The Red Sox still have some sizable roster holes to fill, but increasingly, it looks as though a few of those are going to be done via a trade rather than free agency.
A recent rash of free agents signings -- by the Red Sox and others -- have left the market pretty picked over. From the top 25 or so free agents heading into the winner, only a handful remain unsigned. Thus, as the Sox look for another starting pitcher, a righthanded bat, an upgrade behind the plate and a key piece in the middle of the diamond, it's far more likely that those come in a deal.
"I think so, just by virtue of how many players have signed,'' said Bloom. "We expected that if we were able to do everything we wanted to do this offseason, it would be a mix of the two (free agent and trade avenues). Hopefully, we'll see the trade market start to come into focus a little bit more as everybody takes a breath from the free agent frenzy we've been experiencing.
"It's always hard to predict how offseasons will go. This one, once it picked up, boy, it went. The winter meetings were as active as any that I can remember. It seemed like a lot of teams weren't even thinking about trades because they were focused on the free agent market. So we probably will see that change now, but it's hard to predict.''
The most obvious need would seem to be shortstop, with the loss of Xander Bogaerts. But because the Red Sox have two in-house possibilities to shift to shortstop -- Trevor Story and Kiké Hernandez -- the Sox are open to an "up-the-middle'' player: someone who could play either short, second or center field.
"It's on the table,'' said Bloom. "We want to strengthen ourselves up the middle. We're fortunate to have, with those two guys, the flexibility to do it a lot of different ways. So that just allows us to look at more opportunities and if an opportunity is there, it's one of the reasons we moved as quickly as we did to make sure Kiké was a part of this team, because he opens up those possibilities for us.''
______________________
The Red Sox formally introduced Kenley Jansen as they made his signing (two years, $32 million) official.
Jansen said he was drawn to the Red Sox for their tradition and on-field success.
"It's one of the historic organizations in baseball,'' said Jansen. "The name and the weight the Red Sox carry, it gets you excited, gets your adrenaline going. You know this is a historic organization and it's all about winning. I'm excited and I'm looking for it.''
Bloom said the Sox expressed an interest in Jansen early in the offseason.
"I don't see how you can look at ways to improve your bullpen and not think about Kenley Jansen,'' said Bloom. "Obviously we came into the offseason knowing that (the bullpen) was an area we wanted to help out. We're talking about as someone who has done this job for about as long as anybody's done it, on the biggest stages and I think that's something that will help out everybody on our pitching staff.''
In some analytic circles, paying top dollar for a close isn't viewed as efficient way of allocating payroll, but that didn't deter the Red Sox.
"It really wasn't about efficient as much as it was about impact,'' said Bloom. "He stood out to us as someone we had identified early on as a really talented player, where the addition and the terms just made sense to us. Plenty of people can succeed in the ninth inning without the experience of having done it. The important thing is the talent level and he's demonstrated over the years that he's still at a high talent level with a signature pitch that's really, really hard to square up.''
After being without a proven, experienced closer since Craig Kimbrel in 2018, the Sox believe they have the framework for more structure in the back end of the bullpen.
"It's much easier for everyone in that dugout for everybody in that bullpen when you feel a sense of order out there,'' said Bloom. "It doesn't mean you have to get there through established players, it doesn't mean you have to get there through expensive players. The important thing is to get there and we feel we're well-suited to do that.''
__________________________
Jansen was the more deliberate pitcher on the mound in 2022 and has been highly critical of the new pitch clock, which will force pitchers to work more quickly.
"You just can't let it bother you,'' he said of the change. "It's going to be tough on the hitters, too. I remember last year, when I found out I was the slowest, I started to speed up myself a little bit, and it wasn't a problem. I was on the rubber, waiting for the hitter. I think both sides have to adjust. You can't let stuff like that bother you. It's going to be fine.''
"I'm sure it will be an adjustment,'' said Bloom. "There's obviously an unknown that introduces. But the way he thinks through things, there's no more high-pressure role than we he's done for a living for basically his whole career. There will be an adjustment. I expect we'll see a pretty tough adjustment process for a lot of guys across the league and then I think everybody's going to find their way.''
__________________
Speaking to reporters for the first time since Bogaerts agreed to a new contract with the San Diego Padres, CEO and president Sam Kennedy would not second-guess the team's strategy.
"It's difficult,'' he said of the end result. "That said, making these very difficult decisions is part of the job. It goes with the territory. I try not to look back. You can really harm yourself, harm your plan and harm decision-making if you get too caught up in regrets of the past or any type of fear of the future. I don't engage in either of those two activities. I don't focus on regrets of the past and I don't worry about the things I can't control in the future.
"What we're trying to do in the moment is make the right decisions for the Boston Red Sox. That's the job. It comes with making difficult decisions, as we all know. It's really difficult when you lose players who mean so much to you. That's the hardest part of the job. Do you wish that you could have homegrown stars from start to finish? Of course you do. But unfortunately, that's not the reality of this business all the time.''