Red Sox's Free Agency Frustrations Hit Painful New Milestone

Please just sign somebody...

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

Is it really this hard?

The Boston Red Sox, to their credit, have made some big trades this winter. But you know what's beter than giving up a bunch of prospects to acquire talent? Simply paying that top talent to sign with your team in free agency.

The rest of the league seems to understand that principle more than the Red Sox do nowadays, or simply has more access to the money they need to make those additions. And we do mean every team across the league, because on Wednesday night, the Red Sox's offseason exploits earned a new distinction.

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Red Sox have still not signed a free agent

When Michael Lorenzen reportedly agreed to sign with the Colorado Rockies, it left the Red Sox as the only team not to make a major league free-agent signing this winter. Lorenzen's is a one-year, $8 million deal with a $9 million club option for next year, per Jeff Passan of ESPN.

In terms of adding money to the payroll, the Red Sox haven't done nothing, and that's where we collectively can cut them some slack. Between Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, and Johan Oviedo, the Red Sox have added just under $55 million in payroll via trades, which is more than double any other team.

Even so, the Red Sox gave the St. Louis Cardinals presumably better prospects in both the Gray and Contreras trades to get the Cardinals to eat some of the money those players were owed. If Boston had simply swallowed the extra $8 million in the Contreras deal, could they have kept promising young right-hander Yhoiker Fajardo?

The much more obvious problem, however, is that Alex Bregman remains unsigned, and throughout the offseason, the options have begun to dwindle around him. The market for Bregman seems to be shrinking, but with a stat like this floating out in the ether, it's reasonable for Red Sox fans to question whether that deal will get done.

Fairly or unfairly, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has to know his team is going to continue to draw the ire of its fan base the longer this goes on.

More MLB: How Red Sox Could Sign Blue Jays Star Instead Of Alex Bregman