The most significant offseason selections for Red Sox free agents in 2024, from Alex Verdugo to Shohei Ohtani.

In hindsight, Boston entered the season relying on far too many risky bets to have any chance of winning the challenging AL East in 2023.

No, wait, forget that.
Starting to rely on seasoned starting pitchers with injury histories like Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, and James Paxton to stay healthy and pitch like they did in their 20s always seemed like a risky move.
In place of the phrase “In retrospect,” replace it with “From the very beginning of spring training.”. Enrique Hernandez had never started more than 17 games at shortstop in a season, and even that was back in 2018, so replacing Trevor Story as the primary shortstop seemed like an unnecessary risk.
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The list goes on and on, and it’s one of the factors in Chaim Bloom’s dismissal as the chief baseball officer of the Boston front office.
No, Bloom wasn’t entirely to blame for this. He almost always complied with the ownership’s requests to reduce expenses and save money, but as was to be expected, it didn’t work.
However, that is the subject of a different column.
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Relative to this: The replacement of Bloom is the first item on Boston’s agenda for the offseason.
You need that person to make trades and court free agents.
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It’s a sizable task.
There is a ton of work to be done.
Maybe yet another season in last place in the AL East — 2023 was the second in a row, third in four years — finally does the trick.
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The 2023 Sox did succeed in one endeavor: they avoided paying the luxury tax.
I wonder if there is enough room in Fenway to hang that banner.
The owner’s box, perhaps?