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The Boston Red Sox put an end to the Alex Bregman sweepstakes on Wednesday night. Just before he has to report with position players to Spring Training, he has officially signed a four-year, $120 million contract. The longest free-agency drought for a star player is finally over.
The Red Sox had a stout offense last year, and they've added Bregman even though they lost Tyler O'Neill. It should be a pretty similar lineup, but here's what it should look like with Bregman now:
- Jarren Duran, LF
- Alex Bregman, 2B
- Rafael Devers, 3B
- Triston Casas, 1B
- Trevor Story, SS
- Masataka Yoshida, DH
- Wilyer Abreu, RF
- Connor Wong, C
- Ceddanne Rafaela, CF
The Sox can also get creative with this. If they want to move Masataka Yoshida to the outfield for a game or two, they can shift Rafael Devers to DH and allow Bregman to play his natural position every once in a while.
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What do the Red Sox rotation and bullpen look like?
The addition of Alex Bregman is a big one, but it arguably just swaps out Bregman for Tyler O'Neill. Their lineup is largely the same one they had last year, but they had a good offense, so it's not all that surprising that the front office didn't touch it as much.
The starting pitching and bullpen needed the bulk of the attention, and that's what the Red Sox front office did. They signed free agents and made trades to overhaul the pitching.
They now sport a rotation of:
- Garrett Crochet
- Tanner Houck
- Lucas Giolito
- Walker Buehler
- Brayan Bello
Kutter Crawford is also listed as a starter, but a six-man rotation seems unlikely. Someone, probably Crawford, will move to the bullpen. That's where either Liam Hendriks or Aroldis Chapman will serve as the closer. The other will be a setup man.
Greg Weissert and Garrett Whitlock will be two of the most-used bullpen arms, but Boston has a plethora of possible hurlers. Josh Winckowski, Justin Slaten, Justin Wilson, Richard Fitts, Bryan Mata and Luis Guerrero are just a few of the names available.
