Red Sox Thoughts: Brief Notes on a Lost Season and an Unknown Future

It’s easy to forget that the Boston Red Sox barely managed to squeak into the postseason a year ago…by s single game over the Jays and two over the Mariners. 92 wins was just enough. The Jays were the better regular season team (their run differential was +183 while Boston’s was +80) but the Sox won four of their last five games to land a wild-card spot and then beat the Yankees easily in the now-extinct one game playoff.

What followed against Tampa in the ALDS was as improbable as it was fun. The unlikely heroics of Kike Hernandez, Nick Pivetta and Tanner Houck, along the more-probable heroics of Rafael Devers, J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts, led to a 3–1 series win over the Rays. What followed was a forgettable ALCS unraveling to the Astros in six games. The Sox were outscored in the final three games of the series 23–3. On the surface, the Red Sox were two games from the World Series. Underneath, the Red Sox were a highly-flawed team that caught fire at the right time and then flamed out after Game 3 against Houston.

This year there was no catching fire after mid-June, only catching the injury bug. While the consistently over-taxed bullpen has been among baseball’s worst, the combination of injuries to Trevor Story, Kike Hernandez and Christian Arroyo and every pitcher not named Nick Pivetta has resulted in an under .500 season. J.D. Martinez’ season might be described as tragic. His OPS since the All-Star break is .581. In 182 plate appearances, he’s hit .206…