For now, the Red Sox don't have a closer on their roster and may also have to replace Joe Kelly as an important set-up piece in their bullpen.
But with roughly two months to go before the start of spring training, the team seems to have prioritized re-signing free agent starter Nathan Eovaldi above all other offseason moves.
"We've expressed that we do have an interest in bringing Nathan back,'' said Dave Dombrowski, who appeared at the premiere of the 2018 World Series highlight film. "We've talked to him, but so have a lot of other people. He's a guy we'd love to keep; we've talked about that. But he's got a lot of choices at this time.
"We're in a situation where I don't think we have to keep anybody in particular. I mean, you'd like to keep people, by all means, because we'd like to keep as many of guys together (as possible); we had a good club. But I also think that in any situation you go into, you have to look at alternatives. You have a ranking of players that you have in your mind and you just respond based on what happens.''
Unprompted in a separate conversation, manager Alex Cora said his lasting memory of the World Series will be Eovaldi's heroic relief appearance in the marathon Game 3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"Like I told the guys,'' Cora said, "nobody's going to remember who won that game; everybody's going to remember Nate Eovaldi. That's the moment. For him to go out there and pitch the way he did, it was unreal. That was such a performance.''
Eovaldi is attracting strong interest from a half-dozen or so clubs, some of which see him as a reliever/closer. Some in the game believe the bidding for Eovaldi will come down to either the Red Sox or Astros. Eovaldi grew up in Alvin, Texas, just outside Houston.
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