Red Sox Insider Reveals Underrated Reason Boston Is Set Up For Huge Additions

This Boston Red Sox offseason carries enormous pressure, but the reality might actually stand a chance of living up to those lofty expectations.

Now that first baseman Nathaniel Lowe is gone, the Red Sox have a projected opening day tax payroll of just over $212 million, per Spotrac. That gives them just under $32 million to spend before they hit the first luxury tax threshold, which they were comfortable spending just over this past season.

While it may be tempting to look at luxury tax payroll and subtract it from a specific CBT threshold to determine what the Red Sox's budget might be, the reality, as one insider described Wednesday, might be that Boston has significantly more flexibility than those equations would indicate.

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Why Red Sox could spend bigger than some figures suggest

Alex Speier of the Boston Globe rightfully pointed out that because so many of the Red Sox's players are making less money this year than the average annual values of their contracts (Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, Brayan Bello, Ceddanne Rafaela), the actual payroll is much lower than the tax payroll.

That could give the Red Sox lots more financial wiggle room than a pessimistic fan may worry, especially if they get creative with some salary figures.

"Right now, there’s a significant gap between the Red Sox’ actual projected payroll — how much they’ll spend on salaries in 2026 — and the team’s luxury-tax payroll, which is calculated using the average annual value (AAV) of deals," Speier wrote. "That gap ... could give the team more flexibility than might be expected by looking at its CBT payroll.

"Creative salary structures are becoming increasingly widespread. ... It’s possible they will expand their offseason targets beyond a middle-of-the-order slugger and top-end starter. Financially, it’s not unrealistic to think the team could combine free agent spending and trades to add one top-end bat, one No. 2 starter, and a second complementary bat."

Keep in mind, the Red Sox dipped their toes into deferred salaries with Alex Bregman's contract this past offseason. Could they do the same this time around?

Speier also named Bregman, Pete Alonso, Bo Bichette, and Kyle Schwarber as potentially realistic targets. It's all still early, and we shouldn't come to any conclusions, but budget worries shouldn't be as prominent as some might think.

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