{"id":530083,"date":"2026-01-21T01:42:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/530083\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T01:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:42:23","slug":"red-sox-named-among-three-teams-actively-trying-to-win-al-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/530083\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Named Among Three Teams &#8216;Actively Trying&#8217; To Win AL East"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MLB senior writer Jim Bowden of The Athletic recently called the Boston Red Sox one of the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2026\/01\/mlb-insider-says-red-sox-among-most-improved-teams-this-offseason\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">most improved<\/a>\u201d teams of the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>That was before they agreed to a five-year, $130 million deal with 2024 All-Star starting pitcher Ranger Suarez.<\/p>\n<p>Following the Suarez news, ESPN senior writer David Schoenfield argued that the Red Sox\u2019s roster \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2026\/01\/mlb-expert-says-red-soxs-roster-looks-like-one-that-can-win-the-division\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">looks like one that can win the division<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Athletic\u2019s Chad Jennings broke down the 30 MLB teams into \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6984114\/2026\/01\/20\/mlb-offseason-tiers-teams-trying\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">offseason tiers<\/a>\u201d on Tuesday and argued that Boston is one of just three squads that is \u201cactively trying to win the AL East.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Red Sox and MLB writer placed Boston in the same group as the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays, who have also been busy this winter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStarter Ranger Su\u00e1rez is their only Major League free-agent signing, but the Red Sox have completed a whopping 10 trades this winter \u2014 seriously, 10! \u2014 most notably adding first baseman Willson Contreras and starter Sonny Gray in different deals with the Cardinals,\u201d Jennings wrote. \u201cThey\u2019ve transformed their rotation behind lefty ace Garrett Crochet but could still use an infield replacement for third baseman Alex Bregman.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>President of baseball operations Craig Breslow\u2019s biggest moves aside from the Suarez deal came via trade when Boston acquired both <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/12\/mlb-expert-praises-red-sox-after-trade-for-solid-hitter-willson-contreras\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first baseman Willson Contreras<\/a> and Sonny Gray from the St. Louis Cardinals in separate transactions.<\/p>\n<p>Jennings put the other two divisional rivals in different tiers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Amid a slow offseason, the Tampa Bay Rays were placed in the \u201cdefinitely doing \u2026 something\u201d tier.<\/p>\n<p>Still without a major free agency signing, the New York Yankees were put in the \u201ctechnically still the Yankees\u201d category.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MLB senior writer Jim Bowden of The Athletic recently called the Boston Red Sox one of the \u201cmost&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,6930,4,90,89,2543,1587,409],"class_list":{"0":"post-530083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-bostonredsox","12":"tag-craig-breslow","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-ranger-suarez","15":"tag-red-sox","16":"tag-redsox","17":"tag-sonny-gray","18":"tag-willson-contreras"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115930552481632353","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}