Red Sox's Top Priority Becoming Clear After Kyle Schwarber News: Report

What does Boston have up its sleeve?

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

Give kudos to the Boston Red Sox for trying, but they were never going to pry Kyle Schwarber loose from the Philadelphia Phillies.

ESPN's Jeff Passan was among multiple reporters to characterize the Red Sox as being in the mix until the end, but on Tuesday, Schwarber and the Phillies agreed to a new deal for five years and a whopping $150 million.

The only thing the Red Sox can be fairly criticized for in the case of Schwarber is letting him walk in favor of the Phillies four years ago. Now, what's important is that there's one less option for Boston to improve its lineup on the open market.

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Red Sox's priority is Bregman, per insider

On that front, it appears the Red Sox have a clear order of operations as they attempt to navigate the free-agent waters with Schwarber out of the picture.

On Tuesday, Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe reported on Bluesky that people in the Red Sox organization were characterizing third baseman Alex Bregman as the team's top priority, especially with Schwarber gone.

"Retaining Bregman is clearly the priority for the Red Sox. Sources inside and outside the organization agree on that," Abraham wrote. "Question is if they flex their financial muscles and stay in the mix for Alonso, who has great interest in playing at Fenway."

On the Alonso front, it's noteworthy that on Monday, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow indicated that the team's top need was home run power. Bregman is a decent home run hitter in his own right, with 18 last year and a career-high of 41 (juice ball era, 2019), but Schwarber and Alonso are both in a different tier of slugger.

“Home runs are a foolproof way to put runs on the board,” Breslow said, per Lauren Campbell and Chris Cotillo of MassLive. “Typically, that type of profile comes with a trade-off, most often contact ability, which is another area that we feel like we need to improve the identity of the offense.”

What sort of spending power do the Red Sox truly have? A Bregman and Alonso tandem would make them among the true front-runners to win a World Series, but it's not clear yet if they have clearance to spend like that.

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