Baseball has crowned a new champion in the Houston Astros, meaning we are officially on to the offseason. The Boston Red Sox who once again had a Divisional Round exit to the would be Champions Houston Astros have already started the offseason with a bang, firing manager John Farrell and hiring the bench coach of the Houston Astros, Alex Cora along with a whole new coaching staff to help Cora lead this young team.
So now the real fun begins, qualifying offers have been handed out (all 9 were rejected). So… where does that leave the Red Sox? One year removed from a season where they could not exceed the luxury tax, Dombrowski and the Sox are ready to spend money on some big name free agents, which is big for a team who is hungry for a power bat. They started their search today as they were set to meet with the agents of Carlos Sanatana and Logan Morrison.
So what are the needs of the Red Sox? They go as listed
POWER BAT
FIRST BASE, SET UP, RELIEF PITCHER/SET UP MAN, AND STARTING PITCHER…
Do you see a trend here? THE RED SOX NEED NEED NEED A POWER BAT!! And coming into free agency where they can finally exceed the luxury tax and are really just one good bat away from being a real threat, and coming off a massive free agency/winter meetings last year where they got Chris Sale, you never know what Dave Dombrowski has under his sleeve.
Lets get down to business… who will the Red Sox look at and who will they get… SPOILERS AHEAD… looking into a deep Free Agency pool for first base there are some big names out there such as Eric Hosmer, Carlos Santana, Logan Morrison, Yonder Alonso and so on… Hosmer and Santana are great options, but my opinion is if they go after one of these guys they should still look for a power bat, not saying they can’t produce power but they aren’t guys you can rely on to hit homers. But the guy I love at this position is not as big of a name as the other two, I’m looking at Logan Morrison who is coming off a stellar season with the Rays, mashing 38 homer runs, and 85 RBIs.
Now onto the most interesting aspect and biggest need, the power bat, there are many ways the Red Sox could go about this, they could dive into the free agency pool, and go after trade deadline stud JD Martinez who propelled the Arizona Diamondbacks into the playoffs. Or they could go the way of the trade deadline, and the biggest name on the trade market is Marlins stud Giancarlo Stanton, now the only issue is you have to give up a lot and pick up a contract of over 300 million dollars. This is what a trade for Stanton would look like…. the Red Sox would have to send Bradley, Boegarts, Chavis and Groome for Stanton, with Cardinals, Giants and Dodgers in the running its gonna be a tight race for the 2017 Home run leader. But the player I am looking at is Khris Davis, an under the radar guy that can hit for power and can come at a cheaper cost than Stanton. So thats just covering some of the needs that this team needs.
So now… my predictions of who the Red Sox will get this offseason…
Logan Morrison… First Baseman
Eduardo Nunez… Infielder
Addison Reed… Relief Pitcher
Doug Fister… Starting Pitcher
Khris Davis… Trade with Oakland for JBJ and Chavis
And finally my predictions for big name free agents…
Ohtani… Yankees Eric Hosmer… Royals
Todd Frazier… Cardinals
Jake Arrieta… Rangers Jay Bruce… Phillies
Zach Britton… Dodgers
JD. Martinez… Giants Lorenzo Cain… Mets
Wade Davis… Cubs Carlos Santana… Rays
