Red Sox Respond To Rafael Devers, Alex Bregman Missteps

The Boston Red Sox are still in the market for another bat that can move the needle in the middle of the order.

In the aftermath of losing Alex Bregman to the Chicago Cubs, Boston has been consistently linked to former Toronto Blue Jays infielder Bo Bichette. A wide range of reports have pointed in this direction. Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic even reported that "some in the organization" have preferred Bichette from the beginning. Two other superstars who are available are Cody Bellinger and Kyle Tucker, but the Boston Globe's Alex Speier threw cold water on both.

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With Bregman out of the organization, it unsurprisingly has brought back the discussion around the club's trade of Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants. To sum up, Boston signed Bregman, angered the face of the franchise while asking him to switch positions, rolled with Bregman and Devers at DH, tried to get Devers to switch positions a second time and upset him again in the process, and then traded Devers away for a package that has been subpar so far. Devers is gone and now Bregman is too.

The Red Sox didn't play the Alex Bregman market how they hoped

On Sunday, MassLive.com's Chris Cotillo dropped a fascinating question-and-answer with chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and he spoke about the perception of losing both.

"Rather than spend a ton of time on the particulars of these cases, what is most important is 1) how we respond to improve our roster in the near term and 2) how I can learn from the experiences and allow that to inform how I approach the role going forward," Breslow said to Cotillo. "Neither outcome we face right now is ideal, but both will be evaluated over a longer time horizon."

That's not all. Cotillo asked Breslow about the idea of using the resources freed up by getting rid of Devers' contract.

"We will continue to find the best ways to exhaust our resources," Breslow said. "Obviously, we made commitments to Roman (Anthony) and (Aroldis Chapman), we’ve traded for established players like Sonny (Gray) and Willson (Contreras), and we have the flexibility to continue to push."

The interesting nugget here is the "flexibility to continue to push." Speier reported that the club is getting "creative" to replace Bregman and acknowledged that could even mean another pitcher. It was reported that the Red Sox offered Bregman a five-year deal worth $165 million with heavy deferrals. If the club has flexibility, why not close the $10 million gap that ended up happening with Bregman getting $175 million from the Cubs? Unless the Red Sox were not given the opportunity to match.

At the end of the day, the loss of Bregman overshadows the good the team has done this offseason. With Devers being traded, the club arguably should've had the "flexibility" to get a deal with Bregman over the finish line. It did not accomplish that goal, which makes the Devers deal even worse.

More MLB: Red Sox Scrambling For ‘Creative’ Alex Bregman Replacement