Shota Imanaga, a star in the NPB, will be made available to major league teams this offseason, and according to Sean McAdam of MassLive .
com, the Red Sox have “heavily scouted” the Japanese left-hander.
Imanaga pitched for the Yokohama DeNa Baystars for eight seasons and 990 2/3 innings; however, North American baseball fans may be most familiar with him from his work with Japan’s national team during this year’s World Baseball Classic.
Imanaga started the gold-medal game for Japan against the United States, earning the win with a 3.00 ERA over six innings and three appearances.
Readers of MLB Trade Rumors may also be familiar with Imanaga from our NPB Players To Watch series because Dai Takegami Podziewski has frequently written about the southpaw as Imanaga appears to be close to making the major leagues. Imanaga will attract a lot of interest from teams in need of starting pitching, and the Sox will undoubtedly prioritize rotation improvements in their offseason strategy under their new director of baseball operations.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto is the most well-known NPB pitcher currently available, but with at least 10 MLB teams (including the Red Sox) interested in Yamamoto’s services, it’s possible that Imanaga could be something of a reliable backup plan for teams that can’t either sign Yamamoto or can’t afford his high price tag.
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According to Peter Gammons, former Cubs assistant general manager Craig Breslow may become the Red Sox front office’s director of pitching development. Breslow has been a member of the front office staff in Chicago for more than five years.
In October 2019 he was named the team’s director of pitching, and in 2020 he was given the title of AGM. It would be interesting to see the Red Sox make a big front-office hire like this before hiring a new chief baseball officer/president of baseball operations.
Speculatively, it could be a sign that Boston is leaning toward an internal candidate (like assistant general manager Eddie Romero or Raquel Ferreira) for the top position.
In addition to coming from Connecticut and pitching for the Red Sox for five of his twelve MLB seasons, Breslow also lives nearby in Newton, Massachusetts with his family, as noted by Gammons.
When asked about whether he would exercise his $13.4M player option for the 2024 season, Justin Turner told Chris Cotillo of MassLive that he was still focused on finishing the rest of the season.
Turner stated, “I love playing in Boston and I’ve had a great experience here so obviously, it would be fantastic if I was still here,” when asked about the possibility of staying with the Sox in general. Turner still has a very good bat even at the age of 38, hitting .278/.
348/.
In his first season with the Red Sox, he hit.463 with 23 home runs over 600 plate appearances.
Although Cotillo points out that there is a good chance Turner will choose to exercise his option for $6.7M and test free agency once more in search of a better deal, it makes sense that the Sox would want to bring him back.
However, they may have to sign him to a new contract altogether.
Kenley Jansen was reinstated to the active roster by the Red Sox on Saturday after being placed on the seven-day injured list due to COVID.
(In a corresponding move, righty Zack Weiss was optioned to Triple-A.) Jansen, who joined the Sox on a two-year, $32 million deal, was another successful signing from the 2022–23 offseason.
In his first season in Beantown, he recorded 29 saves and a 3 point 63 ERA over 44 2/3 innings.
This season, the Red Sox second basemen have combined for a sub-replacement level -0.1 bWAR, placing them 27th out of 30 teams in second base bWAR.
According to Chad Jennings of The Athletic, Ceddanne Rafaela getting regular playing time at the keystone may be the simplest way for the Sox to address the position next year.
Although the Sox prefer to see what Rafaela’s glove can do in center field, the top prospect has already played a few games there.
By using Rafaela at second base, even on a limited basis, the Sox would free up center field so they could see if Jarren Duran can improve on his promising 2023 season. Jennings reports that Boston hasn’t yet decided whether or not to offer Luis Urias a contract this winter because Urias is expected to receive at least a minimal arbitration raise on his current $4.7M salary.
As for the other in-house second base options for the team, the club hasn’t yet made that decision.
Urias’ fate will likely be decided by the new front office chief, as Jennings points out, and it’s possible the Red Sox will decide not to tender the infielder and instead try to re-sign him at a lower cost.