Red Sox Report Cards: Grading Every Player in May

How does that old saying go? “April showers bring May hopes that the baseball season isn’t already a complete wash?” No… wait… that doesn’t sound right. Regardless, it seemed like a valid thought for Boston Red Sox fans who had sat through a March/April where everything that could go wrong, pretty much did. Whether it was the measly 12-19 start, numerous underperformance across the board, a coaching purge of epic proportions, or a seemingly backbreaking injury to ace Garrett Crochet to top it all off, hope lied in the idea that a new month meant an opportunity to turn the page and start anew.  

With May now in the rearview, it’s become abundantly clear that with the 2026 Boston Red Sox — who, let’s not forget, were 9-19 at Fenway this season entering June and hasn’t won a series there since April 6-8 vs. Milwaukee — the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Here is a look into how the offense, rotation, and bullpen all graded out for May.

Grading Red Sox's Offense

By now, everyone knows if the Red Sox are going to turn things around, they’re going to need a massive resurgence from an offense that, outside of Willson Contreras and Wilyer Abreu, borderline sleep-walked through the opening March/April stretch. A run that saw them last in the American League in OBP (.309), SLG% (.351), OPS (.666) , wRC+ (84), HR (21), and WAR (2.6), as well as the bottom-third in batting average, runs, hits, and BB%. While May saw Contreras continue his hot start, slashing .315/.394/.528/.922 with 4 HR, 13 RBIs, and a wRC+ of 151, it wasn’t as kind to Abreu, who saw his OPS fall from .855 to .695 and K% increase from 17.5% to 20.7%. Add in injuries to Roman Anthony and Trevor Story, and an already-thin lineup was on the verge of completely collapsing. 

Injuries, however, not only opened the door to the unlikeliest of heroes like Nick Sogard (.721 OPS, 102 wRC+ in 12 games), Isiah Kiner-Falefa (.980 OPS, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 177 wRC+ in 19 games), and Micky Gasper (.333/.364/.392/.756 in 17 games), the later of which has seemingly taken over the starting catcher duties according to Chad Tracy (thanks to his consistent approach at the plate). That also doesn't mention also the continued emergence of Ceddanne Rafaela and re-emergence of Jarren Duran. Rafaela has taken a strong start and ran with it, not only continuing to decrease his K% (down to 19.6% from 22.9%) but also beginning to flex more power with his 4 homers, 13 RBI, .480 SLG and .826 OPS, earning him some more at-bats as Boston’s everyday No. 2 hitter. Where the Red Sox’s real power surge in the month of May came from was the aforementioned revival of Jarren Duran who saw his line of .170/.231/.250/.481 in March and April increase to .261/.331/.548/.879, and also managed to provide clutch hit after clutch hit, walloping a team-high nine home runs and 22 RBI. 

Even with these standout individual performances, the Sox offense as a whole was a bit of an enigma in May. As a team, they were able to climb into the top-10 league wide in AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, hits, doubles, triples, stolen bases, WAR, and BABIP, the latter of which they led all of baseball in. However, their Achilles heel for the month continued the trends that has plagued the offense all season thus far; the inability to take ball four with a 7.5 BB% (24th in MLB), avoid strike three with 227 strikeouts (19th in MLB), make solid contact with HardHit and Barrel percentages of 35.3% (28th in MLB) and 6.8% (23rd in MLB), and maybe most telling, the inability to hit in clutch spots with a .227 average with RISP (23rd in MLB) and even-worse .178 average with RISP with two outs (24th in MLB), leading to a still middle-of-the-pack 4.0 runs per game, good for just 18th in MLB and 9th in the AL.     

While there have been some positives to take away with how Boston’s offense seemingly improved, at least on the stat sheet in May, the eye test shows there are still too many stretches of inconsistencies and uncompetitive at-bats when the situation calls for more to give anything better than a C+ grade.  

Grading Red Sox's Rotation

Record: 10-8

If the month of May showed Red Sox fans anything, it’s that they have two blossoming stars and hopefully foundational pieces for the rotation for years to come in Connelly Early and Payton Tolle. Both young southpaws have simultaneously taken the reins and filled the hole left by Garrett Crochet and then some, combining to go 5-2 with a 2.70 ERA, 60 strikeouts and 14 walks in 60 IP across 10 starts. 

