A Realistic View at the 2026 Red Sox Part II

[moonslav59]

6 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

The Sox didn't win 17 in a row.

LOL.

[moonslav59]

We can add Gamboa and Olds to the list of players not needing to be on next year's opening day roster, if they weren't already on the list.

I'd be fine with Gamboa being #39 or 40, but no biggie if he's gone.

[Old Red]

17 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

The ALE was better this year. Perhaps that explains 2 less wins. Perhaps not.

I'm sure you know what is meaningful.

The whole league was weaker this year than ANY time in memory, and thus something like the once in a lifetime magic carpet ride of 32-5 happened. Outside of that that MEH! 😭😂🙈.

[Bellhorn04]

17 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

Would we have won more games in 2026 if Crochet repeated 2025?  And 'no' will be auto-rejected.

Yes.  At the same time we'd also have won more games if Duran and Story repeated 2025.  I certainly get your point, but I have to agree with Drewski that at the end of the day the 2026 team's biggest problem was scoring runs.

It's a weird feeling for Sox fans to have one of the best prevention teams and one of the worst production teams.

[Old Red]

17 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

This was MVP's response to you:

Red Sox '25: 89 wins

Red Sox '26: 87 wins

My response was:

We had twice as many injuries.  If Crochet repeats his 2025, we have an easy 95 wins.

Basically, more injuries equals less wins.  There is no doubt about that.  I'm not even talking about run of the mill injuries, like Roman, Romy, Story, etc.  But when you lose the #3 pitcher in baseball, you're going to win less games.

The Yankees had 1 less win this year in 1 less game played. Cole, and Rodon started the year on the IL, and Friedman spent time there as well. That’s not even mentioning all the time Stanton, and Judge missed too, so injuries are just part of the game, and many teams had injuries outside of the Red Sox. 🤔

[vegasbob]

Is anyone else tired of hearing about Roman Anthony as I am ? 

 In  2 seasons , he has missed more games than he has played, probably needs off season surgery to fix his discomfortable right hand, and  may  never produce if he cannot stay off the IL.    His playoff record now consists of 2 Ks ., because he missed last year and now will likely miss tonight.  

Can't wait for his potential to become reality. 

[mvp 78]

10 minutes ago, vegasbob said:

Is anyone else tired of hearing about Roman Anthony as I am ? 

 In  2 seasons , he has missed more games than he has played, probably needs off season surgery to fix his discomfortable right hand, and  may  never produce if he cannot stay off the IL.    His playoff record now consists of 2 Ks ., because he missed last year and now will likely miss tonight.  

Can't wait for his potential to become reality. 

We talk about him because he's on the team. When he's no longer on the team, we'll stop talking about him. 

[vegasbob]

18 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

We talk about him because he's on the team. When he's no longer on the team, we'll stop talking about him. 

Always the voice of reason and wisdom when the lynch mob starts forming at the clubhouse exit, gotta enjoy these players because they are ours until they're not whereupon they become great again

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

We talk about him because he's on the team. When he's no longer on the team, we'll stop talking about him. 

The talking goes on long after they leave.

[oldtimer]

3 hours ago, vegasbob said:

Is anyone else tired of hearing about Roman Anthony as I am ? 

 In  2 seasons , he has missed more games than he has played, probably needs off season surgery to fix his discomfortable right hand, and  may  never produce if he cannot stay off the IL.    His playoff record now consists of 2 Ks ., because he missed last year and now will likely miss tonight.  

Can't wait for his potential to become reality. 

He seemed to regress at the plate, taking pitches over the plate and then to swing at pitches off the plate. He's done for this year but wonder if he would do better if encouraged to swing more aggressively next season. Perhaps he should have surgery to clear up the physical problem.

[moonslav59]

