2026 MLB post-Red Sox postseason thread

[mvp 78]

18 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

I am honestly not ruling out that the offense, as currently constructed,  finishes top 3 in runs scored next year (which is my goal and no I dont think thats asking too much).  If RA stays healthy, one of Duran /Story gets their groove back, Mead is .850+, ditto Contreras.....Cedanne and Durbin are around 110 OPS+.

But its thin, and it requires a lot to go right.  And my biggest beef is that if we have even one injury, it allows Joe Brady to blame our darn luck for yet another season with no playoff series wins (7 years running)....And then he will happily suggest that the architects who built this perennially mediocre squad should get enshrined in history because they make the rest of us frustrated.  And that I am greedy for wanting to go futher than the yankees one out of every 3 years.

On the years that we've won it all, we've had good injury luck. So let's hope for that! 

[Hugh2]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

He'd turn down the QO for sure. 

I figured he would.  He's going to get a Q.O. 

Honestly, the more I think about it. The more I'm on baord with Teruaki Sato

[Hugh2]

1 hour ago, JoeBrady said:

That's what my post was supposed to say, but I wasn't in my caffeine mode yet.  I think he is an automatic QO.  I think it was on Sherman's idea that the NYY wouldn't offer him a QO.  I could see a $60M/4 contract.

Yeah, I had a feeling that is what you actually meant.  Wasn't sure. 

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

I figured he would.  He's going to get a Q.O. 

Honestly, the more I think about it. The more I'm on baord with Teruaki Sato

Sato's swing and the way he makes contact just seems like a perfect fit for MLB. 

[Old Red]

Just now, Hugh2 said:

I figured he would.  He's going to get a Q.O. 

Honestly, the more I think about it. The more I'm on baord with Teruaki Sato

So aren’t a lot of other teams it seems is in on Sato, which some are bigger spenders than the Red Sox.

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, Old Red said:

So aren’t a lot of other teams it seems is in on Sato, which some are bigger spenders than the Red Sox.

I mean, they were 6th last season and the Yankees have already cried about being poor. Sox have as good a chance as anybody if they actually want him.

[Hugh2]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Sato's swing and the way he makes contact just seems like a perfect fit for MLB. 

ANd the more on board with Sato I am the more I'm thinking that Story over Yoshida is the way to go (in terms of who we are shipping off). 

[Hugh2]

4 minutes ago, Old Red said:

So aren’t a lot of other teams it seems is in on Sato, which some are bigger spenders than the Red Sox.

Well it's the same exact scenario with anyone out there.  If a player is good and available via free agency or trade other teams will be interested. 

We have to advocate for something, otherwise we are expecting them to do nothing. 

[Old Red]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I mean, they were 6th last season and the Yankees have already cried about being poor. Sox have as good a chance as anybody if they actually want him.

That’s the key if they actually want him to pay the price.

[Old Red]

1 minute ago, Hugh2 said:

Well it's the same exact scenario with anyone out there.  If a player is good and available via free agency or trade other teams will be interested. 

We have to advocate for something, otherwise we are expecting them to do nothing. 

I’m in the I’ll believe it when I see it mode when it comes to the Red Sox winning the bidding services of a highly sought after FA not name Masa.

[mvp 78]

14 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

ANd the more on board with Sato I am the more I'm thinking that Story over Yoshida is the way to go (in terms of who we are shipping off). 

I don't think Sato should be playing IF TBH. He is most likely a COF/DH. His defense is Deverseque at 3b. 

[Hugh2]

13 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I don't think Sato should be playing IF TBH. He is most likely a COF/DH. His defense is Deverseque at 3b. 

Maybe that fits better if they have to trade an Abreu type to plug up another hole. 

[moonslav59]

On 10/28/2026 at 10:38 AM, mvp 78 said:

Spelling it "Lynne" like 5 times is kinda hilarious. Easy name to spell. 

I'm wondering if trading Ariase, Durane & Primerae could get us a great SS- maybe de la Cruze?

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

On the years that we've won it all, we've had good injury luck. So let's hope for that! 

Especially SP'ers. Most ring years saw 4-5 SP'ers with 24+ GS, and usually the top 5 starters, not some 7th or 9th starter going 26 starts.

2004 had 5 at 29 or more!!!!!!

2007 had 5 at 23 or more and Lester w 11.

2013 had 4 at 27+ and  Buch 16/Peavy 10

2018 had just 4 over 23, but Sale, Price, Porcello & ERod were pretty damn good. (Johnson 13, Nate 11 and PomPom 11) Nate made for a sweet 5 after the deadline.

[moonslav59]

4 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Especially SP'ers. Most ring years saw 4-5 SP'ers with 24+ GS, and usually the top 5 starters, not some 7th or 9th starter going 26 starts.

2004 had 5 at 29 or more!!!!!!

2007 had 5 at 23 or more and Lester w 11.

2013 had 4 at 27+ and  Buch 16/Peavy 10

2018 had just 4 over 23, but Sale, Price, Porcello & ERod were pretty damn good. (Johnson 13, Nate 11 and PomPom 11) Nate made for a sweet 5 after the deadline.

