Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom congratulates players after Boston defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Division Series in October. Charles Krupa/Associated Press
Major League Baseball owners and players are meeting this week in Florida. The sides have vowed to meet daily, showing the urgency fans have been waiting for since Commissioner Rob Manfred announced a lockout of players on Dec. 2.
With any luck, the two sides will come to an agreement in the coming days. Doing so should give everyone enough time to get a month of spring training in before the regular seasons starts on time.
If that happens, when the lockout is lifted, there will be a mad scramble as teams make offers to the hundreds of free agents who have been frozen in place since the lockout was instituted. There will be trades as teams address the needs they’ve been unable to address for more than two months.
It should be wildly entertaining. And the Boston Red Sox should be in the middle of it all.
The team that came within two wins of an American League pennant and a World Series appearance in October has some holes to fill. Like every other team, the Red Sox are an unfinished product.
Kyle Schwarber, who led the team with a .957 OPS after he was acquired by Boston before the trade deadline, remains an unsigned free agent. Eduardo Rodriguez, the durable starter who threw 157 2/3 innings last season and was second only to Nathan Eovaldi, is now a Detroit Tiger.
Does Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom need to replace both?
Bringing Schwarber back won’t be easy, even though he quickly became a favorite of fans and teammates in his three months with Boston. He’ll command top dollar on the frenzied free-agent market, and will fit in best as a designated hitter.
The Sox already have a DH, with J.D. Martinez coming back for the final season of his contract. And with the National League expected to add the DH, there will be a robust market for Schwarber’s bat. The Sox could always trade Martinez and sign Schwarber, but it would be much simpler for any team to fill its DH void by signing Schwarber.
Schwarber can also play the outfield, but the Sox could be very deep there with Jackie Bradley Jr. back to join Kiké Hernández and Alex Verdugo. Additionally, there have been numerous reports that Japanese star Seiya Suzuki, a free agent expected to sign an MLB deal, is leaning toward Boston.
On the pitching side, the Red Sox already signed two potential starters before the lockout. Rich Hill actually threw more innings than Rodriguez last season and had a lower ERA. Michael Wacha struggled with an 5.05 ERA but made adjustments late in the season and finished with back-to-back scoreless starts against the Houston Astros and New York Yankees.
That success didn’t carry into the playoffs. The Sox scored six runs off of Wacha in 2 2/3 innings of relief in Game 2 of the American League Division Series.
Nick Pivetta, Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock could all factor into the starting rotation, along with Eovaldi and Chris Sale. Pivetta is the only one who started throughout the season in 2021. Alex Cora could improve his bullpen significantly if Bloom could find one more starter and leave Houck and Whitlock in relief roles.
There are a few free agents available who could fill Boston’s needs, but this is an area that might be best addressed through a trade. Bloom has replenished the minor-league pipeline and could now make a trade without wiping out the farm system. There undoubtedly will be teams looking to slash payroll pending the new financial structure of the game’s collective bargaining agreement. And Bloom will be ready to pounce if the right pitcher can be acquired.
Let’s hope he gets the chance soon. March is a week away.
Tom Caron is a studio host for Red Sox broadcasts on NESN. His column runs on Tuesdays in the Portland Press Herald.
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