Red Sox GM O’Halloran: Team ‘can compete’ in 2021
Sitting in front of his bookshelf with a large family portrait of his kids and dog isn’t what Red Sox general manager Brian O’Halloran is used to doing during the first week in December.
Normally around this time, O’Halloran and his front office colleagues would be bunkered down in a fancy hotel suite in Dallas, Orlando, San Diego, Nashville, Las Vegas or another popular city for the annual MLB Winter Meetings.
They’d be ferociously texting with agents, scouts and other teams’ executives about potential acquisitions as they walked quickly through the hotel lobby to avoid reporters on their way from meeting to meeting.
But in O’Halloran’s view, the Winter Meetings have become so technology-oriented — too much so for his liking — that this year’s virtual meetings won’t feel all that different.
“The reality is over the last few years, we’ve had more and more trade conversations, even when we’re in the same place or the same hotel, they tend to happen over phone or text,” he said Monday as the virtual meetings kicked off.
When the coronavirus is no longer a concern, “I certainly hope the Winter Meetings come back,” O’Halloran said. “I expect them to come back. I think they’re a great event. … Even though the in-person meetings with other teams have diminished over the years, I actually think that’s a negative development. And we’ve talked about actually trying to increase that, and not having the opportunity this year is tough.”
The Red Sox have a lot of business to attend to.
Are they rebuilding? Are they extending their bridge year? Or are they actually ready to pay the price for talented players that can help them win in 2021?
“I don’t think that we think we’re the fourth-worst team in baseball,” as the Sox’ 24-36 record in 2020 indicated, O’Halloran said. “We think we have a good team that can compete in 2021, certainly as we make additions to it and improvements.”
The Sox’ clear needs are at the top of the rotation, second base and center field.
O’Halloran addressed all three, noting that there are plenty of starting pitching options this winter, both in free agency (Trevor Bauer, Corey Kluber, Tomoyuki Sugano, Masahiro Tanaka and Jose Quintana among them) and trade (Blake Snell and Lance Lynn, among others).
“Starting pitching, and pitching in general, is an area that we
would like to improve and add depth to,” O’Halloran said. “We continue to work on that.”
At second base, the clear candidates from within the organization are Michael Chavis, who never got into any rhythm at the plate in 2020 and has been adequate on the defensive side; Rule 5 pick Jonathan Arauz, who didn’t show a lot of potential; former first-round pick Christian Arroyo, who looked good in limited playing time down the stretch; and prospect Jeter Downs.
“We definitely have some options internally but we’re also open-minded,” O’Halloran said.
Downs was never given a chance to face big league pitching in 2020, but impressed during summer training in Pawtucket.
“I wouldn’t want to put a
timetable or guess on how close any prospect is, but certainly we’re excited to have Jeter here, and he did a nice job at the alternate site,” O’Halloran said. “We think highly of him.”
They also have a prospect in the center field mix: Jarren Duran. The speedy outfielder showed well in spring training last February and will begin playing winter ball in Puerto Rico this month. O’Halloran wouldn’t say what he wants to see from Duran, but indicated the Red Sox will go forward in their pursuit of a center fielder this winter.
Longtime Red Sox center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. is a free agent and “is definitely on our radar,” O’Halloran said. “We’ve all seen what Jackie has been able to do over the years. Certainly a guy that, to use your terminology, we’ll absolutely keep on our radar and see where it goes.”
But O’Halloran doesn’t see Andrew Benintendi or
Alex Verdugo as the everyday choice in center field for returning manager Alex Cora.
Benintendi, coming off a rib injury that caused him to miss most of the season, “is expected to be our left fielder,” O’Halloran said. And Verdugo “did a really good job in right field. He’s a very athletic outfielder and moves around very well. I have not seen him play center field but I believe he could do it.”
Being able to do it and being the first choice to do it are two very different things. As well as Verdugo played in the outfield, he doesn’t have the typical range and speed of a center fielder, and one might think the Sox would want his arm stationed in the corner outfield, where he picked up seven assists in 2020.
O’Halloran figures there will be as much action this week as there normally is. The Red Sox hope to be involved in some of it.