Boston Red Sox
“He’ll need to get creative in improving a Red Sox team that’s already quite good.”
Craig Breslow didn’t mince words on Monday when asked about the Red Sox’ top priorities this offseason.
Even with the emergence of Garrett Crochet as one of the top pitchers in baseball, Boston remains on the prowl for another top-of-the-rotation arm to pair with the southpaw moving forward.
“Particularly someone that we feel like can pitch alongside or slot in behind Garrett and start a playoff game for us,” Breslow said at the GM Meetings in Las Vegas. “Last season, [Brayan] Bello played that role for a majority of the season. Lucas [Giolito] played that role for a majority of the season.
“Because of the depth that we’ve built up over the last couple of years, we feel pretty good about just overall starting pitching. Kind of maybe [numbers] 3ish through 10ish.”
If the Red Sox are searching for another elite arm this winter, it would come as little surprise if Boston revisits a trade for Minnesota righty Joe Ryan — who they reportedly tried to add at the trade deadline in late July.
MLB insider Jeff Passan seems to share a similar sentiment about Boston’s offseason approach.
In a new story on ESPN mapping out multiple MLB team’s “perfect” offseason move, Passan vouched for the Red Sox prying Ryan out of Minnesota.
“At the trade deadline this past season, the Red Sox believed they were close to landing Joe Ryan, an elite arm who had his best year yet for the Twins in 2025,” Passan wrote. “As long as Red Sox ownership keeps the financial clamps on chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, he’ll need to get creative in improving a Red Sox team that’s already quite good.
“Revisiting what he missed at the deadline is the simplest way to do so, and as much as the Twins say they want to win in 2026, they understand: Now is the time to strike, and dealing Boston another front-line starter to pair alongside Garrett Crochet is the way to do it.”
Ryan, 29, was a force on the mound for the Twins this past season — going 13-10 with a 3.42 ERA and 194 strikeouts over 171 innings of work. His 1.04 WHIP ranked ninth in the majors, with Crochet eighth at 1.03.
Speaking in August, even Ryan acknowledged that he thought he was going to Boston — especially after seeing false posts on social media that announced the trade.
“I obviously thought I got traded for several minutes and then it was like, ‘Is this going to happen? What’s the deal?’ That was a weird mix of emotions,” Ryan told reporters, via MLB.com’s Matthew Leach. “I was with Griffin [Jax] during that.
“It was just weird. Then he didn’t think he was going to get traded, and he got traded [while] I didn’t. It was weird. It was a lot. It felt like I was throwing an intense situation in a game.”
A trade for Ryan would cost a significant package of prospects and/or big-league players — given the righty’s current production on the mound and the fact that he’s under team control and won’t hit free agency until after the 2027 season.
But even if Breslow might have to subtract some blue-chip prospects from Boston’s pipeline, the opportunity to pair Crochet and Ryan together atop a rotation might be a scenario too good to pass up moving forward.
Get the latest Boston sports news
Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.
