Through the first two months of the MLB offseason, the Boston Red Sox have already added two relievers to their bullpen, signing Aroldis Chapman and Justin Wilson to play big roles in 2025.
However, Boston should be exploring more options to turn their group of relief arms into one of the best in the league.
Luckily for them, most of the top options are still unsigned free agents, and The Athletic’s Jim Bowden actually has faith that the Red Sox will end up with the best reliever still on the market – Tanner Scott.
“The most-impactful closer on the market has yet to sign and teams are lining up for him but waiting for the asking price to drop. The Red Sox are the clear front-runners for Scott,” Bowden wrote on Monday. “Their chief baseball officer, Craig Breslow, was a left-handed reliever in his playing days and seems obsessed with corralling lefty pitchers: He’s already signed three of them in free agency (Patrick Sandoval, Aroldis Chapman, Justin Wilson) and acquired two more via trades (Garrett Crochet, Jovani Moran). Red Sox manager Alex Cora prefers a single closer and Scott is the best one available.”
Scott, 30, was a sixth-round pick of the Baltimore Orioles in the 2014 draft out of Howard College. He debuted with the club in 2017 before being traded to the Miami Marlins in 2022 and San Diego Padres in 2024.
This past year, he posted a 1.75 ERA, 1.125 WHIP and 10.5 K/9 in his 72 appearances with Miami and San Diego. His performance was strong enough to earn All-Star honors for the first time in his career.
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