FORT MYERS, Fla. -- At the end of last season, there were at least four players on the Red Sox' major league roster who were not vaccinated. Tuesday brought the news that at least two of those four had been vaccinated over the winter.
Both Xander Bogaerts and Christian Arroyo confirmed that they are now vaccinated.
While the pandemic is, for the time being, largely contained, the players' vaccination status is important since those who are not vaccinated can't take part in games played in Toronto, where the federal government has issued stringent rules. MLB players must be vaccinated to play at Rogers Centre, or else, would forfeit pay and service time for games lost.
"Yeah, get that (information) out there,'' joked Bogaerts when asked if his vaccination had changed.
Arroyo said he got vaccinated during the lockout, and said the prospect of missing games in Toronto wasn't a contributing factor.
"It was the right decision for my family and I,'' said Arroyo. "It was a personal decision, but I ended up sorting that all out.''
Two others players on the major league roster - Chris Sale and Josh Taylor -- were known to be unvaccinated last season. Sale said so publicly, while Taylor was twice placed into a contact tracing protocol, a designation that is only applied to those players who are unvaccinated.
Sale is due to speak with the media Wednesday.
Meanwhile, despite speculation to the contrary, veteran DH J.D. Martinez is vaccinated, according to multiple sources, and was vaccinated last season. Martinez has declined to address the matter publicly.
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Jon Heyman reported that the Red Sox are now involved in talks with free agent Freddie Freeman.
Freeman's return to the Atlanta Braves, the only organization for whom he had played, would seem to be blocked by the Braves' trade for Oakland A's first baseman Matt Olson Monday.
Freeman, a native of southern California, had been linked to the Los Angeles Dodgers. But more recently, four of the five teams in the AL East -- the Red Sox, Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays have all been mentioned as potential landing spots.
The connection to the Red Sox would seem tenuous at best, since, with Bobby Dalbec and top prospect Triston Casas poised to handle first base for the foreseeable future. It's likely that the Sox are merely doing their due diligence on Freeman, expressing a cursory interest in the event the market for him somehow collapses.
It's also likely that the Sox' interest is being made public by the Freeman camp, in order to drive the bidding up, especially for the other teams in the division who have a more obvious need for the first baseman.
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Casas is almost certain to spend the first part of the upcoming season at Triple-A Worcester, but said he already feels like he's ready to handle the challenges of the big leagues.
"But that's not up to me,'' he said.
Asked what made him confident that he was ready, Casas responded: "My work ethic. I've been doing this since I was a little kid. It wasn't just this offseason that I started working hard, or last week, when I started showing up early. I've been doing this for a long time and I will continue to be doing that.''
Casas said he doesn't compare himself to current major leaguers.
"I don't measure myself against anybody,'' he said. "I think I'm my own person. I don't like to set expectations, limits or goals for myself. I feel like those are limitations. I just go out and do things as I see fit and go about it that way.''
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Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy addressed the entire organization Tuesday morning and then met with the media, though principal owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner weren't on hand to do the same.
Kennedy said ticket sales were "understandably slow,'' this winter, due to the lingering effects of COVID and the labor lockout, but have taken off in the last week.
"We are pacing well behind prior years,'' he conceded. "But I think now that we have an agreement and people are getting more and more comfortable in an outdoor environment relative to COVID, hopefully things will start to pick up and we can build on the good momentum of 2021.''
Kennedy declined to say specifically what the team's payroll budget will be for 2022, or whether the Sox ownership would permit Chaim Bloom to go over any of the CBT thresholds. The Sox currently sit about $22 million shy of the first threshold of $230 million.
"We've tried not to talk about payroll numbers, because that would be tipping our hands to a very, very competitive American League East,'' said Kennedy. "I guess I'll just point to previous history. In our time here, we've been over the CBT thresholds many times, and we've been under many times. To the extent that we can keep our competitors guessing, that's a good thing.
"But what I can say about John Henry and Tom Werner and Mike Gordon, is that they're as hungry as ever for a fifth World Series championship...and a sixth and a seventh. The club has never been run by a bottom-line metric We've put a focus on being competitive and playing baseball deep into October. There's no newfound focus on any financial metrics. There's always been a focus on being responsible financially to make sure the health of the club is there for the long term.
"I think our fans can expect us to continue to be focused on winning and doing what we've become known for -- if you go around and talk to the other 29 teams, I think they'll tell you that the Red Sox are as committed to winning as any organization -- not just in baseball, but in professional sports.''
Kennedy added that the Sox are interested in taking part in more international games and special events, and confirmed that the team is "lobbying hard'' for another All-Star Game at Fenway.
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The Red Sox confirmed the signing of reliever Matt Strahm, who agreed to a one-year deal for $3 million over the weekend. Strahm was present for Tuesday's workout.
The Sox are also in agreement with another lefty reliever, Jake Diekman, who agreed to a two-year deal at a $3.5 million salary for each of the next two seasons, plus an option year for 2024 with a $1 million buyout, making the value of his deal $8 million. Diekman was also on hand Tuesday.
With Strahm made official, the Sox are now at 40 for their 40-man roster. They'll need to add Diekman, too, but that will require the Sox moving someone off the 40-man. That could be done with placing either James Paxton or Bryan Mata on the 60-day IL. Both are recovering from surgery and won't be ready to start the season.