The Boston Red Sox arrived at the Winter Meetings soon after making two trades for starting rotation reinforcements and announcing their new focus of adding bats. They left the meetings without adding any hitters, as their two top slugging targets signed with other teams on five-year deals.
The Red Sox attempted excuse their whiff on Alonso by saying his age was a concern — he's 31 years old, and Schwarber is 34, which explains why Boston didn't even make him an offer. Fans have not responded well to the front office's endless whiffs on free agents that have gone back years, and they also haven't taken well to the latest assertion from an unnamed "high profile agent" to Sean McAdam of MassLive and other local Red Sox reporters (subscription required).