A Realistic Look at the 2026 Red Sox: Part I

[mvp 78]

Romy just got called up

to Worcester. 

[moonslav59]

Romy & Roman to the Rescue?

[moonslav59]

American League Team fWAR Rankings by Position

Sox are ranked...

3rd at 1B (2.3)

3rd in CF (2.0)

3rd in RF (1.9)

 

8th at C at 0.8

9th at 3B (1.1)

9th in LF (0.7)

 

13th at DH (-0.8)

15th at SS (-0.1)

15th at 2B (-0.1)

(12th overall at 7.9)

__________________

2nd RP (2.7)

9th SP (5.8)

(6th overall at 8.5- just 0.1 from a tie for 4th)

[moonslav59]

Sonny Gray says he's open to conversations about his no trade clause.

[drewski6]

4 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

American League Team fWAR Rankings by Position

Sox are ranked...

3rd at 1B (2.3)

3rd in CF (2.0)

3rd in RF (1.9)

 

8th at C at 0.8

9th at 3B (1.1)

9th in LF (0.7)

 

13th at DH (-0.8)

15th at SS (-0.1)

15th at 2B (-0.1)

(12th overall at 7.9)

__________________

2nd RP (2.7)

9th SP (5.8)

(6th overall at 8.5- just 0.1 from a tie for 4th)

team seems to be less than the sum of its parts.

[Old Red]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

Sonny Gray says he's open to conversations about his no trade clause.

He doesn’t want to go down with a sinking ship. Sounds reasonable to me.

[moonslav59]

4 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

team seems to be less than the sum of its parts.

12th out of 15 in everyday players seems about right.

6th in pitching seems a little low, especially SP'ing, but Bello & Crochet really drove the numbers down.

[vegasbob]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Anthony is going to need surgery at some point.

He needed it a month-to 6 weeks ago but no one had the guts to make that call.  He would be as close now or closer to returning .

He says he won't play with pain which is his prerogative , and he already has lifetime money , so tell me his incentive , except personal pride, to push his recovery.

[vegasbob]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Romy & Roman to the Rescue?

Romy maybe, Roman... not this year and he will get at least a few months of 2027 off as well.   

I would guess he will play in 2026, but it will be September only.

[moonslav59]

Coulda/Shoulda/Mighta just had Roman go under the knife weeks ago.

[moonslav59]

For better or worse our foundation for next year will likely involve just 2 maybe 3 major additions. There better be two big bats as part of the 2-3 additions.

I know some could care less about the positions we make the big bat additions, and if we trade Duran, I could see adding any position. (A 1Bman or OF'er could DH.) That being said, here is my current view at 2027:

C: ____________ Narvaez or Gasper/Wong (Trade Wong?)

1B: Contreras (Romy)

2B: ____________ Romy/Mayer (Durbin)

3B: Durbin (Mayer)

SS: ____________ Mayer/Story

LF: Anthony

CF: Rafaela

RF: Abreu

DH: _____________ (Romy/ Duran or Yoshida)

Utility competition: 3 from Romy/Durbin/Mayer/Story, if we add 2 infielders, two of if we add one, and Romy could DH or platoon DH. AAA: Seigler, Monasterio, Eaton, Sogard

Pitching

Rotation: Crochet, Suarez, Tolle, Early, Bennett with Houck, Crawford, Oviedo and maybe Bello as known depth. Eyanson, Holobetz, Wehunt, Paez & Uberstine as extended AAA depth.

Pen: Chapman, Whitlock, _______, Slaten, _______, Moran, Weissert, Kelly/Watson/Samaniego/Mullins or maybe a converted SP'er like Houck or Crawford.

As you can see, I have 6 slots open. Estimating 2-3 major additions still leaves 3-4 openings for minor to moderate additions or to be filled with what we have in the system.

The FA market looks pretty bad for everyday players and big bats, so we probably need to trade for 1 or 2. That just opens more slots, unless we deal away only prospects and secondary ML players.

The winter spending budget may be key, once again, and if we dump Yoshida and or Story's deals, I'm not sure how that will affect JH's willingness to spend as needed.

[notin]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Anthony is going to need surgery at some point.

I haven’t heard that.  Is this actual information or just cynicism?

[notin]

1 hour ago, vegasbob said:

He needed it a month-to 6 weeks ago but no one had the guts to make that call.  He would be as close now or closer to returning .

He says he won't play with pain which is his prerogative , and he already has lifetime money , so tell me his incentive , except personal pride, to push his recovery.

He likes playing baseball?

[Old Red]

43 minutes ago, notin said:

He likes playing baseball?

I think he got hurt doing a pinky swear with Mayer after a night out on the town.🤫

[vegasbob]

3 hours ago, notin said:

He likes playing baseball?

