Red Sox Pre-Offseason Mega Thread

[notin]

1 hour ago, Old Red said:

Bingo on the average fan, and I think there are more average fans out there than any other kind.

This is the type of Deep Insight that would make Yogi Berra proud.

Of course none of this means average fans are right…

[Old Red]

22 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Brez did great with the run prevention this year but lousy with the run production. A Red Sox team finishing #23 in runs scored is crazy.  

And 97 less runs scored than the year before.

[notin]

4 hours ago, Old Red said:

I like the format as it is now. It makes finishing ahead like the Yankees has done to the Red Sox the last two years more meaningful just like the Red Sox playing at home in 2021.

The Yankees got more f***ed over than any team by this ridiculous format.  The finished 8 games ahead of the Guardians, but the Guardians got rewarded with a bye week?  And if the two teams met, Cleveland - the team with the worse record against the easier schedule- gets rewarded with hosting?

[Old Red]

51 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

Are we buying into the media’s idea that a power hitter is the panacea for our team??  
 

are we not learning anything from watching the brewers??  
 

pitching, defense and timely hitting seems to be a tried and true formula for success 

But perhaps even more important is health!!  

The Red Sox aren’t the Brewers. What works for them doesn’t mean it would work for the Red Sox, 

[Bellhorn04]

2 hours ago, notin said:

Brewers also hit fewer home runs than the Red Sox, but I’m told that is the only way to make up the difference….

 

Yeah, their numbers are very interesting.  I see they were #1 in OBP.

However, out of the top 5 teams in runs scored, 4 of them were also in the top 7 in homers.  So there is some correlation there.  

Anything that adds runs is good, I'm not particular myself.

[notin]

4 minutes ago, Old Red said:

The Red Sox aren’t the Brewers. What works for them doesn’t mean it would work for the Red Sox, 

Just because fans want a solution doesn’t mean it would work for the Sox either…

[notin]

2 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Yeah, their numbers are very interesting.  I see they were #1 in OBP.

However, out of the top 5 teams in runs scored, 4 of them were also in the top 7 in homers.  So there is some correlation there.  

Anything that adds runs iis good, I'm not particular myself.

The Sox biggest issues this year were injuries and underperformance.  If you rank the Brewers by plate appearances, you get essentially their starters at the top.  Do the same thing with Boston, and that stops after #5.   Then we get Monasterio, Yoshida, and Sogard.  Two utility infielders in the top 8 is appalling…

[Bellhorn04]

1 hour ago, notin said:

The Sox biggest issues this year were injuries and underperformance.  If you rank the Brewers by plate appearances, you get essentially their starters at the top.  Do the same thing with Boston, and that stops after #5.   Then we get Monasterio, Yoshida, and Sogard.  Two utility infielders in the top 8 is appalling…

Well you may be right.  But in September we've got Anthony back and Story back and we've added Rutschman, and we can't even average 3 runs a game.

[notin]

45 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Well you may be right.  But in September we've got Anthony back and Story back and we've added Rutschman, and we can't even average 3 runs a game.

We also barely saw Contreras and Rafaela that month.  But we saw lots and lots of Nick Sogard (second on team in PAs in September)…

[Old Red]

3 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I agree, but I'm not one to say our roster sucks based on two seasons of losing two 3 game series when it counts.

It's also impossible to say adding X and Y will guarantee better playoff results, or if we had added x , y and Z, we'd have won a playoff series or two.

Not having Crochet, Mead and Anthony made it hard, but we lost to a team missing Judge, so blaming injuries seems off base.

A GM builds a team that looks good on paper then leaves it to them to produce, We saw too many returning vets decline or get hurt. That's on them, IMO. To some extent you expect a GM to know when players are about to decline and trade them at the exact right time. That is a gift some GM seems to have- maybe it's just luck.

Many posters blaming Brez did not want us to trade away one of our best offensive players in Duran, last winter or the one before, but now it's his fault he did not. Many posters blamed Brez for putting too much faith in Anthony, Mayer and KC, but then again, he didn't trade  away Duran, who plays the same position as Duran. He added 4 infielders to hedge against Mayer & KC's non-production: Durbin, Seigler, IKF and Monasterio. I don't see that as slotting these 3 into FT roles while expecting ,800 from all 3.

How many posters have been bashing the Sox FO for their complete lack of understanding of how to acquire and develop good young pitchers. Once could point to the 3 years under Brez as adding more and better pitching than the previous 7-10 years combined- maybe even going back as far as Theo's last couple years with BOS (15-16 years back.)

Same with defense and bone-head baserunning.

Same with losing control of our young and talented players without getting value in return. I'm not sure I've ever seen a more and longer controlled set of everyday players as we have now, unless you go back to pre-FA MLB. We can argue that they are mostly mediocre or barely better, but the fact is we have a solid foundation in place with just a few clear slots needing serious upgrading. Under Bloom, every winter saw the need for 5-8 major upgrades and a budget limit allowing 1-2 significant upgrades. Under DD's last season, we saw us lose Kimbrell and Kelly with no replacements, at the same time aging vets were nearing the end of control with very little farm replacements in sight. Under Ben, we saw the building of a farm but way too many holes in the 26.

