2026 Red Sox/MLB Season Thread

[Vermont Green]

I'm not the biggest Cora fan, but it does seem like a raw deal.

He seemed to be on board and understand the Moneyball strategy of signing young players early, but a victim of unrealistic expectations.

What isn't fair, is treating the roster like they are supposed to win immediately with these guys. Mayer and Campbell are hitting .220 for their careers. Anthony is on a .274 and 15 HRs pace. Rafaela has a career OPS of 0.690. Tolle has big upside, but he's also given up 6HR in 17 inning so far in his career. Early looks good, but it's a whopping 10 starts in.

Should have been allowed more time, Cora didn't make all of our veteran starters pitch like crap to start the year, or everybody collectively forget how to hit for any power.

I think this is it, they were saying "win now" but also saying develop these young players.  Cora would rather have a vet like Story, even if he is not hitting great, over a young player like Mayer who to some extent is still learning the game.  I am guessing that Cora was not playing along to the extent that they wanted.  And of course the team was underperforming by a lot, so yeah, something had to give.

I think the team should be better, and they may settle in and play better, but I don't see how Cora was the problem.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

The Boston Red Sox placed ace Garrett Crochet on the 15-day injured list with inflammation in his pitching shoulder, the latest early-season setback for the star left-hander.

Wonderful.

[ozgod]

Regular service resumed after another false dawn?

[Vermont Green]

At least they get a day off to regroup.  I am not sure where they go from here.  First and foremost, they need to stabilize the starting pitching.  Bello needs to come out of the rotation until he figures things out.  Not sure where Crawford and Sandoval stand.  Crochet, Gray, and Oviedo will be out for a couple weeks more.  Early and Tolle will be in the mix I guess.

Funny (to me) that the pitching coach was the one to survive the housecleaning.

[Redz]

Anthony not instantly being the second coming of Ted Williams has put a huge damper on the team?s offensive plans for the season. 

[BitterJim]

At least they get a day off to regroup.  I am not sure where they go from here.  First and foremost, they need to stabilize the starting pitching.  Bello needs to come out of the rotation until he figures things out.  Not sure where Crawford and Sandoval stand.  Crochet, Gray, and Oviedo will be out for a couple weeks more.  Early and Tolle will be in the mix I guess.

Funny (to me) that the pitching coach was the one to survive the housecleaning.

I don't see how Belli can come out if the rotation until we get someone back. They're already bringing up a third rookie SP, a 4th would be crazy

There's always gonna be one or two starters that starts slow coming out of sprint training, but it's been basically all of the vet starters this year. That screams something organizational.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Anthony not instantly being the second coming of Ted Williams has put a huge damper on the team?s offensive plans for the season.

Yup. My impression has been that the team didn't go hard after big bats (adding only Contreras in that regard) because they figured Anthony would be a 25-30-homer guy this season. Which he might still be, but right now it's not looking good.

[Phantom255x]

Look at the bright side everyone! We have some beautiful Red Sox baseball ahead of us to get through the spring and summer now! 

[Donoghus]

Found this interesting.  3 current Sox and a guy they traded away. 

[Vermont Green]

Found this interesting.  3 current Sox and a guy they traded away. 

This is interesting.  Also a couple of players (Marte and Bichette) where there was a lot of consternation that the Sox didn't get them.  But for 3 of the top 10 (or I guess bottom 10) from this list to be Red Sox, really says a lot.

[Phantom255x]

Found this interesting.  3 current Sox and a guy they traded away. 

This is interesting.  Also a couple of players (Marte and Bichette) where there was a lot of consternation that the Sox didn't get them.  But for 3 of the top 10 (or I guess bottom 10) from this list to be Red Sox, really says a lot.

Maybe the Red Sox will end up okay moving on from Devers given his struggles in SF, BUT they didn't replace him and also lost Bregman anyways. He got replaced by Caleb FREAKIN' Durbin.

