ORLANDO, Fla. — It was almost exactly a year ago Wednesday, the final day of the 2024 Winter Meetings, that the Red Sox acquired Garrett Crochet in exchange for four prospects from the Chicago White Sox .
In almost every measurable way, it turned out to be the perfect trade for the Red Sox. Crochet soon signed a six-year extension to give the team additional control of him, making the player cost more tenable . Then, Crochet went out and pitched like the ace the Red Sox projected he could be, leading the league in strikeouts and innings pitched while finishing second in wins and third in ERA.
It was, from the benefit of 12 months later, the perfect offseason move. The Red Sox got precisely what they needed to head their rotation and locked him up for the foreseeable future.
But this winter has served as a reminder of how rare those kinds of transactions are.
The Red Sox are in search of at least one and possibly two hitters to improve a lineup that, while in the top third of the game in terms of runs scored, was otherwise perfectly ordinary when it came to power. They finished right smack dab in the middle in home runs and managed just one in three playoff games.
To date, they’ve come up empty, which doesn’t mean there aren’t still options available, even with the news that Kyle Schwarber is staying put in Philadelphia . There’s still time and still choices available.
But none is going to fit the club the way Crochet did a year ago, something Craig Breslow tacitly acknowledged Tuesday.
“Everybody goes into the offseason with their ideal outcomes,” said Breslow, “and you quickly realize that that’s the most unlikely path. There is a sliding scale but our offensive profile lacks a little bit of thump and that’s where we’ve set our sights.
“But there are other ways to improve the team. There will be other ways to improve the team. But I think we’re going to exhaust that type of power profile first before we look at alternatives.”
Schwarber, good as he is — second in homers to only Shohei Ohtani over the last four years and able to hit lefties as well as righties — was a DH only, bringing next to no defensive value. And he’ll be 33 before next season begins.
Sort through the other possibilities for the Red Sox and they’re similarly flawed in one way or another.
∗ Trade target Ketel Marte is signed for another five years at a cost of more than $100 million dollars and comes with some questions about his level of commitment after missing the first three games of the Arizona Diamondbacks first three games after the All-Star break.
∗ Free agent Pete Alonso is regarded as a poor first baseman and is a slow baserunner. At 31, those deficiencies are only going to get worse.
∗ Free agent Bo Bichette is a limited defender who, though he has very good bat-to-ball skills, doesn’t really profile as a power hitter. He’s never hit as many as 30 homers in a single season and, in fact, has hit more than 24 just once.
∗ Trade target Isaac Paredes is versatile — able to play both first and third — but is at best average at both spots. His career OPS of .766 is somewhat underwhelming.
∗ Free agent Alex Bregman , while a solid fit for both Boston and the Red Sox, isn’t so dynamic that he alone can lift the team’s offensive profile. They had him in the lineup last year and that wasn’t nearly good enough.
The list goes on and on, with every potential acquisition sporting a concerning weakness or negative.
Then there’s the acquisition costs — nine-figure free agent contracts or, in the case of trade candidates, sacrificing some of the team’s precious young pitching.
And that’s if a trade can be made
“I think that, maybe more so than in past years, teams are really content to hold their really good players,” said Breslow. “In a lot of the conversations that we’ve had, a number of teams have conveyed that they’re very comfortable holding their players. As are we. So that does add a layer of difficulty in making these things work.”
Ultimately, though, none of that matters. The Red Sox can’t afford to let perfect be the enemy of good. Just because each of their upgrade options are flawed in one way or another doesn’t mean they should try to get by with what they have.
The Sox are at a crossroads. They’re good enough to be a playoff contender but not good enough to win a World Series. To reach that level, they need to be bold — bold enough to add two bats.
And if the players aren’t as perfect on the hitting side as Crochet was on the pitching side, they’re just going to have to live with that.
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