ORLANDO — Whether it be the free agency or the trade market, almost every team in the game is in search of additional pitching.
The Red Sox are the rare exception. Though privately they’ve indicated that they could still acquire another pitcher if the right opportunity arises, the Sox now count 10 major league-caliber starters as part of their roster.
“There’s a ton of attrition in a rotation and we want to make sure that we have enough depth,” said Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. “We’ll never have enough pitching and fortunately, we’ve been able to acquire pretty significant depth.”
And don’t think other organizations haven’t noticed. As the Winter Meetings officially kicked off Monday, Breslow said the organization has fielded numerous calls from other teams, intent on seeing which pitchers the Sox might be willing to move.
“We’ve got pitching depth, based on some of the inbound calls that we’ve received over the last couple of weeks,” said Breslow. “I think teams have recognized there’s appeal to controllable starting pitching. If there are opportunities to use some of that depth in order to address other areas of the roster, we’d be willing to do it.”
For now, the Red Sox would seem to have four starters locked in for the start of the season: Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray, Brayan Bello and Johan Oviedo. Both Gray and Oviedo have been acquired in the last two weeks and have further deepened the number of organizational arms.
That quartet leaves as many as six other starting candidates: Kutter Crawford, Hunter Dobbins, Patrick Sandoval, Payton Tolle, Connelly Early and Kyle Harrison.
Below that, the Sox have some attractive pitching prospects such as David Sandlin, Luis Perales and Kyson Witherspoon, but for now, what gives an edge is the availability of starters who have enjoyed some success at the big league level.
In particular, presumably because of their major league experience, an industry source confirmed the Sox have fielded calls on Crawford, Dobbins and Sandoval.
Crawford missed all of last year due to knee and wrist injuries, but is healthy again. Sandoval underwent Tommy John surgery in mid-2024 and is expected to be fully healthy as he arrives in spring training. Dobbins was impressive in 13 games — 11 of them starts — but missed the final few months after undergoing knee surgery.
The Sox could use some of their pitching surplus to fill other needs. They’ve had some preliminary discussions with the Arizona Diamondbacks centered around second baseman Ketel Marte and it’s known that the Diamondbacks want young, controllable starting pitching in return.
An industry source indicated that the Sox have also had trade talks with at least three other teams, and the availability of starters makes the Sox a potential trade partner.
It’s unknown whether the Red Sox could use some of their extra starters to lure a top slugger to bolster and deepen their lineup. For now, it seems more likely that the Sox would use the free agent market, which includes Kyle Schwarber and Pete Alonso, along with two potential newcomers from Japan — Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto — to address those needs.
