It’s no secret the Red Sox need to make upgrades this coming offseason, and earlier this week chief baseball officer Craig Breslow laid out three areas of weakness he hopes to address in the coming months.

One priority will be adding more starting pitching depth. Another will be upgrading the bullpen. Those will be fairly straightforward tasks, but the third could be a much trickier fix.

That, he told WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show,” will be addressing the lineup’s lack of right-handed power.

“We obviously have Tyler (O’Neill) right now, but he’s earned the right to explore free agency, and the right-handed power that plays so well at Fenway is going to be a massive hole that we’re going to need to figure out how to fix,” Breslow said.

Since being acquired from St. Louis in an offseason trade, O’Neill has been the only reliable right-handed power threat in Boston’s lineup.

The outfielder leads the team with 31 home runs, but with fellow outfielders Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu all under team control through the rest of the decade and top prospect Roman Anthony waiting in the wings, O’Neill isn’t a logical long-term fit and will almost certainly leave in free agency this winter.

Breslow all but confirmed as much in his comments to WEEI.

So if O’Neill doesn’t come back, where is Boston’s right-handed power going to come from? Having a full year of Trevor Story will help, but the Red Sox need more, and the way Boston’s roster is constructed there isn’t an obvious way to bring in more thump.

Not unless Breslow is willing to upset the apple cart.

As it stands now, Boston’s lineup for next year is more or less locked in. For left-handed hitters, the Red Sox have Rafael Devers at third base, Triston Casas at first, Masataka Yoshida at designated hitter and Duran and Abreu in the outfield.

For righties, Boston has Story at shortstop, Rafaela in the outfield and Wong at catcher. The only obvious hole, second base, will almost certainly be filled internally, and while top candidates Vaughn Grissom and Kristian Campbell are both right-handed hitters, neither are likely to be significant power threats in their first full season as a starter.

Boston’s other top prospects — Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Kyle Teel — are all left-handed hitters.

There are several potential free agent targets who could give Boston a boost, but all come with complications.

Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, for example, shares a position with Devers, Boston’s franchise player who is under contract for another nine seasons. Milwaukee’s Willy Adames plays shortstop, which the Red Sox have taken care of with Story now and it hopes with Mayer down the road. Baltimore’s Anthony Santander is a switch-hitting outfielder, but he doesn’t make sense for the same reasons as O’Neill. Mets first baseman Pete Alonso may be the most reliable right-handed slugger alive right now, but could he and Casas co-exist?

Houston Astros infielder Alex Bregman, right, celebrates with Kyle Tucker, left, after hitting a two-run home run during the third inning of a game against the Los Angeles Angels, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Kevin M. Cox)

The same problems apply to trade candidates as well. Oakland’s Brent Rooker would be a perfect fit for Boston, but it’d be impossible to accommodate him and Yoshida at the same time.

Yoshida’s presence at DH further limits Boston’s flexibility with the other positions, but with three years and $54 million remaining on his contract he could also be one of the club’s most difficult players to deal. If Breslow could find a taker that makes things easier — you could sign an Alonso or trade for a Rooker and trust that Alex Cora will figure out a way to make it all work — but otherwise someone else might have to go. Someone cheaper, with more years of control and greater upside who a team like the Athletics would find valuable.

Someone like Abreu, or Duran, or Casas.

Boston’s offense is better than it’s shown recently, but even the best version of the Red Sox lineup skews far too left-handed. For the Red Sox to take full advantage of their home ballpark they need a couple of guys who can reliably pull balls over the Green Monster, and if O’Neill isn’t in the equation next year the club risks becoming both punchless and unbalanced.

Breslow seems to recognize that. The question now is how far he’s willing to go to rectify it.

Kimbrel’s legacy?

This past week former Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel was designated for assignment by the Baltimore Orioles, capping off a disappointing second half and potentially signaling the end of the veteran right-hander’s career.

If this is it for the 36-year-old, how will he ultimately be remembered?

