Red Sox’s 2025 Spring Training Preview: 5 vital areas to address ft. Finding good starting pitching

The Boston Red Sox missed the playoffs and finished 81-81 last year. They have their work cut out for them in 2025 to get back to the playoffs, and that journey begins with a few questions in Spring Training.

---

What the Red Sox need to do this spring

5) Set the lineup

The Red Sox have to set the lineup (Imagn)

The Red Sox have a few strong hitters who will undoubtedly be at the top of the lineup, but they need to figure out how the rest of the lineup fills out and determine how to maximize their best hitters.

Does that mean hitting Rafael Devers second to get him more at-bats or putting him third to increase the RBI chances? Boston management has to decide for themselves.

---

4) Set up their bullpen

The Red Sox have to set their bullpen (Imagn)

The Red Sox have a bullpen missing a lot of big names. The two biggest are Liam Hendriks and Aroldis Chapman, neither of whom have their best days ahead of them. They need to determine which unheralded players can become high-leverage guys in 2025.

They also need to set the roles. Hendriks and Chapman have been closers before, and Greg Weissert and some other players could be in the mix for the role. It's something they need to set up before Opening Day.

---

3) Determine which prospects to call up

The Red Sox have to decide on promoting certain prospects. (Imagn)

The Boston Red Sox have a great farm system right now. After years of excellent drafting and making smart moves, they now have three of the top 12 baseball prospects (and four of the top 76), including the best non-Roki Sasaki player in the minors.

All three of Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer have 2025 ETAs, so the Red Sox have to see them against big-league pitching and decide if they should be on the MLB roster for Opening Day.

---

2) Find lineup depth

The Sox need to find lineup depth (Imagn)

The Red Sox have talent in their lineup. Trevor Story (though he may be getting old and has suffered injuries), Rafael Devers, and Jarren Duran are good players on offense. The Red Sox have to find offense from the other places, too.

Masataka Yoshida can provide some, but the Sox lost Tyler O'Neill, one of their most productive players last year, to free agency. They may be more well-balanced now with the focus on pitching, but their offense still needs some attention. This may be solved by the above prospects being promoted, but it's still a focus for them.

---

1) Determine their starting pitching

The Red Sox have to determine how their rotation works this spring (Imagn)

Starting pitching has been the Red Sox's Achilles heel lately. Last year, especially after Lucas Giolito went down in the spring, they didn't have a lot of reliable starting pitching. Tanner Houck developed into a quality starter, but they were pretty barren outside of that.

They've made a concerted effort to fix that this offseason by trading for Garrett Crochet and signing Walker Buehler. Their rotation is in much better shape now, but they still need to find a few back-end pieces to ensure depth and quality. Spring is the perfect time to test those players out.