{"id":543952,"date":"2026-01-29T12:07:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T12:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/543952\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T12:07:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T12:07:39","slug":"ken-rosenthal-hints-at-boston-red-soxs-final-offseason-move-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/543952\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Rosenthal Hints at Boston Red Sox\u2019s Final Offseason Move"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ken Rosenthal may have said the quiet part out loud on Fair Territory late last week<\/a>. And in doing so, he sharpened the picture of where the Red Sox believe this roster is still incomplete:<\/p>\n

\u201cJen McCaffrey of The Athletic, my colleague there, wrote that the Red Sox really would prefer to play Marcelo Mayer at third and then get a second baseman – some kind of option there, a good defender who could really kind of round out their team. They’ve got one big move left in them, I believe. And if they do that, people will point toward Nico Hoerner. I don’t know that the Cubs are going to trade Nico Hoerner. Brendan Donovan is also out there in a trade. But the Red Sox don’t necessarily want to go left handed at that position, they’re pretty left handed as it is. So there are a lot of interesting things still to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That framing matters, because it aligns almost perfectly with how Boston\u2019s offseason has unfolded to this point – aggressive on the mound<\/a>, calculated with the bats<\/a>, and still unfinished.<\/p>\n

The Red Sox didn\u2019t spend the winter pretending pitching alone would solve everything, but they clearly made it the priority. Sonny Gray<\/a> and Ranger Suarez<\/a> stabilized a rotation that had too many question marks, and the depth additions suggest a front office trying to reduce volatility over 162 games.<\/p>\n

What they haven\u2019t done is meaningfully reshape the everyday lineup beyond Willson Contreras<\/a> – a move that improved contact and toughness but didn\u2019t fundamentally change the lineup\u2019s balance.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Rosenthal\u2019s reporting hits home.<\/p>\n

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The Red Sox aren\u2019t just \u201clooking for a bat.\u201d They\u2019re trying to finish a puzzle.<\/p>\n

Internally, they see Marcelo Mayer as a third baseman long-term<\/a> – not because he can\u2019t play shortstop, but because his bat profiles as one that should live in the middle of the order. That move, however, creates a new problem:<\/p>\n

Second base becomes the hinge point of the entire roster.<\/p>\n

The player they add there has to defend, hit right-handed, and bring stability – not necessarily star power – to a lineup that already leans left and already carries volatility in the outfield.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Nico Hoerner keeps coming up<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Sep<\/p>\n

Sep 26, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner (2) celebrates with teammates in the dugout after hitting a solo home run against the St. Louis Cardinals during the first inning at Wrigley Field. (Kamil Krzaczynski\/Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

He fits the exact description Rosenthal laid out:<\/p>\n

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Elite defender, right-handed bat, playoff-caliber reliability.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s also why the Cubs\u2019 willingness (or lack thereof) to move him matters more than Boston\u2019s desire.<\/p>\n

Brendan Donovan checks many of the same boxes<\/a>, but the handedness concern is real, especially for a team that already risks being matchup-dependent late in games.<\/p>\n

The key line in Rosenthal\u2019s comments might be the simplest one:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got one big move left in them.\u201d<\/p>\n

That suggests discipline. It suggests Boston isn\u2019t interested in splurging for splurging\u2019s sake or chasing redundancy. It also suggests urgency. Not desperation, but clarity.<\/p>\n

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The Red Sox know what they are right now:<\/p>\n

A team built to pitch, defend, and survive the division, but one that could become overly reliant on young bats like Roman Anthony if they don\u2019t round out the lineup.<\/p>\n

If this truly is the final swing of the offseason, it won\u2019t be flashy. It\u2019ll be functional.<\/p>\n

And if it\u2019s done right, it\u2019ll be the move that makes everything else make sense.<\/p>\n

\"Sep<\/p>\n

Sep 26, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner (2) rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run against the St. Louis Cardinals during the first inning at Wrigley Field. (Kamil Krzaczynski\/Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

JOIN THE CONVERSATION:<\/p>\n

Remember to join our RED SOX on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Red Sox fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that’s free too!<\/p>\n

Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He’s a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com<\/a>, and a native of Lincoln, RI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ken Rosenthal may have said the quiet part out loud on Fair Territory late last week. And in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,4492,138,24,4748,1248,4,33,90,89,2543,793,1587,67,409],"class_list":{"0":"post-543952","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-brendan-donovan","13":"tag-chicago","14":"tag-chicago-cubs","15":"tag-ken-rosenthal","16":"tag-marcelo-mayer","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-nico-hoerner","19":"tag-ranger-suarez","20":"tag-red-sox","21":"tag-redsox","22":"tag-roman-anthony","23":"tag-sonny-gray","24":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","25":"tag-willson-contreras"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115978309236810802","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543952","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=543952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}