Alex Mayes

What a week it's been for the Boston Red Sox. Along with the announcement that manager Chad Tracy has signed an extension through 2029, the team also confirmed that they have picked up both contraction options for Craig Breslow in 2029 and 2030. Fenway Sports Group has given both men a huge vote of confidence as the team prepares to head back to the postseason in 2026. There will be much to say about Tracy’s deserved contract, but the Breslow announcement caught me a bit by surprise if we’re being honest. It was fairly obvious that he would hang around in Boston through at least part of the 2027 season since we’re staring a landscape-shifting lockout dead in the face at the end of the year, but with all of the negative press surrounding him throughout the early part of the season, I think we all kind of assumed Breslow’s tenure in Boston would end well before his contract options were even a consideration. Just two games into the historic winning streak over the summer, I even wrote about how Breslow’s tenure in Boston was set to end with a whimper. Then, as the trade deadline approached, I said that his past trade deadlines showed that he couldn’t pull off the big deal. But then, on August 3, Breslow pulled off a massive in-division trade that showed me he deserved far more credit than I had given him up to that point. We can point to a number of Breslow additions throughout the first two years of his time in Boston as huge successes: trading for Garrett Crochet and Carlos Narvaez on the same day, acquiring both Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras from the Cardinals over the offseason, bringing in Caleb Durbin to settle the hot corner in the wake of Alex Bregman’s departure, and signing Ranger Suarez to be a veteran, middle-of-the-rotation anchor for a starting rotation of mostly young talent. While he’s swung and missed as well (the trades for Vaughn Grissom and Dustin May come to mind immediately), Breslow’s decision to go all-in on Adley Rutschman to settle the catching position for the rest of 2026 and all of 2027 showed that he understood what the team needed to finally push themselves over the edge of contention. That he was able to get a deal of that magnitude done during the season was an even bigger feather in his cap. He identified a problem, found a solution that benefited the organization both now and for the future, and did what he had to do to get the deal done. In my mind, that was the last hurdle that Breslow had to clear to show that he could be trusted to lead the Red Sox through the next few years. While Rutschman hasn’t been the offensive force we all hoped he would be, his impact on the pitching staff can be seen game in and game out and it feels like he’s been here far longer than six weeks. It’s entirely likely that the team will discuss a long-term deal with the catcher before the lockout begins and if that gets done, then Breslow can add yet another blockbuster move to his résumé. While the Rutschman trade was the main move of the deadline, Breslow also addressed two other areas of need by trading rookie southpaw Connelly Early for Curtis Mead and former top prospect Marcelo Mayer for lefty reliever Erik Miller. While Mead’s Red Sox debut was short lived—a broken wrist after a hit by pitch that has kept him on the shelf for the majority of the second half of the season—he profiles as a second base/DH option next season and provides a nice source of power from the right side of the plate. Miller started his Red Sox’s career on fire, becoming one of Tracy’s trusted weapons out of the bullpen, though he's faltered after his mechanics started to break down during the month of September. That being said, he seems to have fully bought into Breslow and pitching coach Andrew Bailey’s program and should be a very useful weapon for years to come. Craig Breslow may still struggle with the human connection part of baseball, but he’s made obvious strides in the right direction in that regard and FSG has given him their full stamp of approval for the next three seasons at least. This season’s turnaround and the additions he’s made along the way have given the president of baseball operations a ton of runway to prepare to bring another World Series title to Boston. If he can continue to operate the way he has in 2026, Craig Breslow will prove just how right John Henry and company were to take a gamble on him in 2023. View full article

I assume Houck gets activated at some point this week as well. He's looked good in his rehab outings so they'll want to get him on the bump against major leaguers at least once before the postseason. As much as I want Arias playing meaningful innings with this team, it's not going to happen. The earliest he'll be on the 26-man roster is the start of next season. At this point, you don't take away his development time during the lockout just for a bench role in the playoffs.

