Driver's ed is over. Craig Breslow has nothing left to learn doing loops around an empty Marshalls parking lot. It's time to hop on 93, hit the Leverett Connector, and face the blender of Storrow Drive.
For his first six weeks as Red Sox chief baseball officer, Breslow has been allowed to work on the margins. He traded Alex Verdugo to the Yankees, acquired Cardinals bounceback candidate Tyler O'Neill, and made minor moves in the bullpen.
Meanwhile, the specter of Shohei Ohtani hovered over the entire sport, bringing virtually all other major business to a halt. Ohtani's decision to sign with the Dodgers for $700 million over the weekend officially ends Breslow's grace period, however.
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It's time to act.
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Breslow spoke at his introductory press conference of acting decisively. Chairman Tom Werner guaranteed the Red Sox would approach this winter "full throttle." Now they must prove it.
The first order of business will be making a pitch to free agent right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Japanese sensation was supposed to earn $200 million when the offseason began, but that number appears to be climbing towards $300 million.
The Red Sox will reportedly meet with him sometime this week, and the competition will be fierce, led by the deep-pocketed Mets and motivated Yankees. The two New York clubs are considered the favorites, with the Dodgers (thanks to Ohtani's wild $680 million in deferments) also a factor. The Giants, who lost out on a pair of major free agents (Aaron Judge, Carlos Correa) last winter, and Blue Jays, who finished second in the Ohtani sweepstakes, can't be discounted, either.
In the Before Times, the Red Sox would've had as good a shot as anyone. They blew away the field to land Daisuke Matsuzaka in 2007, and only eight years ago, they secured left-hander David Price with a record $217 million contract.
Now it's hard to imagine them even entering a bidding war, let alone winning one. If Breslow believes Yamamoto is a legitimate ace, then there should be no limits on what he might pay to secure the services of the 25-year-old. We're about to find out if his hiring truly represents a course correction from the small-stakes approach of Chaim Bloom, or if ownership's unwillingness to spend is now just a fact of life for whoever occupies that chair.
But even if the Red Sox miss on Yamamoto, Breslow can still pivot to attractive alternatives. It's fair to have doubts on Blake Snell, thanks to his age (31) and durability concerns (has only reached 130 innings twice in 8 seasons), but he is a two-time Cy Young Award winner. Former Yankees left-hander Jordan Montgomery will almost certainly be overpaid after leading the Rangers to their first championship, but so what? He's durable, reliable, and has only gotten better over the last three years.
What can't happen is the Red Sox ending the offseason with Seth Lugo, a long-time reliever who made a successful transition to the rotation in San Diego last year, as their big "prize."
If that happens, we'll be entirely justified in asking if Breslow's regime isn't just a continuation of his predecessor's, who prioritized some nebulous future over concrete steps to address the present. The Red Sox suffer from a staggering top-end talent gap compared to the rest of the division, and even if Breslow can't realistically fix that in one offseason, he can begin to address it. The Seth Lugos and Tyler O'Neills of the world won't get him there. A Yamamoto or Montgomery would point in the right direction.
In any event, we have officially arrived at the "show us what you can do" moment of Breslow's offseason. He's behind the wheel and leaving the quiet cul-de-sac. The merge into downtown Boston traffic will be hellacious, but at least we'll soon know whether or not he can really drive.