Inside The Red Sox

Red Sox Must Prepare Offer For Cy Young Winner Set To Hit Free Agency

Boston can only expect to contend in 2025 with a revamped rotation

Colin Keane

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The Boston Red Sox must build a better rotation this winter if they want to contend in 2025.

Brayan Bello and Tanner Houck should stay, but Boston needs to add at least one or two quality starters this offseason.

Where will chief baseball officer Craig Breslow turn to for rotation reinforcements? Naturally, the free agent market should become Breslow’s obsession over the next few months.

There are starting pitchers aplenty on that market, and one arm that Breslow should consider happens to be rehabilitating at the moment.

Shane Bieber of the Cleveland Guardians, 2020’s American League Cy Young Award winner, is recovering from Tommy John surgery as he prepares for a late-season 2025 return. Bieber is an upcoming free agent that Breslow should pursue or at least monitor, especially since Bieber’s relative youth (29 years old) indicates that he will recover favorably from surgery.

Back in April, The Athletic’s Jim Bowden discussed what a team like the Red Sox signing Bieber this offseason could reasonably plan for.

“Bieber got off to a stellar start this season, going 2-0 in his first two outings with 20 strikeouts and only one walk over 12 scoreless innings, but then learned he needed Tommy John surgery,” Bowden said.

“A real blow for him and the Guardians. Bieber is 62-32 with a 3.22 ERA over his seven-year career. He won the AL Cy Young Award in 2020 and has finished among the top 7 in the voting three times. He’s made the All-Star team twice and has won a Gold Glove Award. I would expect someone will sign him to a two-year deal this offseason and rehab him next year with hopes to get him back for the end of 2025 and all of 2026 before he would again hit the free-agent market.”

If Bieber can rehab his way back to a level anywhere close to his ceiling, he’d represent a massive addition to Boston’s rotation. It’s unfortunate that Bieber won’t be healthy for most of 2025, but the Red Sox need to add more than one starter, anyway.

Breslow has a lot of work to do, but he should definitely stay in contact with Cleveland.

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Colin Keane

COLIN KEANE

Colin Keane is a contributing journalist for "Boston Red Sox On SI." Born in Illinois, Colin grew up in Massachusetts as the third of four brothers. For his high school education, Colin attended St. Mark's School (Southborough, MA), where he played basketball and soccer and served as student body president. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Villanova University. Colin currently resides in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

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