Boston Red Sox Weekly Snapshot Record Last Week: 2-4 Runs Scored Last Week: 15 Runs Surrendered Last Week: 23 Standings 3rd in AL East 2nd in AL Wild Card Transactions 09/15/26: Boston Red Sox sent RHP Tanner Houck on a rehab assignment to Worcester Red Sox. 09/17/26: Boston Red Sox sent RHP Johan Oviedo on a rehab assignment to Worcester Red Sox. 09/20/26: Boston Red Sox optioned RHP Wyatt Olds to Worcester Red Sox. 09/20/26: Boston Red Sox activated RHP Tyron Guerrero from the 15-day injured list. Scores Game 147: BOS 2, TEX 4 Game 148: BOS 3, TEX 7 Game 150: BOS 4, TEX 3 Game 151: BOS 4, TB 2 Game 152: BOS 1, TB 2 Game 153: BOS 1, TB 5 Series Breakdown/Highlights Rangers Series: It’s safe to say that the Red Sox may end up limping into the postseason with the way they’ve played baseball over the last week. In game one in Texas, we saw Patrick Sandoval once again be unable to provide any real shot at staying in the contest from the first inning. He only tossed 2.2 innings while allowing four hits and four earned runs while walking two and striking out five. Due to his short start, Chad Tracy relied on Brayan Bello, Alec Gamboa, Wyatt Olds, and Jovani Moran to all spend precious bullets in an effort to keep the game from getting further out of hand, which they were successful at. Offensively, Nick Sogard hit a two-run home run for the only spark of the night. Game two was pretty much more of the same unfortunately. Willson Contreras launched a two-run home run but, once again, that was the only offense the team could muster. Jake Bennett was looking to rebound from his last outing and mostly accomplished that feat. He tossed 4.2 innings of three-run baseball while striking out seven. Greg Weissert, Erik Miller, and Raymond Burgos came on in relief. Miller specifically, continued to struggle by allowing three earned runs. Game three was a turnaround for the Red Sox, finally stopping the skid for a bit. Most notably on offense, Roman Anthony continued to heat up at the plate and that’s something the team is going to need in the worst way as we enter the last week of the season. Trevor Story contributed the winning home run on the day. Defensively, Sonny Gray looked a lot more like his usual self again. He threw 6.1 innings of three-run baseball while striking out six on the day. Olds, Gamboa, and Garrett Whitlock all worked in relief to put the game away. Rays Series: Game one was Anthony’s true late-season breakout, going two-for-five with one home run and three RBIs. Jahmai Jones added another home run for good measure to give the Red Sox a late-inning lead. Ranger Suarez hit a career high in walks with five, but also struck out five over 5.2 innings. Olds, Weissert, and Miller all worked in relief with Miller still looking shaky. The pendulum swung back the other way for game two, though. Brayan Bello pitched a great game as the starter, going eight strong innings while only allowing one run and striking out 11. Whitlock is technically charged with the loss in this game, but if you watched it you know that baserunning mistakes by Caleb Durbin and Connor Wong’s inability to play passable defense behind the plate really lost the game for the Sox. Offensively, Anthony had the lone RBI for the Sox on the night. Finally, in game three, we had Sandoval take the rubber again and promptly forget that the Red Sox were in the midst of a playoff push. Tracy left him out there to wear it though, having the southpaw toss seven innings while giving up five earned runs and striking out five. Recently activated Tyron Guerrero came in in relief to get some work in before the conclusion of the season. Offensively, Story provided a late inning home run to keep the Sox from being shut out. The good news? The Red Sox officially clinched their spot in the playoffs on Sunday once the Astros lost to the Braves, removing some pressure ahead of the final week of the regular season. Website Highlights Red Sox’s Offense is Collapsing in Clutch Situations at the Worst Possible Time by Yirsandy Rodriguez Red Sox Playoff Scenarios: Two Vastly Different Paths to the World Series by Alex Mayes Roman Anthony is Agonizingly Close to Breaking Out of His Slump by Billy Heyen Jarren Duran Can be Fixed, but the Red Sox Are Running Out of Time by N.B. Lindberg Looking Ahead 09/21/26: Off Day 09/22/26: Guardians (Parker Messick) @ Red Sox (Payton Tolle): 6:45 PM EDT 09/23/26: Guardians (Foster Griffin) @ Red Sox (Sonny Gray): 7:10 PM EDT 09/24/26: Guardians (TBD) @ Red Sox (Ranger Suarez): 6:45 PM EDT 09/25/26: Cubs @ Red Sox: 7:10 PM EDT 09/26/26: Cubs @ Red Sox: 7:15 PM EDT 09/27/26: Cubs @ Red Sox: 3:05 PM EDT View full article

