Craig Breslow Explains Why Red Sox Acquired RHP Sonny Gray from Cardinals

Craig Breslow Explains Why Red Sox Acquired RHP Sonny Gray from Cardinals

Um, you know, he was he was somebody that we had interest in. Um, but, you know, it’s early in the offseason and there’s interest across a a whole span of players. Um, but, you know, I just think it it could make sense given our interest in building the best team we we possibly can in 2026 and that uh, you know, potentially lining up with with what St. Louis is is trying to accomplish. And when you think about, you know, what Sunny has been in this league, it’s a it’s a guy who’s pitched at the front of rotations. and you know those things that we think pitchers carry from year to year, things like strikeout rates and walk rates and ability to uh you know to stay off barrels. Um he excels there. So we’re really excited about adding a guy that you know is coming off backto-back 200 strikeout seasons and you know shouldering significant workload. That said, Craig, uh do you do you view him as kind of the number two behind Crochet at this point and would you consider adding to the rotation um going forward? You know, I don’t know how much sense it makes in November to put a number on a on a guy. I think Sunny is a very talented major league pitcher. Um, you know, the the seasons that he’s put up pretty consistently indicate that to be the case. Uh, that said, you know, we still um intend to to improve our team. And exactly what that looks like, we don’t know right now. Um, but we’ll continue to explore opportunities and and figure out where that takes us. Craig, how much did his pitch mix uh play into wanting to to work with him? You mentioned, you know, missing barrels, uh having a number of different pitches. Was the type of pitcher that he was outside of his caliber uh something that drew your attention? Well, we we start by evaluating the performance on the field, right? and and try to understand what like I said what um you know what what abilities and what metrics are sticky yeartoear because you know we’re we’re making a bet on what anybody is going to be uh in 2026 not what they have been in the past and the strikeout rate and walk rate are like I said a good place to start. Um, beyond that though, he is a guy whose secondaries, uh, you know, make up a significant part of the arsenal and particularly like sweeper and curveball are just two really really good pitches and you can look at the whiff rates and the chase rates on the sweeper and say like this this is the foundation of a really strong arsenal and I think he will uh he he’ll be a great match for Bales and the rest of the pitching group and uh, you know, the philosophies that they have in terms of uh, you know, leaning into strengths, potentially pitching away from slug and and often that meaning pitching away from from fast balls when you have secondaries as your best pitches. Craig, in Vegas, you said, you know, you wanted a guy who can slot in behind crochet and be that, you know, 1B or two. Obviously, kind of the same question as Jen asked, but do you feel like you could still add a very high-end starter via Trader Free agency, or is this like the big name starter edition you guys will make? You know, like I said, I don’t I don’t want to, you know, kind of paint paint anyone ourselves in into a corner here. uh you know, we we felt like there was an opportunity to upgrade our rotation in 2026 and and so we did that. Um you know, it’s it’s early in the offseason. There are still um you know, opportunities that I anticipate materializing. Exactly what those look like, I’m not sure, but we’re not going to close off any chance to make the team better. Greg, how long have you targeted Sunny? Sure. Uh you know, I think initial interest going back even to the trade deadline. um you know and then as we start to have conversations with free agents with other teams um you can’t perfectly dictate timelines and and you know I think in two short years here I’ve learned that when you have an opportunity in front of you that makes sense you need to act on it. Greg obviously you have a lot of young pitchers who uh you’re going to be giving opportunities whether in spring training or or in the near future to compete for rotation spots. Was the idea of acquiring a starter for a kind of short term appealing from that vantage point of pieces fitting over the course of uh of the longer term? Each of these situations is unique, right? There are certainly pitchers that are going to require uh long-term commitments. There will be uh position players who do so and and you know, I don’t think we can shy away from that. Uh you know, especially in free agency, otherwise uh we’ll largely be left with with very limited options. Uh that said, I think this will be an important development year for a number of our our guys. And exactly where that takes place, I’m not sure. And the speed that it takes place at I’m I’m not sure. But knowing that uh you know, guys like Early and Tooli and Harrison and Parales and Dobbins and and others are all capable of taking a step forward or multiple steps forward and, you know, working their way towards the front of the rotation. We want to leave them the opportunity to do so. Uh we also need to make sure that we’re not becoming so reliant on uh you know on guys that need to continue to develop that we find ourselves uh handicapping our chances in in the short term. Craig um Sunny had kind of a negative experience in New York seven or eight years ago in his only full season with the Yankees. Didn’t seem to enjoy the environment. Um, did did you uh talk to him in the process about uh obviously he had to wave his no trade to to have this