2026 PAs and possible conversions to 2027 PAs>>>

681 Abreu (5.9 bWAR) 117 OPS+ >>> Same (or better?)

608 Duran (0.4) 76 >>> GONE (more from Anthony, Jones, White, Yoshida, DHs)

586 Durbin (4.4) 103 >>> Same (or better?)

576 Rafaela (5.7) 115 >>> Same (maybe a dip?)

535 Contreras (4.6) 158>>> Expect a dip

347 Monasterio (0.6) 87>>> Replaced by MEAD

297 Yoshida (0.7) 113>>> Possibly replaced by several choices

277 Sogard (1.4) 110>>> Hard to expect a 110 OPS+ in 2027, but hey....

266 Story (0.2) 76>>> Replaced by Arias or maybe he returns about the same or better?

242 Anthony (1.3) 108>>>Hard to project more PAs for him anymore.

238 Wong (0.5) 86 >>> Could be gone/ otherwise maybe the same. (AR)

228 Mayer (-0.1) 69>>> Welcome to Boston, Arias!

225 Gasper (1.2) 132>>> Cant project a repeat.

197 Narvaez (-0.3) 52>>> Gone: Hello AR

183 IKF (1.6) 81>>>Gone (more from Sogard, Seigler and Mead)

173 Seigler (0.5) 105>>> Maybe the same?

126 Rutschman (0.6) 92>>>Maybe hope for better and way more PAs

76 Jones (0.8) 178>>> Maybe the next Refsynder?

73 Romy (-0.4) 62>>> I think he comes back.

60 White (0.3) 91>>> Nice depth

60 Eaton (0.5) 61

44 Cheng (0.0) 73

9 Rogers (0.2) 288

3 Harris (0.0) 6

2 Mead (0.1) 59 How many PAs could be the major factor, here.

[MADSTORK]

The 26 Sox go down in flames

#1 pitching prospect traded for an out of shape Catcher with elbow issues 

Early traded for a beer leaguer 

Arias never promoted 

Sonny will pack his bags 

Orlando gave you Story and his version of Ohtani and there still on the roster 

I could go on but I don’t want to ruin everyone’s Xmas

oh, I almost forgot, Tracy and Breezelow extended…

thanks John

have a good offseason gentlemen 

those r the facts and the facts are undisputed!

 

 

 

[illinoisredsox]

Remember, don’t feed the trolls.

[notin]

14 hours ago, Old Red said:

The Yankees had 1 less win this year in 1 less game played. Cole, and Rodon started the year on the IL, and Friedman spent time there as well. That’s not even mentioning all the time Stanton, and Judge missed too, so injuries are just part of the game, and many teams had injuries outside of the Red Sox. 🤔

You do realize Cole made 22 more starts in 2026 than he did in 2025, right?

[Bellhorn04]

A season that started as a fuster, had a huge bright spot in the middle, ended as a fuster.

[illinoisredsox]

17 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

We talk about him because he's on the team. When he's no longer on the team, we'll stop talking about him. 

Ala what’s his name, the guy now allegedly playing with the Giants.

[Old Red]

54 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

A season that started as a fuster, had a huge bright spot in the middle, ended as a fuster.

Unfortunately the season was more than 37 games, which was how long the magic carpet ride lasted. Before, and after that took place it was was more like they really were.🤫

[mvp 78]

10 minutes ago, illinoisredsox said:

Ala what’s his name, the guy now allegedly playing with the Giants.

Mayer? He was just interviewed about the best part of his season was being traded. 😇

[moonslav59]

9 hours ago, notin said:

You do realize Cole made 22 more starts in 2026 than he did in 2025, right?

His crowd has a different way of looking at things.

[moonslav59]

44 minutes ago, illinoisredsox said:

Ala what’s his name, the guy now allegedly playing with the Giants.

I will say, after 6 years, the Betts talk has slowed down a bit.

Don't hear Bogey's name much, either, but too bad we let Blaze, DHam, Uberstine and Drohan get away!

[mvp 78]

6 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I will say, after 6 years, the Betts talk has slowed down a bit.

Don't hear Bogey's name much, either, but too bad we let Blaze, DHam, Uberstine and Drohan get away!

Drohan pitched comparably to Jake Bennett TBF. 

Bennett 113 IP, 7.23 k/9, 1.67 bb/9, 3.65 ERA, 3.51 FIP, 2.3 fWAR

Drohan 124 IP, 9.02 k/9, 3.18 bb/9, 4.19 ERA, 3.73 FIP, 2.0 fWAR

[moonslav59]

What a disappointing end to a season that gave us a magical moment that magically disappeared.

We saw some continued growth from Rafaela, Sogard, Durbin (after a horrific start) Tolle and Bennett, but too many younger players failed to improve.

We saw major dips and injuries to some of our better or top 2025 performers- Crochet, Duran, Story to name just 3.

In the end, the pitching injuries caught up to us. The Mead & AR additions failed to boost the offense. We ended up calling up Mead and Crochet from the IL who had no business playing their first games like that.

We need to replace Gray, of convince him to get over his anger and come back.

We could use another solid pen arm and SP'er depth.

We could use a big LH'd bat and maybe a nice RHB, too. We'll spend the winter arguing over who to get and who should be replaced, assuming no lock-out, or a short one. The FA market does not have any sure bet bats, and we've used up nearly all of our young player trade capital on AR, Mead and last winter's trades that brought us Gray, Contreras, Durbin and Oviedo.

