By Tiffany Williams –
FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Red Sox are not easing into 2026. They are charging into it.
Pitchers and catchers held their first workouts Tuesday at Fenway South in Lee County, Florida. The morning began at 9:30 a.m. sharp. Thirty-three pitchers. Eight catchers. Gloves popping. Arms firing. No excuses.
The first full-squad workout is set for Sunday, February 15. Sixty-five players are expected in camp, including 25 non-roster invitees. Eleven infielders. Six outfielders. Seven infielder/outfielders. This is not a quiet spring. This is roster warfare.
And the front office didn’t wait for drills to make noise.
On January 21, the Red Sox signed left-handed pitcher Ranger Suárez to a five-year contract through the 2030 season with a mutual option for 2031. That’s not a depth move. That’s a declaration.
Suárez, 30, made 26 starts for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2025. He went 12-8 with a 3.20 ERA over 157.1 innings. Career highs in strikeouts with 151. Career highs in innings. Seventeen quality starts. His 4.0 FanGraphs WAR tied the sixth-best mark among National League pitchers. He ranked seventh in ERA among NL arms with at least 150 innings.
He also lived in elite territory. Ninety-eighth percentile in hard-hit percentage at 31.1%. Ninety-fifth percentile in average exit velocity at 86.5 miles per hour.
In the Postseason, Suárez has been ice cold. Eleven career games, eight starts. A 4-1 record. A 1.48 ERA. Opponents hitting .203. Ten of those 11 outings featured one or zero earned runs. He delivered five scoreless innings in Game 3 of the 2022 World Series against Houston. In the 2025 NLDS, he earned the win in Game 3 with five innings of one-run relief against the Dodgers.
That is October credibility. The Red Sox paid for it.
They kept dealing.
On February 4, Boston claimed catcher/infielder Mickey Gasper off waivers from the Washington Nationals. Gasper, 30, played 45 games for Minnesota in 2025, starting 12 at catcher. He also logged time at DH, first base, and second. In Triple-A St. Paul, he hit .285 with a .916 OPS, 14 doubles, and 10 home runs.
Then came infielder Tsung-Che Cheng, claimed off waivers last Friday. Cheng, 24, debuted in 2025 with Pittsburgh. In Triple-A Indianapolis, he played 107 games with 18 stolen bases and experience across shortstop, third, and second. He had been claimed three times in January before landing in Boston. Now he gets another shot.
Monday brought more volume. Four non-roster invitees were added: infielder Brendan Rodgers, catcher Matt Thaiss, and right-handers Kyle Keller and Vinny Nittoli.
Rodgers, 29, played 43 games for Houston in 2025 before a left oblique strain ended his season. He owns a .261 career average with 47 home runs. Thaiss, 30, split 2025 between the White Sox and Rays, making 48 starts at catcher. Keller spent 2025 in Nippon Professional Baseball with a 3.11 ERA in 45 games. Nittoli posted a 4.58 ERA in Triple-A between Milwaukee and Baltimore organizations.
But the biggest jolt came in a trade with Milwaukee.
Boston acquired infielders Caleb Durbin and Andruw Monasterio, infielder/catcher Anthony Seigler, and a Competitive Balance Round B draft pick in 2026. In exchange, the Red Sox sent left-handers Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan and infielder David Hamilton to the Brewers.
Durbin, 25, finished third in 2025 NL Rookie of the Year voting. He hit .256 with 25 doubles, 11 home runs, 60 runs, and 18 stolen bases in 136 games. He led NL rookies in stolen bases. In October, he hit .276 in nine Postseason games.
Monasterio hit .270 in 68 games for Milwaukee in 2025. Seigler debuted in 2025 and reached base at a .414 clip in Triple-A. Harrison made 11 big league appearances in 2025 between San Francisco and Boston. Drohan posted a 3.00 ERA across two minor league levels. Hamilton hit .198 with 22 stolen bases in 91 games for Boston.
Then Tuesday happened.
The Red Sox signed infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa to a one-year contract for 2026. He will wear number two. To clear space, right-hander Tanner Houck was placed on the 60-Day Injured List.
Kiner-Falefa, 30, owns a .262 career average across 920 games. He won a Gold Glove in 2020. He has started games at shortstop, third, catcher, second, and all three outfield spots. In 2025, he hit .262 in 138 games between Pittsburgh and Toronto. He also played in 15 Postseason games for the Blue Jays, hitting .333 in the 2025 ALCS against Seattle.
Houck, 29, made nine starts in 2025 before landing on the Injured List on May 13. He underwent hybrid reconstruction of the right ulnar collateral ligament with flexor tendon repair on August 18.
The 40-man roster now stands full at 40.
Twenty pitchers. Three catchers. Nine infielders. Four outfielders. Five infielder/outfielders. One arm on the 60-Day Injured List.
Spring training just opened. But this doesn’t feel like a slow build. It feels like pressure. It feels like expectation. It feels like a franchise that knows the AL East is unforgiving and is done waiting around.
The workouts have started. The roster churn is real. And the Red Sox just made it very clear: 2026 is not about development whispers. It’s about results.