The Red Sox are stepping into the 2026 season in a way they haven’t since 2022: off a (short) playoff run. That’s not nothing. While the offseason hasn’t seen any free agent signings — big or small — there have been notable trades.
1. On a recent episode of Effectively Wild both guests, Craig Goldstein and Joe Sheehan, said that the Red Sox are the pick to win the division at this point in the offseason. That’s two random voices outside of the Sox-o-sphere who don’t have reason to say Boston is awesome, unlike, say, NESN content.
2. The last two years ending in 6 each brought some positive steps. In 2006 David Ortiz hit 54 home runs, the modern Sox record. Jonathan Papelbon established himself as a closer. People talked about “that catch Coco made.” And in 2016 the Red Sox returned to the playoffs for the first time since the 2013 World Series and following back-to-back last place seasons. This is partially a coincidence thing but also a “building towards more thing.” In 2006 that meant adding Coco Crisp and Josh Beckett to set up he 2007 World Series. In 2016 we saw Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts up and thriving while Big Papi had probably the best retirement tour ever.
3. Number 6 is retired for Johnny Pesky. Over his lifetime of service to the Boston Red Sox Pesky aka “Mr. Red Sox” saw everything from tragic World Series losses to a dynasty established at Fenway Park. Is the spirit of Pesky tied to the number 6? Probably not but who can say?
4. The starting rotation. Crochet, Gray, Bello, Oviedo, Crawford, Sandoval, Early, and Tolle is one of the deepest groups in the majors. Even if not the most talented by top-end pitching it’s possible that with a high floor for nearly everyone listed here that this group can carry the Sox to October where only Crochet and the next best two are likely to see starts. We forget how many games were simply uncompetitive in 2025 because there were stretches where the starters simply couldn’t be counted on. While Bello is part of both the good and bad 2025 rotation runs, he has a chance to be at solid contributor at a more average level across more time in addition to runs of success and failure.
5. Roman Anthony. He’s coming off a tremendous rookie season worth 3.1 bWAR in just 71 games which could turn into a massive sophomore campaign. There will probably be some regression in areas as the league gets more familiar with him, improvements in others etc. That’s how the game is played. But what is a fact is the Red Sox have one of the best and most exciting young players in the game who might be throwing up 6-WAR seasons as soon as a few months from now.
6. It can’t be as bad as 1926. That year the Red Sox only won 71 games in the 154-game schedule. A century later and you’d think mid-80s is probably the floor. That’s a winning record and while 85 or 87 wins would be disappointing it’s still better than 100 losses. Their best player that year was Topper Rigney who pout up a .270/.395/.377 line as the starting shortstop. He did finish 21st in AL MVP voting though.
2025 had some things go right (Trevor Story finally healthy) and some things go wrong (Triston Casas hurt leading to a first base black hole) and the final two games were real downers. But there was a lot that can be built on should Craig Breslow do so — which he has started. But right now this is at the very least a good team and maybe it becomes even more than that.
