@TomRicardo bud, take a bunch of edibles/shots, get away from your keyboard and just chill my brother. Why do you let a sports team that you have zero control over affect your life this much?? I've always respected you as a poster, but you've gone off the deep end recently. I'm serious, and I'd love an answer, how do the red Sox realistically improve?
The Red Sox are not in a spot at this point in the offseason where they are a free agency move or two away from relevance. Once Soto and Fried signed away, there was simply not enough wins in the free agents left to make the swing required. The pitchers left are going to represent about a win or two improvement at most. Teoscar or Santander are going to be filling the hole left by O'Neill if the Red Sox are going play Anthony this season. Right now, we are most likely going through another season of squinting and seeing the playoffs in July for as late season swoon when the Red Sox get an AL East loaded schedule with a west coast trip in August and September.
There are real structural issues with the Red Sox organization, the main one is there is only one serious SP prospect after three years of being terrible. That prospect is now out because of Tommy John Surgery. They have grabbed a couple of AAAA flyers last year (these are great depth moves but not solving the main problem) like Fitts. Sometimes these guys emerge like Kutter Crawford into real rotation pieces but you need to give the guys run instead of filling the hole with a reclamation project.
The second biggest problem, is the Red Sox don't have anyone on their roster who can effectively hit LHP. Even the mythical "healthy" Trevor Story doesn't have the bat anymore to dig them out of this hole. The current roster without O'Neill hit .679 OPS vs Lefties last season. Even if you somehow sneak into the playoffs with Powerball winning levels of RNG, a team like the Yankees are going make the Red Sox look like Belgium trying to fend off a German offensive.
There are some payroll issues but they have plenty of money to spend and haven't been able to. Pretty much every major contract they signed after moving on from Mookie has been a disaster. Sale, Story, and Yoshida have been abject failures and Devers looks like it is going to be the very contract that has paralyzed them in free agency when you project it forward. The inflation on top tier free agents still hasn't clocked by Kennedy and FSG who flubbed every offseason since Kennedy was put in charge.
At this point, Boston is no longer a spot for free agents looking to win. It is going to take years to try to rebuild that. They have been running the team like 2018 was last year for the last six years except they have been bleeding away talent. The only elite talent performance they had on the roster last year is Duran. Devers, Story, and Giolito are years removed from the last time they broke 5+ WAR.
There are reasons to think they will be a bit better with Casas returning and some of the prospects graduating but I am not sure what to say. There are definitely some possible trades to that be made to possibly change the situation but there aren't any golden bullets left in free agency. From an ownership level this team has been severely mismanaged since Sam Kennedy was named CEO.
