The Red Sox are open to adding another right-handed hitter to their outfield mix, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow tells . To that end, Abraham reports that Boston remains in contact with free agent outfielder camp. Duvall had a solid, if volatile, 2023 season. Signed to a one-year, $7MM contract over the offseason, he was arguably the best hitter in MLB for the first couple weeks. Duvall ran a .455/.514/1.030 line over his first 37 plate appearances before fracturing a bone in his left wrist while diving for a fly ball. The injury cost him two months. He was mired in an extended slump upon coming off the injured list, limping to a .175/.253/.313 showing through the All-Star Break. Duvall found his stride again coming out of the Break, raking at a .293/.349/.654 clip through the end of August. The year ended on a dismal note, as he struck out in over 40% of his plate appearances while hitting .149/.177/.324 from September 1 on. Despite the extreme peaks and valleys, Duvalls overall offensive production was well better than average. He hit 21 homers with a .247/.303/.531 slash in 353 plate appearances. Bostons decision to give him nearly 500 innings in center field predictably didnt work out well, as he rated between three and five runs below average by Statcast and Defensive Runs Clint Capela Jersey Saved. Duvall has been a plus defender in left field throughout the course of his career though. Between the strong corner outfield defense and 30-homer upside, hes a valuable player despite high strikeout totals and subpar on-base marks. The are the only other team that has been publicly linked to Duvall this offseason. At age 35, it seems likely hell sign another one-year pact, although theres an outside chance he lands a second guaranteed season. Breslow wasnt with the Sox when they signed Duvall last January. Yet the front office has sought right-handed power in the outfield throughout his first offseason at the helm. Boston already swung a trade for . They were linked to before he signed a one-year, $23.5MM pillow contract with the Dodgers. Duvall would be significantly cheaper. Even as the Sox pursued Hernndez, theyd pointed to the rotation as their biggest priority. Boston took a rebound flier on . Not long thereafter, they subtracted in the trade to add from the Braves. While Giolito seems a safer bet than Sale to log a full workload, the pair of moves leaves the Sox with the same number of starters they had at the beginning of the winter. Breslow told Abraham the current rotation consists of four pitchers: Giolito, , and . Thatd leave , and competing for the final spot. Offseason acquisitions and are among the depth options on the 40-man roster. Of course, thats not nece sarily the mix theyll take to Spring Training. Breslow conceded their efforts to add rotation help have thus far been a challenge but said theyre still engaged in conversations with free agents and teams via trade. The Sox have been loosely tied to top arms and (more so the latter) during the offseason, but more recent reports indicated they were looking at the next tiers down. With mid-level arms like and recently coming off the board, the free agent supply is dwindling beyond Snell and Montgomery. That hints at payroll questions that have hung over the offseason. The Sox opened the 2023 season with a player payroll in the $181MM range, according to . That ranked 12th in the majors, their first time outside the top 10 this century. projects their 2024 payroll in a similar range, a little under $178MM. Theyre almost $40MM away from next years base luxury tax threshold. An offseason headlined by Giolito and trade pickups of Gri som and ONeill presumably isnt what many in the fanbase envisioned. Thats especially true after team chairman Tom Werner vowed in early November the organization would go to put their two straight last place finishes behind them. Werner walked that phrasing back in a conversation with this afternoon. Maybe that wasnt the most artful way of saying what I wanted to say, which is that were going to be pre sing all levers to improve the team, he said. In the end, nobodys happy with our performance the last few years. Some years, we go after somebody who is about to be a free agent, or was a free agent, as it pertains to or . After noting the organization made an unsucce sful run at , Werner added the Sox certainly arent happy with the current roster as it was at the end of last year, so if I was going to say it again, I would say that were going to be pre sing all levers and werent going to be happy with just one (method) that includes free agency, trades or talent from Triple and Double A. In the end, we dont have a line in terms of our payroll that we look at as much as trusting that Craig is going to deliver on his a surance that were going to be competitive. Treveon Graham Jersey