The Crimson Sox made their first massive transfer of the offseason immediately, as present CBO Craig Breslow made a cope with just lately departed CBO Chaim Bloom, buying three-time All-Star and former Cy Younger runner-up Sonny Grey from the Cardinals in trade for Richard Fitts and prospect Brandon Clarke (the #8 prospect within the system based on SoxProspects.com), and both a participant to be named later or money. Grey, who turned 36 two weeks in the past, is owed $35 million plus a $5 million buyout for the ultimate 12 months his contract subsequent season. However the Cardinals are consuming $20 million of his wage and, after a slight transforming of phrases, the Sox are on the hook for $21 million for the needs of MLB’s aggressive stability tax.
Let’s begin right here: this can be a good transfer in a vacuum. Grey’s 5.89 strikeout-to-walk ratio was the fourth-best in all of baseball final 12 months, trailing solely Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet, and Bryan Woo. His 3.6 fWAR final 12 months would have simply been the second-best mark on the Crimson Sox workers. He’s an excellent pitcher who makes the Crimson Sox higher and the Sox paid a wonderfully affordable worth to get him. Richard Fitts had an ERA+ of simply 83 final 12 months, isn’t significantly younger as he’s getting into his age-26 season, and was buried on the Sox depth chart. If, as a crew, you’ll be able to’t threat buying and selling away Richard Fitts, then you definately’ve obtained main issues; the worst a part of shedding him is that we’ll by no means discover out whether or not his mother and father are completely clueless or the funniest goddamn individuals on this planet.
Clarke is a barely totally different story, as he’s a left-handed prospect who throws warmth and was tabbed by some to have a breakout performance next year. However even nonetheless, he’s accomplished just one season of single-A ball and is simply as more likely to find yourself as a reliever as he’s a starter — if he ever makes it to the massive leagues in any respect. Positive, there’s an opportunity that Clarke develops properly and turns into an stable middle-of-the-rotation arm in 2029. However forgoing an opportunity to enhance your massive league roster since you need to grasp on to somebody like Brandon Clarke is, properly, what Chaim Bloom would’ve executed, and there’s a purpose he was on the opposite facet of this deal immediately.
However is that this an excellent transfer within the context of the Crimson Sox 2025-26 offseason? That’s the place issues get a bit of extra difficult.
As the entire world is aware of (as a result of Craig Breslow advised them) the Sox’ high precedence coming into this season was buying a second stud pitcher, somebody who, based on Breslow, “can pitch alongside or slot in behind Garrett and begin a playoff recreation.” So is Grey that vaunted quantity two? It’s not all that arduous to make the case that he’s. As lined above, he posted an elite strikeout-to-walk ratio final season. Furthermore, that 3.6 fWAR I discussed was the Seventeenth-best in baseball, higher than massive names like Dylan Stop, Jacob deGrom, and Joe Ryan. His 3.39 FIP was the Eleventh-best in baseball, higher than Kevin Gausman, Bryan Woo, and Freddy Peralta. And his 10.1 strikeouts-per-nine had been the Tenth-best in baseball, besting Max Fried, Framber Valdez, and Hunter Brown.
However, for as many stats as yow will discover that make him look elite, yow will discover simply as many crimson flags, too. His ERA+ was a below-league common 96 final 12 months. The 25 homers he allowed would have led the 2025 Crimson Sox. And he was horrendous in his lone season within the AL East, as he put up a career-low ERA+ of 86 with the Yankees in 2018. If Breslow’s quote about discovering somebody who might pitch alongside Garrett Crochet made you suppose the Sox had been going for one thing just like the Randy Johnson-Curt Schilling one-two punch on the turn-of-the-century Diamondbacks, then this transfer in all probability feels underwhelming.
However, in fact, the offseason isn’t over but, giving this explicit commerce a sort of Schrodinger’s cat vibe. Is there an excellent transfer or a foul transfer within the field? We might not know for certain till we open it in Spring Coaching, once we see what the remainder of the roster appears like. If Breslow provides nonetheless extra punch to the rotation whereas enhancing the lineup, then we might take a look at this commerce as a masterstroke, a transfer that gave the Sox an elite rotation at an inexpensive worth. But when that is it — or if the $20 million owed to Grey makes it more durable to signal somebody like Pete Alonso to anchor the lineup — then we would sound like the “books for Christmas” kid once we open the field down in Fort Myers in just a few months: a 36-year outdated groundball pitcher who wants a powerful proper facet of the infield? What the heck is that?
