The Boston Red Sox are prioritizing pitching this offseason.
They demonstrated it on December 11, when they traded four of their prized minor league prospects for the most sought-after pitcher on the trade market, former White Sox lefty Garrett Crochet. However, Boston’s efforts to improve its starting rotation have faltered.
The only subsequent addition to a rotation that averaged only approximately five innings per start in 2024 is a pitcher who may not throw at all in 2025. According to media sources, the Red Sox signed 28-year-old Patrick Sandoval, who previously spent his whole career with the Los Angeles Angels.
Latest Pitching Addition Unlikely to Contribute in 2025
According to MLB.com, Sandoval “blossomed into a quality member of the Angels’ rotation, becoming the second-best starter behind Shohei Ohtani from 2021 to 2023.” Sandoval had a 3.53 ERA and struck out 373 batters in 380 1/3 innings.
The catch, however, is that Sandoval is now recovering from Tommy John surgery and is expected to return no earlier than several months into the 2025 season, with the possibility that he would miss the entire season and be unavailable until the beginning of 2026.
According to a source from the Red Sox cable television network NESN, another frontline pitcher who had been targeted for trade by Boston is no longer on the market. The Miami Marlins have dealt Jesús Luzardo, a 27-year-old lefthander, to the Philadelphia Phillies, a major contender in the National League.
Dave Dombrowski, the former Red Sox President of Baseball Operations, now occupies the same position with the Phillies and orchestrated the deal that left his previous company in the lurch.
Dombrowski was hired by the Red Sox in 2015 and quickly refashioned a team that had finished in the American League East basement two years in a row. He led the Red Sox to three straight division championships, a feat the team had not accomplished before or since, culminating in a 108-win season and World Series championship in 2018.
However, less than a year later, Dombrowski was sacked. According to reports, the Red Sox brass were upset that Dombrowski had stripped the Boston farm system of many of its top prospects in trades that contributed to the team’s quick rebuild.
Phillies Dealt High-Ranking Prospect for Luzardo
To acquire Luzardo from Miami, Dombrowski traded the Phillies’ fourth-ranked prospect, Dominican shortstop Starlyn Caba, according to NBC Sports Philadelphia. However, NBC Sports writer Corey Seidman believes that Luzardo’s sacrifice was worthwhile.
“(The Phillies) needed a fifth starter but Luzardo is much more than that, closer to a Number Two when healthy, and he said last week that he’s after missing the final 3 1/2 months of the season with a back injury,” writes Seidman. He went on to say that Luzardo, a native of Lima, Peru, will make a relatively modest $8.6 million in 2025, “immediately upgrades the Phillies’ rotation and takes it from one of the best in baseball to probably the best in baseball.”
Would Lazardo have made the Red Sox’s rotation the best in baseball? Given the arrival of Crochet and the fact that last year’s Red Sox starters had the same ERA as Philadelphia’s (3.81), the answer could have been yes. However, the Red Sox will never know because their former top baseball executive beat them to the punch.
