Welcome again to our 2025 Crimson Sox Postmortem. After speaking concerning the issues we loved and hated, grading Craig Breslow and Alex Cora, reevaluating the Rafael Devers trade, and handing out individual awards, at present we flip our consideration to the massive query: was the 2025 Crimson Sox season a hit?
Yeeeeeahhhhuuuuhhhhhhhhehhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnno. No. It’s not a hit, no. It’s definitely not a failure, and it’s definitely a step in the proper route (Sam Kennedy could be pleased with me for saying that). However season that ends by the hands of the Yankees within the Wild Card spherical can’t be thought-about a hit for a franchise with our pedigree. Constructive strides had been made this yr, and the longer term appears shiny. Nevertheless, I can’t name 2025 a “success,” in probably the most pure sense of the phrase.
It’s an enchancment, however not fairly a hit. Seeing the younger guys play was superior, and I’m tremendous excited for what they will do in an entire season in 2026. Garrett Crochet was unbelievable, Brayan Bello outlined himself as a participant greater than he ever has earlier than — however Rafael Devers was victimized and Nick Pivetta grew to become a No. 2 starter in San Diego, so it was a little bit of a tough go for me personally.
However the way in which it ended did give us the prospect to see the Yankees get humiliated by the Blue Jays as soon as extra in 2025, so I’ll take into account that profitable.
There was nonetheless a collapse in September, however this one was extra as a result of large accidents that simply grew to become an excessive amount of to hold. They dumped Rafael Devers for a one-year answer which could possibly be unhealthy if/when Bregman leaves. Kristian Campbell, Marcelo Mayer, and Roman Anthony had been a combined bag of misplaced on the plate/harm/and famous person. The rotation was worrying coming into the season, Tanner Houck left a gaping gap that gained’t be crammed by him in 2026 both, and not one of the injured guys returned as reinforcements (although historical past is kinda squishy on whether or not or not Giolito was injured in March; I really feel like not).
There’s a lot to construct on, but it surely additionally felt like there have been quite a lot of areas the place the Sox had been just a little asleep on the wheel. It looks like it was a hit, but when they drop down once more in 2026, then it’ll reveal itself as a mirage as a substitute of what all of us need: an actual step ahead.
A really sophisticated query however I lean in direction of no. Being all the way down to their fourteenth or fifteenth beginning pitcher by season’s finish was definitely a troublesome break, and you possibly can argue that making the playoffs with the roster that they had left in September, sans Roman Anthony, was spectacular. However, in a wide-open American League, the group took quite a lot of half-measures firstly of their competition window. They had been aggressive in buying Garrett Crochet, Alex Bregman, and Aroldis Chapman. On the identical time, they dealt Devers at a excessive level within the season and waited too lengthy to name up Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer, particularly Anthony who was held down till June 9 in what definitely felt like service time manipulation to stop him from ending top-2 within the MVP voting and shedding a season of management. With Anthony and Mayer harm, and Campbell within the minors, not one of the “Large Three” prospects acquired a lick of playoff expertise.
Properly…they made the postseason after the ignominy of the final 4 years. Put one within the plus column. However they didn’t adapt to altering circumstances (the weak AL East) in-season and that goes within the minus column. The entrance workplace ought to have pounced in a number of alternative ways to make one thing occur whereas we had been uniquely positioned to take action. Enchancment isn’t fairly the identical as success, and success wasn’t the phrase popping out of my mouth whereas watching our offense flame out in Sport 3 of the Wild Card Collection.
It was a step in the proper route, however not a hit. I do know just one group wins the World Collection, however successful all of it is a hit, and the rest just isn’t.
I used to say that, so long as a group performs significant baseball video games in September, then the season was a hit. And whereas I nonetheless just like the sound of that, I’m undecided it stays true anymore.
The expanded and watered-down playoff system is disincentivizing most organizations from attempting to construct actually nice groups. You used to want to intention for over 95 wins to hope to have an opportunity at successful the World Collection. Now that quantity is all the way down to about 86 and, so long as you’re hovering round .500 firstly of September, then you may nonetheless declare to be within the hunt.
I hate this and am satisfied it’s horrible for the long-term well being of the game. However I don’t have a say in how issues are run. The homeowners do they usually love this technique, notably homeowners like Fenway Sports activities Group, who’re concerned with successful solely to the extent that they will win as value effectively as potential. Thus, I’ve little question that FSG is fairly content material with how issues went down in 2025 — they had been in a position to make the playoffs and sell-out the ballpark whereas additionally dumping a long-term contract and carrying simply the 12-highest payroll in baseball.
However I’m beneath no obligation to just accept their definition of the phrase success, nor am I beneath any obligation to stick to any of my outdated definitions of the phrase, both. So I’m going to alter issues up a bit. To me, success is now a extra nebulous idea, not essentially outlined solely by wins. Fairly, I’ll outline success as a corporation doing all the things it may possibly to attempt to win inside motive, after which doing so. I don’t consider that the 2025 Crimson Sox as a corporation did all the things they may to place a successful group on the sector, and I don’t consider that merely aiming for 86-90 wins is ever acceptable.
If we’re allowed to cheat a bit, the reply right here is each sure and no. It was a hit within the macro, however a failure within the micro. The explanation there was a lot vitality and hope across the 2025 group this summer time is as a result of the general trajectory of the membership is pointed in such a constructive route.
Nevertheless, should you look beneath the hood, the engine behind that trajectory is closely tied to the tsunami of younger expertise who main league debuts this yr together with Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Kristian Campbell, Hunter Dobbins, Jhostynxon Garcia, Connelly Early, and Payton Tolle. All that shine arising in the identical season (possibly probably the most thrilling crop of Crimson Sox expertise to ever debut in a single yr) is completely a hit story for the franchise, and it’s additionally an enormous motive why you need to really feel nearly as good concerning the Crimson Sox going into 2026 and past than you might have about any stretch of years with this group for the reason that finish of the final decade.
Nevertheless, if we’re boiling down what the 2025 Crimson Sox did with this incoming tide of younger expertise, the person season is a failure. Via a mixture of damage and rising pains, many of the younger guys talked about performed no half within the last couple weeks of the season, the dearth of strikes made on the deadline ensured the group was manner too skinny to advance past the Wild Card spherical.
Now, many individuals would name simply making the playoffs a hit, and I was considered one of them. However now that MLB has bloated the playoff construction, playoff video games AT FENWAY PARK must be the brand new bar right here. This implies both ending as one of many high 4 seeds, or successful at the least one playoff collection on the 5 or 6 seed. I’m not reducing my requirements simply because MLB did.
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