A Realistic Look at the 2026 Red Sox: Part I

[dannycater]

2 hours ago, Old Red said:

Wow! Impatient idiots? As I’ve said many times I think most casual fans care about the here, and now, and the here, and now is not to pretty looking unless you like 12-24, and 29-42.

When are we allowed to say Fire Breslow?

[oldtimer]

2 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

A lot of sports fans are impatient idiots, always have been and always will be.  Just goes with the territory.  Let's face it, being a sports fan is not one of the most rational things we do with our lives. 🙂

A lot of Sox fans have been patiently waiting for the team to build back into a contender. We have been waiting for ownership, management and coaching to make moves that result in a competitive team. That has not happened for several years and if anything this year it appears we are becoming less competitive. This past season, it was obvious that we needed to find some right hand power hitters, We made some improvements but were unable to move forward. If Breslow is a savant at assessing talent, he surely isn't one at making deals. They are kidding themselves if there is any talk that doesn't involve selling at the deadline or before. I would also recommend looking at the most promising prospects. What is there to lose?

[mvp 78]

18 minutes ago, dannycater said:

When are we allowed to say Fire Breslow?

Say it whenever you like. I'm going against the grain and saying that he makes it through this offseason. I don't believe he deserves it because of his work, but the Sox are just stuck with him because they have struggled to fill the position previously.

[mvp 78]

At least you guys aren't trying to revisit the Blaze Jordan trade now that he's playing 3b for the Cards. 🤠

[Old Red]

16 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Say it whenever you like. I'm going against the grain and saying that he makes it through this offseason. I don't believe he deserves it because of his work, but the Sox are just stuck with him because they have struggled to fill the position previously.

Sounds like a losing proposition either way, but I agree.

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Sounds like a losing proposition either way, but I agree.

I don't think there is an easy way out for the black eye that Henry has given this organization. Maybe the team gets better at some point, but the Boston Red Sox won't be seen the same way leaguewide for a long time. 

[vegasbob]

18 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Say it whenever you like. I'm going against the grain and saying that he makes it through this offseason. I don't believe he deserves it because of his work, but the Sox are just stuck with him because they have struggled to fill the position previously.

The performance of the team, allowing for significant injury losses ,  has been so bad that I daily expect to see the headline Breslow Fired

BUT,  I believe JH has seriously discounted 2027 as a meaningful season , expecting a long strike. So he will not dump Breslow,  hire an experienced manager, sign any FA's of note,  but will sell at the deadline for prospects.   He will not alter for short term plug-ins. When the new CBA is completed , then moves will start.

Be ready for a miserable RS experience for several months. possibly a season .

[moonslav59]

6 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Realistically, there's no hope for this team to turn it around. 

I'm very close to giving up on 2026. There is no sign of hope, right now.

A return and plus play from Crochet & Anthony could be a spark, but they are so far away, It seems like even assuming the best likely leaves us way short.

[Nick]

My GM would not survive the ineptitude this team has displayed offensively.

14/15 over all OPS

15th 2B .588

15th 3B .604

14th SS .599

12th DH .636

10th LF .697

7th C .661

6th CF .742 Rafaela

4th RF .775 Abreu

3rd 1B .921 Conteras

We are really bad....Why are we hanging on to Yoshida. Give someone else a chance. We just need to move on. We are paddling upstream. 

 

[moonslav59]

48 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

At least you guys aren't trying to revisit the Blaze Jordan trade now that he's playing 3b for the Cards. 🤠

LOL.

Traded Sox... (Did I miss anyone significant?)

C- Vazquez & Teel

1B- Devers 

2B- DHam, Iggy & Yorke

SS- Bogaerts & Meidroth

3B- Jordan & Moncada

LF- Beni & Jh Garcia

CF- Dubon & B Montgomery

RF- Betts

DH- Devers

SP- Montas, Harrison (not from Sox farm), Dobbins, Drohan, Wikelman, Clarke

RP- Kopech, C Murphy, Beeks, Hoppe, L Guerrero

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

42 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I don't think there is an easy way out for the black eye that Henry has given this organization. Maybe the team gets better at some point, but the Boston Red Sox won't be seen the same way leaguewide for a long time. 

