Red Sox

MLB insider blasts Red Sox for not going ‘full throttle’ as promised

"With the Red Sox, it's put up or shut up."

Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow (further) and president Sam Kennedy (closer) during Breslow's introductory press conference. Barry Chin/Globe Staff

By Luke Scotchie

During the Red Sox’ introductory press conference for Craig Breslow, chairman Tom Werner promised that his team would go”‘full throttle” and acquire whatever is needed to compete, no matter the cost.

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There’s still time, but the Red Sox have yet to make a full-throttle move this offseason. People outside of the team are beginning to notice.

“What we’ve seen so far — like I said, some nice moves, but of the lesser variety — this is not full throttle,” The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal said on his “Fair Territory” podcast Monday.

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Rosenthal, who named the Red Sox ownership his “Dorks of the Week” on Monday’s episode, is one of many people who believe that the Red Sox still need to do more. He acknowledged that the Red Sox have made some important moves, such as dealing Alex Verdugo and trading for Tyler O’Neill, but nothing “full throttle.”

It should be noted that this is one of the slower MLB offseasons in recent memory, and most teams haven’t had the opportunity to go all-in so far. Most teams have been trapped in bidding wars for one or two free agents and have hardly focused on anyone else.

One of these free agents is superstar ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, whose pending decision appears to be holding up the starting pitching market. Yamamoto’s initial round of in-person meetings with teams didn’t start until the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani to an unprecedented contract after the Winter Meetings had concluded.

Acquiring Yamamoto and giving him the massive contract he is expected to get would almost certainly change the narrative surrounding the Red Sox’ offseason, Rosenthal argued. But what if they don’t?

“Signing Yamamoto, yes, that would certainly qualify as ‘full throttle,’” Rosenthal said. “If they don’t get Yamamoto, would Blake Snell qualify? Would Jordan Montgomery qualify? I’m not so sure.”

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The Red Sox hired Breslow to replace Chaim Bloom, who they reportedly felt couldn’t make the difficult decisions. There’s still time left for Breslow to make those decisions, with 100 days before Opening Day and several free agents to choose from.

But if they don’t, many will view this winter as yet another offseason of marginal-at-best changes for the Red Sox, just with a new front office. 

“With the Red Sox, it’s put up or shut up,” Rosenthal said. “Because they fired Chaim Bloom basically because they felt he could not take them to the next level, he could not make the kind of bold acquisitions that need to be made. Well, here we are. Bold acquisitions that still need to be made.”