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The Boston Red Sox have spent the early portion of the 2025 MLB offseason adding to a rotation headed by AL Cy Young runner-up Garrett Crochet.
They shouldn’t deviate from that strategy. In fact, Boston should go even bigger by targeting the player who claimed the hardware that Crochet was denied.
Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, the first AL Cy Young repeat winner since Pedro Martínez, is there for the taking. The Detroit Tigers have no “untouchables,” president of baseball operations Scott Harris told reporters, and might have an understanding that Skubal’s venture into 2026 free agency will cost more than they’re willing to pay.
The Red Sox should be willing to pay what it takes to pry Skubal loose. While they’ve acquired starting pitch depth in the form of Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo so far, they “haven’t ruled out further upgrades to the top of the rotation,” per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe.
Gray and Oviedo should be helpful to have, but Skubal could be a fortune-changer—even as a one-season rental.
Talents don’t come more top-of-the-rotation than this. During these last two award-winning campaigns, he pitched to a 2.30 ERA while racking up 469 strikeouts in 387.1 innings pitched.
Slotting him with Crochet, who had a 2.59 ERA and 255 strikeouts in 205.1 innings during his first season with the Sox, could reach cheat-code levels of domination. And, frankly, that might be what’s required to prevent a dynastic run by the deep-pocketed Los Angeles Dodgers, who just became baseball’s first repeat World Series champions in 25 years.
It’d be a bold (and hugely expensive) move, obviously, but if the Red Sox want to enter the championship chase, it might take a landscape-altering type of trade like this.
Boston has more than enough prospects and MLB-caliber players to present a formidable offer. And it resides in a big enough market to justify forking over a potentially historic contract to keep Skubal for more than a year.
This would be the kind of pickup that stops the baseball world in its tracks. And the idea of having Skubal and Crochet in the same rotation would immediately spawn a lot of sleepless nights for hitters across the Majors. Plus, the Red Sox’s aforementioned pitching depth would ensure there’d be quality options behind the Big Two.
Getting co-aces of this caliber might immediately make Boston the team to beat in the American League. At the very least, it should make this club the one nobody hopes to see come playoff time.
One great pitcher sometimes swings a playoff series on their own, but two elite hurlers can effectively wrap things up before they even get started.
A Skubal trade would be wildly costly and rife with risk given his future uncertainty. The reward still feels worth it, especially for a roster that just followed Crochet’s lead to its first playoff appearance in four years.
Give Boston two of the three best pitchers on the planet, and this team should like its chances against anyone.