A Realistic View at the 2026 Red Sox Part II

[moonslav59]

12 hours ago, notin said:

I see Arias to SS, Story to 2b, Mead to DH, Anthony to LF, Duran to … another team.

I could see that happening.

[moonslav59]

Sox fWAR (OPS) at 2B

2.0 (15th) 2B (.708) It was .667 from '19-'25

7 different 2Bman in 2026

.956 Sogard

.760 Romy

.747 Seigler

.714 Monasterio

.564 Mayer and .541 IKF (.500 Mead in 2 PA)

 

 

[moonslav59]

Sox fWAR (OPS) at 2B

2.0 (15th) 2B (.708) .667 from '19-'25

 

 

[mvp 78]

11 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Sox fWAR (OPS) at 2B

2.0 (15th) 2B (.708) It was .667 from '19-'25

7 different 2Bman in 2026

.956 Sogard

.760 Romy

.747 Seigler

.714 Monasterio

.564 Mayer and .541 IKF (.500 Mead in 2 PA)

 

 

They had some good 2b performances from '19-'25 (Kiké, Story, Romy, Holt) mixed in with some really rancid ones (Hamilton, Marco Hernadez, Peraza, Marwin Gonzalez, Vaughn Grissom, Eduardo Nunez).

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

I don't like giving away games in September to rest key guys for October.

First, you have to get to October -- and nothing is guaranteed with this hot and cold roller coaster there's no tomorrow like there was yesterday offense... and burnt out pitching staff, 

Second, when has this strategy ever worked in baseball autumns: let the hares sprint to the finish line and we'll tortoise in our shells and then turn on the jets before it's too late...

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

They had some good 2b performances from '19-'25 (Kiké, Story, Romy, Holt) mixed in with some really rancid ones (Hamilton, Marco Hernadez, Peraza, Marwin Gonzalez, Vaughn Grissom, Eduardo Nunez).

Agreed, but very few even came close to a "wire to wire" decent 2Bman. The ones that did okay for half or shorter seasons sometimes were not good on D or O. Many teams have used 2B as a mix position, but even the 2018 team saw Nunez start just 70 games at 2B (Holt 44, Kinsler 31 and others 5.) 2017 was the last season we had a decent 2Bman play over 95 games (Pedey.)

This pretty much says it all: in the last 9 seasons COMBINED, nobody has even played in more than 151 games at 2B. Only 3 have played over 99.

151 Arroyo (1.6 fWAR)

112 Holt (1.8)

105 Valdez (-0.6)

99 Nunez (-0.9)

94 Story (2.5 came closest to Pedey and the last good half season.)

86 DHam (0.6)

72 Kike (2.1 was also a good near alf season.)

68 Chavis (0.5)

68 Romy (0.9 is not a bad fWAR/Gm)

57 KC (-0.1)

50 Sogard (1.5 is very good fWAR/Gm)

49 Mayer (0.2)

44 Seigler (0.6)

38 Marco (-0.2) 36 Kinsler (0.1) 35 Reyes (-0.2) 34 Marwin (-0.4) 32 Raf (-1.0)  30 Grissom (-0.5)

29 Arauz (-1.0)

25 IKF (0.1) 25 Urias (0.2 on a deadline stab in the dark) 23 Peraza (-0.2)

10-16 gms: Iggy (0.6 is outstanding) -0.3 Westbrook & Yolmer, -0.4 Lin, -0.1 Monasterio & J Turner

16 other players played 1-8 games: 62 games total (-1.0)

Basically, we've seen two good alf seasons from Story and Kike (166 gms and 4.6 fWAR) and pretty good play from Arroyo & Holt (263/3.4 WAR) We can cobble together 3-4 other shorter-term 2Bman and come up with a decent season, but overall we've seen 9 seasons of failure after failure. Once Bogey bolted, we could say the same for SS.

These two areas seem poised to be much improved, and the depth is actually absurdly deep.

2027>>

2B: Mead, (Story & Sogard,) IKF, Seigler, Monasterio, Romy, (Cheng) Rodgers, Romero

SS: Arias, Story, Sogard (IKF, Monasterio) Cheng, Godbout

 

[moonslav59]

Many of these sample sizes range from tiny to small, but this is rather remarkable:

AUGUST OPS (Team .791)

1.671 Gasper (42 PAs- was demoted then promoted in AUG.)

1.556 Anthony (9- just came off the 60 IL) 

1.389 Rogers (9- was DFA'd)

1.284 Jones (25- can't buy more playing time.)

1.259 Story (8- just came of 60 IL)

.971 Abreu (126- maybe the first player expected to be top 5ish)

.892 Yoshida (50- on IL and likely out until '27)

.802 Sogard (113- How can we not start this guy FT?)

.789 Duran (103- shutting up the naysayers, myself included)

.772 Seigler (44- demoted)

9 of the top 10 are rather surprising- as bench players or players on the IL we thought might not comeback in '26.)

________________________

.726 Durbin (120- in a downturn)

.715 Contreras (98- on IL)

.712 Rafaela (131- been steady almost all season long)

_________________________

.603 Wong (51- reverting back)

.578 Monasterio (105- It was nice while it lasted- JULY)

.500 Rutschman (59- been a huge letdown)

.499 White (33- has 2 arbs left)

.331 Narvaez (3- traded away)

 

 

[moonslav59]

MLB OPS Selected Leaders since June 24, 2026:

Ranking among 428 batters  40+ PAs

1. Gasper 1.483

2. J Jones 1.333

6. Mead 1.019

13. Devers .953

15. Alonso .941

24. Bregman .912

26. Willson .903

38. Yoshida .875

56. Jeffers .836 (Alt target for Rut?)

81. Abreu .806

91. Sogard .798

96. Meidrothh .794

105 Paredes .789

119 Durbin .779

134 Monasterio .765

144 Betts & Rafaela .755

154 Seigler .748

159 KMarte .746

178 Bichette .735

184 N Lowe & Hoerner .730

210 Neto .708 & 220 G Torres .699

234 Grissom .694 (just below the mean)

Ooops:

259 Ozuna .670

280 DHam .660

290 B Monty .651

302 Blaze Jordan .643 & 304 Duran .641

307 Tucker .640

315 Teel .627

323 Teoscar & Bogey .618

331 Bellinger .613

348 Vladdy .601 (Where is the poster who demanded we trade)

349 Cheng at .600 is Vladdyesque!

351 Vaz .596

365 Rut .578

369 Romy .572

403 Volpe .490

410 Kike .460

416 Kurtz .438

419 T Gray .425

424 Narvaez .395 (almost 200 pts worse than Rut!)

426 Polanco .359 (Who is the poster who mentioned him 10+ times?)