“We’ve been an average team. I still believe we can be better in certain areas, more consistent,” manager Alex Cora said before his team’s recent game against the Angels. That frank honesty stings more in the shadows of missing superstars. The injured Alex Bregman and the traded Rafael Devers have hollowed out this team. They have ripped the heart out of the batting order.
That painful feeling was reflected beautifully Tuesday night in Anaheim. It was the kind of game that said everything about who the 2025 Red Sox are, and everything they are not. Ace Garrett Crochet was ace stuff, working seven shutout innings with ten strikeouts. Rookie Marcelo Mayer had three hits and drove in what would have been the winning run. But there’ll be no room for error on this team. A home run late tied it, and the walk-off blast in the 10th sealed a 3-2 loss, their fourth in a row. This loss dropped the Sox to 40-41: the definition of average.
The aftermath has left the players and manager confronting a new, brutal reality. A grim resignation has settled in, best summarized by manager Cora’s blunt assessment: “Right now, this is who we are.” That reality forces the team to find a new path, with shortstop Trevor Story acknowledging the difficulty. “Sometimes it’s tough to have an identity with the versatility, but maybe that’s what it is,” Story said, adding they must win by “playing clean baseball.”
This is a tall order for a team that’s counting on high-ceiling prospects such as Mayer (.216 AVG) and Roman Anthony (.114 AVG), who are learning on the job. Rob Refsnyder, a veteran outfielder, is preaching a philosophy born from this inexperience. “The identity is a very young team, but we have to play aggressive, we have to play fast, hopefully smart,” he explained.
Refsnyder passionately argued against playing with fear, a common pitfall for rookies. “Sometimes when you try not to make mistakes or you’re nervous… that’s just not a recipe for winning baseball,” he insisted. “Over the course of a season, if you play aggressive and smart… you’re going to play better than if you play safe and scared.”
They lack the certainty that a player like Devers brought. Story admitted that the team misses Devers’s bat and his presence for sure. However, he clarified that it’s not as though, during the game, the players are thinking, “Oh man, where’s Raffy?” According to Story, it’s not that type of feeling. He emphasized that the team still has a lot of confidence in the players currently on the roster. Devers, prior to his shocking trade, had been Boston’s offensive engine, banging 15 home runs with a team-high 58 RBI. He was one of the centerpieces of the order. His and Bregman’s absence leaves a big hole.
Yet, even in this difficult transition, some individual brilliance shines through.
Small victories amidst uncertainty in the 2025 Red Sox
The positives are small and few, but the biggest of them all was Crochet. The left-hander has been a game-changer since arriving from the White Sox. He’s become a legitimate Cy Young Award contender before our eyes. Through 81 games, Crochet leads all of baseball with 135 strikeouts. And he has a spectacular 2.06 ERA. His dominance is the primary reason the Fenway Faithful have not sunk into the AL East basement. He provides them a chance to fight every fifth day.
Crochet isn’t the only player who has provided an unexpected and important contribution. Rookie catcher Carlos Narvaez is an underpublicized surprise. He has posted a solid .274 average and a .785 OPS, providing stability. And perhaps more significantly, he has received rave reviews for his defense. Crochet noted that Narvaez “really calls games like he’s been doing it for 10 years.” In the bullpen, closer Aroldis Chapman has been back to his dominant self, posting a minuscule 1.41 ERA while being supported by reliable arms like Greg Weissert and Justin Wilson.
So, here are the Red Sox, at the season’s halfway point, only 2.5 games out of a wild-card spot. There are some reinforcements on the way. Bregman is likely to return in the first half of July. So is Masataka Yoshida, who was near the front of that pack. It will certainly help to have them around. As Refsnyder put it simply, “It’s a different lineup when those two guys are in it, honestly.”
But the question hangs in the air over Fenway Park: Will their return be enough to heal a team that has been so thoroughly changed?
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