The Red Sox have a few roster decisions to make before Tuesday’s 6 p.m. deadline, or come December, they’ll lose some of their best pitching talent in the Rule 5 Draft.

Luis Perales, Wikelman Gonzalez, and Shane Drohan are the likeliest candidates to be added. They’re pitching at such a level that teams wouldn’t have a problem giving them a spot on the 26-man roster for the entire season, as the draft stipulates.

There’s almost zero chance the Red Sox leave Perales unprotected. Though he’s only 21 years old and spent the 2023 season in Low- and High-A, he’s the No. 1 pitching prospect in their system.

Gonzalez, named Red Sox Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Year for 2023, is another all-but-sure thing. Over 25 starts between High- and Double-A this year, he posted a 3.96 ERA and struck out 168 batters across 111 1/3 innings.

Drohan, 23, earned an early promotion to Triple-A by posting a 1.32 ERA across six Double-A starts. Though he struggled to the tune of a 6.47 ERA over 21 games (19 starts) once at the top level of the farm, he’s closer to Major League-ready than any top pitching prospect, so the Red Sox will almost certainly add him to the roster.

With their reinstatement of outfielder Jarren Duran and right-hander Wyatt Mills from the 60-day injured list last week, the 40-man roster currently stands at 37, perfectly tailored for this trio of arms. The Red Sox could also decide to designate players for assignment before Tuesday evening’s deadline thereby opening more spots, potentially to protect prospects such as Triple-A standout Grant Gambrell or Zach Penrod, the hard-throwing lefty who was just named an Arizona Fall League Fall-Star.

Noah Song, returned to the Red Sox after the Philadelphia Phillies took him in last year’s draft, is another potential protectee.

Brainer Bonaci seemed a lock for a 40-man roster spot before he was placed on the restricted list in early October for violating the league’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy.

In other news

The Red Sox will have to navigate this pivotal offseason without a key member of their scouting department.

As first reported by ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel on Monday morning, Justin Horowitz is leaving Boston for Pittsburgh, where he’ll be the Pirates’ new director of amateur scouting,

Horowitz first joined the Red Sox organization as a baseball operations intern in 2012. By September 2020, he was special assistant of amateur scouting.

The American League East saw several other personnel changes on Monday. The New York Yankees announced James Rowson as their new hitting coach, while the Mets introduced their new manager, longtime Yankees bench coach, Carlos Mendoza.

The ripple effect of Terry Francona’s retirement continues for the Cleveland Guardians. After three seasons with the club, DeMarlo Hale is returning to Toronto. After serving as the Blue Jays’ bench coach from 2013-18, he’s back as associate manager under John Schneider.

Hale’s long baseball resumé includes coaching stints with three AL East teams over the last two decades, and several years as Francona’s right-hand man, first with the Texas Rangers, then Red Sox, and finally, Guardians. Francona brought him to Boston as the third-base coach in 2006, then promoted him to bench coach in November 2009. Hale spent the 2012 season as the Baltimore Orioles’ third-base coach, six seasons in Toronto, and two with the Atlanta Braves before reuniting with Francona in Cleveland in November 2020.