Coming into this winter, it was imperative for the Boston Red Sox to make multiple impactful moves following a disappointing finish to the 2024 season. And in light of the Yankees making several key pivots following Juan Soto’s departure, inactivity from Boston through another offseason wasn’t an acceptable option.

Well, slowly but surely the Red Sox are putting together a solid offseason and starting to look like a team that is serious about getting back to the postseason in 2025.

The Red Sox’s biggest changes have been in their rotation, where they’ve had a serious overhaul. Adding starting pitching was the top priority for chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, and the Red Sox added arguably the best starter on the trade market in Garrett Crochet from the Chicago White Sox. But it takes more than one starter to get through the 162-game grind of the regular season.

The Red Sox then added left-hander Patrick Sandoval, who’s recovering from Tommy John surgery, and they solidified their veteran presence on Monday by adding right-hander Walker Buehler on a one-year, $21.05 million deal. Buehler, who was No. 23 on Yahoo Sports’ list of this winter’s top 50 free agents, brings to Boston’s rotation a veteran arm who has pitched on baseball’s biggest stages and experienced plenty of success. His 18 postseason starts are the most on Boston’s roster by far.

Buehler, 31, had other offers, including a few multi-year deals, sources told Yahoo Sports. But the fit and the opportunity to play for a franchise such as the Red Sox while continuing to rebuild his value after a strong postseason was difficult to pass up, and now the pairing is a win for both sides.

At this point, the Red Sox rotation looks like a combination of Crochet and Buehler followed by 2024 All-Star Tanner Houck, Bryan Bello and Lucas Giolito, who missed all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Kutter Crawford and Garrett Whitlock are also options to start. As the Dodgers showed en route to their World Series championship, you can never have too much pitching depth, and such depth will now be a strength for Boston.

With the rotation solidified, the Red Sox’s biggest need the remainder of this winter is a right-handed bat. So as we close 2024, the question now is which bat?

Boston missed out on Soto and several of the top free agents on the position-player market. Yhere are still a few impact players who would fit. Case in point: Teoscar Hernández, Anthony Santander and Alex Bregman are all still available.

Bregman seems like the player who would make the Red Sox’s offseason feel most complete. The two-time World Series champion is unlikely to return to Houston after the team signed first baseman Christian Walker, and Fenway Park would be an excellent fit for Bregman’s offensive profile. It’s not difficult for fans to imagine Bregman in Boston, where he could tap into his pull-side power again.

What’s more, Bregman could play second or third base, which would give Boston flexibility to decide if the Red Sox really want to follow through on the plan to play Rafael Devers at first base and trade Triston Casas or if they’d rather keep Devers at third and Casas at first and have Bregman play second for the first time in his career.

The Red Sox’s place in the American League’s pecking order has definitely improved this offseason, particularly with teams such as the Astros and Guardians, two of the top squads in the league the past few years, retooling their rosters and the Baltimore Orioles relatively inactive thus far. If one or two more moves fall into place for the Red Sox, it’s reasonable to expect them to make a significant leap in the standings next season.

Boston Dynamics, the advanced robotics company known for displaying its machines engaged in mildly terrifying dance routines, is back at it again for the holidays. This year, the company released a brief video clip that shows its four-legged “Spot” robot tiptoeing across an icy, winter-themed warehouse floor with Christmas music softly playing in the background. The scene then cuts to its new, more slender Atlas humanoid robot draped in a Santa Claus outfit, white beard and all. A low-humming mechanical sound can be heard moments before Atlas suddenly hurls itself into the sky for a backflip. It sticks the landing perfectly. Happy Holidays y’all.

“Wishing you a holiday season full of light and laughter as we flip over into the new year!” Boston Dynamics wrote in a X post accompanying the video. 

[ Boston Dynamics gives Spot bot a furry makeover]

This video marks one of the first notable examples of the newer Atlas model engaged in the kind of acrobatics its older cousin, now referred to as “Hydraulic Atas” was known for. The older model, which weighed around 200 pounds, stunned viewers over the years as it pulled off backflips, performed parkour moves, and chucked heavy objects over its head like an Olympian. That model was officially retired earlier this year and replaced with a much smaller, all electric version geared more toward commercial applications like warehouse work. The company recently released a video of the new and improved Atlas autonomously grabbing and moving engine covers between supply containers in a mock manufacturing center. And because it’s Boston Dynamics, they later repeated the same trial only with Atas nestled in a hot dog costume.

[ Researchers tortured robots to test the limits of human empathy ]

Atlas isn’t the only robot getting festive makeovers. Earlier this year, Boston Dynamics outfitted its Spot quadruped with a custom-made, Muppet-like dog costume. Furry spot, which the company named “Sparkles” then engaged in a brief dog-inspired dance routine made possible by Choreographer, a dance-dedicated system. Sparkles can be seen wiggling its body, jumping up and down in imagined excitement and even raising its “paw.” The demonstration builds off of previous viral video showing Boston Dynamics fleet or robots dancing in unison to “Do you Love Me” by the Contours. 

Videos like these invariably received mixed reactions from viewers. While some marvel at the advanced engineering feats needed to make these performances possible, others are left with an unsettling feeling of just how far these robots have progressed. 

 

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