I'm not happy with the early playoff eliminations, but I simply cannot blame Brez for improving the team from top to bottom. Our defense, pitching and batting is better than 2022-2023. Our farm was better, until this summer, when he made two bold moves (Mead & AR) and a few significant smaller ones (Miller, White & Jones.) No GM has made so many deals in such a short time. He's the opposite of complacency (Ben) and paralysis by indecision (Bloom.)

 

Oh no! Not that bashing word again. How dare they. I keep hearing how Brez improved the team, and in some areas like starting pitching, and D, but the team won two less games this past year than in 2025, and scored 97 less runs. A magic carpet ride saved the season, which included a ONCE in a lifetime 15 game winning streak. I keep hearing about the core, which many are high on just like the bumper crop from the farm that was supposed to as Bloom said make the team awesome. little A hasn’t lived up to his hype, and expectations yet no matter how many AB he’s had, or hasn’t had. Maybe he will live up to them, and maybe he won’t. If he does I’ll change my opinion, but that hasn’t happened yet. 

[Bellhorn04]

We'll have a decent team next year...assuming there's a season.  But Brez has more work to do and Henry needs to give him some dough to work with.

[Bellhorn04]

Sure would be nice if Campbell turns it around.  Can't give up on him yet.

[Old Red]

6 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Sure would be nice if Campbell turns it around.  Can't give up on him yet.

Yes, but it might not be in a Red Sox uniform.

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Brez did great with the run prevention this year but lousy with the run production. A Red Sox team finishing #23 in runs scored is crazy.  

I do think he missed on another elite bat, but to me the blame lies more with underperforming players.

Duran, Story, Narvaez, Yoshida, Anthony then Mead & AR.

[moonslav59]

35 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Sure would be nice if Campbell turns it around.  Can't give up on him yet.

I feel the same about Casas, Romy & Gasper.

Could bust out seasons be in order for Abreu, Mead, Anthony or someone else?

[Old Red]

11 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I do think he missed on another elite bat, but to me the blame lies more with underperforming players.

Duran, Story, Narvaez, Yoshida, Anthony then Mead & AR.

True, but how many of these guys should have been counted on anyway to put up any kind of big numbers?

[moonslav59]

16 minutes ago, Old Red said:

True, but how many of these guys should have been counted on anyway to put up any kind of big numbers?

Just 25 to 50 point drops would have made a very big difference.

To me, Mead and Anthony were two that had good shots at doing very well. Not sure bets, but decent chances at pretty big numbers.

I also thought Abreu was at the point in his career where a big season would not have been surprising, but I agree, not someone we could "count on." It's hard to blame injuries, but I view Judge as batter a team can "count on," but the Yanks did and found out they couldn't. The question is "shouldn't they have counted on him?"

Now, Mead and Anthony are not close to Judge, but the issue of "counting" on anyone is the point to consider.

We had a bunch of players who had .780-.820 as their upper end expectations, and very few met that in 2026. Ultimately, the GM was supposed to know this and rid the team of players on the cusp of decline, but it's not easy, and some of these guys may bounce back in 2027. Look at Buehler and DMay- two guys Brez got blasted for adding last year, and they both did much better this year. How was Brez to know this? It's like Martin Perez going nutty right after he left. Harrison couldn't even earn a second start with the Sox, and then this...

Sure, blame Brez, but I recall a lot of posters blasting the trade Duran bandwagon riders last winter and the one before. Now, they blame Brez for not doing it.,

[Old Red]

8 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Just 25 to 50 point drops would have made a very big difference.

To me, Mead and Anthony were two that had good shots at doing very well. Not sure bets, but decent chances at pretty big numbers.

I also thought Abreu was at the point in his career where a big season would not have been surprising, but I agree, not someone we could "count on." It's hard to blame injuries, but I view Judge as batter a team can "count on," but the Yanks did and found out they couldn't. The question is "shouldn't they have counted on him?"

Now, Mead and Anthony are not close to Judge, but the issue of "counting" on anyone is the point to consider.

We had a bunch of players who had .780-.820 as their upper end expectations, and very few met that in 2026. Ultimately, the GM was supposed to know this and rid the team of players on the cusp of decline, but it's not easy, and some of these guys may bounce back in 2027. Look at Buehler and DMay- two guys Brez got blasted for adding last year, and they both did much better this year. How was Brez to know this? It's like Martin Perez going nutty right after he left. Harrison couldn't even earn a second start with the Sox, and then this...

Sure, blame Brez, but I recall a lot of posters blasting the trade Duran bandwagon riders last winter and the one before. Now, they blame Brez for not doing it.,

Yes all you say is true, but not getting another big bat to go alongside Con Man was something that could have been done. Not getting Bregman, or Alonso when both were available was huge. No I didn’t want Bregman for 5 more years either, but one year at a time, and that one year was this past year.