I'll be working on the Realistic 2027 thread soon. I'd hoped it might be mid October. Oh well.

 

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

Drohan pitched comparably to Jake Bennett TBF. 

Bennett 113 IP, 7.23 k/9, 1.67 bb/9, 3.65 ERA, 3.51 FIP, 2.3 fWAR

Drohan 124 IP, 9.02 k/9, 3.18 bb/9, 4.19 ERA, 3.73 FIP, 2.0 fWAR

Yup, and Harrison did very well, until near the end.

The talk will never cease.

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Yup, and Harrison did very well, until near the end.

The talk will never cease.

The bigger names last longer in the overall discussion which is normal. We don't talk about Bogey anymore. We just slowly move on. When we get to next season, we'll probably not hear anything about Devers. TBF, it was an anti Devers post during his bad April that kept his name going at the start of the season. If that wasn't posted initially, I think we wouldn't have seen his name mentioned here. 

[moonslav59]

11 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

The bigger names last longer in the overall discussion which is normal. We don't talk about Bogey anymore. We just slowly move on. When we get to next season, we'll probably not hear anything about Devers. TBF, it was an anti Devers post during his bad April that kept his name going at the start of the season. If that wasn't posted initially, I think we wouldn't have seen his name mentioned here. 

If Betts and Bogey were having great seasons, the tak would have been significantly more frequent and virulent.

I'm involved in a lot of the talk, too. I'm not bad-mouthing it, except for Blaze and DHam. LOL

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

If Betts and Bogey were having great seasons, the tak would have been significantly more frequent and virulent.

I'm involved in a lot of the talk, too. I'm not bad-mouthing it, except for Blaze and DHam. LOL

Betts has been great since getting to LAD and people haven't been harping on his numbers. People even moved on from the Bogey talk early on. The only reason the Devers talk persisted is because the trade was (a) shocking and (b) it got rid of a huge asset that this team could really use right now. Again, I think people will stop talking about him sooner than later once posters try to stop burying Devers.

[Bellhorn04]

57 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I will say, after 6 years, the Betts talk has slowed down a bit.

Don't hear Bogey's name much, either, but too bad we let Blaze, DHam, Uberstine and Drohan get away!

Mookie finished the season strong and ended up with a 3.9 bWAR in 123 games.

If the Dodgers win it again and Mookie has a good postseason the talk will definitely return... 

[dannycater]

Everything that could go wrong to Sox depth went wrong...Yoshida injured done, Anthony's nagging injuries, Story missed most of season, Mead acquired has 1 at bat and done, Gasper is OPS machine naturally injured can't be in postseason, White doing great, injured done, Durbin played with a pinky finger that ultimately affected him later.

Duran was a hot mess at plate all year, Monasterio was a big part of 32-5 and turns into a pumpkin to the point they won't play him over the awful IKF, Abreu and Raffy were a power show, hit show then Raffy gets hurt comes back as much, Abreu turns back into mush after power streak, Rogers does well in short few games, dumped only to see the All-Star Ruschman deal with his injuries that affected him at plate and missed some games, Jones is like a revelation during 32-5 then reverts to the absolute s***** hitter he is (two epically bad ABs as a leadoff in an elimination game), Romy injured and never available. 

Contreras missed a good portion of games due to his own injuries/craziness---and yet the Sox played and won without him and didn't really do well when he was in the lineup--not his fault--but it was weird how the games he missed, the Sox won and won and won,  Romy injured not available. Really the only constant without injury was Sogard, who was great in his role and terrific defender mostly at 2b. ..

Factor in some of the worst managing in Sox playoff history--bizarro pulls for no reason in two 1-0 games. Bat Story 8th, hit Jones 1st. The league best Bullpen was batting practice in postseason, Bennett never pitches, but Crochet does. Guerrero, Slaten both injured done. This team was just one hot mess from a position player standpoint and too many hurdles to overcome. Still a bad team before 32-5, a bad team after. That is talent-based. 

 

[drewski6]

15 hours ago, MADSTORK said:

The 26 Sox go down in flames

#1 pitching prospect traded for an out of shape Catcher with elbow issues 

Early traded for a beer leaguer 

Arias never promoted 

Sonny will pack his bags 

Orlando gave you Story and his version of Ohtani and there still on the roster 

I could go on but I don’t want to ruin everyone’s Xmas

oh, I almost forgot, Tracy and Breezelow extended…

thanks John

have a good offseason gentlemen 

those r the facts and the facts are undisputed!

 

 

 

Who slept with this guys wife to make him like this?

[moonslav59]

The CWS are the only team in MLB to lead in every inning of a playoff series.