Trading for a frontline starting pitcher in Garrett Crochet hasn’t changed the offseason approach for Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow.
Pitching, both in the rotation and in the bullpen, remains atop the list of priorities for the Red Sox.
Breslow reaffirmed that Tuesday while appearing on MLB Network Radio as he wants to do more to strengthen Boston’s overall pitching staff. He also wouldn’t mind picking up a right-handed bat, something Breslow made his intentions known about before the offseason even started.
But it’s clear, pitching comes first.
“We’ve had a chance to kind of regroup and we recognize that teams that win in the postseason, they pitch,” Breslow said. “The ability to build out both quality and depth in our rotation is something that’s going to serve us well over the season. I think we saw what happened last year when later in the season, our bullpen got tired, we had a couple unfortunate injuries with our rotation. We didn’t quite have the depth built up to step in and replace them. So, that’s a focus of ours. We’ll continue to be aggressive in pursuing starting pitching, but we’ll also start to shift our focus toward continuing to address the bullpen.
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“We obviously lost some really important innings at the back end of games down there, and then also we’ll take a look at trying to balance out the lineup a little bit and potentially do that via the addition of a right-handed bat.”
Crochet headlines an already solid starting rotation, which also features Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello, Lucas Giolito and Kutter Crawford. The Red Sox reportedly are in on ace Corbin Burnes, have had trade discussions with the Seattle Mariners for Luis Castillo and can’t be “ruled out” for Jack Flaherty. One of those additions, especially Burnes, would elevate the unit into one of the best in the league.
Breslow will have options to add to the bullpen after already signing Aroldis Chapman. Tanner Scott and Jeff Hoffman are two of best relievers still available on the free-agent market.
Bringing in a position player is less of a need as Breslow “feels good” where that group is at due to the emergence of several young players last season. Breslow said upgrading at a position player spot would take an “elite talent,” which indicated why Boston pursued Juan Soto.
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Rumors continue to swirl about the right-handed bat the Red Sox could acquire. They have been linked to Alex Bregman and reportedly are on Nolan Arenado’s short list of teams he would wave his no-trade clause to go to.
Breslow certainly remains busy trying to improve the Red Sox in a variety of his ways. And he appears intent to stick to the blueprint he laid out for himself at the start of the offseason to accomplish that.