Even if it’s not always apparent in the standings, you can tell there’s something different about this Red Sox team.
Tossed into the deep end by ownership and written off by a jaded fanbase that’s learned to expect mediocrity, the Red Sox have survived one injury after another to keep their heads above water when almost any other team in their position would have drowned.
Now, after being tethered to .500 for more than a month, the Red Sox entered Tuesday having won five of their last six games. They’ve picked up huge series wins against the Phillies and Yankees, owners of MLB’s two best records, and finally appear to be building momentum after months of being stuck in the mud.
Can the Red Sox keep it up? We’ll see, but at this point it’s clear this group has a level of youth, athleticism and camaraderie that’s been sorely lacking the past few years.
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Even if it’s not quite championship-ready, this club has proven itself worthy of investment from both fans and ownership.
The fact that the Red Sox are in this position is pretty remarkable. This past offseason the Red Sox did almost nothing to bolster the big league roster, instead focusing on acquiring young depth and getting more out of the players they already had. It was a huge gamble, one that looked doomed to fail after two of their most notable offseason acquisitions — starting pitcher Lucas Giolito and second baseman Vaughn Grissom — had their seasons derailed due to injury before Opening Day.
Incredibly, the club’s faith in its young talent appears to be paying off.
After years of starts and stops, Tanner Houck has made the leap and emerged as a genuine ace. The former first-round pick is on track to become an All-Star for the first time, and Kutter Crawford has also taken a big step towards establishing himself as a dependable workhorse. Those two, plus Brayan Bello, who is undeniably talented but whose season has been a disappointment so far, all look like they can be rotation anchors for years to come. Plus, the bullpen is probably as deep and formidable as it’s been since the 2018 playoffs.
The kids are coming to play everywhere else on the diamond too. Ceddanne Rafaela has immediately established himself as a Gold Glove-caliber defender and David Hamilton’s recent emergence has helped further stabilize the shortstop position in the wake of Trevor Story’s season-ending injury. Those two, plus fellow rookie outfielder Wilyer Abreu, have been a revelation.
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Boston’s young veterans have also taken a step forward. Jarren Duran has been one of the most impactful outfielders in the league, and the fact that he isn’t even among the top 20 All-Star vote-getters is outrageous. Connor Wong is batting .332 and has been one of the best all-around catchers in the league. Triston Casas had gotten off to a great start and should return from injury within the next two weeks. Rafael Devers, still only 27 himself, is on pace to easily clear 30 home runs for the fourth time in his career and has been much improved defensively.
These guys can play. They just need more help.
The question of whether the Red Sox should buy or sell at the trade deadline has loomed over the season since the beginning, and while selling would better fit the club’s recent pattern of behavior, you can make a case the Red Sox should buy, one that gets stronger with each passing win.
For one, the competitive landscape of the American League has changed. The AL East is no longer a five-team gauntlet and the Red Sox aren’t just an average team that’s badly outgunned by four serious contenders. The Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays aren’t what they were, and even if the Red Sox probably won’t catch the Yankees or Orioles, they should at least be good enough to finish third.
Considering what a mess the AL West has been, that just might be good enough to make the playoffs as the third Wild Card.
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Maybe that doesn’t sound very ambitious, but after back-to-back last-place finishes there’s value in showing meaningful progress. Plus, this isn’t like the NBA or NFL where the best teams in the playoffs usually advance. Crazy things can happen in baseball, and if the Red Sox get in who knows what could happen?
Look no further than the Phillies, who made the playoffs as the third Wild Card two years ago and reached the World Series, or last year’s Diamondbacks, who snuck into the postseason with 84 wins and made the Fall Classic as well.
The other factor worth considering is the Red Sox have reached a different point in their rebuild. A young big league core has already been established, and top prospects like Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony and Kyle Teel could soon be knocking at the door. Boston will have the No. 12 overall pick in this summer’s draft, and while the club could benefit long-term from continuing to sell off pending free agents for controllable young talent, there’s also a long-term benefit in re-establishing a winning culture.
That way when those young players do reach the big leagues, they won’t be stepping into a clubhouse that just talks about winning, but one that expects it and already understands what it takes.
With Banner 18 secured and the Boston Celtics’ historic season officially in the books, all eyes now turn to the Red Sox. Could this be a summer to remember or another season of discontent? Time will tell, but this group has proven it deserves people’s support, and if the front office signals its belief, fans will undoubtedly line up behind them as well.
BOSTON (WHDH) – Police are investigating a stabbing in Boston on Sunday afternoon that left a victim with life-threatening injuries.
Officers responding to a reported stabbing in the area of 71 Summer St. around 3:30 p.m. found a victim who was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries that are considered life-threatening, according to Boston police.
No arrests have been made.
No additional information was immediately available.
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This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.
(Copyright (c) 2025 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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The Trump administration’s accusation that Boston’s housing policies discriminate against white residents is part of a disturbing pattern (“US to investigate Boston for bias,” Page A1, Dec. 13). This is no mere policy debate. It is a calculated attempt by conservatives to whitewash history. They hope that if the past can be obliterated, then present-day racial inequality can be repackaged as something that never even existed.
For centuries, Black Americans have been subjected to legally enforced discrimination in housing, education, employment, lending, and voting, atop generations of enslavement. These evils shaped who accumulated wealth and opportunity and who did not. The Civil Rights Act made discriminatory practices illegal, but it did not erase the advantages and disadvantages those systems had already created. That’s why policies such as Boston’s were conceived — not as rewards or punishments but rather as pragmatic efforts to narrow gaps that were deliberately built.
