It’s been an interesting, but also frustrating, winter for the Boston Red Sox. While they’ve made several trades to bolster their pitching staff, they’ve yet to re-sign Alex Bregman or sign a single free agent, leaving their lineup incomplete for the time being.
The Red Sox had a chance to land a big bat at last week’s Winter Meetings but missed out on Pete Alonso and Kyle Schwarber, watching them sign with the Baltimore Orioles and Philadelphia Phillies, respectively.
Boston reportedly did not make an offer to Schwarber and was outbid for Alonso, who signed with the Orioles for five years and $155 million — nearly double the Red Sox’s reported offer of three years and $85 million.
This has been a recurring theme for Boston lately, which has missed out on Xander Bogaerts, Juan Soto, Max Fried, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and other superstars in recent offseasons.
On Wednesday’s episode of Buster Posey’s “Baseball Tonight” podcast, ESPN’s Jeff Passan explained why he thinks the Red Sox failed to land Alonso and Schwarber.
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“I think they missed on Pete Alonso. They missed on Kyle Schwarber. They weren’t willing to go to the place that other teams were,” Passan said. “We’ve seen the Red Sox in recent years, they try to operate rationally. Operating rationally, generally speaking, will not get you free agents. It is an irrational market, and sometimes you’ve gotta get a little irrational.”
That goes back to Andrew Friedman’s famous quote from 2016: “If you’re always rational about every free agent, you will finish third on every free agent.”
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If the Red Sox want to sign a big-name free agent and/or keep Alex Bregman, they’ll likely need to get a bit uncomfortable, either by offering more years or money than they’d prefer. That’s just how the market works. To win a bidding war, teams need to be aggressive and go above and beyond what other clubs are offering.
Boston’s taken a more disciplined, patient and rational approach in recent offseasons. That’s worked in some respects and has helped avoid bad contracts. However, sometimes it’s necessary to “overpay” for someone, especially a highly desirable player with interest from other teams.
Featured image via Benny Sieu/Imagn Images
