Baseball season has officially started. Players have begun arriving at Spring Training, and that includes the Boston Red Sox at JetBlue Park down in Florida. With the start of Spring Training comes the predictions of the lineups and starting rotations. NBC Sports Boston has officially announced its predictions for the starting rotation and bullpen.

My Hottest Take: The Bullpen Doesn't Need Any More Left-Handed Pitchers

In 2025, the Red Sox bullpen was the best in MLB in ERA at 3.45. It was anchored by Aroldis Chapman and Garrett Whitlock, who returned to a relief role in 2025. Chapman, in the 61 innings he pitched in 2025, had a 1.17 ERA, the lowest in MLB. It was the first time since 2007 that the Red Sox bullpen led the MLB in relief pitching ERA. Whitlock showed out with his 2.25 ERA in 72 innings pitched. The bullpen has been the most dominant it's been in over a decade. Why would anyone want to change that? The bullpen needed to be solid on a few occasions as our starters seemed to be the sore spot for the Red Sox.

NBC Sports Boston mentioned how the Red Sox are short on left-handed relievers, leaving the team with only two after parting ways with Justin Wilson, Brennan Bernardino, and Steven Matz during the offseason. Boston's current two left-handed relievers are Chapman and Jovani Moran. Chapman will no doubt be the closer once again this year, but Moran pitched just four innings in 2025, so he will be looking at much more playing time this season.

The other six bullpen pitchers will be Whitlock, Justin Slaten, Greg Weissert, Zack Kelly, Ryan Watson, and Kutter Crawford. Crawford is coming off an injury while also competing for the number five starter spot. Ryan Watson needs a place on the team after being drafted in the Rule 5 Draft, which means he stays on the 26-man roster or gets sent back. Sure, six out of the eight bullpen pitchers are right-handers, but when you have a closer like Chapman, why worry about more left-handers?

Before You Go: The Starting Pitching Pileup

The Red Sox have, technically speaking, 10 starting pitchers. In reality, only nine are at Spring Training. (Tanner Houck is continuing to rehab from Tommy John surgery that he had in August of last year after a very disappointing 2025 campaign.)

The current on-paper starting rotation that NBC Boston issued was:

• Garrett Crochet

• Ranger Suarez

• Sonny Gray

• Brayan Bello

• Johan Oviedo

However, Oviedo will be competing with Connelly Early, Peyton Tolle, Kutter Crawford, and Patrick Sandoval–and the latter two coming off injuries. Oviedo is also looking to have a comeback year after pitching just 40 innings with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

If I were in the Red Sox' front office, I would be excited that we had to make such a tough decision when it comes to our pitchers. The team hasn't had a situation this good in a long time.

The Red Sox may only have eight left-handed pitchers out of the 20 on their 40-man roster, but those eight left-handers can do some damage, and keep up with some of the best right handers opposite of them.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of Spring Training ..but I think the Red Sox are lucky to have this “problem.”