On the final day of 2025, it’s time to look ahead to a new year and clean slate.
It’s also time to make New Year’s resolutions.
For the Boston Red Sox, of course.
The team certainly delivered on some of last year’s resolutions, including pitching deeper into games and not blowing late leads. Other items, including defense and the front office backing up their words with action, fell more into the ‘incomplete’ category.
The Boston Herald’s Red Sox reporters, Gabrielle Starr and Mac Cerullo, present five serious and not-so-serious suggestions for the ball club … and its fans.
Happy new year!
Hit with RISP
The ’25 Red Sox ranked third in the majors in RBI with runners in scoring position.
Too often, though, the eye test indicated an abundance wasted opportunities. And there are metrics to prove it.
Boston’s 394 strikeouts with runners in scoring position were at least 31 more than any other major-league offense this year. (They also led the majors in strikeouts with two outs and runners in scoring position.)
In the American League, only the New York Yankees left more men on base this year. The Red Sox also left at least 10 men on base in 23 times, sixth most in the AL (T-9 in MLB) and dropped winnable games, including 27 one-run losses (T-6 in MLB).
Marry those two metrics and you get the most glaring evidence of all:
No MLB team lost more one-run games in which they left double-digit men on base. According to Stathead, the Red Sox’s nine such losses were at least three more than every other AL club.
The numbers paint a picture of a team that could certainly create scoring opportunities, but too often seemed to be missing that final link.
Better infield defense
Infield defense has been a problem for the Red Sox for years now – as evidenced by its presence on our ’25 and ’24 resolutions – but even after swapping out Rafael Devers for Gold Glove-winner Alex Bregman at third base and getting a fully healthy Trevor Story for the first time since his ’22 signing, Boston still led the league in errors (116) this past season while ranking bottom-three at second base (19) and shortstop (21).
Maybe this year that will finally change.
Story had a down year defensively in his first full season since 2021, but he’s been among the game’s better shortstops in the past. Willson Contreras should be an upgrade defensively at first base over what Boston has gotten out of the position these past few years, and whether he plays third base, second base or somewhere else, Marcelo Mayer has shown he’s capable of being an excellent defender, so he should help anywhere he takes the field.
That’s the plan, anyway. Injuries or unforeseen circumstances could obviously change things, but if all goes well this year’s infield should theoretically be much better.
Don’t blow trade deadline
Complaining that the front office isn’t doing more is a fundamental part of watching baseball, but Red Sox fans have had legitimate reasons to gripe about the last several trade deadlines.
This year Craig Breslow fell short of landing the impact starter the club clearly needed and wound up settling for righty Dustin May, who was a massive flop. The year before the Red Sox swung a bunch of trades, but catcher Danny Jansen, starter James Paxton, and relievers Luis Garcia and Lucas Sims didn’t turn out to be a game-changing haul; all three pitchers were on the injured list within the first month.
Chaim Bloom, Breslow’s predecessor, didn’t fare much better in his last two deadlines, largely standing pat in 2023 after trying to buy and sell in 2022. Boston’s last truly successful deadline was in 2021, when Bloom brought in Kyle Schwarber for the club’s eventual run to the ALCS.
It’s obviously much too soon to tell what could happen at next summer’s trade deadline, but if the Red Sox are in playoff contention again as expected, hopefully Breslow will move decisively to get whichever difference-makers the club needs to get over the hump.
Cool it with ‘Yankees suck’ chants
It’s one thing when the Yankees are actually the opponent.
But these chants ring out at Fenway Park when the Yankees are hundreds, even thousands of miles away.
Worse, they’re often heard while the Red Sox are losing to a completely different opponent.
This younger-sibling energy should have been retired after 2004. Boston is better than this, folks.
(‘Yankees suck’ chants during Mets games are, of course, the exception; it’s a time-honored tradition for Red Sox and Mets fans to unite against their common enemy.)
Ban the wave
Seriously, enough is enough.
