Since winning their most recent World Series in 2018, the Boston Red Sox have sunk into a state of mediocrity. They have made the playoffs just one time in six years, finished with just two winning records, and are coming off a third consecutive disappointing season where they were an afterthought in the American League East.
This is not what the Red Sox should be.
They have the funds and resources to compete with anybody in baseball, and this offseason they finally took a big step toward becoming a relevant power in the American League again. After trading for starting pitcher Garrett Crochet, the Red Sox made an even bigger splash just before the start of spring training when they signed former Houston Astros Gold Glover and star Alex Bregman.
Bregman’s deal is for three years, $120 million and includes opt-outs after each season.
That is important to note because Bregman is joining the Red Sox with the intention of being part of a contending team, which he made very clear on Sunday after reporting to spring training.
From ESPN:
“I’m a winning player. This is a winning organization,” Bregman said at Sunday’s news conference. “Those players are winning players. We have winning coaches here. I plan on winning here after talking with some of the guys over the last two days. I can see that there’s something special here.”
Bregman has been part of a team (Houston Astros) that has known nothing but winning for the bulk of his career. He is probably not going to have much patience for losing, and the inclusion of opt-outs after each year of his new deal with the Red Sox gives him an easy out if the Red Sox are unable to get out of their run of mediocrity.
These past few years have been relatively uncharted territory for the Red Sox over the past 25 to 30 years. Even when they were missing the playoffs in the early 2000s and the early 2010s, they were still finishing with winning records and consistently winning around 90 games in those seasons.
They may not have always had playoff success, but they were still in it almost every year.
They have not been able to say that in recent seasons, and there is no excuse for that given their history and resources. It had to be especially frustrating in 2024 because the wild-card race was there for the taking if they could have just managed to put together a few more wins.
Adding an All-Star level player in Bregman and a potential front-line starter in Crochet in one offseason is a nice step toward trying to fix it. Now it has to actually happen on the field.
