Two big Red Sox problems heading into the playoffs and more

Wednesday 9/23/26

The Red Sox have themselves an Erik Miller problem and a Roman Anthony problem.

The reliever has unraveled. He took the loss last night after the Sox tied it up on a Mickey Gasper pinch-hit homer in the eighth and you practically expected him to give it up. His ERA has ballooned over 3, which took some doing--that is, melting down on his part--from where it was. He's lost, and he better find it fast. It's mechanical and mental. You put him in right now and trouble is almost guaranteed. You need this guy to part of your lockdown back of the bullpen.

Which brings us to the lead-off hitter. Can you honestly go into the postseason with Anthony in that spot if he doesn't all of a sudden become a different guy at the plate? Last night he was 0-for-5 with two more strikeouts.

This guy strikes out every game. 193 strikeouts/per 162 games. His productivity is minimal. There's little power in his bat. He's where he is in that batting order because of hype and hope that he's this player I don't think he is. He is an absolute strikeout fiend. I don't think people understand the difficulty this player has putting the bat on the ball. Which is something else if you're socking balls over the fences when you do run into a fastball. He's in the .230s now. And he isn't Eddie Yost with the bases on balls, either.

It's the same pattern I've mentioned with Anthony. He gets into the line-up and does well. People think/proclaim, "That's our future Hall of Famer!" Shortly thereafter, he gets figured out and pitchers start consistently getting him out. No one is talking about him, like he's not an issue. I'd like to see him go a game without whiffing. I'm sure it's happened, but it sure as hell doesn't feel like it.

This is Anthony's age twenty-two season. There's time to grow. But the problem is you need him to be something right now that he may not be. Which also tells you how foolish it was to base so much of this season on the expectation that this player could do a lot of the offensive work of carrying you.

Another concern: Ceddanne Rafaela. He's been out for a while. What do you think is going to happen? He'll play a few games here at the end, get himself up to speed, and then be at his best in Yankee Stadium next week? Okay, I hope so. It's possible. But is that likely?

Payton Tolle wasn't sharp last night, but he still gave you 5.2 innings and only surrendered two runs. Fastball wasn't popping. But that's fine. Next time we see him he'll be on the mound at Yankee Stadium. The moment won't faze him. He's the type of player who looks forward to that kind of thing.

Sonny Gray will start Game 1. He deserves to. He's been an anchor for you for most of the year and stopped you from drifting even further off course and being lost for good when it seemed like this team couldn't win unless he took the hill. It'll be Gray-Tolle-Suarez, with Jake Bennett and Brayan Bello as the guys who'd come in if the starter gets roughed up early. The Yankees will be without Aaron Judge. That may not mean what it suggests. They won their fair share of games without him.

The Red Sox formally made Chad Tracy the manager and gave him a three-year contract. I don't see the point of doing this in-season. It gains you nothing. You had the opportunity to watch him in the postseason. It wouldn't have been a slap in the face to have had Tracy wait. Joe Morgan had to wait until the 1988 season was done. That's standard operating procedure.

The Red Sox are always so quick to play a kind of front office hero ball. They do it when they stroke themselves publicly over their prospects and when they sign those players to long term deals--as with Kristian Campbell, whom you may never see in a big league game again--and they're doing a version of it here. They love to fill the pool with their own spunk and then have everyone watch them swim in it.

Let it play out. Be smart, instead of trying to show how smart you are. Tracy earned himself the job. You need an opportunity to earn anything. He got and he did. That's not my quibble.

A concern I have: the Red Sox finish slightly over .500, don't play a postseason game at Fenway, and it's lost on people that that's what the season ultimately was, sweeping issues under the proverbial rug. A season such that if someone was looking at its baseball-reference page down the road, it'd be this "whatever" season, but which was mistook in its own time as something significant when it wasn't.

You can't let the emotion and the residual emotion of the summer win streak--streaks--do your "thinking" for you. You need to assess the whole thing if you're assessing where a ball club is at and productive next steps. This front office likes to be given a pass. I mentioned the other day that the Sox might not win another regular season game. I don't think it's likely, but they might not win again in 2026 (or even until 2028, in a worst case scenario), or just one more game.

We have some interesting weather coming in this weekend, which could displace the Sox-Cubs series from Fenway, which becomes more interesting if the Cubs are still playing for something. Nor'easter, they say. You have to like an early autumn nor'easter in New England. Get the hot beverage, find a good book, fire up that classic horror film. The games could be canceled. The Sox could have to play on Monday before the playoffs start, which could border on the farcical. The could be moved. To where? I don't know. Would you go to Tampa and use their empty park? You couldn't play in Chicago--that would give the Cubs an unfair advantage over their NL counterparts.

You see highlights and photos from games and all of a sudden people are in jackets and it's wonderful. You know how Burl Ives's Sam Snowman talks about that Christmas-y time of the year in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Well, this is that baseball-y time of the year. Great stuff.