Opposition to these programs is an attack on history and truth itself. Limiting what can be talked about in schools, removing displays honoring the struggles of Black Americans, taking Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth off of the calendar of fee-free days at national parks — these are all part of a coordinated and cynical strategy to foster ignorance in America. This scheme allows the Trump team to attack programs such as Boston’s or any DEI policy and call it a defense of fairness and neutrality. It’s another Big Lie.
For this president and the movement he leads, ignorance is no longer a mere failure of politics. It is the whole point.
Front Row to Boston Sports shares stories from the past by area media legends, including the Globe’s Bob Ryan and Dan Shaughnessy.
The Front Row to Boston Sports channel has launched on YouTube. screenshot
By Chad Finn
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4 minutes to read
When reminiscing about sports moments and personalities of days gone by, the familiar anecdotes are often a joy to hear again and again.
Even better, though, is when there are fresh new stories to be told by those who were there.
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The new YouTube channel Front Row to Boston Sports offers both familiar tales and ones you may not have heard before, as told by four of the most connected journalists and best storytellers in the modern annals of sports in this region.
Legendary former sports anchors Mike Lynch (Channel 5) and Bob Lobel (Channel 4), along with Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy and former Globe columnist Bob Ryan, have teamed up to share the funniest, most heartfelt, and illuminating tales from their storied careers, from press row and the locker room.
The project is the brainchild of Peter Brown, a former news director at Channel 4, where he spent 22 years before moving on to an accomplished career in public affairs and communications.
“You come from a news background, you’re always thinking about what’s the best way to tell a story,” he said. “What better story is there to tell than those about Boston sports? Everyone who is from here or has lived here is in some degree a fan. I thought a look back at some great moments and some behind-the-scenes details that only the most plugged-in reporters would know would be a fun thing to do.”
So Brown reached out to Alan Miller, a former sports producer at Channel 4 who worked with Brown during the local news heyday in the 1980-90s. Miller, who later worked at the Globe and in the Channel 7 newsroom before retiring in May 2024, has long been one of the most well-liked figures in the Boston sports media landscape, someone who knows everyone and whose word is as good as a signature on the dotted line.
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Miller thought it was a super idea, and reached out to his close friend Lobel, along with Lynch, Shaughnessy, and Ryan. They all said yes immediately.
“We basically said, just tell us your best stories,” said Miller. “We wanted the stories that maybe you couldn’t tell on TV or in the newspaper, but the ones you might have told your buddies at the bar. The ones about what people are really like and what gets said behind the scenes. The ones about relationships. These were the four perfect guys to tell those.”
Currently, there are eight clips posted on the channel, ranging in length from just longer than three minutes (Ryan talking about his top five all-time Celtics) to 13 minutes (Shaughnessy sharing an assortment of Terry Francona stories). One of Lobel’s clips includes an emotional discussion of Ted Williams, while Lynch is especially insightful talking about Bill Belichick’s candor off camera during their old Bellistrator segments.
Brown and Miller plan to sprinkle out a few new clips each week. Since the project has been in the works for approximately a year, they were able to build up a catalogue of 30 clips before launch.
Miller said there’s another reason that everyone involved wanted to be part of the project — the fear that institutional knowledge about Boston sports isn’t what it used to be because of the changing media landscape.
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“When I was at Channel 7, John Havlicek died, and I think there were about three people in the newsroom who knew how John Havlicek was,” he said. “It’s not their fault, a lot of them are 20-something kids and half of them are from out of town.
“But there can be a real lack of knowledge about the past. And Boston sports, as you know, has an amazing past. You’d like the legacy and the memories to stay alive.”
Bonkers ratings in Boston
It’s no surprise that Patriots television ratings have risen this season corresponding with the team’s return to prominence.
But even if the rise in ratings is logical, some of the heights that they are reaching — or returning to, a half-dozen years after Tom Brady’s final season in New England — are remarkable.
Take last Sunday’s 35-31 loss to the Bills, which aired at 1 p.m. on CBS as a regional broadcast. The game had a 31.4 household rating and 78 share in Boston.
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That household rating — the percentage of households in a defined area tuned in to a program at a given time — is the highest for any Patriots game on any network since the regular season finale against the Dolphins in 2021. That also happens to be the last season the Patriots made the playoffs.
The 78 share — the percentage of households with television in use — is reminiscent of the viewership the Patriots enjoyed during the dynasty. As noted here previously, the Patriots averaged a 35.3 household rating and 66 share in 2018, their most recent Super Bowl-winning season.
Nine of the Patriots’ 14 games have aired on CBS this season. Those broadcasts have averaged a 25.7 household rating and 73 share, up 35 percent from last year (19.0/59) through the same span.
Overall last Sunday, the 1 p.m. slot — which also included the Chargers-Chiefs matchup — was a massive success for CBS, averaging 18.9 million viewers across the games. That made it the most-watched regional window on any network in 37 years.
Chad Finn
Sports columnist
Chad Finn is a sports columnist for Boston.com. He has been voted Favorite Sports Writer in Boston in the annual Channel Media Market and Research Poll for the past four years. He also writes a weekly sports media column for the Globe and contributes to Globe Magazine.
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