But-but-but... my ex-wife was so good to me for parts of two decades -- why should I be bitter about the horrible way she treated me this decade?

This. Entire. Decade. Happening right now.

[moonslav59]

12 minutes ago, Nick said:

My GM would not survive the ineptitude this team has displayed offensively.

14/15 over all OPS

15th 2B .588

15th 3B .604

14th SS .599

12th DH .636

10th LF .697

7th C .661

6th CF .742 Rafaela

4th RF .775 Abreu

3rd 1B .921 Conteras

We are really bad....Why are we hanging on to Yoshida. Give someone else a chance. We just need to move on. We are paddling upstream. 

 

So, DFA or trade Masa to save $1-2M/yr or so, if we are lucky, then add Ward or Capra? (Adding Arias should not be an option, this year.)

Call up Seigler, Ward or Capra?

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, dannycater said:

When are we allowed to say Fire Breslow?

Several posters have said it already.

[Old Red]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Several posters have said it already.

How about you?🤔

[moonslav59]

Position by position:

Catcher: Moderate to High Need area. While Narvaez still offers some hope, he should be viewed as the back-up. There is already talk of trading Wong. Gasper can be 40 man roster depth.

1B: Low Need area. Contreras is aging well, but for now, this is not a higher need area. Romy offers decent depth. Farm help seems far away.

SS/2B/3B: Two Highest Need areas. Maybe count Romy, Story, Durbin & Mayer as barely enough to fill one slot, but we certainly need two big adds here. I would not be against 2 major adds and making Durbin/Romy/Mayer bench pieces. (Trade Story with cash.)

LF: Low Need. Antony is going to be given every chance to win tis slot. (Trade Duran)

CF: Lowest Need. Ceddanne is the CF'er for years to come.

RF: Low Need. Abreu is the RF'er for 3 more arb years.

DH: High Need: Trade Masa and Duran.

Simplified everyday players:

1. SS (Decent bat/Big bat)

2. 2B/3B (Big bat/decent bat)

3. DH (Big bat)

4. C (Decent bat)

I think we have to run with starting pitching staff we have, as is. Crochet, Suarez, (Trade Gray) Tolle, Early and one from Houck, Crawford, Oviedo, Bennett (Eyanson?)

We  need to add a closer and could use a key pen add or two. Counting on converted SP'ers never seems to work, as we end up needing all our Sp'er depth and then some. (Trade Chapman) __Closer__, Whitlock, _____, Slaten, _____, Moran & two from Bello, Weissert, Kelly, Watson, Samaniego, Uberstine, Bastardo, Holobetz, Wehunt, Paez

Final High Need List:

1. SS

2. Closer

3. 2B/3B

4. DH

5. Set-up RP

6. C

7 RP

From #1, 3, 4 and 6, we need two major bats or 1 major bat and 2 near major bats.

 

[Nick]

35 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

So, DFA or trade Masa to save $1-2M/yr or so, if we are lucky, then add Ward or Capra? (Adding Arias should not be an option, this year.)

Call up Seigler, Ward or Capra?

Jesus Moon, we have three freakin' catchers. They can fill in at DH. Why bring up bunch of no names. Hell move up Arias. Our combined SS OPS is .599. How do YOU know he can't play. And I don't give a damn what anyone in this organization says. They have NO talent for judging talent.

Yoshida has no future. I'm not trying to save money by dropping him. I'm trying to give his bats to someone else.

[moonslav59]

7 minutes ago, Nick said:

Jesus Moon, we have three freakin' catchers. They can fill in at DH. Why bring up bunch of no names. Hell move up Arias. Our combined SS OPS is .599. How do YOU know he can't play. And I don't give a damn what anyone in this organization says. They have NO talent for judging talent.

