Red Sox 2025 Season Review/Offseason Preview Thread

[notin]

On 3/2/2026 at 7:48 AM, Hugh2 said:

I remmeber at the time some people were still so enamored with DD and thought he could do no wrong defended him and critisized the Sox for not Protecting Song.  

It would certainly be a GREAT Story to see this could become a big leaguer and a valuable piece in a bullpen someday.  Even if it's not here but it would be pretty awesome if it was and he becomes a closer and closes out game 7 of the world series vs. the Phillies.....Ok I'm getting a little too ahead of myself here. 

It was a sad, sad day on here when DD selected Song, if only because I was the Voice of Reason…

[Hugh2]

57 minutes ago, notin said:

It was a sad, sad day on here when DD selected Song, if only because I was the Voice of Reason…

You're the voice of reason more often than many posters on here Notin.....except when you disagree with me of course. 

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

There was plenty of reason to think he didnt have skills. He wasnt fast, big, strong, or athletic.  He could hit singles and throw.  LAD sold out for a reason. 

I understand that you can piece together partial seasons to make him look serviceable, and that was the problem.  They should have cut bait after 2022 but they were able to convince themselves that he was fine value/good enough and he was never big, strong, fast, athletic.

This is the stuff I fear.  The rolling the mediocre players over every year because complacency.  And Casas is in the same boat.

I'm not sure Casas deserves the "mediocre" label. He may very well end up there, but an .800 career OPS over a player's first 952 PAs is not really mediocre.

His defense sucks, so that brings him down a peg, and he might be best viewed as a DH only/emergency 1Bman.

He hits about 31 HRs per 650 PAs.

He has a career .348 OBP, which would put him in the top 2-3 on this current team.

He may have just one more chance to prove himself, and where he plays might depend on an injury to an OF'er (He'd DH) or 1B (He'd pretend to play 1B.)

I don't see him as another Dalbec type, since he gets on base, a lot.

 

[drewski6]

10 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I'm not sure Casas deserves the "mediocre" label. He may very well end up there, but an .800 career OPS over a player's first 952 PAs is not really mediocre.

His defense sucks, so that brings him down a peg, and he might be best viewed as a DH only/emergency 1Bman.

He hits about 31 HRs per 650 PAs.

He has a career .348 OBP, which would put him in the top 2-3 on this current team.

He may have just one more chance to prove himself, and where he plays might depend on an injury to an OF'er (He'd DH) or 1B (He'd pretend to play 1B.)

I don't see him as another Dalbec type, since he gets on base, a lot.

 

I dont want him standing on first base clogging up the basepaths.

[moonslav59]

31 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

I dont want him standing on first base clogging up the basepaths.

1.000 OBP would suck- I know!

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, drewski6 said:

I understand that you can piece together partial seasons to make him look serviceable, and that was the problem.  They should have cut bait after 2022 but they were able to convince themselves that he was fine value/good enough and he was never big, strong, fast, athletic.

It was still 644 ABs.  That's a pretty good sample size to suggest he could play.

[drewski6]

12 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

It was still 644 ABs.  That's a pretty good sample size to suggest he could play.

Yup. And sometimes when a player has a decent year, it ends up hurting you because then you roll over mediocre production the next 4 years.  And 20 HR/644 at-bats proves nothing.  Its actually a low power output considering his slow feet and lack of athleticism.

One of the worst players to ever come through here.  Because if he hit .000 in his first 665 at-bats, he would have been shipped out and we would have been better off. 

Like I said, the stat line for those first 640 games wasnt bad on the surface, but it bought Verdugo too many years of stinky play and I just dont like the complacency of rolling over someone who isnt fast or strong.

To be honest, Im contradicting myself a bit here - so let me clarify.  I agree with you that the 665 initial at-bats made Verdugo look like a serviceable player at the time.  At the time, I thought hey, we may have something here.  But he was overrated even after those first 665 at-bats becoming a fan favorite for really no good reason.  I grew to hate the guy because I didnt like his loner demeanor and he stuck around entirely too long, way past his welcome.

