SAN ANTONIO — The million-dollar question this offseason remains whether the Red Sox will spend a lot of money and compete for top free agents.

Team president Tom Werner said early last offseason that The Red Sox planned to go full throttle to improve the roster. This never happened. Boston only handed out $52.25 million in guaranteed money in free agency it went to Lucas Giolito ($38.5 million), Liam Hendriks ($10 million), Joely Rodriguez ($1.5 million), Chase Anderson ($1.25 million) and Cooper Criswell ($1 million).

“I think it’s different. I think it should be different,” Breslow said of this offseason here during general managers meetings. “I know a lot more about the organization. I think we know a lot more about our players. Thus, being better informed allows us to make better decisions. Ultimately, our goal is to provide fans with a team that can win the World Series every year. And we’re approaching this offseason that way.

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Breslow was asked directly if the Red Sox were in a better position to potentially engage with top-tier free agents this offseason than they were last winter.

“Without going into detail, I think we have to be open to improving our team and I don’t think we’ve been shy about recognizing that our position player group is more advanced than our pitching group,” he said. Breslow said. “And so as far as upgrades go, that’s going to require some really elite talent in order to improve the position of the player pool in some cases. So we will focus our attention appropriately. But we will commit. We will explore everything that we believe makes us better.

The Red Sox have several needsincluding a right-handed hittera first-line starting pitcher and several relievers.

Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell, Max Fried, Yusei Kikuchi, Jack Flaherty and Sean Manaea are among the top free agent pitchers.

Tanner Scott, Jeff Hoffman, Aroldis Chapman and Kirby Yates are among the top free agent relievers.

Teoscar Hernández, Gleyber Torres, Pete Alonso, Willy Adames, Alex Bregman, Christian Walker and Jurickson Profar are among the best right-handed free hitters available. (Profar is a switch hitter.)

Free agency is obviously not the only path. The Red Sox could make a trade to acquire a first-line starter, which could mean parting ways with one of their top four prospects.

“The goal is to build the strongest team possible and we have to be flexible. We need to be open to a number of avenues to get there,” Breslow said.