STAY OR GO? Which Red Sox Position Players Should Be BACK in 2027?

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If the Red Sox opened the 2027 season tomorrow, who actually deserves to still be here? [upbeat music] You are Locked On Red Sox, your daily Boston Red Sox podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. What's up, everyone? Welcome to Locked On Red Sox, your daily Boston Red Sox podcast. I'm your host, Gabby Maljanian, and on today's show, we move a little bit past 2026, what went wrong, what we hope to see for 2027 in terms of player acquisitions and the front office and moves they should be making, and we look at the guys currently on the roster and who should be staying. Between the wild cards, the tough decisions, and the locks, I'm gonna be talking about all of it on today's show. In terms of the actual people currently occupying this roster, who's absolutely coming back? Who am I willing to trade? Who has something to prove? And who am I genuinely not sure about? Those are the questions being answered on today's show, because the interesting thing about this off-season is that the Red Sox don't actually have a massive number of players walking out the door. There are only three players currently eligible for free agency from this team right now, Sonny Gray, Patrick Sandoval, and IKF. So obviously, that's a short list, and then on top of that, they have 10 players who are already under contract for next season. Trevor Story, Garrett Crochet, Masa Yoshida, Wilson Contreras, Aroldis Chapman, Ranger Suárez, Bryan Bello, Roman Anthony, Saidem Rafaela, and Christian Campbell. Campbell, I mean, that one's still so funny to me. Who knows what's gonna happen with him? But when I say change the roster, Craig Breslow can't just wave goodbye to 12 free agents and replace them. If this roster changes significantly, he's probably gonna have to make the roster change, and that's what makes this very interesting. So that's why I'm putting the guys into three categories between locks, decisions, and wild cards, and there are probably gonna be a few of these guys that you completely disagree with, which is okay. That's just part of it. But I'm gonna start with the obvious ones, the