Red Sox In Discussions With Two Superstar Free-Agent Pitchers, Per Insider

Give us all the pitching!

Mar 7, 2015; Sarasota, FL, USA; A general view of Boston Red Sox hat and glove laying in the dugout at a spring training baseball game at Ed Smith Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-Imagn Images / Kim Klement-Imagn Images

There's an old baseball adage that has never rung truer for the Boston Red Sox: You can never have too much pitching.

In 2024, the Red Sox experienced ups and downs on both sides of the ball, but their Achilles Heel was that there weren't enough quality innings on the pitching staff to cover a full season. By mid-August, the entire staff was running on fumes, correlating with the long losing stretch that sank Boston's playoff hopes.

Thankfully, it seems as though the Red Sox are committed to fixing that issue. And as an added bonus, they seem to be targeting some left-handed starting pitching, which was a foreign concept to the team in 2024.

ESPN insider Jeff Passan recently shared on Baseball Bar-B-Cast that the Red Sox have been in contact with a pair of star free-agent starters: Blake Snell of the San Francisco Giants and Max Fried of the Atlanta Braves.

“With the Red Sox, everything has lined up for them at this point, except their ability to develop starting pitching at a big league level," Passan said.

"Now Brayan Bello's good, Kutter Crawford is a perfectly fine big-league starter. But they don't have a dude. And it’s why they’re talking with Blake Snell, and it’s why they’re talking with Max Fried.”

Snell, 31, may be the single most dominant pitcher in baseball when he's got his A-game. From July onward in 2024, he tossed 81 2/3 innings to the tune of a 1.29 ERA and 105 strikeouts. Plus, he's got two Cy Young Awards on his mantel, one in each league.

Fried, 30, is a two-time All-Star in his own right, and he's been about as steady a performer as one could ask for since arriving in the big leagues. He's got a 73-36 career record with a 3.07 ERA in parts of eight seasons, all as a member of the Braves.

Bringing either of these two star lefties to Boston would make an enormous difference for the entire Red Sox pitching staff in 2025. We'll soon see if either is willing to meet the Red Sox where they are regarding price points.

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