Article: Red Sox Week in Review: Return of the Mid Sox

[Maddie Landis]

Weekly Snapshot: 

• Record Last Week 4-3 (Overall 27-28)
• Runs Scored Last Week: 33
• Runs Surrendered Last Week: 23

Standings: 

• 2nd in the AL East
• 6.0 GB from 1st Place
• 2.0 Wild Card Games Back

Scores: 

• Game 49 (5/19) | NYM 1, BOS 3
• Game 50 (5/20) | NYM 0, BOS 2
• Game 51 (5/21) | NYM 5, BOS 1
• Game 52 (5/23) | BAL 5, BOS 19
• Game 53 (5/24) | BAL 5, BOS 6
• Game 54 (5/24) | BAL 2, BOS 1
• Game 55 (5/25) | BAL 5, BOS 1

Transactions:

• 5/20/25: Optioned Nick Burdi to AAA Worcester
• 5/20/25: Activated Walker Buehler (right shoulder inflammation) from the 15-day injured list
• 5/21/25: Signed Erickson Ettien to a minor league contract
• 5/22/25: Acquired Ryan Noda from the Los Angeles Angels for cash
• 5/22/25: Transferred Masataka Yoshida (right shoulder labral repair) from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list
• 5/22/25: Richard Fitts (right pectoral strain) sent on a rehab assignment to AA Portland
• 5/22/25: Signed P.J. Labriola to a minor league contract
• 5/24/25: Recalled Luis Guerrero from AAA Worcester
• 5/24/25: Selected the contract of Marcelo Mayer from AAA Worcester
• 5/24/25: Activated Cooper Criswell
• 5/24/25: Designated Sean Newcomb for assignment
• 5/24/25: Transferred Triston Casas from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list
• 5/24/25: Placed Alex Bregman (right quad strain) on the 10-day injured list
• 5/24/25: Sent Zach Penrod on a rehab assignment to FCL Red Sox
• 5/25/25: Optioned Cooper Criswell to AAA Worcester
• 5/25/25: Recalled Zach Kelly from AAA Worcester
• 5/25/25: Optioned Luis Guerrero to AAA Worcester

 

TL;DR Breakdown/Highlights
Mets series: On the bright side, the Red Sox pitching looked solid, and they scored enough runs to scrape by and take two out of three games from that other baseball team in New York City. They were the first team in baseball to score three runs off the Mets' ace Kodai Senga.

Orioles series: The Red Sox hit new highs and lows playing the Orioles. They split the four-game series, winning the first two games, losing the second game in Saturday’s doubleheader, and the final game on Sunday. In the series opener, they scored 19 runs, and Rafael Devers hit eight RBI and two home runs, including his second grand slam in a week. Devers alone accounts for 30% of the team's runs in the past week.

Third baseman Alex Bregman was pulled from Friday’s game. He was placed on the 10-day injured list for a right quad strain.

Subsequently, the Red Sox called up Marcelo Mayer for the second game in Saturday’s doubleheader. He went 0-4 in his first major league game before recording two hits, a double (105.1 mph EV) and a single (85.5 mph EV) in his second game.

Since their starters stay in the game past the fifth inning, the Red Sox’s bullpen is pretty taxed.

Luis Guerrero pitched 1 1/3 innings on Saturday before being sent back down to Worcester. Guerrero (12.5% k-rate, 37.5% bb-rate) couldn’t find the strike zone and yielded one strikeout, three balls, two hits, and one earned run. Zack Kelly, Guerrero's replacement, didn't fare better on Sunday.

Following Sunday’s game, the Red Sox embark on a weeklong road trip, hitting Milwaukee and Atlanta. The Brewers are 5-5 in their last 10 games and the Braves have been rejuvenated by the Ronald Acuña Jr.’s triumphant return.

Random Stats

• The Red Sox have held a .500 record 12 times this season, the most in baseball.
• The Red Sox need to find a solution at the fourth hole. The fourth spot in their lineup ranks 28th in average (.197), last in OBP (.242) and wRC+ (56), and second highest for strikeout rate (28.3%).
• After putting Campbell there for 10 games (.140/.159/.209, -10 wRC+), it’s obvious that he isn’t the immediate answer. Campbell is a young player, who could potentially fill in the role *sometime* in his career, but the experiment has run its course. He’s already being yanked around the field and placing even more pressure on him to produce offensively isn’t yielding the best results for the team and his development.