Yoshida has no future. I'm not trying to save money by dropping him. I'm trying to give his bats to someone else.

Where did I say I wanted to keep Yoshida? I questioned who to add, only. In several recent posts, I have said trade or DFA Yoshida. No poster has suggested trading Masa more than I have.

Big fat NO to adding Arias in 2026. He's not MLB ready and would not benefit from being thrown into MLB, this year. Save the roster slot for a future addition (from farm, trade or winter FA signing.)

I'd like to give Seigler a look, so we can know more about who to keep, this winter. I don't think Ward or Capra have enough upside to be worth adding to the 40, but I'd rather add one of them to the 40 than Arias. We could look ahead to December's Rule 5 and add one from....

Mullins, Wehunt or Paez (pen for '27?)

Jo Garcia (DH/C depth on '27 farm?)

Romero (IF but not doing well, now)

Nathan Hickey, Nate Baez, Ronny Hernandez or Ward

Think about adding Arias after opening day 2027. (He is Rule 5 DEC '27) Just because our offense sucks, doesn't mean we should rush prospects to the bigs.

[vegasbob]

Q. Priester out for thoracic outlet surgery.   He was a living timebomb.

Good thing they moved on

[moonslav59]

26 minutes ago, vegasbob said:

Q. Priester out for thoracic outlet surgery.   He was a living timebomb.

Good thing they moved on

We have yet to see any value in return, but these three prospects have shown some promise:

YRod: .783 OPS at GRE (10 HRs & 12 2Bs in 182 ABs) Jumped from #55 to 35 on soxprospects rankings.

Holobetz: .711 OPS Against in 52 IP at POR (most IP in system) #12 ranked.

Phillips: not done well, so far (.810 OPSA in 31 IP at GRE) Ranked #10

[cp176]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

I don't think there is an easy way out for the black eye that Henry has given this organization. Maybe the team gets better at some point, but the Boston Red Sox won't be seen the same way leaguewide for a long time. 

I think that you are absolutely right on this one.  It’s going to be a long haul requiring a different way of looking at things than the way they look at them now.  I’m a very sad fan right now.  The day that DD walked away was a sad day for me.  The experimentation with a whole bunch of this and thats since then has sucked.  Let’s see if we can do it as well as the best without spending the money right.  It has not worked.  Rafaela and the young pitchers might be the only ones worth not trying to trade right now.  I would also keep Mayer regardless of the criticism he gets here.  Other than that folks I say trade away.  Most of them would be much better off with fresh starts somewhere else.  Oh and spare me the sililoquies about the huge amount of (wasted) money that we currently spend..  It will cost much money and many fresh faces to get this franchise even close to what it once was.

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, cp176 said:

I think that you are absolutely right on this one.  It’s going to be a long haul requiring a different way of looking at things than the way they look at them now.  I’m a very sad fan right now.  The day that DD walked away was a sad day for me.  The experimentation with a whole bunch of this and thats since then has sucked.  Let’s see if we can do it as well as the best without spending the money right.  It has not worked.  Rafaela and the young pitchers might be the only ones worth not trying to trade right now.  I would also keep Mayer regardless of the criticism he gets here.  Other than that folks I say trade away.  Most of them would be much better off with fresh starts somewhere else.  Oh and spare me the sililoquies about the huge amount of (wasted) money that we currently spend..  It will cost much money and many fresh faces to get this franchise even close to what it once was.

Who do you view as the "keepers" as I doubt we trade or let go 26-40 players.

To me, we should keep...

Crochet, Suarez, Tolle, Eyanson, Early

Rafaela, Anthony, Abreu, Romy & Arias

Probably...

Whitlock, Slaten, Bennett, Houck/Crawford/Oviedo

Valera, Witherspoon & Delzine

Azocar, Gonzales, Godbout, Primera & Soto

Role players: Durbin, Narvaez