The Boston Red Sox’s season ended with a 9-2 loss to the New York Yankees in the Wild Card Series. That offensive collapse defined the whole season. But GM Craig Breslow has a plan to fix it for 2027.
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During Monday’s presser with the Boston Red Sox management, GM Craig Breslow noted, “It’s really difficult to talk about what we expected when so many at-bats were lost there… the existing offense should be better in 2027.”
The Red Sox finished the 2026 season with 87 wins and made the Wild Card, but their offense became a major reason it ended.
Boston scored 689 runs, ranking 23rd in MLB, while hitting only 163 home runs. Their .245 batting average ranked 15th, while their .717 OPS ranked 19th, showing the larger problem with the whole offense.
The Yankees scored 18 runs across two games, while the Red Sox managed only two. Both of those Red Sox runs came through a solo homer. The Red Sox managed only 3 hits in Game 1, finishing that night without any runs. By the end, the lineup had given its pitchers almost no room for error.
Willson Contreras was one of the few Red Sox hitters who consistently produced for the lineup.
Contreras finished with 27 homers, 81 RBIs, and a .901 OPS in his first season with the Red Sox. After him, the production became much harder to find across the rest of the lineup.
Jarren Duran hit .207, Trevor Story posted a .621 OPS, and Roman Anthony managed .245 but only had 5 homers in 55 games.
Anthony’s numbers, however, came during a season that was repeatedly interrupted by injuries.
He missed nearly 4 months with a right-hand injury before returning to the lineup. His hand worsened again during the Wild Card series, forcing the Red Sox to remove him from its roster.
In 2025, when he was mostly healthy, Anthony hit .292 with 8 homers and an .859 OPS across 71 games. That performance remains the reason the Red Sox management believes that he has much more to offer.
“I have no doubt that if Roman Anthony got 600 at-bats,” Craig Breslow noted, “we would see a well above average offensive performance.”
This season, Anthony played 212 at-bats, while in 2025, it was 257. Evidently, more at-bats would ensure better numbers and production.
Breslow also believes the existing offense has “a lot of reasons to believe” it can improve in 2027. For Boston, keeping Anthony healthy could become one of the biggest parts of that plan.
His new problems are now being classified as “muscle strains in the wrist.” Reportedly, he even aggravated his early-season tendon injury, too.
Curtis Mead gives the Red Sox another reason to believe the offense can improve.
Before joining Boston, Mead hit .254 with 17 homers and 48 RBIs with the Nationals. He came to Boston and suffered a broken wrist after just 1 at-bat. That injury ended his season before Red Sox fans could see his impact.
Breslow assured that Mead is “well on his way” to becoming another important offensive piece in the lineup.
The path forward hinges on health:
Keep Anthony and Mead available, push Contreras and Rafaela to higher production levels. Boston’s .717 OPS and 163 homers show exactly why those internal improvements are needed.
Breslow believes the existing offense “should be better in 2027,” while the Red Sox will also look to add to the lineup. After a season that ended with 2 runs against New York, the Red Sox cannot afford another season with a quiet lineup.