5/19 – 5/25 Slash Lines

Players Trending Up

• Carlos Narvaez: .421/.476/.789, 250 wRC+
• Rafael Devers: .364/.481/.818, 253 wRC+
• Jarren Duran: .304/.370/.609, 161 wRC+ (10 days after I published this article on Duran’s wider batting stance, the distance between his feet has dropped by 0.8 inches.)

Players Trending Down

• Kristian Campbell: .188/.316/.188, 51 wRC+
• Trevor Story: .136/.174/.182, -11 wRC+
• Ceddanne Rafaela: .056/.150/.056, -44 wRC+
• David Hamilton: .111/.111/.111, -56 wRC+

Website Highlights

• Top Red Sox Prospect Marcelo Mayer Has Been Called Up To Boston
• Alex Bregman Leaves With Quad Tightness & The Red Sox's Backup Plan Is Paper Thin
• When Tanner Houck Returns, Where Will He Fit In With The Current Pitching Staff?

Looking Ahead
May 26th – Red Sox at Brewers – 2:10 pm EDT
May 27th – Red Sox at Brewers – 7:10 pm EDT
May 28th – Red Sox at Brewers – 1:10 pm EDT
May 30th – Red Sox at Braves – 7:15 pm EDT
May 31st – Red Sox at Braves – 4:10 pm EDT
June 1st – Red Sox at Braves – 1:35 pm EDT  

View full article

[Bellhorn04]

We are the middest of the mid.  We must be setting a record for most days at .500 in a two-season stretch.

[TedYazPapiMookie]

It's been going on longer that that!!  The club has been horrible since Dombrowski got fired and Mookie and Price were given away.  2020 was a year where .500 would have been a huge improvement and 2021 was the year of the great start when they beat up Tampa Bay, Toronto, CWS and MIN to run off to a 32-21 record by the end of May.  Since then, the end of May records are almost exactly .500 for the four years:

2022 - 24-27

2023 - 29-27

2024 - 30-30

2025 - 27-28  (with 6 games left in May)

Each year everyone talks about the improvement and by the end of May the team is hovering around  .500 because the April schedule is easy and the May schedule is hard and then we start playing the Yankees in June and we need July to bounce back to .500.

This all tracks back to the events of 2019.  Dombrowski's firing reversed the good fortune that had occurred after we reversed the Curse.  The Mookie giveaway was an earthquake.  I said it would take no less than 5 years and more likely 10 years to recover from it.  I said no division titles will happen in the 2020s.  It's 2025 the predicted five-year drought has occurred, and we continue to be average.  We always have hope prior to the season that doesn't materialize.  Is it Cora's leadership?  Maybe.  Is it poor acquisitions?  Yes, under Bloom.  Not so much under Breslow.   All Breslow can do is keep providing talent but there is something very fundamental missing from the team. 

They gave away their leadership group in Mookie, JD, Bogaerts, Sale and Eovaldi.  They have no replacements for them except possibly Bregman and Crochet.  Devers is about Devers.  He's not a leader he is self-focused star with less talent than he thinks he has.  JD was putting up far better numbers as a DH and from the time he arrived in Boston he helped others improve their hitting.  Those days are gone.

They really only have a few stars left on the team and the fan base doesn't really support the rising stars like they should.  Duran deserves much more respect for what he has accomplished but listen to NESN broadcasts all they do is rave about Devers and disrespect Duran, Houck, Casas and most of the remaining players provided by Dombrowski.  Bregman and Crochet are being supported by NESN so that's good but guys like Campbell, Rafaela are being overlooked so guys like Abreu and Mayer/Anthony can be hyped.  Watch a nationally broadcast Red Sox game and the announcers rave about Rafaela's skills yet the NESN broadcast is just the opposite.  They seem to remember back to his wild swings from last season and don't recognize he's a completely different hitter this year who has the fewest Ks of the starters. 

