2024, Bieber only pitched two games before an elbow injury sidelined him for the rest of the year. However, in those two games, he threw 12 scoreless innings proving his talent is still there.
In his last full season (in 2022), Bieber posted a 2.88 ERA with 198 strikeouts through 200 innings pitched. He also finished that season with a Gold Glove. While great, it doesn’t compare to his Cy Young year in 2020, when he put up a 1.63 ERA with 122 strikeouts through only 77.1 innings.
Since Bieber is a high injury risk and hasn’t quite pitched a qualifying number of innings for the past two seasons combined, he will come at a great value. He is expected to make $12 million next season according to MLB Trade Rumors. If he can turn it around and stay healthy, the team that takes a chance on him may receive a dominant ace for a low price.
1. Hyeseong Kim
Newly posted Korean star, Hyeseong Kim (not to be confused with his former teammate now in the MLB Ha-Seong Kim), makes perfect sense for any team in search of a great infielder on a budget. In 2024, Kim slashed .326/.383/.458/.841 with a career-high 11 home runs. Over that stretch, he collected 166 hits with only 62 strikeouts. But this wasn’t even his best performance. In 2023, he hit for a career-high .335 batting average. Kim has posted averages higher than .300 and on-base percentages upwards of .370 for each of the past four seasons.
With his glove, Kim is second to none in South Korea. He has won the past three KBO Golden Gloves (with 2024’s winners yet to be determined). While he is mainly known for his spectacular defense and his pure-hitting prowess, his speed does not lag by any measure. His stolen base record over the past seven years stands at 211 stolen bases in just 248 attempts.
As of now, we can only speculate how Kim will perform on an MLB team. He won’t be a staunch power hitter, but at a minimum, the team that signs him will receive a potential Gold Glove middle-infielder with excellent speed. And while we can dismiss his high batting averages as a stat that will surely plummet in America, it may be a mistake to underestimate his contact-hitting abilities.
Honorable mentions if Soto doesn’t head to Beantown: Max Fried, Willy Adames, Teoscar Hernandez
2. Gleyber Torres
There is nothing like the allure of taking your most hated rival’s castoff and using him effectively against them, but this may not be the best idea. In this case, we’re talking about Gleyber Torres. Torres started the 2024 season mired in the worst slump of his career. However, his bat came around in the second half and he continued to perform admirably deep into the postseason. Torres finished the season with a slash line of .257/.330/.378/.709 with 15 home runs in 587 at-bats.
But while his bat came around, his glove didn’t quite recover. Baseball Savant ranks him 211th of 274 in outs above average with a value of -4 while FanGraphs ranks him 107th of 112 in defensive runs saved with minus-11. Torres committed 18 errors, sixth most in the MLB during the 2024 season. Throughout his career, he has often fielded second base nonchalantly with a visible lack of effort on routine plays.
Torres’ early years and even his decent 2023 season are very compelling, but his inconsistency and poor fielding are very off-putting. At this point, there is no reason to believe he can repeat his brilliant 2019 performance. With that said, it is best to pass on Torres at the moment.
1. Nick Pivetta
Nick Pivetta has been with the Red Sox since being traded by the Phillies in 2020. While he’s had his moments, he has never posted an ERA below 4.04 in his eight-year career. This past year, Pivetta posted a 4.14 ERA with 172 strikeouts through 145.2 innings. He has shown across several seasons that he can be a strikeout pitcher, but the results still aren’t satisfactory. And while a few metrics are pointing in the right direction for the past couple of years such as his hard-hit rate, walk rate, and strikeout rate, there is another reason to pass on him.
The Red Sox offered him a qualifying offer which he turned down. If he had accepted, Pivetta would have made over $21 million next season, almost three times more than his salary in 2024 and much more than a starter who has never pitched to a sub-4.00 ERA usually receives for one year’s work. In all appearances, Pivetta is chasing after a more lucrative, longer-term deal. Then there is also the matter of a draft pick which would have been lost if Pivetta accepted and can still be lost if he re-signs. Losing a draft pick to overpay Pivetta doesn’t seem like the smartest move for a rotation in disrepair.
If the Red Sox are truly going to improve their rotation in a frugal and cost-efficient manner, it should start with letting Pivetta go. Perhaps he will find greener pastures beyond Fenway that can hopefully breathe new life into his career.
