Craig Breslow talks about acquiring a right-handed bat this offseason
Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow addressed a few team needs at his introductory press conference. He said one of those was a right handed bat.
During his meeting with reporters at the GM meetings he expanded on what his mindset his.
"I don't think it makes a ton of sense to kind of typecast that to a righthanded bat who can only DH.”
While the Red Sox enjoyed having the success of Justin Turner in the lineup the lack of everyday, versatility hamstrung Alex Cora into not always having the best defensive alignment. Tuner was able to play first base, but given how important his bat became and his age, the best spot for him was DH to keep him as healthy as possible.
Cora could have moved left fielder Masataka Yoshida to DH in close games to improve defensively. However, not at the expense of Tuner’s bat. The veteran could have moved to first or third in that scenario, but he wasn’t going to take the field in place of the other middle of the order bats in Triston Casas or Rafael Devers.
“On a high level, we’d probably look to give Alex (Cora) as much flexibility as possible, recognizing that it's a long season and there will be times where he's gonna want to get guys off their feet, but keep their bats in the lineup,” said Breslow to the media on Tuesday.
Breslow knows that versatility can have immense value, but so does impact bats. As he knows after witnessing a superstar in David Ortiz.
“I don't think there's one way to do it. Now, obviously, I've played with a guy who commanded the DH spot for quite some time and was pretty successful doing it. I think short of that, having as many creative possibilities as we can arrange makes sense,” added Breslow.
Free agent Shohei Ohtani and possible trade candidate Juan Soto would slot in as a left handed DH and qualify as the “short of that” category. The offensive impact of these type of generational superstar bats would be worth sacrificing versatility and balance in the lineup.
"I think we have to be openminded about the ways to improve the team. Given that we're pretty left handed, it makes sense to set our sights on somebody who can hit right handed,” continued the Sox’ FO decision maker.
Breslow’s go to answer on any future decision is that he will be open minded. With money to spend and prospect capital to deal from, that would be the correct approach.
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