And yeah, there's 3 Red Sox on this list. Quite honestly, they only have two guys I consider "threats" in the lineup (Anthony, Abreu) and even Anthony might be becoming an injury-prone guy. No one fears Story, Monasterio, IFK, etc. Yoshida is actually one of our better hitters but they keep him on the bench usually.

I really do think if the offense was at least average, the pitching staff is good enough to compete. But the offense is very far from it. Not even close. So our pitchers almost feel pressure to pitch shutouts every outing. Not feasible.

[kraidstar]

Found this interesting.  3 current Sox and a guy they traded away. 

This is interesting.  Also a couple of players (Marte and Bichette) where there was a lot of consternation that the Sox didn't get them.  But for 3 of the top 10 (or I guess bottom 10) from this list to be Red Sox, really says a lot.

Pete Alonso and Alex Bregman have also sucked (.735 and .697 OPS respectively). Only big FA who is doing well is Schwarber who is lighting it up with an .894 OPS.

It wasn't a great FA class. The main problem with this team right now is that the players who are here have wildly underperformed or have been injured. I think our young players are stuggling to live up to expectations. We saw them choke at the beginning of last season. We saw them choke in the playoffs. IMO they are choking now.

Of course this is the danger in having such a youth-heavy team. We need leadership to pull them out of this but I'm not sure where that will come from.

[Vermont Green]

Found this interesting.  3 current Sox and a guy they traded away. 

This is interesting.  Also a couple of players (Marte and Bichette) where there was a lot of consternation that the Sox didn't get them.  But for 3 of the top 10 (or I guess bottom 10) from this list to be Red Sox, really says a lot.

Maybe the Red Sox will end up okay moving on from Devers given his struggles in SF, BUT they didn't replace him and also lost Bregman anyways. He got replaced by Caleb FREAKIN' Durbin.

And yeah, there's 3 Red Sox on this list. Quite honestly, they only have two guys I consider "threats" in the lineup (Anthony, Abreu) and even Anthony might be becoming an injury-prone guy. No one fears Story, Monasterio, IFK, etc. Yoshida is actually one of our better hitters but they keep him on the bench usually.

I really do think if the offense was at least average, the pitching staff is good enough to compete. But the offense is very far from it. Not even close. So our pitchers almost feel pressure to pitch shutouts every outing. Not feasible.

You are forgetting about Willson Contreras.  He currently has an 0.856 OPS.  He is really who replaced Bregman, just at a different position.  BOS had a journeyman platoon at 1B last season.

Durbin is the biggest disappointment for me.  Duran has started to hit some and Story may at some point.  Both are disappointing so far, but Durbin somehow seems like the biggest miss.

[slamtheking]

Found this interesting.  3 current Sox and a guy they traded away. 

This is interesting.  Also a couple of players (Marte and Bichette) where there was a lot of consternation that the Sox didn't get them.  But for 3 of the top 10 (or I guess bottom 10) from this list to be Red Sox, really says a lot.

Maybe the Red Sox will end up okay moving on from Devers given his struggles in SF, BUT they didn't replace him and also lost Bregman anyways. He got replaced by Caleb FREAKIN' Durbin.

And yeah, there's 3 Red Sox on this list. Quite honestly, they only have two guys I consider "threats" in the lineup (Anthony, Abreu) and even Anthony might be becoming an injury-prone guy. No one fears Story, Monasterio, IFK, etc. Yoshida is actually one of our better hitters but they keep him on the bench usually.

I really do think if the offense was at least average, the pitching staff is good enough to compete. But the offense is very far from it. Not even close. So our pitchers almost feel pressure to pitch shutouts every outing. Not feasible.

You are forgetting about Willson Contreras.  He currently has an 0.856 OPS.  He is really who replaced Bregman, just at a different position.  BOS had a journeyman platoon at 1B last season.

Durbin is the biggest disappointment for me.  Duran has started to hit some and Story may at some point.  Both are disappointing so far, but Durbin somehow seems like the biggest miss.

thought for sure Sox would get the better end of the Durbin deal but seems my Brewers have so far.  still early but that trade is working out for us better than for the Sox.