SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Red Sox and all 29 other MLB teams will be able to begin negotiating with any free agent at 5 p.m., eastern Monday.
The GM meetings will take place here at the Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa at Montelucia this week. New Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow will meet with Boston reporters Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
The baseball hot stove usually doesn’t begin to really heat up until the Winter Meetings, which will take place Dec. 4-7 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn. But trades and signings certainly could happen here in Scottsdale over the next few days.
A quiet period is in place during the first five days of free agency when teams have exclusive negotiating rights with their own free agents. The quiet period began at 9 a.m. Nov. 2. It will end at 5 p.m. today.
Teams are able to speak with any free agent during the quiet period but they are prohibited from negotiating with free agents from other clubs. They are able to discuss interest level, how a player would be used, length of contract, guarantee provisions and no-trade or limited no-trade provisions. And so the Red Sox could have already spoken with free agents from other clubs about those topics.
Chairman Tom Werner hinted the Red Sox will be active this winter.
“We know that we have to be competitive next year,” Werner said Thursday after Breslow’s introductory press conference. “So we’re going to be competitive next year. We’re going to have to be full-throttle in every possible way.”
Werner also was asked if the Red Sox will pursue high-end starting pitchers on the free agent market, and he responded: “Let me just say that we don’t have any built-in restrictions.”
Breslow identified some areas of the roster that he must improve.
“It’s no secret that pitching, and specifically starting pitching, is an area of need in this organization. And it’s something that we’ll shift our focus to,” Breslow said.
Japanese star Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be the second best pitcher on the free agent market behind two-way star Shohei Ohtani who won’t pitch in 2024 after undergoing elbow surgery.
The Orix Buffaloes will make Yamamoto “available to MLB teams via the posting system,” The Japan Times reported Sunday. He won’t immediately become a free agent Monday. As CBSSports noted, the Buffaloes need to file an application with MLB and he won’t become available until later in the week.
MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand listed the Red Sox, Dodgers and Mets as potential fits for Yamamoto, a 25-year-old righty who went 17-6 with a 1.16 ERA in 24 outings for Orix in 2023.
Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Aaron Nola, Marcus Stroman, Eduardo Rodriguez, Lucas Giolito, Shōta Imanaga, Sonny Gray, Jack Flaherty, Mike Clevinger, James Paxton, Michael Lorenzen and Luis Severino are among the other top free agent starting pitchers on the market. Imanaga is a Japanese lefty who the Yokohama BayStars plan to post.
Feinsand listed the Red Sox along with the Cardinals and Diamondbacks as potential fits for Giolito.
Boston also likely will add a right-handed hitting outfielder, second baseman and left-handed reliever this offseason.
Whit Merrifield is one potential second base candidate. He just became a free agent Friday when the Blue Jays and Merrifield declined his $18 million mutual option.
“And I think certain players coming back from injury and being able to kind of solidify middle infield defense will add to that,” Breslow said. “I think there’s some guys internally we’re excited about that may be able to take a step forward. But that’s certainly (one area of need).
“If you kind of look at the overall construction of the roster, there’s a possibility maybe we can add a right-handed bat to even some of the platoon asymmetry,” Breslow added.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Jorge Soler, Teoscar Hernández, Hunter Renfroe, Tommy Pham and Harrison Bader are among the right-handed hitting free agent outfielders available.
Merrifeld, a right-handed hitter, has experience in the outfield in addition to second base.
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