Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox are a work in progress coming out of Fort Myers. After starting 1-5 and winning their season opener, they’re looking more like a disheveled mess.
Some years, including this one, it feels like Alex Cora’s Red Sox are almost easing into the season. Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press
April 2, 2026 | 9:27 AM
4 minutes to read
Playing nine innings while revoking Ceddanne Rafaela’s automated ball-strike challenge system privileges on account of zero historical evidence that he knows the strike zone …
1. It’s early. The 2026 Red Sox haven’t even played a home game yet. There’s plenty of time to fix their assortment of opening-week problems. Proven players will perform better than they have so far. All of that is true.
But who wants to be rational right now? I sure don’t. So let’s vent.
It’s frustrating that again this year, they are a work in progress coming out of Fort Myers. The Red Sox have started 1-5. They won their season opener in Cincinnati, almost flawlessly following the blueprint for how they will have to win this season: Starting pitcher Garrett Crochet was superb, relievers Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman took care of business late, Roman Anthony reached base four times, and they got a timely hit or two from someone else in the lineup along the way.
Since then, they’ve been a disheveled mess. It’s frustrating for an assortment of reasons, not the least of which is that it’s all too familiar.
2. The Red Sox haven’t always started slowly during the two phases of Alex Cora’s time as manager. In 2018, the first season of Cora 1.0, the Red Sox roared to a 9-1 start en route to a franchise-record 119 wins (postseason included) and a World Series title. It was the definition of setting the tone.
But some years, it feels like the Red Sox are almost easing into the season, as if early-season games don’t have the same value or urgency as those in, say, September. It didn’t really haunt them in the end last season — they finished five games back of the Blue Jays and Yankees in the American League East, earning the second wild card. But it could this year in an even deeper division.
3. The bench is an island of misfit toys. Masataka Yoshida, a good hitter but one-tool player who does not fit here, is the Occasional Left Fielder With Square Wheels. They’re shoehorning him in with four other outfielders into four spots because Craig Breslow did not make a necessary trade in the offseason.
I have no idea why they decided to spend $6 million on Isiah Kiner-Falefa. They’re at least one relief pitcher short, in part because they have to pick up the slack for starters that aren’t totally ramped up for the season. Other than those things, they’re as flawless as the ’98 Yankees.
Masataka Yoshida and the Red Sox offense has struggled out of the gate. – Ashley Landis/Associated Press
4. I imagine your reaction was similar to mine when you saw Wednesday’s lineup card posted on social media: So that’s what we’re doing today, huh? Yoshida, hitless on the season, hitting third. Caleb Durbin, hitless on the season, hitting sixth. Rafaela, Kiner-Falefa, and Connor Wong in the 7-8-9 spots.
It’s apparent even when the full varsity is in the lineup that the Sox are at least one quality hitter short, and probably two. Breslow is going to have to make an in-season deal that sends some precious pitching prospects elsewhere.
5. I don’t like Anthony hitting leadoff, with the weakling bottom of the order coming up immediately before him. I don’t like strikeout-prone Trevor Story in the No. 2 spot — he’s basically the opposite of what Alex Bregman was in that spot last season. Wilyer Abreu, who hit his third homer of the season Wednesday, needs to bat higher than fifth. But it’s hard to figure the ideal batting order because of the mismatched pieces.
6. It is ridiculous that Breslow didn’t get the lineup more help in the offseason. Willson Contreras will prove a quality pickup and should find Fenway to his liking, but he essentially counters the loss of Bregman. And this is a team that needed help before losing Bregman. In the decisive Game 3 of their Wild Card Series with the Yankees last October, their 4-5-6 hitters were Yoshida, Rafaela, and Nathaniel Lowe.
7. Starting pitching was supposed to be the strength of this team, and maybe it will be. But it took one spin through the rotation for more cynical fans’ mantra to become “Crochet and Early, and the rest make us surly.”
Ranger Suarez, the $130 million offseason addition, lasted 4⅓ innings in his debut Monday, allowing seven hits and four runs while taking the loss. He’s a proven quality pitcher and fun to watch at his crafty best, but it is alarming that his career high in innings is 157⅓, set last season. Brayan Bello has thrown at least 157 innings in all three full seasons of his career.
8. Rafaela made an absurd decision in Tuesday’s game, blowing an ABS challenge in the third inning on the first pitch of his at-bat. But this entire lineup needs a basic lesson in Win Probability Added and having the discipline to save challenges for meaningful points in the game.
9. Wait, you’re telling me that was the best take the director could get out of Marcelo Mayer?
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