The Boston Red Sox watched another potential free-agent match officially go off the market on Tuesday and return to the National League.
Veteran outfielder Randal Grichuk re-signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks, per team announcement. Grichuk and the Diamondbacks reached a one-year agreement that includes a $2 million base salary for 2025 and a $5 million mutual option for 2026 (with a $3 million buyout), MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported.
Grichuk was an option the Red Sox considered this offseason, according to Alex Speier of The Boston Globe, and for obvious reasons. Since last season’s MLB trade deadline, Boston has been targeting the addition of a right-handed bat, and the need for one has grown increasingly over the past few months. The Red Sox officially departed from Tyler O’Neill, their home runs leader (31) in 2024, and haven’t replaced him.
During Grichuk’s first season with Arizona, the 33-year-old hit .291 with 12 home runs and 46 RBIs across 106 games, and also notched a .998 fielding percentage.
Team president and CEO Sam Kennedy re-established the club’s need for a right-handed bat, claiming the Red Sox would “love” to cross that off their wishlist before Opening Day — which is less than eight weeks away.
“That’s still a goal. It has been since the beginning,” Kennedy said Monday, per MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. “Obviously with Vaughn (Grissom) and Trevor (Story) hopefully coming into spring training healthy, we feel better about the more balanced nature of the lineup. But if we can add a right-handed bat, we would love to do that.”
With each day that passes and the Red Sox less than two weeks from the start of spring training, the team’s options list shrinks.
Third basemen Alex Bregman and Nolan Arenado remain the strongest-tied options for the Red Sox. Bregman is a free agent and Arenado, a current member of the St. Louis Cardinals, has targeted a trade all offseason long. Their star power outshines Grichuk’s and so would their price tags.
Arenado has three years and $74 million — some of which St. Louis is willing to eat up — on his contract with the Cardinals. Bregman, meanwhile, has a six-year, $156 million offer left on the table from the Houston Astros, which was initially presented to the two-time World Series champion in December.
Boston can still choose to go with either Arenado or Bregman to fulfill the right-handed bat need, but a decision sooner rather than later would be the most beneficial with the start of the team’s clean slate just around the corner.