A 4-0 win by the New York Yankees in a forced game three of the Wildcard sent the Boston Red Sox packing in the postseason for the first time since 2003. The Sox dominated the Yankees in the regular season, going 9-4 against them with a three game sweep back in June, yet they could not seem to get their offense or defense going to back up their pitchers. The loss also marks the Red Sox as the first team to win game one of the three game Wildcard and go on to lose the series.
While many things went wrong on the field in this Wildcard series, it’s hard to place the blame solely on the team for losing. This team was clearly determined to win and pushed through the season successfully at most times. There were many times this season, however, that the Red Sox front office could have worked in ways to help the team but in familiar fashion, didn’t.
The Red Sox have never been strangers to trading away their star players and trading Rafael Devers mid season will always spark a “what if” scenario when looking back.
After the trade, the Sox ended up losing seven of their next ten games after going on a six game win streak. Losing Devers wasn’t completely an end-all for the team considering they were able to turn it around and go on a ten game win streak into the All-Star break. Though ending the season only five games back from the first place spot in the AL east, who knows how many more wins that power bat could have brought?
The trade was initially sparked by turmoil with the Alex Bregman signing in the 2025 offseason yet Bregman ended up missing two months with a quad injury and had a monstrous slump through August into September.
Where the Red Sox went wrong with this trade is not attempting to fill in the missing piece at the deadline. The Red Sox post-Devers trade missed out on the power bat which could have been an excellent addition in the Wildcard series. It’s hard to see a justification in losing Devers when the Sox don’t attempt to fill his spot at DH and may be losing Bregman in the offseason.
After the trade, Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow claimed that they should expect to win more games by the end of the season than they would with Devers on the team. Devers hit 20 of his 35 total home runs this season with the Giants, ten more than the 25 Trevor Story led the Sox with, so it is hard to believe Breslow’s statement.
What makes it even harder to believe is what the Sox got in return with Jordan Hicks and eventually Dustin May at the deadline when James Tibbs III was traded to the Dodgers. Hicks (8.20 era) and May (5.40 era) are now both on the IL and had disastrous outings with the Red Sox, ending the season with 34 combined earned runs. The Red Sox received two pitchers who only lost them outings for their star player. A highlight of the Devers trade does have to be acquiring Kyle Harrison. Harrison has a career era of 4.39 and 191K through 42 games and can definitely be looked forward to in 2026.
At the beginning of the season, Red Sox fans anxiously awaited the news that number one prospect Roman Anthony would be called up from Triple A Worcester. At the time of Anthony’s debut on June 9, the Red Sox were 32-36. How many more games could the Sox have won if there wasn’t hesitation in calling up Anthony?
Before going down with an oblique injury in September, Anthony was hitting for .292 with 8HR, 48R, and 75H. Having him on the team showed significant turn around in the standings and gave the Sox an excellent lead off bat with patience at the plate. He shows tremendous promise in being the team’s new franchise player. Losing him in September hurt the Sox badly when finishing the season and especially in the Wildcard. After the injury, they went 13-11 in September compared to 17-7 in July and 17-11 in August.
Having your new franchise player sitting in the minors while the team goes under .500 into June isn’t what should be done to win games.
It’s important to give credit when it’s due and the front office does deserve credit for the Crochet trade in December 2024. Crochet was lights out all season, going 18-5 with a season 2.59 era, 255 strike outs and an incredible performance in game one of the Wildcard.
Going into the trade deadline, rumors circled that the Sox would be acquiring RHP Joe Ryan from the Minnesota Twins. Once the deadline passed, Ryan was still with the Twins because the Sox were “unwilling to offer an enticing enough package of their top-tier prospects” according to Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic. The Sox were prepared to deal prospect Jhostynxon García, who had a brief stint in a Red Sox uniform this season.
When comparing the stats of the current Red Sox starters to Ryan, it is clear the Sox missed out on a second ace and impact starter going into the latter half of the season. Ryan, who went 13-10 this season with a 3.42 era and 194K, would have fit perfectly after Crochet and saved Boston from an extra month of Walker Buehler. Ryan could have also pitched in game two of the Wildcard and possibly help send the Sox to the ALDS after Bryan Bello was pulled by Cora in the third inning. The Red Sox instead signed Steven Matz from the Cardinals who pitched in 21 innings with 17 hits and six earned runs.
By the end of the deadline, the Sox missed out big time on Ryan, filling in a power bat and securing a solid first baseman to round out the field after Casas’ injury. Breslow vowed to win the team more games but a sleepy deadline didn’t seem to do much help.
While the Red Sox weren’t able to advance, the 2025 season wasn’t a failure by any means. Finishing 89-73, the Red Sox had their best record since 2021, which was also their last postseason appearance with a trip to the ALCS.
2026 looks bright for this team after being plagued with injury all season. Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Tristan Casas will be healthy for next season. Boston can also look towards getting some pitching back with Lucas Giolito, who was unavailable during the Wildcard with an elbow injury.
Hunter Dobbins, Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sandoval are all expected to come off the IL as well. Aroldis Chapman, who had arguably the best season of his career, resigned for another year at the beginning of September. Rookie Connelly Early shows a ton of promise on the mound as well, who pitched for 11Ks and 0ER in his September debut in Sacramento against the Athletics.
This team played with heart through the end and while things could have gone better on the field, Boston needs to start looking towards the front office and where they went wrong this season. The Red Sox saw a lot of young potential in 2025 and got some necessary playoff experience. Now it’s time for the front office to take the Yankees series personal and go to work, fill in the missing pieces and make this team scary for 2026.
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