About halfway through the MLB offseason, the Boston Red Sox have yet to make a free agent signing. It seems to be the talk of the town because the Red Sox are just one of two teams that hasn’t signed an MLB free agent, and the other is the Colorado Rockies.
It’s a bad look for Boston, especially after Craig Breslow opened the offseason talking about needing a big bat or two, and wanting to add a No. 2 starter. It looked promising at first, but then Dylan Cease got a mega deal with Toronto, Kyle Schwarber resigned in Philly and Pete Alonso went to Baltimore.
Just because they haven’t made a free agent signing, though, doesn’t mean they haven’t made moves. Boston has made 10 trades, most involving players on the 40-man roster. While some of those have been smaller deals, they have also added impact players to the roster.
The Sox so far have added Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras from the Cardinals and Johan Oviedo from the Pirates. Gray figures to slot in the top three in the rotation to start the year. Contreras will likely be the opening day first baseman, and there’s a good chance Oviedo starts the season in the rotation as well.
Just because the Red Sox haven’t signed a free agent, doesn’t mean they haven’t added salary
With those trades, the Sox have also taken on salary. ESPN insider Jeff Passan tallied the estimated money added or lost by each team so far this offseason. According to Passan, the Red Sox have added $56.4 million in salary this offseason.
The $56.4 million added by trades is the highest in MLB by over $30 million. The narrative so far this winter has been the Red Sox being cheap because they haven’t used money on the open market and have taken money from the Cardinals in the trades they’ve made with them. It’s hard for that narrative to continue when they are a top ten spending team overall this winter.
It is also a positive sign because it’s very unlikely the Red Sox will pass on adding from the free agent market entirely this winter. They are still heavily connected to Alex Bregman, who will cost upwards of $25 million per season. They also still need to add to the bullpen at least one arm, if not more. While Boston has yet to make any movement in the open market, it hasn’t been cheap this offseason.