Red Sox
The Red Sox need help across the diamond after two straight last-place finishes.
When the baseball world descends upon Nashville for the Winter Meetings on Monday, almost all of the focus will be on where the stars will end up.
Will Yoshinobu Yamamoto pick his new home next week? Could the Padres actually trade Juan Soto, and if so, where? And, most importantly, is Shohei Ohtani going to choose where he’ll play next?
All of those questions could be answered within the next week. But there are several other free agents that will likely be picking their next homes as well. With the Red Sox coming off two last-place finishes, they certainly can use all of the help they can get.
So, here are under-the-radar free-agent options for the Red Sox to target.
Whit Merrifield
Maybe this one is too simple, or Merrifield isn’t necessarily under the radar, but it makes a lot of sense for the Red Sox.
Outside of Trevor Story’s one-year stint with Xander Bogaerts still in town in 2022, Boston hasn’t had a regular starting second baseman since Dustin Pedroia’s last 100-game season in 2017.
Merrifield, who turns 35 in January, would ideally give the Red Sox a short-term option at the position. He hits for average, with his .284 career batting average being the 22nd-best among active hitters.
After having his worst season at the plate in 2022, Merrifield got on track in 2023, slashing .272/.318/382 to earn the third All-Star nod of his career. However, Merrifield’s stats did take a bit of a dip in the second half of the season, slashing .256/.286/.370.
Merrifield’s bat could be a good fit at Fenway, and he did hit better last season on the road than he did at Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays’ home stadium. He’s hit .308 with a .830 OPS and three homers in 22 career games at Fenway.
Merrifield’s also been a solid fielder at second base over his career, recording 17 outs above average at the position since he became a big leaguer in 2016. On top of everything, Merrifield’s consistently been reliable to play, playing at least 139 games in each 162-game season since his rookie year.
Eddie Rosario
If the Red Sox want to move Masataka Yoshida to be their designated hitter on a more regular basis, Rosario would be a good short-term option to replace him in left field.
The veteran has mostly had a solid bat over his nine-year career, slashing .268/.305/.460 and has some decent pop with 159 homers in 1,030 career games. He was a sneaky important contributor to some of the Braves’ recent success as well, winning NLCS MVP for his performance against the Dodgers in the 2021 playoffs.
This past season marked another solid year at the plate for the right-handed hitter. He slashed .255/.305/.450 with 21 homers, marking the fourth time in the six seasons he’s played 100 games that he’s hit at least 20 homers.
At the very least, the 32-year-old would give the Red Sox a right-handed bat in an outfield that’s mostly filled with lefties. But if they decided to make Yoshida a full-time designated hitter, Rosario would be a major improvement defensively as well. His three outs above average last season were the third-best among all left fielders. Even though Rosario’s outs above average were slightly below zero in the three seasons prior, it would still mark an improvement over Yoshida, who had minus-eight outs above average last season.
Mitch Garver
If the Red Sox are fine with keeping Yoshida in left but want a younger option at designated hitter, Garver could certainly provide similar production that Justin Turner gave them last season.
Garver was just one of the many plus hitters in the Rangers’ lineup en route to winning the World Series in 2023. He slashed .270/.370/.500, adding 19 homers but only played 87 games as he missed nearly two months due to a knee injury. Still, he closed out the season just fine, slashing .226/.317/.434 with three homers and 14 RBIs during the postseason, coming up big in different spots over each series with a clutch hit in each.
Of course, it’s possible that Garver’s 2023 could just be the result of strong hitting over a relatively small sample size. But while the 2023 season was arguably the best in Garver’s seven-year career, he’s also slashed .252/.342/.483 over his career.
There are a couple of concerns though surrounding Garver. While he could also double as an emergency catcher for the Red Sox, he’s also had some injury problems over the years due to playing the position, playing just over 100 games in a season just once in his career. He’s also played very little first base, something Turnder did last season to fill in for Triston Casas against lefties.
If the Red Sox were looking for a designated hitter option who could play some first base, Rhys Hoskins would probably be the better target. But the Phillies slugger is coming off an ACL tear that forced him to miss the entire 2023 season.
Lucas Giolito
Even if the Red Sox sign Yamamoto or Jordan Montgomery, they’ll likely need to add another arm to the rotation. In fact, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has even admitted as much.
One thing is clear: The Red Sox need starting pitchers who can eat innings. Giolito might be the best option to do that outside of the top couple groups of starters this offseason.
The right-handed pitcher has thrown for at least 170 innings in four of the last five 162-game seasons. In the one season he didn’t hit that mark, Giolio pitched 161 2/3 innings. So yeah, he can certainly give the bullpen a lighter workload when it’s his turn in the rotation.
But there obviously should be some concern with Giolioto. After a three-year stretch where he was one of the best starting pitchers in the American League, the 29-year-old has had a rough last couple of seasons. He’s posted nearly a 5.00 ERA each year, going 19-24 as he gave up a league-leading 41 homers last season.
However, Giolioto was having another solid season before he was traded to the Angels ahead of the deadline and was claimed by the Guardians off waivers a month later. He went 6-6 with a 3.79 ERA with a 1.223 WHIP, and 131 strikeouts in 121 innings, so maybe he just needs to be in one spot for a whole season.
Michael Lorenzen
In a similar vein as Giolito, the veteran right-hander could be middle-to-back of the rotation option for the Red Sox to eat some innings.
Lorenzen has settled into being more of a full-time starting pitcher over the last two seasons, recording 43 starts. While he isn’t the innings eater Giilito is, Lorenzen has averaged a little more than 5 2/3 innings per start over the last two years.
Similar to Gioliot though, Lorenzen was having a solid season in 2023 before being traded. The soon-to-be 32-year-old went 5-7 with a 3.58 ERA, 83 strikeouts, and a 1.098 WHIP during his time with the Tigers before being traded to the Phillies.
In one of his first starts in Philadelphia, Lorenzen pitched a no-hitter. But things went downhill after that, going 4-2 with a 5.51 ERA during his regular-season stint with the Phillies. He only pitched out of the bullpen for the Phillies in the postseason as well.
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