[moonslav59]

34 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Yes all you say is true, but not getting another big bat to go alongside Con Man was something that could have been done. Not getting Bregman, or Alonso when both were available was huge. No I didn’t want Bregman for 5 more years either, but one year at a time, and that one year was this past year.

I have agreed with everyone who wanted one more big bat, and I'd have given up not getting Suarez to get Alonso, but not Bregman.

That was one of Brez's failures, but IMO, he did enough getting Mead and AR, and I won't blame him for Mead's injury or AR's dip.

[Old Red]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I have agreed with everyone who wanted one more big bat, and I'd have given up not getting Suarez to get Alonso, but not Bregman.

That was one of Brez's failures, but IMO, he did enough getting Mead and AR, and I won't blame him for Mead's injury or AR's dip.

Yes, but Alonso could have been there from day 1. Rustman was better than what they had, and who knows what Mead would have done, or will do in Boston. Either way just being better than what they had doesn’t mean they would have made that big of a difference. AR’s  been dipping for two years now, and injuries probably haven’t helped.

[moonslav59]

16 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Yes, but Alonso could have been there from day 1. Rustman was better than what they had, and who knows what Mead would have done, or will do in Boston. Either way just being better than what they had doesn’t mean they would have made that big of a difference. AR’s  been dipping for two years now, and injuries probably haven’t helped.

AR was looking better this year, before the trade, but yes, he had dipped before.

Still 150 better than Narvaez.  Kinda the same as upgrading from .750 to .900.

[JoeBrady]

8 hours ago, Randy Red Sox said:

mead was a flop this season.  that was my point. 

C'mon, that is complete nonsense.  He got hit by a pitch and was out for the season.  That's like saying my Ferrari sucks because it just got pancaked by a meteor.  Besides, "but 11 ip is hardly a sample to assess" something-something-something.

[JoeBrady]

7 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

Are we buying into the media’s idea that a power hitter is the panacea for our team??  
 

are we not learning anything from watching the brewers??  
 

pitching, defense and timely hitting seems to be a tried and true formula for success 

But perhaps even more important is health!!  

They're beautifully put together.  They can literally use all 26 of their players.  Kind of funny, but like a year ago, all I heard was 'get rid of Hamilton'.  I haven't heard a peep lately.

[moonslav59]

This "we need to acquire timely hitting" is hard for me to fathom.

[jdc69]

8 hours ago, Old Red said:

The Red Sox aren’t the Brewers. What works for them doesn’t mean it would work for the Red Sox, 

The Red Sox should learn from the Brewers that having an identity, and playing right can make you a successful team, even without power. Then get power on top of that. I would rather be the Brewers than the Yankees. The Yankees have top of the line talent but no scrappers.

[mvp 78]

10 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Kinda the same as upgrading from .750 to .900.

Not really. You can get similar offensive production out of that position this offseason for a lot cheaper IMO. They used up a lot of trade assets for a guy that is overrated. 

[Hugh2]

On 10/23/2026 at 3:25 PM, Old Red said:

It would all depend on the reason why. 23 less HR, and 97 less runs from one season to the next is glaring, and that was with the Con Man contribution. Cro Man was out most of the year, and the Red Sox still had a better rotation than the year before. Run production was the downfall this past year.

I think the level upset would be the exact same, people would just find different things to complain about. And I'm not faulting them for that, we expect more as Boston Red Sox fans. 

[Hugh2]

On 10/23/2026 at 3:21 PM, drewski6 said:

Probably Tracy pulling starters.  Because it would have mattered.  Ultimately , it didnt matter because double guessing Tracy is just crying that we should have lost 3-1 when we lost 9-1.  

I have a strong suspicion that the game plan of pulling starters and who was coming in from the bullpen was pre-ordained. Overall I like Tracy and I hope they give him more on field decision making pull next season. 

[Hugh2]

15 hours ago, Old Red said:

The Red Sox aren’t the Brewers. What works for them doesn’t mean it would work for the Red Sox, 

I mean, someone could take a team that hits 250 hr's and say that won't work here, is that true? I mean maybe if all the other parts are crap. 

What beats the Dodgers at "American Family field" is going to beat the Dodgers at Fenway (ballpark factors aside). 

Unless of course you're not talking about the specific outcome but rather the strategy. E.G.  A team might believe in defense, but if they suck at teaching it they're only going to get so far employing it.  That' I can get on board with.  

[moonslav59]

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Not really. You can get similar offensive production out of that position this offseason for a lot cheaper IMO. They used up a lot of trade assets for a guy that is overrated. 

Yes, really. We went from about ...

.315 Narvaez after the trade

.519 Wong after the trade (.511 after AR started playing

to

.688 AR with BOS and hopes he can be .725 to .775 (He was .762 w BAL before the trade.)

+ 9 PAs from Rogers at 1.389 before AR came back.

The upgrade was more like 200-250 and better D.

I do agree we overpaid, but it was still a major upgrade. I wish we got Hicks.