First Look at Red Sox's Offseason Strategy From Craig Breslow

The offseason is here for the Boston Red Sox and the organization held its annual end-of-season press conference on Monday afternoon.

Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, manager Chad Tracy and Red Sox president and chief executive officer Sam Kennedy answered questions from the media on Monday about the season and what comes next. Breslow specifically was asked about the club's view of the offseason and where things stand with the organization right now.

"We're in the initial stages of evaluating the season and thinking about our approach to 2027," Breslow said. "But it's not hard to look at the composition of the roster and recognize that our starting pitching was consistently very good. By a handful of metrics, we had the best bullpen in baseball, the best outfield defense in baseball and an infield defense that showed marked improvement relative to the last few years. Our offense was inconsistent. We got on base at a decent clip, but we didn't slug, we didn't hit a ton of home runs. ... Naturally, we're gonna spend some time thinking about how we improve our offense and, particularly, how we build a roster that will thrive at Fenway Park."

Craig Breslow on the team's biggest offseason needs:

"We got on base at a decent clip, but we didn't slug, we didn't hit a ton of home runs... naturally, we're gonna spend some time thinking about how we improve our offense and, particularly, how we build a roster that will… pic.twitter.com/lhxE66O74j
— NESN (@NESN) October 5, 2026

The Red Sox Will Be Looking

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 | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

Nothing Breslow said here is wrong. Love him, or hate him, Breslow built a juggernaut of a rotation and a bullpen. The rotation may not look the same with Sonny Gray having a mutual option for the 2027 season, but it's still elite on paper, in large part because Garrett Crochet would slide in and replace the production Gray gave Boston at the top. Boston has right-handed options, including Brayan Bello and Tanner Houck, to replace Gray, if need be. Plus, there will be free agents out there that make sense for Boston, including Shane Bieber. That's if Gray doesn't return, of course.

The bullpen is in a great spot and most of it is under contract beyond the 2026 season. It wouldn't hurt to add a veteran left-handed arm, but Breslow was right. Boston had the best bullpen in baseball in 2026.

Breslow hit the nail on the head on the offense as well. Boston finished the season 12th in on-base percentage (.319) and 13th in team batting average (.245), but also finished 26th in the league with 163 home runs. Naturally, power remains the biggest question mark for Boston's lineup. It's good that Breslow publicly mentioned it again and acknowledged that the Red Sox will look for ways to improve it.

Having a full season of Adley Rutschman, Curtis Mead and hopefully Roman Anthony will help. But Boston needs one more bat, likely to fill in as a designated hitter. If the Red Sox look externally, someone like Randy Arozarena or Seiya Suzuki likely will be the guys who get the most buzz. They will both be free agents this winter. But the Red Sox surely could look to the trade market as well, like they did last offseason when they brought in Willson Contreras and Gray.

Boston has a long offseason ahead and it made it clear that it's looking for offense.

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