When looking on the veteran side of things, Sonny Gray dominated going a team best 4-0 in five starts with a 2.00 ERA, .219 average against, and once again looking like the Gray of old in terms of strikeouts, doubling his K% from 13.1% in March/April to 26.2% in May. If there were to be one potential concern for the rotation, it comes in the form of the other vet on the staff in Ranger Suarez. His first three starts of the month against the Astros, Phillies, and Royals were phenomenal, posting a dominant 0.66 ERA and 2.12 FIP while allowing just one earned run over 13.2 IP. His last two starts of the month versus the Braves and Guardians, however, tell a different story, as he was roughed up for nine earned runs on 14 hits over 10 innings of work, spiking his ERA to 3.80. 

While the stats may show the Red Sox rotation still sits middle of the pack both in the AL and league as a whole, they also show a vast improvement from where they sat at the end of April, improving in ERA, opponent batting average, WHIP, FIP, K%, hits allowed, strikeouts, and WAR. The hope now is they can continue this success and get Crochet back healthy to really take them to that next level, and of course, give them a more bonafide option than the opener/Bello route they’ve had to take recently. Until then, the rotation finishes May with an A- grade.

Grading Red Sox's Bullpen

Record: 3-6

Boston’s bullpen was a bit of a mixed bag in May due in part to a couple of key injuries to Justin Slaten and Garrett Whitlock, as well as the decision to piggyback Brayan Bello off of an opener, that being either Jovani Moran or Tyler Samaniego — neither of whom have shined in that new role. We’ll start with Slaten, who returned from an oblique injury that sidelined him most of April and originally looked like his usual dominant self, tossing 4.2 scoreless innings in five outings before a four-run implosion against Minnesota ballooned his ERA to 5.40 and FIP to 5.16 for the month. 

Going forward, he will certainly be looked to as the bridge to Aroldis Chapman — who did his usual stuff in 10 shutout appearances, holding hitters to a .114 average against and tallying a 38.5 K% — a role that Garrett Whitlock (3.12 ERA, 34.3 K% in 8.2 IP) had been operating as before hitting the injured list with left knee inflammation. If not him, then the Sox might lean on Ryan Watson (3.94 ERA, .220 AVG in 16.0 IP), who has seemingly found success as a multi-inning arm after a disastrous start to his tenure in Boston. When speaking of multi-inning arms, though, there may be no bigger weapon outside of Chapman in the bullpen than Brayan Bello, who as a reliever has a 0.71 ERA, 1.69 FIP, and holding opponents to a .215 average against while increasing his K% to 22.7% and decreasing his BB% to 3.1% as opposed to 11.3% for each as a starter. [Unfortunately, he's since been optioned to the minors, but the idea of making him a long reliever is still tantalizing.] 

Where the Red Sox have started to run into problems within their bullpen is the lack of consistency and reliability. As previously mentioned, transitioning Moran (4.38 ERA) and Samaniego (5.40 ERA) back-and-fourth between opener and traditional reliever has seemingly hurt them both with their numbers falling off drastically from where they were after April. As for veteran lefty Danny Coulombe, his numbers only continue to get worse with a 7.36 ERA in 3.2 innings after posting a 6.14 in 7.1 in March/April. And then there’s Greg Weissert, who may be the model of confusion, posting a 3.27 ERA for the month and continuing to show he seems to be just fine when the pressures at its smallest, owning a .227 average against with the bases empty and .216 in low-leverage situations. However, ramp it up and have guys on base for him and forget it, as his average against jumps to .296 in medium leverage and .429 in high leverage with a .313 with men on base and .269 with men in scoring position — not to mention the 21 inherited runners he’s allowed to score, tied for the sixth-most in baseball. He constantly leaves fans wondering why he’s still the arm called upon in those situations.  

Much like the rotation, Boston’s bullpen finds itself improving in an abundance of league stats that puts them in the top 10 in a lot of categories. That being said, unlike the rotation that seems to be working as a full unit, it feels as though right now the pen is being carried by a three-headed monster of Chapman, Slaten, and the occasional Bello appearance. That mixed with concerns for the injury histories of Whitlock and Slaten and the up-and-down stretches a few of the previously mentioned arms are currently going through has made me not as high on the state of the pen as I was the rotation, earning the unit a B+ grade.