Baltimore Orioles relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel delivers during the ninth inning of a game against the Chicago White Sox, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Kimbrel is without a doubt one of the most successful closers of his generation. He is a nine-time All-Star, a World Series champion, won Rookie of the Year and ranks fifth all-time in career saves with 440. His 14.1 strikeouts per nine innings is also second all-time among pitchers who have thrown 500 or more innings, behind only Aroldis Chapman, and his 1,265 strikeouts is the most ever by a modern relief pitcher.

His resume stacks up well against his predecessors who are in the Hall of Fame, but when Kimbrel eventually winds up on the ballot there are already indicators his candidacy will be controversial.

As great as Kimbrel was in the regular season, he often struggled when the calendar turned to October. In 30 career postseason appearances, Kimbrel allowed 15 earned runs in 30 innings (4.50 ERA), which actually could have been a lot worse considering he walked 20 batters while only striking out 32 in those appearances.

Kimbrel was famously shaky throughout Boston’s World Series championship run in 2018, allowing seven runs and walking eight batters over nine appearances. The Red Sox won eight of those nine games anyway and Kimbrel earned six saves en route to the title, but the Philadelphia Phillies weren’t so fortunate in the 2023 NLCS. Kimbrel blew back-to-back games in Games 3 and 4, opening the door for the Arizona Diamondbacks to eventually pull off the upset in seven.

Fair or not, those failures have created an impression that Kimbrel’s greatness was in part fed by empty calories. Given how difficult it is for relievers to clear the bar for Cooperstown — Billy Wagner is still trying to make his case on the 10th and final try — Kimbrel likely faces a long, uphill climb even if few would dispute his place as one of the most dominant closers of the 21st century.

Milestone watch

Even if the Red Sox likely aren’t going to reach the playoffs, several players could still potentially reach impressive individual milestones over the season’s last week.

Jarren Duran, for example, leads baseball with 45 doubles and his 13 triples is one behind Arizona’s Corbin Carroll. If Duran winds up leading MLB in both categories, he’d become the first to do so since Hall of Famer Lou Brock did so in 1968 with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Boston Red Sox’s Jarren Duran, right, is congratulated by third base coach Kyle Hudson while rounding the bases on his solo home run during the first inning of a game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Duran is also within striking distance of becoming the eighth Red Sox position player to record a 9.0 WAR season.

In addition, starting pitchers Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford are both within range of 180 innings pitched. Only two Red Sox starters have reached that mark since 2019, those being Eduardo Rodriguez (203.1, 2019) and Nathan Eovaldi (182.1, 2021), and Houck and Crawford doing so would be a remarkable step forward considering their previous career highs were 106 and 129.1 innings, respectively.

Crawford is also in position to become just the fifth Red Sox starter to make 33 starts in a season over the past decade. The others are Rick Porcello (three times), David Price, Nick Pivetta and Rodriguez.

Outside of Boston, Detroit’s Tarik Skubal and Atlanta’s Chris Sale both have a chance to win their respective league’s Triple Crown for pitching. The last time a pitcher did so over a full season was in 2011, when Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw won the AL and NL crowns respectively, and Shane Bieber also did it in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Shohei Ohtani also just became the first player to ever record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season, reaching the historic mark in spectacular fashion when he went 6 for 6 with three home runs, 10 RBI and two stolen bases on Thursday night. He has since continued pushing those totals higher still, and when all is said and done he will almost certainly earn his third career MVP award.

While not exactly an accomplishment, the Chicago White Sox are also on the verge of surpassing the 1962 New York Mets for the worst record in modern MLB history. The White Sox are on pace to finish 38-124, which would supplant the expansion Mets’ 40-120 nadir. The only team in MLB history with more losses was the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who finished 20-134.

At least Chicago doesn’t have to worry about topping that, but that’s hardly a consolation for a team that’s about to finish the worst season anyone alive has ever seen.