Craig Breslow isn’t letting the uncertainty around MLB’s next labor fight steer the Red Sox offseason.
With the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire Dec. 1, the league is staring at a possible lockout and a future that could include a salary cap. But Boston’s chief baseball officer says the club is sticking to the present reality while it tries to improve the roster.
Ahead of the annual General Managers Meetings in Las Vegas, Breslow told MassLive’s Sean McAdam that the Red Sox are not going to build their plans around rules that don’t exist yet.
“My sense is that every team is approaching this a bit differently, a bit uniquely,” Breslow said, per MassLive. “We are kind of operating under the status quo.
We feel we’ve got a pretty good team and a roster that has the makings of being very competitive. We’re going to look for opportunities to get our team better and operate with that front of mind, as opposed to all of the things that are beyond our control.”
MLB’s latest proposal would bring in a salary cap and spending floor in 2028, according to the Associated Press. The cap would be $258.2 million, though the MLB Players Association remains opposed to the idea.
Boston’s estimated $254 million competitive balance tax payroll for 2027, according to MassLive, sits close to that number. Even so, Breslow said the potential changes won’t alter how he brings ideas to ownership when he sees a chance to upgrade the team.
“The way we’ve operated since I’ve been here is to try to make the best baseball decisions that I can,” Breslow said. “When there are opportunities that I think improve our roster, I take them to ownership, we discuss them and more times than not, overwhelmingly, we’ve got the support to proceed with them. I don’t expect that to change.”
The biggest area Boston needs to address is the offense. The Red Sox brought in Willson Contreras last winter, but the lineup still never found steady production over the course of the season.
Boston ranked 20th in slugging percentage and 26th in home runs, according to Yahoo Sports. Breslow has already acknowledged the need for more offense, and another impact bat could be on the table.
Pitching depth is another spot the Red Sox plan to examine. The club feels solid about its rotation and is set to return its entire bullpen, but Breslow made clear that won’t stop them from looking for more arms.
“I think we’ll look to build pitching depth,” Breslow said. “You never have too much of that, whether that is being able to develop an impact at our own major league team, whether it’s to acquire it and then use it to address other holes in the roster that surface down the road.”
He also noted how quickly injuries can change the picture for both a rotation and a bullpen, which makes extra pitching options worth pursuing even when the staff looks strong on paper.
Boston has plenty to sort through before the 2027 season, but Breslow’s message is simple: keep working the roster, improve the offense, and add pitching depth, no matter what happens in the next CBA.
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