There’s a lot of heat on the Boston Red Sox right now.

That’s because the club missed out on Pete Alonso and Kyle Schwarber in free agency and now is facing stiff competition to retain Alex Bregman with the Arizona Diamondbacks viewed as a potential suitor for him. Boston has done a lot of good work in the pitching department. Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo were big gets. Boston flipped Luis Perales for Jake Bennett in an odd, but intriguing move. But the Red Sox have done nothing in free agency to move the needle.

If you like our content, choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google.

The fanbase is tense right now and if Bregman walks with Boston offering a competitive deal, the noise is only going to get louder. It’s easy to look back at the last year and wonder what could’ve gone differently. For example, the Rafael Devers trade. The Red Sox signed Bregman and moved Devers to DH and angered him in the process. Then, the Red Sox tried to get him to move to first base when Triston Casas got hurt, but he didn’t do it and eventually was traded. Now, the Red Sox need one or two big bats and very well could lose Bregman. Devers is over with the Giants and San Francisco general manager Zack Minasian said they think he is going to be “potentially an above-average” defensive first baseman.

The Red Sox fans won’t like this