uh take place, but did you talk to him about pitching in Boston and how he felt about uh you know that size market and attention? Sure. You know, the the no trade is a is a great barometer for how interest a player is in in coming to to a specific destination, right? And so, you know, kind of by nature of Sunny’s willingness to uh to wave it to come here, I think that says a lot about his interest. But beyond that, I had a chance to to talk to him. Um, and he he’s excited. I think he saw from afar what we’re building here. Um, you know, he he had a ton of admiration that he expressed for for Garrett and how much he believes Garrett can push him and how they can push each other. um you know and and he was very clear about his desire to win um and and his excitement uh about this opportunity. So you know he’s very excited to come to Boston and and we’re excited to have him. Can you take us through uh just you know the process the last few days? You know obviously you’re not usually looping in a player uh when you’re acquiring them in a trade, but you know at what point did you have to start talking to them about you know renegotiating and getting him to Sure. Uh certainly some you know complicated layers to this given the the no trade protection that he had you know right rightfully earned and and so you know as uh we were going back and forth with as I was going back and forth with Haim um you know trying to figure the the right approach to this and I think everyone has their their preferences and you know obviously I would defer to to him because Sunny was his player um you know about exactly the right time but uh you know I think that there were conversations about potential trades probably early on in the offseason. I th those were made pretty public by by him and the players. Um, you know, I think wasn’t what wasn’t so public was interested in coming to a specific market. Um, you know, so there there was always the chance that that this could go sideways at some point, but fortunately, like I had said earlier, um, you know, Sunny was excited about the opportunity to come to Boston. That was that was obviously the first question that he asked, you know, is is what is the team? I don’t need to know all the details, but what’s the team? Um, and uh, you know, the response was overwhelming excitement. Craig, what did you think just uh the overall kind of acquisition cost and you know the two guys you gave up, you know, what are your thoughts on them? Sure. You know, we we gave up two exciting pitchers with significant control. Uh that’s that’s kind of the trade-off when you’re trying to pull forward wins. Um you know, and we’ve talked for a while now about how uh we’re we’re kind of in this window where we need to compete and we need to compete for the division. we need to compete for uh a deep postseason run and that’s the cost of doing business. You know, Fitzy was was great for us while he was here. He he came over in a trade a couple years ago um and was completely bought into what we were uh hoping that that he would do in terms of getting bigger and stronger and adding velocity and leaning into his secondaries. Um you know, and then with uh with Brandon, guy that we drafted, really really exciting stuff. Uh, and you know, they’re both easy guys to root for and and you know, you hope that when you have these trades, like it works out for both sides. Um, you know, and so it we’ll we’ll hope that each of those guys goes on to successful major league careers and we hope that Sunny is everything that we we need him to be in 2026 for us. Right. Have you got a better idea how the uh free agent um bat market is shaping out or has it changed at all since the GM meetings? still feels pretty early in terms of getting to understand um you know interested teams, interesting interested players and uh you know I think it’s often overlooked in these in these processes that um you know you need to have mutual interest right this isn’t just about uh you know the the the teams that have interest in particular players players often for the first times in in their careers get a the opportunity to choose where they want to call home for the next you know one to 12 years at times s um you know and so there’s a bit of a feeling out and getting to know each other type process and uh I think it’s still pretty early in that. Greg, after you uh acquire number two starter, what’s your next your priority from now? Sure. We’ve been pretty uh pretty transparent about our desire to add to the rotation and our desire to add uh you know a bat um you know on the on the position player side. Uh it’s impossible to to to know exactly what the order of operations will be. Um so we’ll continue to look for opportunities to improve the team. Um but you know I wouldn’t say we’re going to exclusively focus on one thing at at the expense of the other. um we want to be open-minded and um you know so I don’t think this is a uh you know close off all opportunities and look exclusively at position players but I also think that you know there there’s a chance that that comes into focus now over the next couple of weeks. Greg, what what are the advantages of, you know, checking a box for one of your two major needs this relatively early in the off season before free agents start coming off the board before, you know, we’ve had a couple of trades in the last couple of days, but there hasn’t been a lot of movement uh to to sort of get what you need pretty early. What what advantages come with that? Sure. I think it allows you um you know maybe a level of of patience and discipline um to to try to identify exactly what the best fit is and and be um you know very targeted, very specific in in trying to