The Boston Red Sox front office has signaled a commitment to reinforce one particular area of the roster.
Speaking to the Boston Globe's Alex Speier, the team's chief baseball officer Craig Breslow noted that his pitching staff needs an additional frontline starter.
"We know we need to raise the ceiling of the rotation," Breslow said. "I think there are a lot of ways to do that, but we're going to be really, really open-minded."
Of course, a definitive way to raise that ceiling would be to sign one of the free-agent market's most accomplished arms. And Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report has predicted that the Red Sox will do just that by giving Blake Snell a five-year, $158 million deal this offseason.
Coming off of his second-career Cy Young Award win and an All-MLB First Team selection for the 2023 campaign, Snell had trouble finding a long-term deal in free agency last winter and ultimately signed a short-term contract with the San Francisco Giants. Now he's declined his $30 million player option for 2025 to test the market again and the Red Sox could be the team to land him with a blockbuster offer.
"He rebounded from a difficult first half this past season with the Giants to perform like one of the best pitchers in baseball after the All-Star break, posting a 1.45 ERA across 12 starts in the second half of the season," Kelly noted of Snell. "And unlike last year, there's no qualifying offer attached to Snell, so any team that signs him wouldn't have to give up draft compensation."
Snell has rarely racked up a high volume of innings in his nine-year big-league career, but he has made at least 20 starts in the last four consecutive seasons. He would instantly become the Red Sox staff ace, joining Lucas Giolito and perhaps Nick Pivetta as veteran arms alongside Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Brayan Bello and Garrett Whitlock, depending on how the team's offseason shakes out.
If the Red Sox are looking to take another step toward postseason contention with their core of prospects intact, a blockbuster free-agent signing might be the right move. And granting Snell the long-term deal he's been searching for would certainly raise the ceiling for the team's rotation in 2025.
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