How the Red Sox landed on a whole new offseason plan

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- For the Red Sox, an offseason that started with a focus on signing a pure power bat like Pete Alonso, retaining a clear veteran leader in Alex Bregman or perhaps making a sizable splash on the trade market for a stud position player (Ketel Marte) or bona fide ace (Joe Ryan) ended with none of the above.

It wound up being a splash-free Hot Stove season in Boston, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a productive one.

It was an unpredictable few months for chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, who nimbly altered his strategy when some of his earlier targets didn’t come to fruition and leaned hard into the area of run prevention.

Perhaps Breslow unknowingly set the tone on Dec. 9 at the Winter Meetings when he made a general statement about how the winter can go for a baseball front office.

“Everybody goes into the offseason with their ideal outcomes, and you quickly realize that that's the most unlikely path,” Breslow said from his suite at MLB’s Winter Meetings. “So there is a sliding scale.”

The next day, Alonso became an Oriole. A month later, Bregman went to the Cubs.

The departure of Bregman -- announced just hours after the team’s annual celebratory Fenway Fest event had concluded -- left the organization temporarily stunned.

An organizational meeting the following day (which had been planned even before Bregman slipped away) allowed for a reset.

For as much as Breslow talked up the power game early in the offseason, he realized that the supply on that market was diminishing, and it didn’t make sense to overpay for home runs if the roster fit wasn’t right. This is why he didn’t push the Astros harder to make a trade for Isaac Paredes, who isn’t known for his defense.

Free agent Eugenio Suárez, who smashed 30 homers in 2024 and another 49 last season, might have seemed like an obvious fit to some.

But Breslow doesn’t delve into the obvious. Suárez (a subpar defender at third base with a lot of swing and miss in his game) wasn’t what the Red Sox were looking for. While the right-handed hitter wound up with the Reds on a one-year deal, Breslow put his pivot in full motion when he went after another Suárez.

That would be lefty Ranger Suárez, a consistent member of the Phillies for years who has a penchant for excellence (4-1, 1.48 ERA in 11 postseason appearances).

Just days after Bregman officially turned down Boston’s offer of five years at $165 million with deferrals and without the no-trade clause the Cubs presented, Breslow landed Suárez on a five-year, $130 million contract (no deferrals).

It was a reallotment of the planned Bregman investment, one made the most sense to Breslow, who had targeted Suárez as a potential target at the start of the offseason.

While the Red Sox still needed an infielder to replace Bregman, the type of infielder(s) they would target changed.

By adding Suárez to a rotation that acquired solid righty Sonny Gray via trade before Thanksgiving and has one of the best aces in the game leading it in Garrett Crochet, Breslow declared it time to lean hard into the area of backing up his much-improved pitching staff with players who could field the ball behind those top arms.

Enter free agent Isiah Kiner-Falefa, a former Gold Glove Award winner and contact hitter who plays multiple positions, on a one-year, $6 million contract that is expected to become official in the next day or two.

Enter trade acquisition Caleb Durbin, a wiry, 5-foot-7, right-handed infielder who finished third in the NL Rookie of the Year voting last season for the Brewers. Durbin isn’t a star, but he’s a sound player who can play third and second and has speed and some power that could improve at friendly Fenway.

“We got some good players,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “It's a different roster than last year. It's a different year. But ironically enough, and I can say it, I feel like we have a more complete team than last year, but now it's just a matter of going out there and working and seeing how the pieces fit.”

The most fair critique is this: Where will the power come from?

Teams that go deep into October generally bang the ball out of the ballpark. In emerging star Roman Anthony and underrated right fielder Wilyer Abreu, the Red Sox have two players they feel could make a considerable jump in power this season. Ceddanne Rafaela is another player who has shown power at times. Trevor Story, who led the team with 25 homers in a rebound 2025 season, is back at shortstop.

“We feel confident that there is going to be power that emerges from the group that we have,” said Breslow. “Getting a full healthy season out of Roman and Wily will help, and we know [trade acquisition] Willson Contreras has been an offensive threat in lineups for a number of years, and feel like he's a particularly good fit for our park, given the changes to his offensive profile over the last year or two. I also feel like [Durbin’s] a good fit for our park, just given the profile of hitting the ball in the air to the pull side.”

The six-player package between the Red Sox and Brewers that brought Durbin to Boston signified that Breslow could be mostly done adding pieces to his Opening Day roster.

He got through the offseason keeping his loaded outfield (Jarren Duran, Anthony, Rafaela and Abreu) intact, without having to trade his two top pitching prospects (Payton Tolle and Connelly Early). Without adding a superstar, the Red Sox have put together what they feel could be a championship-caliber team. Even if it isn’t quite the one they envisioned in November.

“It's important that we adapt and evolve as options become available to us,” said Breslow. “So as long as we're kind of anchored to this idea that we have to put a winning team on the field, I think we have to be willing to pivot. And I think we've shown that.”