The marketing and promotion of individuals by the NESN announcers, Cora and the fanbase have all continued to work against the team concept that existed in 2018 and 2013.  That needs to be fixed or .500 is the destiny of the franchise for years to come.   Hopefully, Breslow can return the clubhouse to being a team environment but as long as performance doesn't drive the praise from the manager, the reporters aligned with the front office and the fanbase, there will be plenty of .500 ball in the future.

 

[Kimmi]

7 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

We are the middest of the mid.  We must be setting a record for most days at .500 in a two-season stretch.

As I've posted before, when I look at our roster player by player, I can't believe that we are still hovering around .500.  We should be significantly better than that, IMO.  That is what's so frustrating to me.

Fortunately, there's still a lot of season left to play.  The team's talent suggests that we have to start winning more games.  I hope.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

3 hours ago, Kimmi said:

As I've posted before, when I look at our roster player by player, I can't believe that we are still hovering around .500.  We should be significantly better than that, IMO.  That is what's so frustrating to me.

Fortunately, there's still a lot of season left to play.  The team's talent suggests that we have to start winning more games.  I hope.

A change of manager probably wouldn't hurt. Unfortunately, JH thinks Cora is the filet mignon of baseball managers. Personally, I'd put Cora in the Chuck-eye category.

[mvp 78]

13 hours ago, Kimmi said:

As I've posted before, when I look at our roster player by player, I can't believe that we are still hovering around .500.  We should be significantly better than that, IMO.  That is what's so frustrating to me.

Fortunately, there's still a lot of season left to play.  The team's talent suggests that we have to start winning more games.  I hope.

The ACTIVE roster includes:

Dobbins (ok, but can't go 6 innings which is a problem because of the next two)

Bello (yuck)

Giolito (c'mon)

Connor Wong (if DFA'd might pass waivers)

Sogard

Toro

Hamilton (2b only, 44 wRC+)

Campbell mired in a huge slump

 

 

[mvp 78]

10 hours ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

A change of manager probably wouldn't hurt. Unfortunately, JH thinks Cora is the filet mignon of baseball managers. Personally, I'd put Cora in the Chuck-eye category.

What's a new manager going to do differently? 

[Kimmi]

17 hours ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

A change of manager probably wouldn't hurt. Unfortunately, JH thinks Cora is the filet mignon of baseball managers. Personally, I'd put Cora in the Chuck-eye category.

I am a Cora fan.  I agree that a change of manager probably wouldn't hurt, but I'm not sure how much it would help either.

That said, I'm also not sure who is calling the shots on Devers not playing 1B, but I don't like it.  Why is Devers being treated with kid gloves?  It's not just this 1B thing.  Verdugo was once benched for not running hard to first base, yet Devers is allowed to often not run hard with no consequences from Cora.

Don't get me wrong.  I really like Devers.  I just feel like something is amiss here.

[Kimmi]

7 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

The ACTIVE roster includes:

Dobbins (ok, but can't go 6 innings which is a problem because of the next two)

Bello (yuck)

Giolito (c'mon)

Connor Wong (if DFA'd might pass waivers)

Sogard

Toro

Hamilton (2b only, 44 wRC+)

Campbell mired in a huge slump

 

 

Obviously, we took a big hit when Bregman went down.  We also took a big hit when Casas went down, despite how poorly he was hitting at the time.  Regardless, most of the guys you mentioned are underperforming.  They are better than what they are currently showing us.

And not to belabor a point, but we are 6-14 in one run games with a +17 run differential. Not great, but we are better than our current record suggests we are.

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

7 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

Obviously, we took a big hit when Bregman went down. 

They've been pretty much a .500 team with or without bregman.

[dgalehouse]

The mid Sox have been the mid Sox for six years now. 

[notin]

8 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

What's a new manager going to do differently? 

Manage?

[moonslav59]

49 minutes ago, notin said:

Manage?

Manage to finish .500, again.

[mvp 78]

16 hours ago, Kimmi said:

I am a Cora fan.  I agree that a change of manager probably wouldn't hurt, but I'm not sure how much it would help either.

That said, I'm also not sure who is calling the shots on Devers not playing 1B, but I don't like it.  Why is Devers being treated with kid gloves?  It's not just this 1B thing.  Verdugo was once benched for not running hard to first base, yet Devers is allowed to often not run hard with no consequences from Cora.