More like he doesn't know anything else at his age

[mvp 78]

13 hours ago, vegasbob said:

He needed it a month-to 6 weeks ago but no one had the guts to make that call.  He would be as close now or closer to returning .

He says he won't play with pain which is his prerogative , and he already has lifetime money , so tell me his incentive , except personal pride, to push his recovery.

Why should he play in pain for a team in last place? I kinda get where he's coming from. I don't get where the medical staff is coming from. If every player that has had this injury before has had surgery, why wait?

[moonslav59]

50 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

 If every player that has had this injury before has had surgery, why wait?

 

The question of the year.

 

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

 

The question of the year.

 

And part of being the CBO is managing situations like this that are happening to your franchise player. 

Breslow is really doing quite the bang up job! 

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

And part of being the CBO is managing situations like this that are happening to your franchise player. 

Breslow is really doing quite the bang up job! 

No he's not- correct! The buck stops with him on this sort of issue. This has been a long-standing issue with this team, so it's not like he can claim this is all new to him, and he'll try to fix it, starting now.

[cp176]

14 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

For better or worse our foundation for next year will likely involve just 2 maybe 3 major additions. There better be two big bats as part of the 2-3 additions.

I know some could care less about the positions we make the big bat additions, and if we trade Duran, I could see adding any position. (A 1Bman or OF'er could DH.) That being said, here is my current view at 2027:

C: ____________ Narvaez or Gasper/Wong (Trade Wong?)

1B: Contreras (Romy)

2B: ____________ Romy/Mayer (Durbin)

3B: Durbin (Mayer)

SS: ____________ Mayer/Story

LF: Anthony

CF: Rafaela

RF: Abreu

DH: _____________ (Romy/ Duran or Yoshida)

Utility competition: 3 from Romy/Durbin/Mayer/Story, if we add 2 infielders, two of if we add one, and Romy could DH or platoon DH. AAA: Seigler, Monasterio, Eaton, Sogard

Pitching

Rotation: Crochet, Suarez, Tolle, Early, Bennett with Houck, Crawford, Oviedo and maybe Bello as known depth. Eyanson, Holobetz, Wehunt, Paez & Uberstine as extended AAA depth.

Pen: Chapman, Whitlock, _______, Slaten, _______, Moran, Weissert, Kelly/Watson/Samaniego/Mullins or maybe a converted SP'er like Houck or Crawford.

As you can see, I have 6 slots open. Estimating 2-3 major additions still leaves 3-4 openings for minor to moderate additions or to be filled with what we have in the system.

The FA market looks pretty bad for everyday players and big bats, so we probably need to trade for 1 or 2. That just opens more slots, unless we deal away only prospects and secondary ML players.

The winter spending budget may be key, once again, and if we dump Yoshida and or Story's deals, I'm not sure how that will affect JH's willingness to spend as needed.

I would not trade Wong..  He is a perfect backup catcher for a team with a real starting catcher which we do not currently have.  

[cp176]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Why should he play in pain for a team in last place? I kinda get where he's coming from. I don't get where the medical staff is coming from. If every player that has had this injury before has had surgery, why wait?

I agree and I feel the same way about Crochett.  Why waste his starts on a team like this?  I love the young pitching corps.  Let them get the experience they need.

[notin]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

If every player that has had this injury before has had surgery, why wait?

Because that’s not true?

Who are you thinking of?  My understanding is this injury is fairly common and most players with it do not require surgery.  

[drewski6]

51 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

And part of being the CBO is managing situations like this that are happening to your franchise player. 

Breslow is really doing quite the bang up job! 

yeah, like 2 week old bang-bang shrimp

[drewski6]

9 minutes ago, cp176 said:

I would not trade Wong..  He is a perfect backup catcher for a team with a real starting catcher which we do not currently have.  

How sure are we that the username isnt a future star?

[drewski6]

Does Benji or Yadi Molina (f Jose) have any kids we can draft?

[drewski6]

Be nice to have a catcher who can coach potential catchers coming up through the system....what happened with varitek? I thought we only reassigned him lolololol

[notin]

8 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Be nice to have a catcher who can coach potential catchers coming up through the system....what happened with varitek? I thought we only reassigned him lolololol

Reassigned him to HELL!!! 
 

Thinking some variation of that works as a movie title…

[notin]

12 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Does Benji or Yadi Molina (f Jose) have any kids we can draft?

Pass on Benji and his fat, lazy genes.  
 

Agree to pass on Jose.  If they take after their dad, those kids won’t be able to catch colic.

Hire Yadi and put him up for stud…

[notin]

14 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

How sure are we that the username isnt a future star?

Because even his nickname is a hand me down from his brother…

[notin]

16 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

yeah, like 2 week old bang-bang shrimp

Mmmm.  Bang bang shrimmmp