Ten Red Sox Thoughts From Jam-Packed First 10 Games Of 2025

If the Red Sox can beat the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night, they will achieve something on April 7 that they didn’t do all of the entire 2024 season: win six games in a row.

Boston swept away the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday night, capping a three-game flexing of its collective muscles. The Red Sox have won five in a row, putting a disappointing start to the season in the rear-view mirror.

With Sunday night’s rout in front of a national TV audience, the 2025 Red Sox season is now 10 games old. Here are 10 thoughts on what we saw from the Sox through the first 6% of their season.

1. We’ll sit back and laugh about Rafael Devers’ struggles soon
Devers’ historic early-season slump feels like a distant memory with each passing at-bat. Devers’ OPS is already up to .837, putting him ahead of sluggers like Matt Olson, Juan Soto, Mike Trout and Bryce Harper. His average exit velocity is the highest of his career, and when he makes contact, he’s squaring it up at a higher rate than he ever has. Devers has also displayed remarkable plate discipline; his ninth-inning walk Sunday vs. Ryan Helsley was wildly impressive. As he continues to put the ball in play, the results will come in a big way.

2. Give Chaim Bloom his credit
With the Cardinals in town over the week, a tip of the cap to St. Louis boss-in-waiting Chaim Bloom. If the season ended today (imagine a 10-game baseball season?!) Wilyer Abreu would be neck and neck with Aaron Judge for the American League MVP Award. While that might not be the case in October, it’s becoming increasingly clear Abreu is a major piece for a championship contender. That the Red Sox turned the right to rent Christian Vázquez into one of the best right fielders in the AL was one of Bloom’s best moves in Boston. It’s also easy to forget he drafted Kristian Campbell, Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer. It wasn’t perfect, but like Ben Cherington built the foundation on which Dave Dombrowski built a World Series champion, the Red Sox surely hope Bloom did the same for Craig Breslow.

3. Good business
Speaking of Breslow, credit to him and the Boston brain trust for getting two big extensions — Campbell and Garrett Crochet — done before the second week of April. With news of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. getting a $500 million deal of his own with Toronto, these extensions are all the rage right now. The Red Sox shouldn’t stop with Campbell and Crochet. It might be worth having talks with Abreu, too, and even put something on the table for Anthony and Mayer. The uptick of extensions across the game probably isn’t a coincidence. The industry and economy of baseball are in a volatile, unpredictable spot. A lockout in 2026 feels like a guarantee. The TV model could get a major overhaul, along with a new-look CBA. It might be a while before we see another Juan Soto-like chase, and teams with good young positional talent like the Red Sox will likely benefit from locking up those players.

4. The pitching injuries are a bit of an issue
If you want to nitpick about the first 10 games, especially since Texas, you can point to some lackluster starting pitching. The starters enter the week with a 4.88 ERA as a staff which is OK at best, but if you take away Crochet, that number balloons to 5.40, which would tie for 25th in the league. Brayan Bello probably needs another week or two, as does Lucas Giolito, but getting either or both back would be a major, ahem, shot to the arm. Turnarounds from Tanner Houck and Walker Buehler — combined 7.58 ERA — wouldn’t hurt, either.

5. So far, so good for Kristian Campbell
Campbell has been remarkable. He hasn’t looked overmatched at any point really, as evidenced by a ridiculous 1.143 OPS through a week and a half. His 19% walk rate, in the top sixth percentile for all of baseball, jumps off the page. That sort of discipline typically takes time. The 22-year-old has also answered questions about his defense; Campbell has been a middle-infield stalwart for a Red Sox defense that leads the league in double plays turned.

6. Fenway is Fenway again
It’s the smallest of sample sizes, but it looks like the Red Sox are better positioned to deliver on one of Alex Cora’s biggest requests, which is to protect home field. The Sox are 3-0 at home after sweeping the Cardinals, scoring 36 runs in three games. The Red Sox were a sub-.500 team at Fenway last season, with wRC+ below league average. Through one series, they have the best home offense in the league. If that holds, good times will feel so good once again.

7. The funny thing about Garrett Crochet is …
… he hasn’t really dominated yet? No offense to 1-0 with a 1.38 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 13 innings, of course. But the left-hander is just getting warmed up, and he presumably has something else in the tank. Crochet’s fastball velocity is slightly down, and he’s throwing his cutter more. If that’s all by design, it will be interesting to watch his progression continue. Either way, the results are tremendous, and this isn’t meant to nitpick. Rather, it’s to say Crochet could get even better as the season progresses.

8. That’s what you get for $40 million
Cora said he thought Alex Bregman would be the perfect addition to this team. It’s hard to argue as much so far. Bregman’s plate discipline has been elite, and when he swings, he is squaring up everything. He’s also hitting the ball in the air more than he has in his career to this point, and that should play at Fenway, as expected. Defensively, the numbers don’t paint a Gold Glove picture, at least not yet, but he has steadied the ship and made the plays he’s expected to make. His play on a sky-high Jordan Walker chopper in the first inning Sunday night was the latest example of that.

9. Bullpen Whitlock is the best Whitlock
It’s hard to overstate the impact of Garret Whitlock’s move back to the bullpen. He has already appeared in four games, and the Red Sox won three of them. He has thrown pitches in the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings already. He’s such a valuable weapon for any manager but especially someone like Cora who handles his bullpen at a high level.

10. It’s time to make hay
The Red Sox can’t win — or lose — the division in April. But looking at the rest of the month, there’s a real chance to make a tone-setting statement. Boston gets four with a reeling Blue Jays team beginning Monday. Then, they have a 10-game trip in which they play the woeful White Sox seven times. After losing 121 games a year ago, the 2-7 South Siders actually have a worse winning percentage to open the new campaign. Also on the calendar later this month are meetings with Tampa Bay, Seattle and Cleveland, two teams that haven’t impressed so far this season. Winning fewer than, say, 14 of the 22 remaining games this month might be a disappointment.