Over the previous few years the Sox have been stuck in a never-ending cycle of mediocrity.
The club has missed the playoffs three straight seasons, and despite the club’s insistence that the team was urgently trying to compete, its actions never lived up to its standard.
Apathy was beginning to set in among the fanbase, but this offseason things completely changed.
The Red Sox enjoyed their most productive winter in a while, remaking the starting rotation and bullpen while finally opening up the checkbook to sign the kind of premier free agent the club has long shied away from. Boston pulled off a blockbuster trade to land 25-year-old ace Garrett Crochet, further fortified the rotation by signing two-time All-Star and World Series champion Walker Buehler, and on the eve of camp landed proven winner Alex Bregman on a three-year, $120 million deal.
With those three and others on board, and with the rest of the American League seemingly wide open, the Red Sox look well positioned to not only compete for an AL East title, but possibly make a deep run in October too.
Fans are starting to believe again, and within the Red Sox clubhouse, that old swagger is starting to return as well.
“Yeah, you can definitely feel it, most importantly you can feel it in this room, which I think is helping feed the energy as we go through spring,” Crochet said when asked if he could sense the renewed level of enthusiasm around the franchise. “Spring training isn’t the most exciting but with this group it really has been. I think that everybody comes to the field every day with a hunger to get better and knowing that what we do today, tomorrow and yesterday is going to add up to wins in April, September and hopefully into October.”
As far as talent goes, this is the best Red Sox team on paper since 2018. Crochet gives the Red Sox a bono fide No. 1 who could conceivably contend for this year’s AL Cy Young Award. Bregman and Buehler are both two-time champions who have spent virtually their entire careers playing leading roles on title-contending clubs. Young incumbents like Tanner Houck, Triston Casas and Jarren Duran are fast-rising stars who look set to take the next step in their journey as players, and Rafael Devers and Trevor Story remain two of the most accomplished players in the sport.
The Red Sox also boast the No. 1 farm system in baseball, with three elite prospects in Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer knocking on the door. Years of effort working to build towards the future are seemingly about to pay off, adding to the sense that this might finally be Boston’s time.
But the shift goes far beyond just the talent on the field.
If you spent any length of time in the Red Sox clubhouse during spring training, you probably saw the starting pitchers playing cards together during just about all of their downtime. You saw Bregman chatting with the club’s three top prospects, or any number of the other players huddled up by their locker talking baseball.
Away from the field there were regular fishing and golfing trips, and Alex Cora would frequently host get-togethers at his house with coaches and established veterans. During one recent dinner people wound up spending so long talking about the game that the Red Sox manager had to kick everyone out.
“I’m like ‘man I’ve got to go to sleep’,” Cora joked, noting that Crochet and new reliever Aroldis Chapman were among the night owls. “It’s baseball conversations, which is awesome and refreshing.”
Ultimately the Red Sox won’t be judged based on spring training vibes, but on how they perform in the regular season. The club has already sustained some notable injuries, particularly in the starting rotation, and the club’s bullpen remains a question mark with several key contributors coming off lengthy stints on the injured list.
But for the first time in a long time, the Red Sox feel like the Red Sox again, and by all accounts this group looks ready to turn the page on the past five years of frustration and chart a new path forward.
“We feel if we stay healthy we’re going to be playing meaningful games in September,” Cora said. “Taking that step forward that everyone was hoping for in the last few years, why not?”
