The Juan Soto Sweepstakes concluded on Sunday night, with the 26-year-old slugger choosing to sign with the Mets on a record 15-year, $765 million contract.
With that, the baseball world can move on to the rest of the offseason, and the other 29 teams can look elsewhere to build for their futures. For the Red Sox, that means a search for front-of-the-rotation pitching in particular.
According to multiple major league sources, the Red Sox recently met with the top two remaining free agent starters, righthander Corbin Burnes and lefthander Max Fried. The meeting with Burnes occurred remotely. It’s not known whether the team met with Fried in person or remotely.
Burnes, a 30-year-old who won the NL Cy Young with the Brewers in 2021, was 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA and 23 percent strikeout rate for the Orioles last year, finishing fifth in AL Cy Young voting. He’s a workhorse who ranks third in the big leagues in innings pitched since 2022.
Fried, also 30, went 11-10 with a 3.25 ERA and 23 percent strikeout rate in 29 starts for Atlanta last year. He did miss a few weeks in July due to an injured list stint for left forearm neuritis, but was strong down the stretch, with a 2.14 ERA, 36 strikeouts, and seven walks in 33⅓ September innings.
Both Fried and Burnes have been reliably excellent for years. Since 2020, Fried has the lowest ERA in baseball (2.81), while Burnes (2.88) ranks second-lowest. For that reason, interest in both is widespread, particularly given that there are few other established front-of-the-rotation options.
While White Sox lefthander Garrett Crochet is known to be available as a potential front-of-the-rotation talent on the trade market, it remains unclear what other top arms might be moved. While the Mariners have expressed willingness to listen to offers on Luis Castillo (a three-time All-Star who had a down year at age 32 in 2024), they intend to build around their high-end younger, controllable starters (Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo, Bryce Miller).
Similarly, while the Pirates want to add offense and have pitching depth in their system, they won’t move Paul Skenes and seem unlikely to move righthander Jared Jones, who showed top-of-the-rotation stuff as a rookie last year.
Though the Twins are looking to shed payroll, they’ve shown little appetite for dealing righthander Pablo López. The Marlins have expressed openness to trading virtually anyone except 2022 Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara.
Entering the winter meetings, which begin Monday in Dallas, Fried, Burnes, and Crochet stand out as the clear top available arms for a Red Sox team that wants to have a starting anchor. But they won’t be the only team looking for such a pitcher, with Soto’s choice expected to spark a frenzied pursuit of top arms.
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.