According to a report last week on MLBTradeRumors.com, Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski is looking to add depth to the starting rotation. Initially, this puzzled me because of the obvious. The Red Sox lost two key members of its bullpen from last year. Joe Kelly moved west to Los Angeles and it was reported this morning that free-agent closer Craig Kimbrel was spotted at the Orlando airport to perhaps reunite with his former team, the Atlanta Braves, whose spring training facility is located at the House of Mouse. So why would Dombo look to fortify the starting five instead of shoring up the pen?

​NBA All-Star Weekend has arrived and fans are excited for the upcoming clash between team Giannis and team LeBron. With nothing on the line and every player doing their best James Harden impression on defense, I’m always more interested in the events leading up to the game. The skills challenge, the three point contest, and the granddaddy of them all, the slam dunk contest are where the real action is. While the dunk contest has some parallels to the MLB’s home run derby in raw power, I do appreciate the finesse the other events allow the players to show off. Not only do the skills competitions allow players to demonstrate a broader range of abilities, it features players not included on the All-Star team. This elevates the profile players who may not be well-rounded enough to warrant an All-Star nod, but excel at a specific area of the game nonetheless. I’d love to see MLB take a similar approach and add some additional competitions to its All-Star weekend. Here are a few I had in mind:

The Red Sox are primed for another deep playoff run in the 2019 season. Almost every player from last year’s 108-win team will try to bring home the hardware in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 1915-1916 squads. But in order for the Red Sox to come close to duplicating the success of 2018, they’d like to see a true breakout performance from one Andrew Benintendi. Benintendi had a solid year on paper, and made two of the most monumental catches in Red Sox postseason history last October. But crunching the numbers on Benny’s first full two seasons in the majors, some concerning patterns become evident. Benny needs to gain some consistency, and end the Jekyll and Hyde binaries that may cost him some big numbers statistically and financially in the future.

I thought the 2017-2018 offseason was slower than a Dallas Braden fastball but man this 2018-2019 offseason is giving last year a run for its money. Major League Baseball has been awaiting this free agent class for YEARS and now it is finally here and here we are a month away from spring training action and Manny Machado andBryce Harper are still at home unemployed. Well, last night MLB The Shows twitter account tweeted something very cryptic that left many thinking Bryce Harper would be signing today. Instead they posted this..

Truth be told, the Red Sox don’t need much in their shopping carts this off season. The starting outfield is intact for another two seasons. The starting rotation is solid, with a presumably healthy 1-2 combination of Chris Sale and a resurgent David Price returning to toe the rubber in 2019. Rick Porcello and playoff hero Nathan Eovaldi (re-signed in early December) will anchor the middle of the rotation, and some combination of Eduardo Rodriguez, Steven Wright, Brian Johnson, or Hector Velazquez will round out a group that had the best winning percentage in the majors last season. The infield has a question mark at second base thanks to Dustin Pedroia’s balky knee, but Eduardo Nunez and Brock Holt have more than proven they can fill in and contribute offensively and defensively if Pedroia suffers another setback. World Series MVP Steve Pearce will platoon with Mitch Moreland at first, another combination that netted clutch results last season, especially in big playoff situations. Christian Vasquez, Sandy Leon, and Blake Swihart aren’t exactly Mike Piazza, Johnny Bench, and Carlton Fisk behind the dish, but their position is more utilitarian, and you can’t really complain too much about the way they called games in the playoffs. Really, the only issue Dave Dombrowski HAS to address is the bullpen. With Joe Kelly taking his talents to Chavez Ravine and free agent Craig Kimbrel still mired in a slow offseason, Double D needs to shore up the pen yet again, and this year, it will definitely be costly. Adding to the pressing need for bullpen arms, is the aggressive activity of our friends 215 miles south of Boston.

Major League Baseball has a pace-of-play problem. This is not breaking news, but for a baseball purist like me, admitting that the games are taking too long was a tough pill to swallow. I like baseball because it is slow. You can talk between pitches, grab a beer at the concession stand and get back to your seat before the at bat is over, and relish at the fact it is the only major Western sport that doesn’t have a clock (not counting tennis or golf here). This is a good thing, because resilient teams with comparative talent can technically perform better against their opponents at any point during the game. The White Sox could be trailing the Orioles by 10 runs in the bottom of the ninth and still come back and win (even in my hypotheticals, the Orioles lose...that’s payback for Game 162 in 2011). And those comebacks can be spectacular, like the real life comeback the Red Sox staged against the (you guessed it) Orioles on Mother’s Day 2007...​

Joe Kelly will be heading back to the National League, agreeing to a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers for three years and $25M. Kelly finishes his Red Sox career with a 21-11 Won/Loss record, a 4.33 ERA, 319 strikeouts, and a World Series Championship. Although uneven during his regular season performances (he posted a 5.18 ERA in 2016, and a 2.79 ERA in 2017 for example), Kelly was an integral part of the Sox' post-season success in 2018, allowing just one earned run in three playoff series. In the World Series against his new squad, Kelly struck out 10 in 6 IP, and had some of the most electric stuff Red Sox fans had ever seen. 

The Baseball Winter Meetings will wrap up tomorrow at Mandalay Bay in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. The only real impactful move at the talks came yesterday when the Phillies announced a deal in principle with free agent outfielder Andrew McCutchen for three years and $50M dollars. Otherwise, conversations on Bryce Harper and Manny Machado have been either quiet or contradictory. Usually in baseball offseasons, teams wait for the big shoes to drop to see how the market will shake out even if they’re not in on any of the star players. The Red Sox are a team that doesn’t really need to do to much to their roster to #continuetodamage. They re-signed World Series MVP Steve Pearce shortly after their World Series victory, and officially announced a new deal with versatile flame thrower Nathan Eovaldi earlier in the week at a formal presser. It was also reported yesterday by several sources that Rick Porcello, Jackie Bradley, Jr. and Xander Bogaerts had all drawn interest from other clubs and that the Red Sox were listening to offers on these cornerstone players. Dave Dombrowski downplayed some of the gossip, clarifying that the Sox “listen to all offers,” so without delving too much into Fake News, let’s consider some areas that the Sox should upgrade to improve an already talented and electric team.

​The Red Sox solidified their starting rotation for 2019 and beyond by signing postseason hero Nathan Eovaldi to a four year, $67.5M contract. The hard throwing righty was an integral piece of Boston’s playoff run, and became a fan favorite with strong performances against the Yankees, Astros, and Dodgers. With the signing, Boston’s starting five projects to be Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello, Eovaldi, and some combination of Eduardo Rodriguez and/or Steven Wright, unless the Sox view Eovaldi as a possible closer if Craig Kimbrel does not resign (likely) or if Matt Barnes or another closing option is not explored during this Hot Stove season. It will be interesting to see if Eovaldi’s post-season versatility will sway the Sox into considering this move. Either way, the Sox retain a pitcher who seemed to thrive under the bright lights of Boston’s scrutinizing eye.