The Boston Red Sox are all but guaranteed to make the postseason in 2026. Technically, there’s a path to where they could be eliminated from postseason contention, but here at Talk Sox, we like to believe in this team (and statistical odds). For all intents and purposes, we're going to see this squad in the playoffs. There are really two direct paths for the team to take to be able to play meaningful baseball in October. First, we have the path they are currently on: they continue to hold the second Wild Card position and return to New York to face the Yankees in a best-of-three Wild Card round. There, the hope will be that Sonny Gray, Payton Tolle, and Ranger Suarez can pitch well enough to keep the ball on the ground and not over the short porch in right field, while the offense has to find a way to score at least a few runs per game against Cy Young hopeful Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole, and Carlos Rodon. That’s a tall task, but one the Red Sox likely won't shy away from. The moment that the Red Sox put the pedal to the floor during the summer came when they went into Yankee Stadium and promptly swept the Bronx Bombers. The teams that will meet at the end of September will be different—Aaron Judge has returned for the Yankees and there’s still a bit of uncertainty around Ceddanne Rafaela’s return timeline—but the Red Sox have to feel good about going back to New York for a shot at redeeming last year’s quick exit. Winning the Wild Card series would put the Red Sox facing the Rays in the American League Divisional Series, and then onto face either the Guardians, White Sox, or Astros in the Championship Series. Having to string together back-to-back series wins against AL East rivals will be difficult, but not insurmountable. The other path requires a bit of creativity, but it isn’t out of left field. I’ll start by saying that if the team is doing this (and with how they’ve played against the Rangers this week it’s certainly possible) they can’t admit it. The easiest path to the World Series, ironically, means tanking the end of the season to slide to the sixth seed in the playoffs. As of this writing, that would force the White Sox into playing the Yankees and the Red Sox would matchup against the Astros. While it wouldn’t be fair to say the Yankees should win the first two games of the Wild Card round against the White Sox, it’s a safe assumption. That would make the Yankees and Rays duke it out in the ALDS while the Red Sox meet up with the Guardians just a couple of weeks after they met at the end of the regular season. While the final series against Cleveland has yet to be played, the Red Sox currently lead the season series 2-1 and they have mostly dominated the AL Central all season. This would also save the juggernaut matchup with either the Yankees or Rays for the ALCS, when it would become must-see-TV, while sidestepping having to play both clubs en route to the World Series. Now, is it ethically dubious to "tank" for better playoff seeding, especially when you haven't already locked up a spot in the Big Dance? Absolutely. It behooves the Red Sox to win as much as possible down the stretch, knowing that they'd be walking into a very difficult path to make it to the Fall Classic. It's better to have some chance than no chance at all. But whether it comes via the No. 5 or No. 6 seed, the point is that the Red Sox control their own destiny as we approach the final week of the regular season. Right now, all paths lead to October. It’s up to the starting nine on the field to determine which path they are going to take. View full article

