Red Sox got front-row seat to biggest offseason mistake with infuriating reasoning

The Boston Red Sox had a frustrating offseason. Ownership refused to spend much money and the one guy they did spend on, Lucas Giolito, suffered an elbow injury that ended his season before it even started.

Part of why Boston signed Giolito had to do with his durability. The right-hander had made at least 29 starts and thrown at least 160 innings in each of the last five full seasons (excluding 2020). Sure, his numbers had fallen off in the last couple of seasons but even if he had an ERA in the 4.00's and was able to make all of his starts that'd be a win.

Giolito was the Chris Sale replacement as the oft-injured left-hander was traded to the Braves and he was the only addition Boston made to their rotation. One pitcher that they did consider was Japanese left-hander Shota Imanaga but they lost out on him to the Chicago Cubs.

Now we know why thanks to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, and it's safe to say that the Red Sox regret it after what they saw on Friday night.

Red Sox got front row seat to mistake with Shota Imanaga

Imanaga has been one of, if not the best pitcher in baseball in the early parts of this season. The southpaw has a sparkling 0.98 ERA in his five starts and 27.2 innings of work after allowing just one run in 6.1 innings in a winning effort over the Red Sox on Friday. The Cubs have gone 5-0 in his starts.

Imanaga has been nothing short of dominant to begin his MLB career. While the Red Sox have gotten surprisingly awesome starting pitching themselves even without Giolito, it's safe to say that they could've used Imanaga too. All 30 teams could use a guy who has a sub-1.00 ERA in five starts.

Red Sox fans have every reason to be upset with their front office knowing that Imanaga signed a team-friendly contract to join the Cubs. The reasoning that Boston had to not sign Imanaga should only infuriate fans more.

"The Sox declined to match — a stance driven by a number of factors, including, according to multiple major league sources, a guaranteed term of more years for a player about whom they had medical concerns."

The Red Sox refused to go higher than their offer of two years, $26 million for Imanaga mainly because of medical concerns, but wound up giving Giolito a two-year deal for more money because they believed he was durable. Well, Imanaga has been dominant while Giolito is out for the year.

Perhaps an injury concern will come about at some point justifying Boston's decision, but as of now, their decision to refuse to give Imanaga an offer he could consider while he has been unbelievable on the mound certainly looks bad. It only looks worse after he shut them down on Friday.