I realize this focus of the last couple pages here have been Casas and Hosmer and Dalbec, and I fully intended to come into this argument prepared to crucify Bloom for putting out a team with the RF and 1B situation that the Sox have had to tolerate all year. And the Renfroe deal looks atrocious in retrospect, not only by return but by leaving the team naked in RF all season. Like many/most here, I have become accustomed to the Epstein forward Sox that seemed to have a batting order with 9 legitimate bats in it every year save for the occasional one off, with FA signings or trades on top of them to ensure depth. This "reset" team feels less a reset than it does a team with absolutely no offensive depth to survive Dalbec/Bradley or injuries.
However, I spent a little time looking at the FA signings from last season, and the days of finding guys like Moreland or Gomes or Pearce or Steven Drew on a one year or even the Mike Napolis or Shane Victorinos on reasonable deals to build depth weren't there last year and with that, I think fans like me need to understand that roster building is a completely different animal than it may have been years ago. Looking at the one year deals signed last off-season, it's guys who are toast like Dickerson or Calhoun, maybe you can argue for Andrew McCutchen to play right, though he's mostly DH'd this year, but very slim pickings outside of expensive deals to get the type of offensive depth needed to make the lineup look like it would wear out a pitcher.
The MFY this year are obviously playing amazing ball, but it's really all on arms - Judge has been incredible, but only 3 other bats with an OPS over .750 in that lineup - but while ERA isn't a perfect measure, the 11 top pitchers by IP on the Yanks, highest ERA is 3.95 (Taillon), but 5 of them with ERA under 2.75 and obviously with that pitching depth they are doing a lot of winning.
Toronto offensively looks like more of the old Red Sox model - 6 of the 9 in their lineup OPS over .775 (and Bo is one of the three that isnt), they are really Berrios pitching to a normal standard away from 2-3 more wins - I guess the point I'm taking too long to make is that as a somewhat spoiled Red Sox fan that expects contention on an annual basis, I think there are two approaches here: one would be to re-sign X (or legit SS), JDM (or slugging DH facsimile), figure out how to get solid hitting from CF, RF, and 1B while not completely abandoning defense. I tend to be on the Hosmer/Casas should be enough at 1B given other needs on the roster, and frankly it's not like the market is just teeming with legitimate OF bats with reasonable contract expectations, the other alternative is to somewhat bargain pick as Bloom has seemed to want to do on offense to date, and then try and play SP roulette again with better outcomes - you can argue a pen of Houck, Whitlock, Schreiber, and Sawamura is pretty damn good, maybe there's less need to throw the Diekman/Strahm/Robles/Brasier pu pu platter out there and with a little FA luck on top of the farm you can get a high end bullpen, but the focus is figuring out how you get the type of starting pitching you need to contend. Crawford and Pivetta probably can hold up as the #4 and #5, so if you rely on Sale/Paxton, you are trying to find one legit SP, hope Bello can contribute, and go from there.
Said another way, there's an awful lot on the left arms of Sale and Paxton for the 2023 Red Sox to seriously contend, if you get best case outcomes there, next summer we have some fun, anything below probably 75th percentile outcomes there and they've got to have an awful lot of SP depth acquired this offseason and have it perform at/above expectations, plus get 2 legitimate OF bats on what is a pretty thin market for such bats.