Bill Madden: Despite solid offseason moves, how did the Red Sox fall apart so fast?

Bill Madden, New York Daily News on Jun 7, 2025

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — There are many reasons the Yankees have been in first place in the American League East since April 14, perhaps the most significant of them being right in front of them at Yankee Stadium this weekend.

That would be the Red Sox, who seemingly made all the right moves last winter to shore up their weak spots — starting pitching, a right-handed power bat, a catcher who can hit and a power-arm closer — to establish themselves as seemingly the team to beat in the division, especially after the Yankees lost Gerrit Cole, but have instead fallen flat on their faces. So bad have the Red Sox played so far that last Tuesday, after losing their 17th one-run game, their clearly frustrated manager Alex Cora sounded like he was firing himself.

Starting pitching has been the major culprit in the Red Sox’s irrelevancy these last four years and last winter GM Craig Breslow moved aggressively to address that, surrendering four top-quality prospects to the White Sox for a certified ace in Garrett Crochet and then signing Walker Buehler, another one-time ace, for $21.05 million despite coming off Tommy John surgery. Crochet has lived up to his billing, with a 1.98 ERA and leading the American League in strikeouts, and Buehler had pitched creditably until being pounded by the Yankees Friday night for five runs, seven hits and two homers in just two innings. But the rest of the rotation has been mediocre, or in the case of comebacking Lucas Giolito — downright awful.

From the get-go this season there were clubhouse issues for Cora when the Red Sox’s best player, Rafael Devers, balked at being moved from third base to DH when Alex Bregman was signed for $120 million. That kerfuffle finally died down and Bregman was virtually carrying the offense (.299/.385/.553 with 11 homers and 35 RBIs in his first 51 games before sustaining a serious quad injury May 23 that figures to sideline him until at least mid-July.

Aroldis Chapman, who Breslow signed to a one-year, $10.75 million deal, has been his vintage self as closer, and Carlos Narvaez, a surprise “gift” from the Yankees, acquired for promising pitching prospect Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, has emerged as an all-around accomplished first-string catcher. Another Breslow “find” has been much-traveled utility man Abraham Toro, who has filled in nicely so far at first base after Triston Casas went down for the season with a ruptured patellar tendon.

So almost all of Breslow’s offseason moves are paying dividends for the Sox and still they’ve been stinking it up on the field, in fourth place trailing the Yankees by 10 1/2 games after Friday night’s loss.

Why? For one thing, they lead the majors in errors, most of them from their infielders — rookie second baseman Kristian Campbell, veteran shortstop Trevor Story and swingman David Hamilton — who are all having bad seasons on both sides of the ball. There’s very little the Red Sox are doing right fundamentally and coming into this Yankee series they had struck out 171 times with runners in scoring position.

Between the errors, the strikeouts, the missed cutoffs, more subpar starting pitching and a myriad of other mistakes, it’s enough for a manager to cry “I’ve had it!” — which is essentially what Cora did last week when he said: “We keep making the same mistakes. We’re not getting better. At one point, it has to be on me, I guess. I’m the manager. I’ve got to keep pushing them to be better but they’re not getting better. They’re not. You get frustrated, but at one point, OK, what are you going to do? What’s gonna change? We keep doing the same thing.”

Much as he may have sounded like he wanted to be fired, it’s doubtful the Red Sox will act hastily with Cora, who is in the first year of a three-year, $21.5 million contract extension. There are a couple of bright spots for the Red Sox. In shortstop Marcelo Mayer (who is presently playing second base after his recall last week) and outfielder Roman Anthony (who is knocking at the door at Triple-A) they boast two of the top prospects in all of baseball. It is Breslow’s task to figure out how to blend them into what is presently a defensively-challenged hodgepodge lineup, while at the same time trying not to give up on the season.