A Realistic View at the 2026 Red Sox Part II

[moonslav59]

It's been a long time coming for Part II, and yes 340 pages is too much to bear.

What a crazy season! In many ways, the team of the last 4-5 weeks is the same as the one from opening day to mid June, but in other ways, it's like night and day. The 40 man roster has not changed much until the Mead and deadline trades. Sure, there were additions as we put guys on the 60 Day IL, but a few were already in the Sox system.

Before I go into the new roster, I want to give a shout out to the bench. Much of the huge turn-around was fueled by SP'ers that we maybe 6th to 11th on the rotation depth chart: Tolle, Early (now gone,) Bennett and Sandoval. We've seen 18 different pitchers fill the 7 pen splots, yet our pen is one of the best in the league in fWAR and ERA-, among other stats. 9 pitchers have 20+ IP from the pen, while 13 have 13+ IP. We have a solid 7, now and are arguing over who to demote to make room for Miller.

Wong pretty much pushed Narvaez to the bench and a trade, although him sucking helped.

2B and SS have changed hands more times than anyone can name.

DH has been all over the map.

Only 1B (Contreras) 3B (Durbin) and the OF has gone pretty much subless.

There may still be some major roster changes to come, as our IL list can almost field a whole decent team, by itself:

SP: Crochet, Houck, Crawford & Oviedo

RP: Kelly & La Sorsa

C Rutschman

1B: Casas

2B: Mead

SS: Story

3B: IKF

OF/DH: Anthony

Some may/will not make a 2026 showing, but damn, this team seems to not need any of them, except Rutschman and maybe one pitcher to take innings from Tolle and Bennett, but hey, maybe Bello can handle the load.

Our rotation is among the best in MLB and could get better.

Our pen is top 2-3 in almost every category.

Our hitting still lacks multiple power bats, but the offense has come around to be around 10th to 14th best- maybe even top 10.

Our defense has been rock solid at nearly every slot.

We've been the best team in baseball for 5-6 weeks, and nobody has really been close. We've beaten the best of the best teams, and seem to have the focus and confidence to carry us at a good pace going forward.

I seriously doubt we can continue at this pace, but what a glory it has been. Rafaela has really come into his own, and Durbin flicked the team's light switch almost by himself. The team attitude seems just right. Contreras has brought a good kinda "edge" to the team's personality, and I love it.

It's hard not to be supremely optimistic about our chances. We will likely have a tough stretch or two before the season ends, but I like the fight in this team. They don't give up, despite Fred saying "game over."

Kudos to everyone, including Tracy and Brez.

Let's keep it "real" on this thread, and....

Go Sox!

[Nick]

48 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

It's been a long time coming for Part II, and yes 340 pages is too much to bear.

What a crazy season! In many ways, the team of the last 4-5 weeks is the same as the one from opening day to mid June, but in other ways, it's like night and day. The 40 man roster has not changed much until the Mead and deadline trades. Sure, there were additions as we put guys on the 60 Day IL, but a few were already in the Sox system.

Before I go into the new roster, I want to give a shout out to the bench. Much of the huge turn-around was fueled by SP'ers that we maybe 6th to 11th on the rotation depth chart: Tolle, Early (now gone,) Bennett and Sandoval. We've seen 18 different pitchers fill the 7 pen splots, yet our pen is one of the best in the league in fWAR and ERA-, among other stats. 9 pitchers have 20+ IP from the pen, while 13 have 13+ IP. We have a solid 7, now and are arguing over who to demote to make room for Miller.

Wong pretty much pushed Narvaez to the bench and a trade, although him sucking helped.

2B and SS have changed hands more times than anyone can name.

DH has been all over the map.

Only 1B (Contreras) 3B (Durbin) and the OF has gone pretty much subless.

There may still be some major roster changes to come, as our IL list can almost field a whole decent team, by itself:

SP: Crochet, Houck, Crawford & Oviedo

RP: Kelly & La Sorsa

C Rutschman

1B: Casas

2B: Mead

SS: Story

3B: IKF

OF/DH: Anthony

Some may/will not make a 2026 showing, but damn, this team seems to not need any of them, except Rutschman and maybe one pitcher to take innings from Tolle and Bennett, but hey, maybe Bello can handle the load.

Our rotation is among the best in MLB and could get better.

Our pen is top 2-3 in almost every category.

Our hitting still lacks multiple power bats, but the offense has come around to be around 10th to 14th best- maybe even top 10.

Our defense has been rock solid at nearly every slot.

We've been the best team in baseball for 5-6 weeks, and nobody has really been close. We've beaten the best of the best teams, and seem to have the focus and confidence to carry us at a good pace going forward.

I seriously doubt we can continue at this pace, but what a glory it has been. Rafaela has really come into his own, and Durbin flicked the team's light switch almost by himself. The team attitude seems just right. Contreras has brought a good kinda "edge" to the team's personality, and I love it.

It's hard not to be supremely optimistic about our chances. We will likely have a tough stretch or two before the season ends, but I like the fight in this team. They don't give up, despite Fred saying "game over."

Kudos to everyone, including Tracy and Brez.

Let's keep it "real" on this thread, and....

Go Sox!

I'll have what Moon's drinking....

[moonslav59]

We've won 23 of 27 and 28 or 33! That is simply astounding and historical. The Rays were the second best team since June 25th and we gained 6.5 games on them.

June 25th was when we started our Yankee 4 game sweep and this whole magical journey. Here are some team numbers since then:

1st fWAR pitching at 6.4 (MIL was at 5.4 and CWS 4.9)

1st in Pen fWAR and 4th in rotation fWAR.

1st ERA- at 66

1st FIP at 3.25

6th in Runs scored at 167 (5.1 per game)

11th everyday fWAR at 4.7

11th wRC+ and 12th in OPS

For the year fangraphs has us ranked 6th in fielding, but DRS has us 5th and OAA 4th.

In the last 33 games, we basically have the best pitching, 5th best defense and a top 10 offense.