After six rollercoaster months, the Boston Red Sox’s wild 2025 season is officially in the books. While the Red Sox fell short of their ultimate goal of winning a championship, it was still a successful season overall, producing the team’s first winning record and playoff berth since 2021.
Boston took a clear step forward this year, and that’s worth celebrating. The team made some good moves last offseason that paid off, adding Garrett Crochet, Alex Bregman and Aroldis Chapman, who contributed 13.3 WAR combined and elevated the roster into a postseason contender.
Several young players and rookies also stepped up, many of whom were promoted in-season. That includes Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Carlos Narvaez, Ceddanne Rafaela, Payton Tolle and Connelly Early.
The Red Sox proved remarkably resilient, overcoming injuries to numerous key players. The club lost Bregman, Masataka Yoshida, Triston Casas, Mayer, Anthony, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford and others for extended stretches, but still managed to reach the postseason.
In that sense, it feels like Boston overachieved, especially after trading its best hitter — Rafael Devers — midseason for an underwhelming return. Alex Cora maximized the roster on a nightly basis and overcame its limitations with his platooning and bullpen management, getting a depleted team to October despite its holes, flaws and diminished depth down the stretch.
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On the other hand, it’s easy to forget how high expectations were for the Red Sox before the season. Coming off their exciting offseason, many experts picked them to win the AL East and at least 85-90 games. FanGraphs was especially high on them, and Vegas set their win total at 86.5 wins.
Boston’s expectations quickly changed, however, as the team got off to a middling start. Between the injuries and horrendous luck in one-run games, the Red Sox were below .500 into early July. With Devers gone by that point, it was hard to imagine them making a push.
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An electric 10-game winning streak (against bad teams, but still) immediately followed, propelling Boston into contention and getting the team back on track. Anthony emerged as one of the best players in baseball, the pitching staff rounded into form, and the team took off.
However, the club’s defensive issues (they led MLB in errors) and baserunning mistakes cost them several games on the margins, and ultimately their playoff series. They finished with a losing record in one-run games (23-27) and in extra innings (8-12), which explains why they underperformed their Pythagorean record by three wins.
Ultimately, the Red Sox ended up where many people and models thought they would — around 90 wins and in the postseason. They just took a very unusual path to get there.
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Featured image via Eric Canha/Imagn Images