Don't get me wrong.  I really like Devers.  I just feel like something is amiss here.

I agree that a change won't make a difference. 

I think there is horrible communication between Cora and Breslow. They are either not on the same page or just not communicating effectively somewhere. We just don't have insight to know where the breakdown is. 

[mvp 78]

14 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Manage to finish .500, again.

This team feels like 78-84 to me. It just has that vibe. 

[Bellhorn04]

Just now, mvp 78 said:

I agree that a change won't make a difference. 

I think there is horrible communication between Cora and Breslow. They are either not on the same page or just not communicating effectively somewhere. We just don't have insight to know where the breakdown is. 

Where do you think the bad communication is showing up?

[Bellhorn04]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

This team feels like 78-84 to me. It just has that vibe. 

Feels like it could get even worse than that.  Starting to feel like expecting to lose, with a win a pleasant surprise.

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Where do you think the bad communication is showing up?

Most importantly Raffy: no communication about DH, no communication about potential need to move to 1B

[Bellhorn04]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Most importantly Raffy: no communication about DH, no communication about potential need to move to 1B

Personally I think it's really hard to know what all went down there.  It sure looked bad.  I think at the end of the day the real problem was Raffy.  His absolute refusal to play first is about as selfish as it gets.  It seems Cora thought the best play was to protect Raffy for the sake of his bat.  It seems Breslow didn't feel the same way.  

It does feel like the whole episode has dragged the team down. 

[mvp 78]

18 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Feels like it could get even worse than that.  Starting to feel like expecting to lose, with a win a pleasant surprise.

Some of those 78 win teams felt pretty bad. 

[moonslav59]

21 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

This team feels like 78-84 to me. It just has that vibe. 

Seems this way, now. I agree.

I still think we can turn it around, but I'm not seeing any spark.

Losing Bregman doesn't help.

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Personally I think it's really hard to know what all went down there.  It sure looked bad.  I think at the end of the day the real problem was Raffy.  His absolute refusal to play first is about as selfish as it gets.  It seems Cora thought the best play was to protect Raffy for the sake of his bat.  It seems Breslow didn't feel the same way.  

It does feel like the whole episode has dragged the team down. 

I think the bad starting pitching and injuries dragged the team down. 

[Bellhorn04]

Just now, mvp 78 said:

Some of those 78 win teams felt pretty bad. 

Definitely.

This 2025 team seemed to carry some real expectations with the big name additions and the big 3 prospects, so the results are a bit more shocking to me.      

[Bellhorn04]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

I think the bad starting pitching and injuries dragged the team down. 

Unfortunately it's multiple things.  When you get the pitching you don't get the hitting and vice versa.

dipre always said that's just the sign of a bad team. 

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Unfortunately it's multiple things.  When you get the pitching you don't get the hitting and vice versa.

dipre always said that's just the sign of a bad team. 

That's the sign of a mediocre team. At least you get pitching or hitting at some points. I guess for Sox fans, mediocrity is bad. Well, it makes for a bad summer. 

[Bellhorn04]

8 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

That's the sign of a mediocre team. At least you get pitching or hitting at some points. I guess for Sox fans, mediocrity is bad. Well, it makes for a bad summer. 

4 straight seasons of pure mediocrity for the Boston Red Sox is pretty bad.

[Duran Is The Man]

45 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

4 straight seasons of pure mediocrity for the Boston Red Sox is pretty bad.

and with the talent this team has, there is no reason they should suck so bad, year after year after year. i blame the constant....and that is Alex Cora.

[Yaz Fan Since 67]

11 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

and with the talent this team has, there is no reason they should suck so bad, year after year after year. i blame the constant....and that is Alex Cora.

Have you seen the lineup he is working with?  It's a miracle they have gotten the runs that they have.  Such a weak hitting lineup with nothing resembling a cleanup hitter and nothing after that.

 

I am so done with Trevor Story.

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

I think the bad starting pitching and injuries dragged the team down. 

Weren't they basically a .500 team before the injuries?

[Bellhorn04]

22 minutes ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

Weren't they basically a .500 team before the injuries?

In theory, when it's still early, you can go from being a .500 team with hopes of getting hot, to a .500 team without the hopes...