Copyright MassLive
LAS VEGAS — The Red Sox plan to add a power hitter this offseason and a potential reunion with Kyle Schwarber, who played for Boston in 2021, is in play. “Everyone that I’m talking to here believes that the Red Sox are going to be a big player for Schwarber this offseason and that is absolutely a team to watch for him,” FanSided MLB insider Robert Murray reported from the GM Meetings, “though a reunion with the Philadelphia Phillies is very possible.” It is expected that the Phillies will make a big push to re-sign Schwarber who led the National League with 56 home runs in 2025. Schwarber belted 187 home runs over the past four seasons with Philadelphia. “We’d love to have him (back). Of course,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Tuesday here at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas “What he did for us is phenomenal. Not only a great performer, but good person. Good person in the clubhouse, all of that. So we’d love to have that.” How serious will the Red Sox be in the Schwarber sweepstakes? Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow on Monday stressed the importance of flexibility at the DH spot, although he didn’t rule out having a primary DH. “I think flexibility is very valuable,” Breslow said. “There is certainly a talent threshold that is elite enough to warrant just penciling somebody in. If David Ortiz were available in his prime, then certainly that’s just something that you commit. But given we have as an example, four outfielders that we think are capable of playing every day. The DH spot could be an opportunity to keep guys fresh and keep bats in the lineup.” Schwarber played just 107 innings in the outfield (all in left field) over the past two seasons. He made 154 starts at DH in 2025 after starting 144 games there in 2024. With flexibility being a priority, free agent first baseman Pete Alonso and free agent corner infielder Munetaka Murakami seem like more realistic options for Boston. Murakami, a 25-year-old left-handed hitter who was posted by his Japanese team Friday, had a 56-home run season in 2022 with the Yakult Swallows of the Japan Central League. He hit 24 home runs in just 69 games for Yakult in 2025. But there are concerns over his ability to hit elite velocity. When swinging at pitches at 93 mph or higher in Japan this past season, Murakami hit just .093. Breslow was asked how much the Red Sox focus on how a player from a foreign league has done against fastball velocity. “We try to evaluate every player as completely as we can, which includes scouting reports, performance data, make-up information,” Breslow said. “You try to figure out how much of performance is dictated by what someone’s true talent is vs. what someone has just been or not been exposed to. It’s imperfect, but every team is trying to extrapolate the same thing and try to project what performance would look like in the States for guys that have not yet played in the States.” Alonso bats from the right side (Schwarber and Murakami are left-handed hitters) and the Red Sox have a heavy left-handed lineup. “In a perfect world, I suppose we’d want to balance out the lineup a bit,” Breslow said. “That said, when you can hit the ball out of the park, it doesn’t really matter. I think we have found that lefties who can use the wall, create a good offensive environment. Righties who can pull the ball in the air do the same thing. So there are a number of different ways for us to improve our slug.”
