Red Sox 2025 Season

[Phantom255x]

For me, I'm still a bit upset they didn't do more at the trade deadline as well because the AL is pretty weak and I think this team could make a run similar to 2021. It didn't even have to be Joe Ryan this deadline if the price was high, but someone like Merrill Kelly I would have loved and he's doing solid for Texas so far. A legit playoff guy too. You could have traded for him AND Dustin May IMO. Nate Lowe has been solid at 1B so far and is hitting/producing for us, but yeah we might have benefitted from a bat at the deadline too (Suarez/Naylor/O'Hearn). But we got lucky Washington literally dumped him and we picked him up for nothing while WAS is paying him.

Like I said though, the AL is weak. NYY is looked at as the "cream of the league" and they look far from it. But I don't consider Detroit, Houston or even Toronto as "invincible" either. I think a lot of these teams are similar and are capable of hot/cold stretches, including the Sox.

Hopefully Slaten comes back in the bullpen to help Whitlock-Chapman in the back-end, and adding Tolle when rosters expand will be huge too. A young, phenom prospect and multi-inning pitcher with high velocity helping in a playoff push? Reminds me of David Price in 2008. Tolle is our best prospect right now too and probably Top-30 in all of baseball. The hype is real + deserved.

[Vermont Green]

Yes, second in MLB with 61 Quality Starts (behind PHI with 71) but also 4th most in the MLB with 23 blown saves.  League average is more like 18 or 19 BSV.  Such is the Yin and the Yang of the 2025 Red Sox.

I get it, you always wish they did more at any given trade deadline, but this roster is in really good shape to contend for several seasons.  Crochet, Chapman, and Bregman all A+ off season acquisitions.  Trading for Carlos Narv?ez and Wilyer Abreu.  Stocked pipeline of under control players who are good.  I keep thinking of the team if we had Houck pitching anything close to how he pitched first half of 2024 (when he as an all star).

I think the only potentially fair complaint about the Red Sox is maybe you think they are rebuilding too slowly, too methodically, not taking enough risks.  Maybe that is true, I don't know.  I predict that in the off season, the Red Sox will add another top end starter, plus develop Harrison and Tolle.  Houck will come back mid season.  There will be some turnover in the bullpen.  They don't have to do very much to be projected as a top contender going into the 2026 season.  In the meantime, they are a top team right now and could make some noise in the playoffs.  More than I expected from this season.

[Vermont Green]

Like I said though, the AL is weak. NYY is looked at as the "cream of the league" and they look far from it. But I don't consider Detroit, Houston or even Toronto as "invincible" either. I think a lot of these teams are similar and are capable of hot/cold stretches, including the Sox.

I agree with this.  You could argue that even as things stand, that the Sox could be the best team in the AL.  Adding one starter who gets hot could have made a difference.  But other than maybe Joe Ryan, I don't think there were any sure things.  May or even Harrison have as much to offer as many of the pitchers on the market.  Clearly, the Sox made a management decision that they were not going to sell the future for anything less than a sure thing for the here and now.

No team is going to "win" every deal, and sometimes something they don't do will go down as a missed opportunity.  But overall, I am pretty happy with the current state and direction of the team.  Even trading Devers, that is looking more like another Nomar trade than a Mookie Betts trade.

[Roy H.]

I think we can do things at once.  We can root hard for the team on the field, while realizing that ownership handicapped the team by being cheap. 

[Goldstar88]

I think we can do things at once.  We can root hard for the team on the field, while realizing that ownership handicapped the team by being cheap.

100%. This exactly how I feel about the team. Also, there is no guarantee that Bregman is back next year. Believe he has an opt out in his contract after this season ends and his agent is Boras. Sox should have extended him earlier in the season. If a team offers Bregman a 5yr/$150M contract, I doubt Henry would try to match. Not sure if Chapman will be back either. He only signed a 1 year deal for $9.5M.