In hindsight , the return for Betts was horrible.  But I do think that regardless of stats over 644 at-bats, the fact that he was slow and not strong and not athletic were clues that he wasnt going to pan out.  You shouldnt be surprised he failed in 2026.  But I understand thinking at the time of trade, he would be a solid get.

Kind of like watching a movie a second time and seeing clues you missed the first time.  (not you personally)

For me personally, I got so sick of all my friends loving Verdugo and Im like this guy is soooooo mediocre (this was well after his first 644 seasons)

Imagine playing a rookie QB who does well.  Then stinks for 2 seasons.  Going into that fourth season all your pals are like "hes good, look at that rookie season." then the team gave him that fourth year because in this example, that good rookie season wound up being a curse in disguise becasue you kept the player around too long hoping he can find it again. When that first season could have been luck and yes you can luck into 20 homeruns in 644 at-bats. Well not all 20, but if its a 15 homer season + 5 lucky homeruns due to conditions (wind blowing out, hitters parks...)

[drewski6]

The best thing Verdugo ever did was stink up the joint that one year for NYY.  I remember saying to my buddy (fellow Red Sox fan) , I love this Verdugo trade (to the yanks). We just trojan horsed the yanks, this dude is a cancer.

And he is btw, a clubhouse cancer.  That not legging out , lack of work ethic, that stuff is contagious.  

[drewski6]

Verdugo was a singles hitting, mediocre defense (good arm, bad range), slow on the basepaths player with a bad attitude who bought himself too many years with a good initial showing in MLB.  But in hindsight, when you look at his lack of athleticism/speed/power, its obvious (but only with hindsight) that he had high bust potential.

I dont blame anyone being fooled in 2020 when we first got him.  He had almost everyone fooled , including the knuckleheads who ranked him so highly on the prospects charts. I do believe the LAD was quick to include him (red-flag), I think they knew he was overrated (but not as bad as he turned out to be).  And I grew to really hate him in 2023 because he had a bad attitude and a lot of my friends still liked him because he was initially good for us and first impressions last.

[drewski6]

I loved the trade of him to NYY because I thought he would ruin their season.  And he did strike out to end the WS, but thats not really fair becuase he did have some good postseason moments for the yankees.  But he had a bad post-all star break regular season for them and fell out of the lineup mostly. I think he came back in due to injury.

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

I'm not sure Casas deserves the "mediocre" label.

Over his first three seasons, Casas has a 126 OPS+.  Over his past three seasons, Alonso has a 129 OPS+.  Alonso is obviously a more 'sure-thing', but those numbers are very close.

[moonslav59]

42 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

It was still 644 ABs.  That's a pretty good sample size to suggest he could play.

There was no bell curve with Dugo, once he got to Boston.

OPS+

123 '20

107 '21

102 '22

100 '23

 

to NYY: 84 '24

to ATL: 67 '25

 

 

[drewski6]

4 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Over his first three seasons, Casas has a 126 OPS+.  Over his past three seasons, Alonso has a 129 OPS+.  Alonso is obviously a more 'sure-thing', but those numbers are very close.

So when its Verdugo a season is 644 at-bats, but when its casas theres no minimum at-bats?  This isnt made in good faith.

In one season (plus a little change), split between three years he was 126 OPS+

Can we fall back to that?  For consistency

[drewski6]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

There was no bell curve with Dugo, once he got to Boston.

OPS+

123 '20

107 '21

102 '22

100 '23

 

to NYY: 84 '24

to ATL: 67 '25

 

 

A 100 OPS+ from a corner outfielder isnt a ringing endorsement.

[moonslav59]

7 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Over his first three seasons, Casas has a 126 OPS+.  Over his past three seasons, Alonso has a 129 OPS+.  Alonso is obviously a more 'sure-thing', but those numbers are very close.

I still have a lot of confidence in Casas as a batter.

[Old Red]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

I'm not sure Casas deserves the "mediocre" label. He may very well end up there, but an .800 career OPS over a player's first 952 PAs is not really mediocre.

His defense sucks, so that brings him down a peg, and he might be best viewed as a DH only/emergency 1Bman.

He hits about 31 HRs per 650 PAs.

