The Winter Meetings have come and gone, and while many of the top players on the market found new homes, the Red Sox largely came home from Orlando empty-handed.

Now, with both Kyle Schwarber and Pete Alonso no longer available, the Red Sox will have to look elsewhere to round out their roster.

Even without any more major additions the Red Sox should still be good enough to contend for another Wild Card berth, but the club remains one or two players short of being a true World Series contender. So as Craig Breslow and the front office regroups, here’s a look at where things stand today and what more needs to be done to take the club to the next level.

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Right-handed bats needed

If the Red Sox opened the season with the roster they have now, their Opening Day lineup would probably look something like this: Roman Anthony LF, Trevor Story SS, Jarren Duran CF, Triston Casas 1B, Wilyer Abreu RF, Masataka Yoshida DH, Carlos Narvaez C, Marcelo Mayer 3B, Ceddanne Rafaela 2B.

You can see a couple of obvious problems.

Without Alex Bregman or someone like him, this lineup is much too left-handed. Five of the club’s top six hitters bat lefty, as does Marcelo Mayer, who might have that kind of upside if he can stay healthy and develop at the plate. Ideally, the Red Sox would have at least one more righty bat who could slot into the top five, which would make it easier to split up the lefties and leave the club less susceptible to left-handed pitching.

The other obvious problem is the Red Sox still have more starting-caliber outfielders at full strength than they have lineup spots. That means the club would once again have to play Rafaela at second base, which is ridiculous considering that he’s arguably the best defensive center fielder in the sport.

Re-signing Bregman and trading away one of the outfielders would go a long way towards making this a more functional roster. Ideally, the Red Sox would trade for either a first or second baseman who could address the club’s need for more power. That way the club will be covered if Casas isn’t available to start the season or in case Mayer runs into more injury issues this coming year.

Rotation in good shape

You can never have too much pitching, and if an opportunity to acquire a frontline starter presents itself, the Red Sox should obviously take it. But all things considered, the starting rotation should be in a good spot heading into next season.

Right now the Red Sox have a top three of Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray and Brayan Bello along with nearly a dozen other candidates for the last two spots. Those arms include veterans Patrick Sandoval and Kutter Crawford, each of whom is set to return after missing all of 2025 due to injury, the newly-acquired Johan Oviedo, and younger contenders like Connelly Early, Payton Tolle, Hunter Dobbins, Kyle Harrison, Luis Perales, David Sandlin, Shane Drohan and Tyler Uberstine.

You’d be hard pressed to find another club with that level of quality starting pitching depth.

Crochet is an unquestioned ace and should once again be a Cy Young contender this coming season. Gray is coming off back-to-back 200-strikeout seasons and — his rocky stint in New York aside — has been one of MLB’s better starters for more than a decade. Bello is coming off the best season of his career and is still only 26 and entering the prime of his career.

If even one of the other 11 guys competing for one of the last rotation spots can step up and establish himself as a playoff-caliber starter, the Red Sox should be in good shape.

Bullpen coming together

The Red Sox have had good luck with their recent Rule 5 picks, with Garrett Whitlock and Justin Slaten each immediately becoming invaluable members of the bullpen upon their arrival.

Now the club hopes Ryan Watson can make it three for three.

Watson’s acquisition during Wednesday’s Rule 5 Draft won’t go down as one of the biggest moves of the offseason, but his arrival could prove sneaky important. Breslow admitted he’s been eyeing the 28-year-old right-hander for months and as a Rule 5 pick he’ll get a long leash to impact the bullpen.

He’ll join a group that returns closer Aroldis Chapman, set-up men Whitlock and Slaten, and returnees like Greg Weissert, Jordan Hicks and Zack Kelly.

The top of Boston’s bullpen is excellent, but the back end still has question marks.

For one, the club needs more lefties. The only lefty relievers on the 40-man roster besides Chapman are Jovani Moran, who appeared in two MLB games last season, and recently acquired Tyler Samaniego, who has yet to make his big league debut. Neither will be assured a big league roster spot out of spring training.

The Red Sox could use one of their depth starters out of the bullpen — Early, Tolle, Harrison and Drohan are all southpaws — but they’ll presumably each get an opportunity to compete for a rotation spot this spring.

The club also needs to figure out what it can expect to get out of Hicks. The hard-throwing righty had a calamitous 2025, posting a 6.95 ERA in 34 appearances, including an 8.20 ERA in 21 outings after his arrival in Boston in the Rafael Devers trade. Hicks is set to earn $12 million in each of the next two seasons, but not long ago he was among the most dominant relievers in the game.

If the Red Sox can get Hicks back to his 2023 form, when he struck out 81 batters in 65.2 innings with 12 saves, he could help elevate the bullpen into a monster. But if not, the club will have to hope Watson and whoever else emerges in the coming months can help pick up the slack.

What now?

Multiple reports have indicated Bregman is Boston’s top free agent priority, and at this point the club could really use him back. He made an enormous impact on the Red Sox last season both on and off the field, and his ability to pull the ball in the air as a right-handed hitter and play excellent defense at third base would fill two important areas of need.

The club also still needs a true middle of the order threat who could slot into the three, four or five hole. A number of reports have said the Red Sox have spoken to the Arizona Diamondbacks about All-Star second baseman Ketel Marte, and he would be a fit both in terms of skillset and position.

Free agent slugger Eugenio Suarez would also fit the bill.

While Breslow and manager Alex Cora have each said they’re comfortable retaining all of Boston’s incumbent outfielders, common sense dictates that someone is going to need to go. Perhaps some combination of Duran, Abreu or Yoshida would go in a potential Marte deal, or maybe they’d be used in a different trade for another frontline starter.

Either way, it’s not a mystery what the Red Sox have to do.