Fans wanted more bats, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that got ignored. He did add Contreras and Durbin, and they were replacing Abraham Toro and Nate Lowe at 1b and Bregman. Going into the season, they had what looked like a decent lineup with:
C: Narvaez
1b: Contreras
2b: Mayer
3b: Durbin
SS: Story
LF: Duran
CF: Rafaela
RF: Abreu
DH: Anthony
Where are all these other bats expected to play? Maybe catcher and 2b? I don’t blame Breslow for not upgrading those positions. Narvaez’ value wasn’t coming from his bat, anyway. And they weren’t going to bench Duran or Anthony, and couldn’t trade Duran for what they wanted for him. Which 2b option out there was supposed to be the “missing bat”? And was he enough of an upgrade that the Sox should block their best prospects? (Should they likewise block Arias this offseason?)
Not to mention, getting a full season from Anthony plus improvements from Abreu (yes!) and Mayer (didn’t happen) should have at a minimum kept the seventh best offense in MLB at the status quo. Don’t forget they ranked 7 last year, not 25. The offense wasn’t horrible last year. Unless you judge the entire 165 game season solely by those last 3 playoff games.
And the big reason many wanted to go for it now was the Sox had a young, controlled ace in Crochet. Well, so far this year Crochet has been a non-factor, to be kind, yet the Sox have the third best record in the AL.
If we knew Anthony would get injured, Duran would disappear, Mayer would be a non-factor, Narvaez would take numerous steps backwards, Durbin would bat like a pitcher for the first two plus months, Story would struggle and miss time with an injury, sure, I suppose they ignored the possibility that two thirds of the lineup would disappear in April, May and most of June.
But they didn’t know that, did they?