Boston Red Sox Manager Alex Cora takes the ball from starting pitcher Corey Kluber during a game on May 21 in San Diego. Boston starters threw the second-fewest innings of any American League team in 2023. Brandon Sloter/Associated Press
We’re one week into the offseason for the Boston Red Sox. Not a long time, but long enough to look back on the lost season of 2023 and the hope of 2024 with a little clarity.
Here are a few thoughts that should be on every Sox fan’s mind as we enter a winter of change:
• The Red Sox need to spend on pitching. Starting pitching, to be exact. If only one thing changes in 2024 it will have to be longer starts from the rotation. Red Sox starters averaged only 4.78 innings this season, second worst in the American League. No bullpen is built to throw more than four innings a game through an entire season, and that’s what Manager Alex Cora asked his relievers to do in 2023.
• More than one thing needs to change for 2024. Right behind the need for more dependable starters is the need for adequate defense. The Red Sox didn’t get it in 2023. Not close. We can’t help but wonder if a front office that has spent the last few years building up its analytics department has also built a blind spot for defense. The new baseball operations regime will have to improve the organization’s analysis of defense. The Sox tied for the lead in the American League with 102 errors, a number that directly and negatively impacted the rotation’s ability to go deeper into games last season.
• If there was good news for Sox fans in 2023, it was that we didn’t have to spend as much time watching a last-place team. The new pitch timer rule worked exactly as hoped. MLB games averaged 2 hours and 39 minutes this season, a 24-minute reduction from 2022 and a full half hour shorter than in 2021. Games were shorter, the pace was brisker, and the results were felt in increased attendance and ratings around the league.
• Those increases were not as pronounced in Boston. Play as fast as you want, but if you’re not playing well you won’t win over fans around here.
• Alex Verdugo is entering the final year of his contract with the Red Sox. MLB Trade Rumors predicts he will make $9.2 million in arbitration, an increase of more than 25% from his 2023 salary. The Sox have three options with Verdugo: sign him to a long-term deal, let him play for his arbitration salary and see if a salary drive motivates him, or trade him (now or at the in-season deadline.)
Verdugo was one of the most frustrating players to watch this season. He was Boston’s most consistent defensive player through the year, but had mental lapses that popped up at random times and in random facets of the game. Cora had to bench him for disciplinary reasons twice this year. Hard to imagine Cora will be on board with giving him the security of a megadeal this offseason.
• It certainly seems like Cora will have plenty of say in what the team does, or doesn’t do, this winter. He made it clear he will be back next season. More importantly, team President and CEO Sam Kennedy agreed. Cora also said he will be part of the process in finding the next person to run the team’s baseball operations.
• Much has been made about Cora’s security for the coming year, even after the firing of Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom. Yet it’s pretty common for companies to use management in the hiring process for a new top executive. Cora, however, only has one year remaining on his contract. It will be interesting to see if his new boss offers him an extension.
• Kennedy made it clear during an appearance with me on NESN last week that he will be speaking to internal candidates about the job. Eddie Romero, Jr. would be an obvious place to start. Romero is one of three remaining assistant GM’s and has been with the club since 2006. He could be the perfect blend of old-school scouting and new-school analytics.
• There would be no quicker way to spark interest in the club than by signing Shohei Ohtani to a long-term deal. It might not be the smartest baseball move – the 2024 Sox need pitching and Ohtani won’t pitch again until 2025 at the earliest – but there’s no denying Ohtani would put the sizzle back into the brand. The smart play might be to go address the pitching issues first, then see if Ohtani is still available and willing to talk.
• Of course, the Red Sox need a new baseball leader before getting into any of that. The GM meetings are less than a month away, and the clock is ticking on Kennedy. It will be the most important move the team makes this offseason.
At least until they sign Ohtani.
Tom Caron is a studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN. His column appears in the Portland Press Herald on Tuesdays.
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