This story was excerpted from Ian Browne's Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

With the Hot Stove season in full motion, Red Sox fans are still waiting for the club’s first big move. From there, other dominoes will follow.

I recently ran into a former Red Sox player you might have heard of who also happens to be a team employee, not to mention a highly regarded MLB Network/TBS analyst.

As someone who was traded twice in his career and also signed a couple of free-agent deals, Pedro Martinez has good insight on this time of year.

Here are his thoughts on the Red Sox as they embark on a critical offseason.

“I’m definitely looking forward to improving the team. Hopefully, we can get those guys signed, like Bogey [Xander Bogaerts] and [Rafael] Devers and everybody,” Martinez said.

Yet his own experience reminds Martinez of how unpredictable it can all be.

“As you know, the darkest part of baseball is the negotiations, the economics. It’s always a dark side that you don’t want to approach because when you look at Bogey and all those guys who are free agents, great human beings, great to the community, loved and admired by everybody, you would love to see them back,” Martinez said. “The economics of baseball speak a different language. We all have to be aware that some things just escape our hands.”

Martinez, along with the rest of Red Sox Nation, just hopes that Bogaerts and Devers (who has one more year left on his contract) don’t escape.

What else is Martinez looking for to turn the 2023 Red Sox into a playoff-caliber squad that can emerge from last season’s last-place finish in the American League East?

“Hopefully the Red Sox will get some more pitching; a top-notch, right-handed starting pitcher. I can only ask and dream,” Martinez said. “A little bit more help towards the end of the bullpen and good health for the guys we have for next year. We should have a competitive team out there and a team that could go from last to first. We have done it before. Don’t lose your faith.”