But Breslow should remain bold.
Outside of Crochet and outfielder Roman Anthony, every player in the organization should be on the table to swing trades that would improve the rotation and add power to the lineup.
Add catcher Carlos Narvaéz to that list because it’s difficult to find a good defensive catcher who can add something to the offense.
Obviously, they’re unlikely to trade 37-year-old closer Aroldis Chapman after signing him to an extension. But other than that, put all your cards on the table.
Wilyer Abreu, Jarren Duran, Marcelo Mayer, and Ceddanne Rafaela cannot be untouchable. The same has to be true of Connelly Early, Payton Tolle, and any other young pitcher if it means bringing back a legitimate No. 2 starter with strikeout stuff and the ability to work deep into games.
If the Sox have as much confidence in their pitching pipeline as they say, they’re replaceable.
The front office also should do its part and use the money saved in the Rafael Devers trade — roughly $270 million — to bring in impact free agents instead of reclamation projects like Walker Buehler.
Team president Sam Kennedy has been adamant the trade was not a salary dump. Ownership has to prove that’s true because there are a lot of doubters.
They could do that by stepping up to retain Alex Bregman, bringing in Pete Alonso to play first base and DH, or signing a pitcher such as Michael King or Framber Valdez.
It would be great if Kyle Schwarber returned to Fenway Park, but Dave Dombrowski isn’t going to let him get away from the Phillies.
Breslow ducked a question about whether the Sox would engage Bregman and agent Scott Boras before the end of the World Series, when Bregman can become a free agent.
But they should. Boston was a good fit for Bregman in February and it remains one. He and Boras also may want to avoid what could be a difficult market for free agents ahead of what everybody in the industry expects will be a lockout before the 2027 season.
It’s obvious the Sox need a strong starter behind Crochet given that Brayan Bello has yet to show he’s more than a No. 3. The power deficit is glaring, too. The Sox hit 186 home runs this season, 15th in the majors.
Worse, they hit only 86 home runs at Fenway Park. Even with taking the Athletics and Rays off the list because they played at minor league parks, seven other American League teams hit more at their home ballpark.
The Sox held their annual end-of-season press conference at Fenway Park on Monday and Breslow was careful to not to say the team had any particular needs positionally.
But he did say the team defense had to improve, acknowledging the Sox led the majors with 116 errors.
Then came this interesting comment:
“We didn’t execute consistently with runners in scoring position, right?” Breslow said. “We struck out with runners in scoring position, and that’s another thing that we can examine.”
The Sox had a .748 OPS with runners in scoring position, just above the league average of .745. That was with striking out 345 times, the most in the league in those situations.
The Sox struck out in 26.5 percent of their at-bats with runners in scoring position. The league average was 25.1 percent.
But how the Sox could address those weaknesses was a topic Breslow avoided no matter how the question was poised.
“I think there’s a number of ways that we can improve the club. I think we demonstrated a willingness to try to attack all of those and anticipate that we will do so again,” he said.
Asked if the Sox could rely on prospects supplementing the rotation or would need additions via trade or free agency, Breslow said only that you can never have enough pitching and that he wants to build the best rotation possible.
Well, sure.
Manager Alex Cora was asked how close he thinks the Sox are to winning another championship.
“I think we took the steps in the right direction last offseason [and] during the season, not only as far as what the front office did, but what we did on the field,” he said.
“I truly believe we’re going to be playing for the same thing next year — to win the AL East and have a deep run in October and hopefully win the World Series.”
Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him on Bluesky at peteabeglobe.bsky.social.
