Red Sox meet with free agent pitchers Corbin Burnes and Max Fried

The Juan Soto sweepstakes ended Sunday night when the 26-year-old slugger decided to sign a record 15-year, $765 million contract with the Mets.

That means the baseball world can move on with the rest of the offseason and the other 29 teams can look elsewhere to build their futures. For the Red Sox, that primarily means finding front-of-the-rotation pitching.

According to multiple major league sources, the Red Sox recently met with their top two remaining free agent starters, right-hander Corbin Burnes and left-hander Max Fried. The meeting with Burnes took place remotely. It is unknown 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 a 23 percent strikeout rate for the Orioles last year and took the AL Cy Young -Vote fifth place. He is a workhorse who ranks third in the major leagues in innings pitched since 2022.

Fried, also 30, went 11-10 with a 3.25 ERA and a 23 percent strikeout rate in 29 starts for Atlanta last year. He missed a few weeks in July on the injured list due to left forearm neuritis, but came on strong with a 2.14 ERA, 36 strikeouts and seven walks in 33⅓ innings in September.

Both Fried and Burnes have been reliably excellent for years. As of 2020, Fried has the lowest ERA in baseball (2.81), while Burnes (2.88) ranks second lowest. For this reason, there is a lot of interest in both, especially given that there are few other established front-of-the-rotation options.

While White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet is known to be available on the trade market as a potential front-of-the-rotation talent, it remains unclear what other top talent could be moved. While the Mariners have expressed their willingness to listen to offers from Luis Castillo (a three-time All-Star who had a down year in 2024 at age 32), they intend to move on to their younger, more controllable high-end -Build starters (Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo, Bryce Miller).

Even though the Pirates want to strengthen the offense and add pitching depth to their system, they won’t move Paul Skenes, and it seems unlikely they will move right-hander Jared Jones, who turned in elite performances as a rookie last year.

Despite trying to shed payroll, the Twins have shown little interest in dealing right-hander Pablo López. The Marlins have expressed openness to trading virtually anyone, with the exception of 2022 Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara.

Heading into the winter meetings that begin Monday in Dallas, Fried, Burnes and Crochet are clearly the best available assets for a Red Sox team that wants a starting anchor. But they won’t be the only team looking for such a pitcher, as Soto’s selection is expected to spark a frenzied pursuit of top prospects.

Alex Speier can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @alexspeier.