Red Sox roster projection: Kenley Jansen out, No. 2 starter comes in trade
Six weeks from now, Red Sox pitchers and catchers will already have had their first workout of spring training at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers. The roster will be (almost certainly) complete and Boston’s mission to contend for the first time in three seasons will begin in earnest.
The exact group of players the Red Sox will bring to Fort Myers is still to be determined, as the club still has some holes to fill before camp breaks. That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been major change already, though. Since taking over, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has traded Alex Verdugo and Chris Sale, acquired Vaughn Grissom and Tyler O’Neill and signed Lucas Giolito. His work is far from done.
In the spirit of predictions — see my 24 predictions for the Red Sox from 2024, which, again, was intended to be more of a fun exercise than any hardcore reporting
— it’s time for the first Opening Day roster projection of the calendar year. It is, at best, a slightly informed guess at the 26 men who will take the field when the Sox take the field in Seattle to open their season on March 28. And it’s absolutely, 100% not going to be accurate because unexpected moves, different transactions than what I have pegged and injuries will all occur. (Seriously, don’t aggregate this.)
STARTING PITCHERS (5): RHP Brayan Bello, LHP Jesús Luzardo*, RHP Lucas Giolito, LHP James Paxton*, RHP Kutter Crawford
ANALYSIS: The Red Sox pretty clearly entered the winter needing two starting pitchers. They signed Giolito, then traded Sale, so they… would seem to need two again. Here, we’ll give them Luzardo in a blockbuster trade with the Marlins (more on the return later) with another southpaw, Paxton, re-signing. At this point, it just seems more likely the Sox turn to the trade market for a top starter (they have the ammo to add a controllable guy) then add an expensive free agent like Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery. (Though a pivot to someone like Shōta
Imanaga, Marcus Stroman or Michael Lorenzen can’t be ruled out). The names here fit but they’re really interchangeable; the point is that it makes sense to fill out the rotation with a pretty good, controllable trade addition (hello Miami and Seattle) and someone else to fill in the back end, likely via free agency.