Boston Red Sox Weekly Snapshot Record Last Week: 3-3 Runs Scored Last Week: 21 Runs Surrendered Last Week: 19 Standings 3rd in AL East 8.5 GB First Place 2nd in AL Wild Card 4.5 GB First Place Transactions 09/08/26: Boston Red Sox sent RHP Tanner Houck on a rehab assignment to Portland Sea Dogs. 09/11/26: Boston Red Sox recalled 2B Anthony Seigler from Worcester Red Sox. 09/11/26: Boston Red Sox placed CF Eli White on the 10-day injured list retroactive to September 9, 2026. Right foot ligament injury. 09/11/26: Boston Red Sox sent 1B Willson Contreras on a rehab assignment to Portland Sea Dogs. 09/13/26: Boston Red Sox placed 2B Anthony Seigler on the 10-day injured list. Right wrist inflammation 09/13/26: Boston Red Sox activated 1B Willson Contreras from the 10-day injured list. Scores Game 141: BOS 5, LAA 2 Game 142: BOS 1, LAA 6 Game 143: BOS 4, LAA 6 Game 144: BOS 2, KC 3 Game 145: BOS 5, KC 1 Game 146: BOS , KC Series Breakdown/Highlights Angels Series: I’ve said on the Talk Sox Podcast that the Red Sox typically play up or down to their competition. That was more than evident in the series against the Angels. The Sox took game one, but it wasn’t the prettiest of games. Brayan Bello was given his first start in months and performed quite well. He tossed five innings of zero-run, four-hit, two-walk, and seven-strikeout baseball. He was followed up in relief by Wyatt Olds, Alex Gamboa, and Garrett Whitlock. The relievers combined for eight strikeouts on the night. On offense, Adley Rutschman knocked a three0run home run while Jarren Duran provided a solo blast. Eli White contributed the other RBI on the night. Game two was pretty ugly if we’re being honest. The Sox ran into one of the best starters in the American League in Reid Detmers and couldn’t do much with the bats against him. The lone RBI came off the bat of Nick Sogard. Wilyer Abreu and Trevor Story added the only other hits for the Sox on the night. Defensively, Patrick Sandoval was forced to stay in the game for six innings of four-run baseball. He struck out seven and only walked two, but the writing seems to be on the wall for the southpaw as the postseason rapidly approaches. The final game of the series saw Jake Bennett turn in his worst performance of the season. He tossed 5.1 innings, allowed six earned runs (including three home runs), while walking one and only striking out two. He was followed up by Olds, Jovani Moran, and Gamboa, but the offense couldn’t quite get the Sox back into the game. Roman Anthony and Abreu both homered while newly recalled Nate Eaton contributed the other RBI on the night. Royals Series: The series against the Royals started out in similar fashion to the ending of the Angels series. Sonny Gray turned in a quality start, tossing six innings of three-run baseball, but the bats couldn’t get the Sox in the lead down the stretch. Erik Miller, Greg Weissert, and Moran shut the door on the game. The Goateed Menace Mickey Gasper contributed a home run while Abreu drove in the other run. Game two was a different story. Ranger Suarez turned in his second long outing in a row, tossing seven innings while striking out eight and only allowing one earned run on a home run. Arguably more impressive, we saw Whitlock turn in his best outing this season with three strikeouts in the eighth inning and Aroldis Chapman came in to slam the door shut. There was no long ball for the Sox this game, but Abreu, Rutschman, Sogard, and a thawing Caleb Durbin all drove in runs in the victory. Game three saw Willson Contreras return to the lineup after playing two rehab games with the Sea Dogs to get his feet back under him. The story of the game was the first inning, though. Therein, rookie Payton Tolle tossed the first immaculate inning for the Red Sox since 2021. He finished his outing at six innings while allowing zero earned runs, four hits, one walk, and seven strikeouts. Miller, Whitlock, Weissert, and Chapman closed the game out with Miller allowing one earned run on the day. Offensively, Durbin socked a home run to the top of the Green Monster and showed signs that he’s heating back up for a second straight game. Anthony started to come alive this series and helped secure the win with a late inning RBI while Trevor Story drove in two as well to help put the Sox in the win column and secure the series victory. Website Highlights Connor Wong has Runs His Course in Boston by Alex Mayes How Brayan Bello Found a Way to Make His Arsenal Work Again by Yirsandy Rodriguez Emulating Nico Hoerner May be Nick Sogard’s Best Path Forward by Maddie Landis Looking Ahead 09/14/26: Off Day 09/15/26: Red Sox (Patrick Sandoval) @ Rangers (TBD): 8:05 PM EDT 09/16/26: Red Sox (Jake Bennett) @ Rangers (TBD): 8:05 PM EDT 09/17/26: Red Sox (Sonny Gray) @ Rangers (TBD): 8:05 PM EDT 09/18/26: Red Sox @ Rays: 7:10 PM EDT 09/19/26: Red Sox @ Rays: 4:10 PM EDT 09/20/26: Red Sox @ Rays: 1:40 PM EDT View full article

Yep. Learn to throw to your starting catcher as you prepare for the postseason, and that's Adley. If everything goes well, the backup catcher won't get off the bench at any point during the postseason.

Wong and Gasper have very similar defensive numbers and they are both bad. If Wong is starting any playoff games over Adley, Tracy should be fired on the spot. Wong has 162 plate appearances against RHP this season, 67 against LHP.

I forgot about Allen. What a guy.

This is also quality content. You've earned my second MVP vote.

Criticism isn't fair game? Wong, for all intents and purposes, stinks and it's fair to call that out. Sure, he may be on the roster come the postseason, but he may not. It's very telling that Gasper was behind the dish in the final game of the Angels series. Tracy can say it's because he's familiar with Bennett from catching him with the WooSox but Bennett never threw to Mickey while both were with the WooSox from what I can quickly see and Wong had caught all of Bennett's big league starts except this most recent one. I could be wrong on those numbers, I was skimming pretty quickly, but to me that indicates that Tracy doesn't have the belief in Wong anymore.

mvp is the real MVP

With an off day coming up and Adley expected to play on Friday? I doubt it. If he can't catch two days in a row then there's a much different conversation that needs to happen surrounding him. Before two nights ago he last caught on the 5th, he should have been plenty rested to catch back-to-back games if the staff believed he was the right guy to be out there.

