Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And there’s been an awful lot of smoke with the growing rumors tying Shohei Ohtani to the Boston Red Sox.
The newly-minted two-time American League MVP has “expressed affinity for certain teams and cities in the past” according to multiple sources of ESPN’s Jeff Passan — and the Red Sox are one of them. Ohtani “loves visiting Boston” and “has a fondness for Fenway Park” per Passan.
Jon Morosi said on MLB Network that Ohtani “is probably less concerned about geography and more concerned about the quality of the team he is going to.” Jon Heyman of the New York Post reiterates that the Red Sox are among a handful of teams “linked to varying degrees.”
If you’re a baseball insider and you’re reporting on Ohtani’s free agency, you’re almost certainly linking them to the Red Sox.
And this isn’t Boston’s first close encounter with the prospect of signing Ohtani, either. Former team international scout Jon Deeble in 2018 told WEEI that the Red Sox nearly signed him out of high school in 2012, but he opted to stay in Japan.
"I think from what I understand it would've come down to the Red Sox and the Dodgers,” Deeble told WEEI. “The Red Sox were definitely one or two to be able to get him, for sure.”
Added former international scout and current executive vice president/assistant general manager Eddie Romero via WEEI: “We were hoping to get him. That year he was a clear No. 1 for us on our internal preference list.”
Now the organization has a chance to redeem itself and Ohtani might be a clear No. 1 priority once more. John Henry will have plenty of other Ohtani suitors to compete with, but it would seem the Red Sox have an inside track to signing baseball’s biggest free agent in history.
And if they do, well… if that doesn’t say “the Red Sox are back,” nothing will.
Montgomery a good fit in Boston?
Another free-agent pitcher the Red Sox have set their sights on is a reigning World Series champion. That would be Jordan Montgomery, who MLB.com's Ian Browne says the team likes — a lot.
Browne told the ITM Podcast that the Red Sox “like Montgomery more than they like (Blake) Snell, they like him more than they like (Aaron) Nola.”
The soon-to-be 31-year-old left-hander is understandably a hot commodity coming off a solid postseason run. In six playoff appearances — including five starts — Montgomery posted a 3-1 record with a 2.90 ERA over 31 innings.
What’s more, in a day and age when starting pitchers are getting the hook faster and earlier than ever in the postseason, Montgomery threw at least 75 pitches in all five of his starts. In his lone appearance out of the bullpen, he threw 32 over 2 1/3 scoreless innings and was the winning pitcher in the Game 7 clincher of the AL Championship series.
Recency bias will tell you Montgomery should be a good fit with any contender. But his success in the last couple of seasons — he’s pitched to a 19-17 record and a 3.34 ERA in 367 innings spread across 64 starts —might just be an anomaly.
Prior to that, Montgomery’s numbers were fairly unremarkable in five seasons with the New York Yankees. He also accused a 19-17 record, but with a 4.01 ERA in 388 innings and 77 games (76 starts).
This is a pitcher who has never won more than 10 games in a season and has only done so once, and that came in 2023 — when he finished with a losing record of 10-11. And for what it’s worth, his career ERA of 4.00 at Fenway Park is the worst in any ballpark he’s made at least five starts in.
Is Montgomery a bad pitcher? Certainly not. Hey, maybe he’s turned a corner and figured something out. But I would be weary about handing over a big or lengthy contract to a .500 pitcher whose best days might be behind him.
Urias is a Red Sox no more
We will all remember the Luis Urias era fondly in Boston.
Do you remember that time when… well, there was that game where… OK, I’ve got nothing. The journeyman infielder left almost as unceremoniously as he arrived in Chaim Bloom’s final trade deadline move of his Red Sox tenure (talk about going out with a whimper…).
Craig Breslow began mopping up Bloom’s mess by dealing Urias to the Seattle Mariners in return for right-handed pitcher Isaiah Campbell.
Campbell, a 26-year-old reliever and former second-round pick in the 2019 amateur draft, pitched effectively for the M’s in his first year in the big leagues last season. He was 4-1 with a 2.83 ERA and 33 punchouts in 28 2/3 innings and 27 appearances. Not bad, right?
He’s even “projected” by Baseball Reference to go 3-2 with a 3.92 ERA and 40 strikeouts while pitching 39 innings in 2024! Whatever that means…
Turning Urias into a potentially promising bullpen arm like Campbell isn’t exactly a headline-making first trade for Breslow, but it signals that he’s following through on his promise to prioritize pitching this offseason.
Call him Chris “Cy Young” Martin
It turns out the Red Sox had a Cy Young Award-winning arm on the staff last season after all…
You know, if Gerrit Cole, Sonny Gray, Kevin Gausman, Kyle Bradish, Luis Castillo, Zach Eflin, Pablo Lopez, George Kirby, Framber Valdez, Chris Bassitt and Felix Bautista all suddenly didn’t exist…
The 37-year-old Chris Martin finished 12th in AL Cy Young Award voting after a shutdown campaign in 2023. He allowed just six runs — six — all season. Fifty-five relief appearances, 51 1/3 innings pitched… six runs. Truly impressive.
It’s too bad a season like that went to waste because of a poorly constructed roster.
I wouldn’t say it was “Cy Young” worthy, myself. But at a time when the team badly needs quality pitching, it’s a plus to have a proven veteran bullpen arm under contract for one more season at a reasonable $7.5 million.
So long, Oakland A’s…
The Oakland A’s are dead. Long live the Oakland A’s. And viva Las “A"-gas.
As much-maligned as owner John Fischer’s move has been in the Bay Area, the relocation of the Athletics to Las Vegas is a good thing for baseball.
Look, the A’s had some notable history during their 56 seasons in Oakland. And as much fun as the “reverse boycott” was to see, and I really do feel for true blue A’s fans in Oakland, but the reality is… people weren’t going to games, people weren’t watching games, and people just didn’t care anymore.
That’s business, and that’s baseball in the 21st century.
Vegas is the place to be these days in sports. The Golden Knights are the reigning Stanley Cup Champions. The Aces are back-to-back WNBA champs. The Raiders… are always interesting. Soon enough, there will be an NBA team there too.
And have you seen the mock-ups of the A’s new stadium in Vegas? Certainly a far cry from the *literally rat-infested* Oakland Coliseum…
So what impact will this have on the Red Sox? For 2024, probably not much. But in 2025 and beyond, a relocated — and refocused — Athletics franchise will almost certainly be looking to spend money and make a big splash in free agency or the trade market to put themselves on the map.
It will be another contender in the mix that Breslow and the Red Sox front office will have to, well, contend with.
Gethin Coolbaugh is a contributor to Boston Sports Journal. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on X/Twitter.