On New Year's Day 2025, it has been 62 days since the end of the World Series, with 84 days remaining until opening day, March 27. Nonetheless, Jan. 1 is traditionally considered the midway point of the MLB offseason — an offseason the Boston Red Sox began with a promise to their fans.
For the third straight year, the Red Sox failed to finish above .500 in 2024, muddling to an 81-81 finish despite sitting 10 games over the .500 mark at the All-Star break. The team's brass promised they would make the Red Sox, winners of four World Series in the last 21 seasons — more than any other MLB team in that span — competitive again with their offseason moves.
"We intend to invest going forward," team president Sam Kennedy said at the MLB owners meetings in November. "There is an extreme urgency internally to be competing for the American League East Championship and to set ourselves up for a deep postseason run in 2025 without question."
Boston chief of baseball operations Craig Breslow added in early December, "The one thing that I absolutely can affirm is that we will continue to be aggressive in our pursuit of any path to improving our team."
Have the Red Sox brass been "aggressive," acting with "extreme urgency" to improve the team's outlook for the 2025 season? Judging by their ranking in the free agent market, the answer appears to be, "sort of."
MLB Trade Rumors released its offseason midpoint free agent spending rankings on Wednesday, and the Red Sox placed an unimpressive, but not completely disastrous, 11th out of the 30 MLB teams.
By MLB Trade Rumors' calculations, the Red Sox have committed $52.3 million on four free agents. All are pitchers: three lefties and one right-hander. The righty is former Los Angeles Dodgers starter Walker Buehler, who received the largest free agent deal Boston has handed out this offseason: $21.05 million for one year.
Relievers Aroldis Chapman (one year, $10.75 million) and Justin Wilson (one year, $2.25 million) and starter Patrick Sandoval (two years, $18.25 million), who is still recovering from elbow surgery, round out the Red Sox free agent spending as of New Year's Day.
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The Red Sox's spending so far is only slightly behind what the team spent on free agents in the entire 2023-2024 offseason, when the team shelled out $56.15 million, ranking Boston 12th in MLB.
Even the Athletics, a team that is effectively homeless, now sharing a minor league stadium in West Sacramento, Calif., with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, have committed more free agent dollars than the Red Sox so far, placing ninth at $70.95 million.
Thanks to their massive, $765 million deal to sign Juan Soto, the New York Mets lead the way with $917.25 million. The reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers are in second place at $287 million and the Red Sox divisional arch rivals, the New York Yankees are currently third in MLB, spending $235.5 million, mostly on the eight-year, $218 million contract given to former Atlanta Braves lefty hurler Max Fried.
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