I think the message that not just fans, but likely the managerial staff of the team, has lost confidence in Wong when Gasper started at catcher last night instead of him.

Admittedly, as you know from listening to the podcast, I'm not as in with those stats as I should be. If those numbers support Wong, that's a valid reason to keep him around. I'm going to dig more into this side of things.

Well said. There's a nuance you have to keep in mind when dealing with switch hitters for sure.

Done. Been working on a 'who in recent Red Sox memory does Duran comp to' piece and it's not good.

I felt I had to be nice for a minute or two.

Welcome to Talk Sox! You hit the nail on the head with Duran and Story as well. If you dig around on here, you'll find I soured on both of them long, long ago haha.

There's no scenario where Wong should get a nod over Adley against lefties unless it's a scheduled day off. The numbers are the numbers defensively for both Wong and Gasper, they are almost the exact same player behind the dish at this point in the season.

That's what is so frustrating about him. There are times he looks like a solid backup who can be an actual contributor, but then he craters out like he's doing right now. I also agree that Gasper shouldn't be the number two catcher, but if his defensive numbers are that close to Wong's then I'd opt to keep him around in that role as long as he's swinging a hot bat. Adley should be getting the bulk of playing time down the stretch and into October so the number two catcher spot shouldn't matter too much. Carrying three catchers in October, even if Gasper operates more as a DH/backup for Willson, limits the flexibility you need in the postseason.

It must be pretty weird to be Connor Wong. By all accounts, he's a great teammate and a hard-working player, but he’s the lone piece left of the ill-fated trade that sent Mookie Betts to the Dodgers. We’re not going to rehash that at this point, but his baseball legacy will forever be attached to one of the greatest right fielders in Boston Red Sox history. Unfortunately for Wong, he’s playing himself into joining past teammates Alex Verdugo and Jeter Downs in the MLB unemployment line at the conclusion of the 2026 season. Going into the All-Star break, Wong was a fine backup catcher who ended up making far more starts than anyone anticipated due to the struggles that Carlos Narvaez was having at the plate. When the league took a pause for the Midsummer Classic, Wong was slashing .288/.385/.387 with 15 RBIs, one home run, a 121 wRC+, and a 0.5 fWAR. He was passable offensively and a dependable, if uninspiring, catcher behind the dish. On the season, he’s challenged 23 pitches that he believed were called incorrectly and had 16 of them overturned, good for a 70% success rate. If this keen eye behind the dish was still coupled with a league-average hitter, fans would be perfectly fine playing out the string with Wong catching every few games. Unfortunately for the veteran backstop, things have gone south since the league resumed play in July. For the second half of the season, Wong is slashing .172/.217/.310 with nine RBIs, three home runs, a 41 wRC+, and a team worst -0.5 fWAR. If we look at his overall defensive numbers, there’s not much to be excited about there either. His most favorable defensive metric is his blocks above average at +2, which is good for the 66th percentile. His caught stealing above average is a -2, good for the 14th percentile. His pop time is averaging 1.97 seconds, good for the 23rd percentile, and his framing runs comes in at a -7, which puts him in the third overall percentile in the league. To put it simply, the second half of the season has been a slog for Wong. He’s made errors in big situations, having struggled to corral pitches that have high velocity behind them. Wong has been penciled in as the personal catcher for both Sonny Gray and Payton Tolle after the team traded Narvaez at the trade deadline, but both pitchers have recently begun throwing to newcomer Adley Rutschman. It's telling that the shift to a different catcher has been so quick, especially with the new face nursing an elbow injury that kept him sidelined for a few games earlier this month. The biggest question now is: What can the Red Sox do with Wong moving forward? Don’t be shocked to see him DFA’d as the team navigates through the late fall months before the lockout hits in December, but doesn't solve the problem in the here and now. It would be considered a fairly drastic move by some, but it wouldn’t shock me at all to see Wong optioned to Worcester once Willson Contreras comes off the injured list later this week, paving the way for the Goateed Menace himself, Mickey Gasper, to slide into a hybrid DH/backup first baseman/backup catcher role through the end of the season. Due to Wong’s defensive downturn, they're both grading out in a fairly similar manner behind the dish. To maximize offense and roster spots, perhaps a demotion is warranted. Connor Wong has likely run out of goodwill in Boston, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has watched most of his career here. It’s time for the Red Sox to move on from the lone remaining piece of the Betts trade, with the goal of replenishing their catching depth in the offseason. View full article