He has a career .348 OBP, which would put him in the top 2-3 on this current team.

He may have just one more chance to prove himself, and where he plays might depend on an injury to an OF'er (He'd DH) or 1B (He'd pretend to play 1B.)

I don't see him as another Dalbec type, since he gets on base, a lot.

 

I don’t know what kind of label Casas deserves. He’s had one full season where he hit 24 with 65 RBI. To me he’s still a work in progress who has to prove first of all he can stay on the field. Like Mayer Casas has lost a lot of AB the last 3 years due to injuries. He could go either way, but if some want to call him mediocre I see nothing wrong with that. It’s not going to hurt, or help either way.

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, Old Red said:

 It’s not going to hurt, or help either way.

Too funny.

🤣😂🤣

[FredLynn]

9 hours ago, drewski6 said:

I dont want him standing on first base clogging up the basepaths.

Like Ortiz did whenever the gave him the intentional pass?

[JoeBrady]

7 hours ago, drewski6 said:

In one season (plus a little change), split between three years he was 126 OPS+

Well, since that is just what I posted, I agree with me.

[JoeBrady]

7 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I still have a lot of confidence in Casas as a batter.

He might not be a good player, but he might still be a great hitter.

[moonslav59]

34 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

He might not be a good player, but he might still be a great hitter.

I agree. I think if he's healthy he can easily hit over .800 and maybe even go .850+ with 30+ HRs.

[notin]

18 hours ago, drewski6 said:

I dont want him standing on first base clogging up the basepaths.

I know, huh?

Baserunners! When will this team learn?

[Old Red]

9 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I agree. I think if he's healthy he can easily hit over .800 and maybe even go .850+ with 30+ HRs.

Casas sure hasn’t proven he can stay healthy, and he hasn’t proven he can be a great hitter let alone a 30+ HR hitter. All wishful thinking there. A slow starter, and now he doesn’t have the luxury to get that chance anymore.

[notin]

19 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I still have a lot of confidence in Casas as a batter.

As a batter? Sure.  But what about as a guy who isn’t going to injure himself performing mundane baseball activities?

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, notin said:

As a batter? Sure.  But what about as a guy who isn’t going to injure himself performing mundane baseball activities?

I really feel seen with this post. 

[notin]

20 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I really feel seen with this post. 

It’s why he does yet need a clear path to playing time…

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

2 hours ago, notin said:

But what about as a guy who isn’t going to injure himself performing mundane baseball activities?

The Sox players have a lot of confidence in Pookie Jackson, clubhouse wizard.

[Kimmi]

On 3/2/2026 at 10:50 PM, moonslav59 said:

The deal certainly looked better than the Padre offer- both at the time and in hindsight.

Verdugo did look good, out of the gate. Downs had some promise.

As I previously stated, no one was going to match the production of Betts.  But at the time of the deal, it was a decent deal when you factor in the amount of money it cost to sign Betts.  It's a shame that neither Verdugo nor Downs panned out.  

[Kimmi]

On 3/3/2026 at 7:28 AM, jad said:

There is NO excuse for dumping an MVP future hall of famer great citizen fan favorite.   None.   JH got a lot of money; we got a couple of years of a AAAA pornographer.

There was good reason to dump Betts.  His reported contract demands to the Red Sox were unreasonable, and those were made at a time before he was even a free agent, a time when he should have been willing to take a bit of a discount, if anything.  As the saying goes, it takes two to tango.

[Old Red]

28 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

There was good reason to dump Betts.  His reported contract demands to the Red Sox were unreasonable, and those were made at a time before he was even a free agent, a time when he should have been willing to take a bit of a discount, if anything.  As the saying goes, it takes two to tango.

I don’t think at the time there was a good reason not to sign Betts in most people’s eyes. You know I’m like you when it comes to huge, and long contracts, but I think most Red Sox fans wanted hm signed. He was a great player in the prime of his career. One poster on here would have given him 14 years. The Red Sox were trying to sign Mookie before he became a FA, and there was nothing wrong with that. It didn’t work out. It doesn’t look as bad now as he’s nearing 34.