Red Sox Get Harsh Offseason Superlative from Rival Personnel

Everyone still thinks Boston screwed up...

Dec 9, 2024; Dallas, TX, USA; Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow speaks with the media at the Hilton Anatole during the 2024 MLB Winter Meetings. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

The seminal moment of the Boston Red Sox's offseason was losing Alex Bregman to the Chicago Cubs, even if one agrees with everything else the club did.

Not making the best offer to Bregman, even though it might end up paying off in the long run, was a miss on the Red Sox's part from a messaging perspective. And much of that centers around how revered he was for his clubhouse presence and impact on the young players around him.

A lot of people around Major League Baseball seem to think the Red Sox are going to miss that influence this season, as Bregman takes his turn at mentoring Pete Crow-Armstrong and Matt Shaw instead of Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer.

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Was Bregman "irreplaceable" to Red Sox?

Feb 11, 2026; Mesa, AZ, USA; Chicago Cubs Alex Bregman (3) hits live batting practice during spring training camp at Sloan Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images | Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

On Wednesday, Jayson Stark of The Athletic released the results of his annual survey of 36 MLB executives, former executives, managers, scouts, and coaches. A new question this year was "most irreplaceable subtraction," and according to Stark, Bregman won the category with 11 votes.

Power-hitting first baseman Pete Alonso, who went from the New York Mets to the Baltimore Orioles, was just behind Bregman with 10 votes.

“I think losing him hurts the core young guys in Boston,” said one voter, per Stark.

“A major impact, and a perfect fit in Boston," another voter told Stark.

Over the next month after Bregman departed, the Red Sox pulled off what many considered an impressive pivot, nabbing Ranger Suárez to fill out a formidable rotation and trading for Caleb Durbin, who has six years of cheap team control remaining, to take over a starting job on the infield.

But Bregman, who has never missed the playoffs in his nine-year major league career, was the subject of many a puff piece, both on this website and countless others, because of how much his influence on the team showed beyond the production on the field.

That's what we have to worry about the Red Sox missing, much more so than his low-eights OPS or excellent glove at third base.