Arrival of a new era: With or without Roman Anthony, the Red Sox still have problems to solve

Just a few days ago, things appeared extremely bleak for the Red Sox.

Coming off of *another* series loss and losing 8 of their last 11 contests, Boston showed up to the Bronx for a weekend set against the first-place Yankees. Game one was a reflection of the way both teams have been playing recently, a 9-6 Yankees victory in a game that was far more convincing than the final score may suggest.

But on Monday afternoon, optimism was inevitable around Red Sox Nation: Boston was able to awaken their uninspiring offense riddled with injuries and win the final two games of the series in New York behind 10 and 11-run outbursts respectively. And, oh! Yeah. They called up baseball’s top prospect, Roman Anthony, ahead of Monday’s game against the white-hot Rays.

Three days later, the optimism lingers. The Sox dropped the opener, Anthony’s debut, but bounced back with a pair of momentum-driving wins.

Establishing a clear future and upwards directionality is vitally important for any organization, but especially one that has not only been marred by mediocrity for as long and as painfully as the Boston Red Sox have, but has a history of winning championships like they do.

While Anthony’s promotion may appear to be among the final steps in indicating such a trajectory, the ballclub likely has several more stories to climb. With that being said, Anthony’s promotion and talent are not to be overshadowed by the Red Sox’s three-and-a-half-year-old dark clouds that have demonized them.

Boston began the season with their No. 2 prospect, Kristian Campbell in the lineup on Opening Day. Just 58 days later, their No. 3 prospect, Marcelo Mayer, joined him at the big league level. And this past week, Blaze Jordan was promoted to AAA Worcester, and old friend Kyle Teel made his major league debut for the Chicago White Sox, after being included in the deal that brought Garrett Crochet to Boston.

This week’s series against Tampa Bay saw the aforementioned prospect core shine bright: Anthony’s two-run double in the first inning of game two, which was his first major-league hit, proved to be enough offense to win Boston the game, and Mayer’s nearly identical two home runs in game three were the backbone of a series-clinching one run victory - which have been hard to come by for the ‘25 Sox.

Anthony, who has been known for his incredible knowledge of the strike zone and patience as a hitter throughout the minor leagues, ironically got his first hit on a ball that was comfortably off the outside edge of the zone and would have almost certainly been called a ball. If those are going to be the results when he does mistakenly swing at a pitch outside of the zone, Boston might have found themselves a carbon copy of Rafael Devers but with much better discipline.

Following his outstanding month of April, Campbell has conversely seen immense struggles. But given how quickly he plowed through each level of the minor leagues, there is little reason to believe that this lull means much more than typical rookie growing pains.

Teel was originally viewed as Boston’s long-term answer at catcher. But after he was traded, question marks were raised about the position - but they may have just been proved irrelevant. Connor Wong, who was brought in as a part of the Mookie Betts trade, has seen his job completely taken over by rookie Carlos Narváez. Narváez, 26, was not expected much from offensively, but is sporting a slash line of .279/.355/.458 in 200 plate appearances to go along with his well-known elite defensive abilities behind the plate.

For all of the analytics people, Narvaez' 7.0 fielding run value is tied for 11th best in the league - among anybody - and places him in the 96th percentile in that category according to Baseball Savant. His 2.0 wins above replacement in 2025 ranks second among qualified rookies in Major League Baseball, according to Baseball Reference. Right behind him, in third place, is Chase Meidroth - a fourth-round pick by Boston in 2022, and another piece sent to Chicago in the Crochet trade.

These promotions and results, as well as Boston’s flourishing farm system that has consistently been ranked within the top five in the sport over the past calendar year, are evidence that Chaim Bloom's tenure in Boston may end up being viewed much more positively than it was when he was still with the franchise, before a vision was clear with these prospects. And likewise - as exciting as these prospects are, the current team on the field (and full group in the clubhouse and upstairs) does not appear to be any different, results-wise, from years past. How can they fix it?

Ownership was originally an easy and reasonable group to place the blame on, until this past offseason. The team signed Alex Bregman to a three-year, $120 million contract, traded four prospects for Garrett Crochet, signed Walker Buehler to a one-year deal worth north of $21 million, and, supposedly, made a legitimate effort in signing Juan Soto. Blame-free, right? Think again.

Potentially the ballclub’s largest issue is their culture. From Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow, ownership, and Cora disagreeing in the offseason on whether or not to bring in Alex Bregman, to a clear divide between Breslow and the players fueled mainly by a rift between him and Rafael Devers resulting from poor communication and professionalism, not everybody at 4 Jersey Street is on the same page, nor likes each other.

One of the lesser-discussed causes for issue with this group is that their so-called leaders are less productive than those who are exempt from such responsibility. Players like Trevor Story and Rob Refsnyder are said to be great for the team’s culture and morale, but do not produce the most for the team on the field.

Players like Rafael Devers, Triston Casas, and Garrett Crochet are other-worldly talented, but not known for their shiny interpersonal qualities. Power dynamics in almost every other workplace environment have a lot to do with production and skill - why does no one talk about it with the Red Sox?

Considering the somewhat careless demeanor of the group that has resulted in sloppy play and fundamental mistakes, many blame the coaching staff, which may not be completely misplaced. The problem within the problem is then to figure out where on the coaching staff to hire or fire, or if that will even fix anything. Unfortunately, there may not be a right or wrong answer.

Andrew Bailey’s “pitching lab” has been a massive disappointment, the team’s lineup always seems to produce fewer runs under Pete Fatse than they should given the notable and even household names in it, and game planning and run prevention, the two things entitled under Jason Varitek’s role, are two of the team’s biggest flaws.

And, not to be outdone, it is both impossible and ignorant to leave the players completely blame-free. Alex Cora and Craig Breslow are not the ones who have led the world in errors over the past three-plus years. Pete Fatse isn’t the one not producing with runners in scoring position. Andrew Bailey isn’t on the mound getting shelled. They are, by no means, free of blame, but the players are the ones not performing up to expectations.

Roman Anthony is here. He is something Red Sox fans can get excited about. But the team is still several pieces, pitchers, firings, hirings, contracts, and DFAs away from being a serious contender in the American League.

-- By Luke Fitzpatrick (@_lfitz15)