Conversely...

You may argue about my SP'er slotting, but have a look-see:

2026 GS

1. Crochet 6

2. Gray 29

3. Suarez 28

4. Houck 1

5. Bello 11

6. Oviedo 0

7. Crawford 0

8. Sandoval 13

9. Tolle 26

10. Early 17

11. Bennett 19

12. ____/Paez 1

It's certainly debatable, but this chart shows 76 GS by our #8 to lower SP'ers.

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, drewski6 said:

See this line of thinking is why we are hitting our ceiling.  Its not about checking off each position on a checklist and being satisfied if you have an average player or better there.  Some of us are, and hear me out, trying to beat the best teams in the mlb.

And that is going to require us to get a little uncomfortable vs complacent.  Consider upgrades to elite players where we have average players, and have some players that are good enough to start as our backups.  Most elite teams have depth guys that would start on most teams.

We need to add talent becaus we are stuck in third place.

I don't mind upgrades, but:

• The first consideration is how much are you upgrading.  Once you start off with an assumption that player X is a 105 players, then you need a 115 to even make the upgrade noticeable.  If you upgrade from Aroz to Yoshida, and Aroz adds 20 OPS points, you team has increased by only 2 points. 
• On the other hand, if you replace Arias with DLC, that might be 150-200 points higher, which is 15-20 points higher for the team.  That might be a difference of 7 places in overall OPS.  For the RS, and additional 15 points moves us from 18th to 8th.  And if was 20 points, it moves us from 18th to 6th.  That's a material difference.
• And defense counts.  If we moved Arias for Neto, the team OPS difference is maybe +6 points, which is not a lot, and the downgrade in defense might eat that up entirely.
• And then age and control and salary.  Some of these contracts are a disaster.  And if you add $30M in salary for a modest upgrade, that is $30M you cannot spend elsewhere.

[JoeBrady]

4 hours ago, drewski6 said:

And then when both get hurt, youll be excusing yet another third place finish and easy out from the playoffs.

1-Both won't be on my team, and I am assuming that Arias replaces Story in short order.  I'm hoping I'm wrong, but Story is on the wrong side of 33.

2-And one injury does not an excuse make.  Are you imaging Mead as our only injury, or are considering him as part of a myriad of injuries?  That is, once again, the difference between an excuse and a reason.

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, drewski6 said:

And my biggest beef is that if we have even one injury, it allows Joe Brady to blame our darn luck for yet another season

And you are, once again, wrong.  There is a vast difference between losing a couple of guys, and losing a lot of guys.  I've seen posters post the numbers before, and I believe that we lost the most dollars to injuries and the most projected WAR to injuries.

Again, there is a difference to buying a car that needs a rebuild after 1,000 miles, and buying a car that gets hit by a meteor.

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

On the years that we've won it all, we've had good injury luck. So let's hope for that! 

The smartest thing Schilling ever said was, when asked whether the NYY or RS would win, he said the team that gets the most starts from it regular rotation would win.  Our opening day rotation wound up with 140 GS, and of the missing 22, Lester, Buchholz & Gabbard started 21 of them.

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, Hugh2 said:

I figured he would.  He's going to get a Q.O. 

Honestly, the more I think about it. The more I'm on baord with Teruaki Sato

I would argue that it depends on what one expects from the rotation, but Sato is a strong fit.  The fact that he can play 3B or LF deepens a our flexibility quite a bit.  One of my fears of getting rid of Duran is that, if we have an injury to the OF, then we're in trouble with Duran.  Sato can play LF and we can slide guys around pretty comfortably.  If Mead goes sideways, Durbin can handle 2nd.  Same if Contreras gets hurt/suspended.  Sato makes it a deeper roster.

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

I don't think Sato should be playing IF TBH. He is most likely a COF/DH. His defense is Deverseque at 3b. 

Entirely possible.  But I think there is a lot of value in saying that a player 'can' play a position if needed.  In this case, two positions (four if you can consider we have enough fielding where we can cover all three OF positions, even if Sato can only play LF.

[moonslav59]

30 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

I don't mind upgrades, but:

• The first consideration is how much are you upgrading.  Once you start off with an assumption that player X is a 105 players, then you need a 115 to even make the upgrade noticeable.  If you upgrade from Aroz to Yoshida, and Aroz adds 20 OPS points, you team has increased by only 2 points. 
• On the other hand, if you replace Arias with DLC, that might be 150-200 points higher, which is 15-20 points higher for the team.  That might be a difference of 7 places in overall OPS.  For the RS, and additional 15 points moves us from 18th to 8th.  And if was 20 points, it moves us from 18th to 6th.  That's a material difference.
• And defense counts.  If we moved Arias for Neto, the team OPS difference is maybe +6 points, which is not a lot, and the downgrade in defense might eat that up entirely.
• And then age and control and salary.  Some of these contracts are a disaster.  And if you add $30M in salary for a modest upgrade, that is $30M you cannot spend elsewhere.

