Recently, Red Sox beat reporter Ian Browne held an Ask Me Anything on Reddit with fans at r/redsox. This mailbag features questions and answers from there. You can read the full transcript here. Questions and responses have been lightly edited for clarity.
Say the Red Sox sign Eugenio Suárez or trade for Isaac Paredes to play third base. Can we expect Marcelo Mayer to be the starting second baseman in that scenario? Would love one of those guys, but also really want to see Mayer play.
The way Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow was talking the other day about leaning into run prevention in light of losing Alex Bregman, I have a hard time seeing them add Suárez or Paredes. Let's face it -- neither of those players is known for his glove. I think third base is a better fit for Mayer than second, so it wouldn't surprise me to see them get a second baseman.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how confident are you that the team makes another “big” move (meaning, adds a player who will be part of the everyday lineup) before Opening Day?
I'm at about a 7. The one challenge they have is that I'm not sure how many teams are looking to move bats right now. Yes, Ketel Marte would have been the perfect fit before Arizona decided not to trade him this winter. But I think the Sox are in a good position to put together an attractive package with their surplus of starting pitching and/or outfielders.
You get to make a big trade at this point in the offseason -- what would you do?
Trade Brayan Bello or Jarren Duran/Wilyer Abreu to get a significant hitter who is also a good infield defender.
There's a lot of talk about the Red Sox trading for an infielder, but with the number of trades Breslow has done, our farm system is quickly depleting. Out of the available infielders, which ones do you think would make the best fit for our needs (good defense, maybe some good pop, etc.)? Suárez seems obvious, but I'm not sure I trust his defense.
Nico Hoerner is the one who screams "good fit," but he only has a year left before free agency. Though a right-handed bat has been the preferred bat all along, don't rule out yet another trade with the Cardinals for Brendan Donovan, who is known for his strong defense. Run prevention is the buzzword for the 2026 Sox. Donovan would certainly help in that regard. He isn't eligible for free agency until the 2028 season.
I think Breslow can make a trade with Major League talent and not have to dip more into the farm system. He has four outfielders for three spots; five if you count Kristian Campbell. They have 10 pitchers who have started Major League games. Breslow is in a good spot; he just needs to find the right match.
As it relates to the logjam in the OF/DH, especially with so many guys being left-handed hitters, there's been a lot of talk about how these sorts of things naturally work themselves out (via injury or regression). I agree that they normally do, but I think it's still tough on a manager to get there. How do you see this working?
It is really hard to say how all this is going to go down until they pin down the 26-man roster that is going to [the 2026 season opener at] Cincinnati. Two things we know: Manager Alex Cora said that Gold Glove Award winners Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela will not DH. Though the plan is for Abreu to prove himself against lefties, the club will still likely pick its spots against certain nasty lefties to open up the logjam.
Ditto for Duran. And the same for Rafaela against the toughest righties. Nobody with decision-making power seems to want Rafaela playing second base. When Rafaela is out of the lineup, Duran can play center, opening up left field for Anthony. There will be other times Anthony is in left and Duran is at DH, and vice versa. It's tough at this point to see a lot of at-bats for Masataka Yoshida if the Red Sox are using DH as a rotating spot for the excess of outfielders. I still feel another move or two is coming.
Roman Anthony was great last year. What do you think is a good season for him without setting the bar too high if he stays healthy?
.285/.385/.500, 25 homers, 35 doubles and 90 RBIs. That's how good he is already at 21 years old.