Craig Breslow Explains Red Sox’s Surprising Pivot Amid Unusual Offseason

This offseason has been a rollercoaster for the Boston Red Sox, full of twists and turns. Four months after it began, it’s fair to say this winter took a very different path than what many Red Sox fans expected.

Boston seemingly entered the offseason with three main goals: add a No. 2 starter behind Garrett Crochet, re-sign Alex Bregman and bring in another bat to replace Rafael Devers. The Red Sox only accomplished one of those three, however, signing Ranger Suarez but losing Bregman and failing to replace Devers.

Instead, they surprisingly pivoted by beefing up their starting rotation. In addition to signing Suarez, they also traded for Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo, even though Craig Breslow said at the start of the offseason that he felt confident in Boston’s starting pitching depth.

The Red Sox focused on arms but passed on numerous big bats such as Pete Alonso, Kyle Schwarber and Bo Bichette, leaving the lineup a bit shorthanded heading into spring training.

During Suarez’s introductory press conference last month, Breslow explained why Boston changed course.

“We work backwards from, ‘We need to put a better team on the field and win more games than we did last year. How do we do that?” Offense was a fairly obvious one, but preventing runs is another way,” Breslow told reporters. “I joked with (hitting coach) Pete (Fatse) that hopefully we’re making his job easier, too, by not putting such demands on the offense.”

Breslow may be taking some of the pressure off the offense, but he’s also putting more pressure on the pitching staff and defense. He’s now asking them to win a lot of low-scoring games, which didn’t work particularly well for the Texas Rangers and Pittsburgh Pirates last year.

On the one hand, Breslow’s flexible approach reflects open-mindedness and a willingness to change course. When he saw opportunities to improve the team, he pounced on them, even if they weren’t part of his original plan.

On the other hand, it also suggests a lack of vision and conviction, which explains Boston’s chaotic offseason and the imbalanced roster it created. The Red Sox weren’t willing to do what it took to achieve their initial goals, such as offering Bregman a no-trade clause or offering other hitters market value.

They appeared too passive at times and were the last team in baseball to sign a free agent. They let Bregman get away after drawing out their negotiations with him and pursued other moves that didn’t make a ton of sense for their team. As a result, they now have too many outfielders and starting pitchers but not enough infielders and relief pitchers.

Breslow said his ultimate goal was to make Boston better this offseason and help the team compete for a World Series. He moved a lot of pieces around this winter, but it’s not clear that the Red Sox are significantly better now than they were four months ago.