execute on it. Uh you know, I don’t think anybody wants to feel like they’re in a position um you know of having to to check off multiple uh kind of items on on the shopping list and feel like you’re either running out of time or running out of options. Um, but that said, you know, our approach all along was to try to be open-minded about as many ways that that could improve the team as possible. Um, you know, but but certainly we feel good about uh, you know, where where we sit today having made a, you know, a pitching acquisition. Yeah, Craig, when uh, when I heard about the trade, um, Walker Buer came to mind because he and Gray both have below league average VO and a really diverse similar mix. So, health history aside, how different or or similar are those two pictures? Sure. Um, you know, I obviously we had we had Walker here last year. Um, you know, I don’t think anyone would would say that it it worked out as well as we had hoped. Um but you know Sunny uh he’s he’s got a pretty significant track record of uh not only performance um you know and and consistency but you know of of uh shouldering pretty significant workload. Uh I think you know two out of the last three years he’s thrown 180 plus innings. Um you know with with what I would call impeccable command, right? Um you know this guy’s sitting on a a 5% block rate for each of the last two years. Um, and so, you know, there’s not just the 200 strikeouts and swing and miss, but there’s also uh, you know, limiting free passes as well. So, I think they’re they’re fairly different. Um, you know, and and we obviously made made decisions uh in in each of those cases to go forward with the players and, you know, hopefully the Sunny Sunny’s acquisition works out. You mentioned you the desire obviously to acquire a a bat. Um, with the flexibility of the guys currently on the roster, is there a sense as to where you want that bat to to slot in or does that flexibility allow for you to you think about third or second or um, you know, first DH potentially? How do you how do you do you have a plan as to how you want to see that fulfilled? I think you you touched on it in saying that the versatility or flexibility is um you know is is a significant benefit uh because it means that we don’t have to be rigidly anchored to one position over another. Right? We’ve got a bunch of guys who contributed to to wins last year and are capable of playing multiple positions whether that’s Romy Marcelo Hammy uh you know and and others um which gives us a chance to uh to have multiple options in terms of improving uh our our offense. And so we’ll uh we’ll be we’ll be creative. We’ll be open-minded about um the best way to do that. Craig, you obviously touched on the pitchers you traded for for Sunny, but how how good do you feel about just the depth of the prospects um the farm system that you have in order to make any other trades this this off season um and kind of preserving to some of the the top end talent potentially for um an even bigger deal? Sure. It’s never comfortable to trade starting pitching um just because I think we’ve we’ve all seen how quickly uh depth can become depleted. But uh I also think it would be foolish to ignore that we have built up some depth over the last year or so. And there are uh there are guys who have contributed um you know and toward the end of the season. Harrison totally early obviously guys that that come to mind. Dobbins a little bit earlier before the injury. Um, you know, and I think there’s another another group that’s coming. Um, you know, Parales and some of the guys that we drafted recently. Uh, but nobody will sit in this chair and say they they have enough starting pitching. Um, you know, our our job is to continue to develop that and and, you know, to to try and create this internal pipeline and and understand who are the guys that, you know, we need to be cornerstones uh of of this team. um and and who potentially are pitchers that we could use in trades uh to to address other other needs on the roster. Craig, on the outfield depth, is there a desire or or need to um perhaps shed an outfielder going into the the next season or are you confident with with the depth there and be able to find at bats for everybody? Sure. I don’t think there’s a need. Um, you know, I abused this line before, but I’m not sure that, uh, you know, having too many good players is actually a problem. Uh, those things tend to take care of themselves. Uh, you know, we talked about the outfield surplus that we had right up until Roman and Willie were both on the IIL. Um, you know, and and all of a sudden, uh, we were kind of piecing together and mixing and matching lineups. So, you know, I think the the flexibility to rotate guys through the three outfield spots, potentially use the DH spot to keep guys fresh, I think that’s an advantage for us. Um, you know, to to have four outfielders that have the talent and ability uh to play every day. Now, also would say that um you know, if there are opportunities to leverage areas of depth and and maybe outfield is one, maybe uh some of the starting fishing that we just talked about is is another to uh you know, to to address other areas of need on the roster, then we’ll have to consider doing

After the Red Sox acquired RHP Sonny Gray from the St. Louis Cardinals, Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow provides an update on the team’s offseason moves. The team gained a promising bullpen addition in exchange for RHP Richard Fitts, minor league LHP Brandon Clarke, and a player to be named later or cash considerations. Watch for a full breakdown of the deal in Breslow’s media availability.

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