It was as if they were holding the blueprints upside down.
After the first three weeks of games, that’s how this end-product has seemed for a Red Sox team that now finds itself at 8-13 after their 6-2 loss to the Tigers on Sunday at Fenway Park.
Virtually none of the puzzle pieces that Crag Breslow and his group believed would neatly fit together by this time, seemingly have any chance of being put together to form a palatable picture. The roof is leaking. The walls are caving in. And the wiring is dangerously all over the place.
In baseball terms, they can’t score runs, they can’t hit home runs, they can’t get consistent pitching, and they can’t find the best version of virtually anyone to help pick up the slack.
They aren’t alone in their early-season anxiety, and the American League is so mediocre that there is time to actually start propping this whole thing back up. But what is impossible to ignore is how many of the Red Sox’s plans coming into the season have fallen flat.
It’s far easier to identify the few that have worked out than to go down the list of missteps. Willson Contreras? He has been what they signed up for. The same can probably be said for rookie Connolly Early, who has rewarded the Sox for their trust, and he could handle a spot in the starting rotation. And maybe a case could be made for Wilyer Abreu’s living up to the hype and hope, although he has taken a dramatic turn for the worse over the last week, watching his batting average drop 54 points over the past week.
Masa Yoshida is another candidate, totaling an impressive .887 OPS. But there are two things to consider: 1. He wasn’t really a major part of the Red Sox’s plan to make this offense work; and 2. He hasn’t been as big a part of the solution as some would like because of somewhat limited playing time, starting just eight games (in which the Red Sox have gone 1-7).
Everything else. That’s a tough sell.
The supposed meat-and-potatoes of this team, the starting pitchers, own a combined ERA of 4.97, with the Red Sox losing falling to 0-13 when the starting pitcher fails to go as many as six innings. Those numbers only took more of a hit thanks to Garrett Crochet’s five-inning, five-run outing.
And for those who like under-the-radar statistics, only the Nationals have given up more barrels than the Red Sox pitchers.
Not helping matters is the pressure on those pitchers to succeed, knowing there hasn’t been much of a safety net from the offense. Nine out of the team’s 21 games have seen the Red Sox score two or fewer runs. They also have hit the fewest home runs in the majors (13).
For a team that is built on modeling and projections, this many worst-case scenarios couldn’t have been in the algorithms.
With the understanding that there have been flashes here and there by even the most struggling player on the roster, the list of issues besetting the vast majority of the roster has been hard to overcome.
The original concoction of Roman Anthony leading off, with Trevor Story hitting second, Jarren Duran in the third spot, and Willson Contreras at No. 4, went out the window a while ago.
Anthony, who has been forced to learn the big leagues under an enormously bright spotlight, remains in the lineup’s top spot, in part because there really isn’t another option.
There have been seven different No. 2 hitters. Seven!
Duran has hit third in less than half the games, in large part because of a swing-and-miss percentage that is the fourth-worst in the majors.
Story has already struck out 31 times, carrying a .193 batting average and .522 OPS. At this time last season, he was hitting .337 with an .894 OPS. He is also currently chasing more pitches than any player in the majors.
The Red Sox have the worst combined OPS in the American League at second base (.508), with their third basemen only besting the Orioles thanks to a .438 OPS.
Carlos Narvaez was supposed to be the no-doubt-about-it starting catcher. Connor Wong has suddenly found more at-bats than Narvaez, whose OPS sits at .449. The Red Sox catchers also have the fewest ABS overturns in all of baseball.
Even a player one might suggest has been better than anticipated, Ceddanne Rafaela, has seen a somewhat improved offensive stat line tempered by some surprisingly mediocre defensive results. Rafaela is sitting at zero outs above average, after living at the top of the majors with an OAA of 21 at season’s end in 2025.
Maybe Ranger Suarez continues to take off. Perhaps Crochet and Sonny Gray go on the type of runs they experienced a year ago. And just maybe some slightly warmer weather allows for a few more home runs.
But, for now, this is still a structure that you really should wear your hard hat around. The foundation these Red Sox thought was in place on Opening Day still is peppered with warning labels.
