The Red Sox have many of rotation players, but not enough quality ones

One player who excelled in bulk assignments and later made a late-season comeback to the rotation is Nick Pivetta. Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock are on the list; in the past few seasons, they have cycled between the rotation and the bullpen with varying degrees of success. Kutter Crawford is one player who could do well in a starting role this year; all he needs to do is pitch deeper more frequently in order to be added to the rotation on a more permanent basis.

Additionally, Josh Winckowski, who had a spectacular season in the bullpen, might be promoted back into the starting lineup just for good measure.

That makes a total of five applicants for one or two back-end positions. That depth is envied in an era where teams usually rotate through ten or more starters in a season. The pool of quality arms keeps expanding when you include in Richard Fitts, one of the three pitchers they acquired in exchange for a relatively small return on Alex Verdugo.

The issue is that, despite the value of those possible depth players, they don’t solve the team’s most pressing need for the offseason—the absence of a proven No. 2 starter or true ace.

Seth Lugo and Lucas Giolito, two of the free agents the Red Sox worked with this week, are even eligible to start at the mid-to back end of the lineup.

The Sox could have a strong rotation if they signed one of those two and teamed up with Chris Sale and Brayan Bello. However, they wouldn’t have a front-of-the-rotation option anymore.

Craig Breslow, the new chief baseball officer, expressed some disappointment over the last three days’ lack of progress in the pitching department.

Before taking off for Boston on Wednesday night, Breslow remarked, “In a perfect world, we’re walking out of here with starting pitching and we’re feeling really good about that.” “We made every effort to move the ball forward. We’re probably not the only ones who are a little let down in that regard. However, we are only in charge of what we can manage.

To be fair, not many other teams had their needs for pitching met when they got back home. Prominent free agents Jordan Montgomery, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Blake Snell are still available. There are still a few trade candidates available, including Dylan Cease, Corbin Burnes, Tyler Glasnow, and Shane Bieber, but the Red Sox have shown a distaste for rentals that could be eligible for free agency in a year or two.

At the upper echelons of the free agent pitching market, Yamamoto might need to make a move. However, it’s unclear how involved the Red Sox are in this situation given that some reports indicate the 25-year-old righthander could sign a contract worth up to $300 million.

When asked directly if he had had a meeting with Yamamoto’s legal team, the Wasserman Group, Breslow replied, “We’ve spoken to a broad group of agents.” Furthermore, given that they are linked to specific players, I don’t think it’s very beneficial to say yes or no to any specific ones.

More specifically, when asked if the Sox had planned to host Yamamoto during his tour of potential cities next week, Breslow was unable to provide an answer.

“Thank you for the inquiry,” Breslow replied. “Thank you for asking, but I won’t be answering it.”

Recognizing that it’s still early in the baseball offseason is crucial, particularly in light of the recent slow play that has characterized the league’s offseasons and brought signings and trades to a crawl in the early going. The start of spring training remains two months away, more than enough time to teams to work on roster-building

However, the options begin to narrow as the Red Sox lose out on Aaron Nola, become disinterested in Snell due to the compensation draft pick attached to him, and become unsure of their level of interest in spending nearly a third of a billion dollars on a player who has never pitched in Major League Baseball.

They can find capable middle-to-back-end starters to eat innings, including some great candidates for a comeback, like Giolito. With more experienced options at their disposal, the Red Sox probably wouldn’t have to rely on openers or Matt Dermody like they did in 2023. Even though they may not pitch to a sub-4.00 ERA, there is value in using seasoned, tested starters.

But eventually, the Red Sox are going to need their own Kevin Gausman or Gerrit Cole. Given his recent history of injuries, Sale can no longer be relied upon for that kind of role. Bello, on the other hand, has only 39 career starts under his belt and may yet attain that level.

Breslow stated, “Controllable starting pitching continues to be incredibly expensive.” “We understand that in order to obtain it, we will have to give up something that probably hurts a little.”

The Sox will eventually have to pay that cost, though, either with real money or prospect capital. Furthermore, every roster upgrade that is made feels less meaningful in the absence of an upgrade at the top (or close to the top) of the rotation.