As always, you made some great points. I will add that if you can upgrade from 105 to 110 without hurting another slot, then as many as them you can do, why not? I get the value of letting fans get attached to players for more than 1-2 years as being a benefit, but improving team quality should help fans enjoy the product more in the long run. Winning makes fans happier than anything else.

I'm not usually for major downgrades on defense, unless the upgrade on offense make it clearly a major overall plus. Your Neto example is spot on.

Abrams is bad on SS D, too, but man-o-man, what an upgrade on offense he'd be, and who knows? We trade Arias and others for him, and next year Godbout turns out being better than Arias, and we move Abrams to 2B and Mead to DH.

[moonslav59]

14 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

I would argue that it depends on what one expects from the rotation, but Sato is a strong fit.  The fact that he can play 3B or LF deepens a our flexibility quite a bit.  One of my fears of getting rid of Duran is that, if we have an injury to the OF, then we're in trouble with Duran.  Sato can play LF and we can slide guys around pretty comfortably.  If Mead goes sideways, Durbin can handle 2nd.  Same if Contreras gets hurt/suspended.  Sato makes it a deeper roster.

IMO, If Duran does not improve, we're not in any better shape with him on the roster than going with White/Yoshida/Jones/KC as our OF depth.

Maybe Mead could end up in LF.

[mvp 78]

11 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Entirely possible.  But I think there is a lot of value in saying that a player 'can' play a position if needed.  In this case, two positions (four if you can consider we have enough fielding where we can cover all three OF positions, even if Sato can only play LF.

Wong "can play" 2b. Conteras "can play" C. Even Duran "can play" 2b. At some point, you have to do what's best for the team though.

[notin]

6 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

I think TalkSox is done with Duran, I don't think the front office is 100% done with him. He makes a lot of money and still has a fairly high ceiling (one he probably never reaches again). He'd be a hard guy to trade for many reasons.

I do think they trade a starting position player.  But too often, they surprise me with whom.  

If it’s not Duran, who would be a surprising but realistic trade candidate?  Contreras? Rafaela? Abreu?

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Wong "can play" 2b. Conteras "can play" C. Even Duran "can play" 2b. At some point, you have to do what's best for the team though.

I can understand in-game emergencies, but I agree. "Can play" has a pretty wide range of acceptance for some people.

I do think Rafaela is okay at 2B, but I'm fully against him being moved off CF.

I do think Gasper should not be the #2 Catcher and play 1 of 5 games. 5 a year is probably too much.

LF in Fenway gets some slack, but even there, there are limits.

 

[mvp 78]

16 hours ago, notin said:

I do think they trade a starting position player.  But too often, they surprise me with whom.  

If it’s not Duran, who would be a surprising but realistic trade candidate?  Contreras? Rafaela? Abreu?

I think Rafaela would be more surprising that Abreu, but both have much more trade value than Duran. They have a weird fixation on keeping Duran so it wouldn't be shocking for Duran to be the Opening Day CFer. 

Surprising:

1. Crochet (unrealistic)

2. Adley (unlikely)

3. Suarez (unlikely)

4. Contreras 

5. Whitlock

6. Anthony

7. Tolle

 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

21 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

On the years that we've won it all, we've had good injury luck. So let's hope for that! 

Tied for least world titles this decade!

The snoring '20s have just been unlucky.

[mvp 78]

Guess I'm going to have to get the girls 12U team to rip some cigs tonight before the game. 🔥🍊🌪️🚬🥎

[drewski6]

20 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

And you are, once again, wrong.  There is a vast difference between losing a couple of guys, and losing a lot of guys.  I've seen posters post the numbers before, and I believe that we lost the most dollars to injuries and the most projected WAR to injuries.

Again, there is a difference to buying a car that needs a rebuild after 1,000 miles, and buying a car that gets hit by a meteor.

This is just revisionist.  If you would open your ears, you would hear that plenty of people were very concerned about the offense going into last year from posters here to pundits all around.  

The story of the 2026 Red Sox is not OMG, worst luck of any team in MLB.  Its not who could have foreseen these injuries and unreliability from Story and Duran (two volatile players).  Who could have known that Anthony may get hurt when he just got hurt the year before.

Most neutral assessors assessed us as offensively thin and weak.  You proclaimed that we were 2nd best team in baseball spoken about how we were set up historically great going forward, and that Brez should get exec of the year.  That OBP would drive the offense to heights.  And it was so far outside reality.

Well reality came home, and as many knew what would happen our noodlebats were our demise 2 years running.  6th straight year with no playoff series wins.

And instead of learning or listening or acknowledging you (predictably) return to somehow justify taking a victory lap despite being maybe the most wrong.  When I debate with others. They are debating , telling me, that nobody is saying the stuff that you say. Consistently.

They say stuff like nobody was super pumped about our offense. We all knew we could use another big bat.  And you show up and are like i am still glad we didnt get alonso, bregman you see our offense was a ferrarri that got hit by a meteor.  These guys wouldnt have helped.

And no, its just not reality.