The Boston Red Sox may lose Sonny Gray this offseason, but may not be looking to replace him with a top-of-the-market free agent.
Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow spoke on Sonny Gray's free agency on Monday and said more about how appreciative the Red Sox were of him and how they recognized what a great season he had. He did not shut down the idea of bringing him back, but his comments sounded like those thanking a player on his way out.
Gray should have no problem landing a nice contract after the year he had, and losing him will certainly be a blow to the Red Sox. How will they replace him? Well, Michael King and Freddy Peralta are the best pitchers not named Tarik Skubal in free agency, but the Red Sox are reportedly not looking at Peralta right now.
"In case you were wondering, it does not appear the Red Sox are in on Freddy Peralta," wrote Red Sox insider Rob Bradford on X on Wednesday.
As far as King goes, Breslow's comments on Monday may shed some light on how the Red Sox are approaching the rotation as Gray seems to be headed elsewhere.
“I think the rotation is in a really good place,” Breslow said. “I think it should be a strength of our 2027 team. Whether that’s through Garrett (Crochet) being healthy, the continued development of Payton (Tolle), Ranger (Suarez) being a steady, stalwart presence for us, Jake Bennett who emerged and Brayan Bello, who when he came back from being out on option, he looked reinvigorated and was effective in multiple different roles. And getting (Johan Oviedo), Kutter (Crawford) and Tanner (Houck) healthy, I think we should have options and we’ll have some competition.”
The Red Sox seem to like the arms they have and are expecting Bello to bounce back as a starter after an odd year. They could be looking to allocate resources on adding some bats.