On Sunday night in Los Angeles, the Boston Red Sox won their 4th World Series Title of the modern era. A feat that prior to 2004 many would have said was impossible.
Boston was led by a crew of heroes not named Mookie Betts or Chris Sale, instead it was the bat of Steve Pearce and the arms of Nate Eovaldi and David Price that shined through to help lead Boston to another World Series Title. Plenty of others stepped up such as Eduardo Nunez battling out several injuries and Joe Kelly and Ryan Brasier in the bullpen who both showed that they could pitch in the postseason with Kelly looking like Pedro Martinez 2.0.
But what happens next for Boston, is another title in their future?
Boston has a few free agents on their roster that they will have to make decisions on with the most notable being Craig Kimbrel. But resigning Kimbrel is sort of a no-brainer with the heart attack closer by far Boston’s best option out of the bullpen barring any-type of major acquisition. The other free agents are more murky.
For me this is rather simple, re-sign Kimbrel and Kelly. Then if Brasier, Pearce, and Eovaldi are within reason in terms of going rate they should be resigned too.
Boston once it makes its decision on their free agents they will have to at-least put out feelers to see what Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts are thinking in terms of a contract extension if they are open to being locked up ahead of their future free agency. It does look like both are going to be waiting to hit the free market and start a bidding war.
Overall though it looks like Boston is in pretty good shape to go for a repeat next season with much of their World Series roster in-tact. As for the rest of baseball, the landscape can change a little bit with the following being the top free agents available.
- Manny Machado
- Michael Brantley
- Marwin Gonzalez
- Andrew McCutchen
- Dallas Keuchel
- Bryce Harper
These players could change the landscape especially the all-so talented Harper who has been an consistent underperformer who will net major cash in the open market.
Boston shouldn’t be afraid of these free agents and based on the track of the team led by Alex Cora, they should be quite the force in 2019 following up a 108 win season where they capped it off with a World Series title. If the Red Sox are smart they will invest some time into their Minor League system this off-season.
