News flash: Yup, they're bad.
Really, really bad. Next-to worst record-in-the-American-League bad. Just-gave-up-an-average-of-more-than-nine-runs-per-game bad. Would-have-to-play-.well-over-.600-ball-the-rest-of-the-way-just-to-finish-at-.500 bad.
There's no getting around: these 2020 Red Sox are really, really bad.
When they began the season with a suspect starting rotation, it looked like it could be a long year. But then came news Eduardo Rodriguez wasn't coming back, and, almost halfway through this mercifully short season, they have won just once when the starting pitcher hasn't been Nathan Eovaldi or Martin Perez, and well, look out below.
But placed in historical context, how actually bad are they? Glad you asked.
I've covered the Red Sox since the 1989 season. Along the way, I've seen four championship teams, playoff-quality teams, .500 teams, rebuilding teams, and yes, last-place teams.
So I thought I would attempt to place this 2020 edition in the pantheon of Worst Red Sox Teams of the last 32 seasons.
The nominees, please:
1992
FINAL RECORD: 73-89, last place in the A.L. East
EVIDENCE THEY WERE BAD: First Red Sox team to finish in last place in 60 years.
HOW YOU KNEW THEY WERE BAD: Though Wade Boggs led position players in WAR (2.0), it was arguably his worst season as a member of the Red Sox. Distracted by his upcoming free agency status and an uncertain future, Boggs hit just .259, the only time in his 11-year Red Sox career that he didn't hit above .300.|
REVEALING STAT: The Red Sox scored just 599 runs, or an average of fewer than four per game, good for second-to-last in the league.
PLAYER WORTH WATCHING: Roger Clemens. Clemens was 18-11 for a team that finished 16 games under .500. With a better surrounding cast, he would have easily won 20 games. His 2.41 ERA and WHIP of 1.074 were evidence that he was still dominant.
SUMMATION: This was the first year of Butch Hobson's three-year stint as Red Sox manager. We should have known things were not going to go well when Clemens, in an apparent pointed message, declined to report with the rest of the pitchers and instead waited until the mandatory report date. When he finally did report, Hobson decided to join him on a jog around the ballpark. Hobson apparently saw this as an opportunity to bond with Clemens; Clemens didn't get the memo and kept his headphones on for the entire run, shutting out his new manager. We should have known then and there.
1997
FINAL RECORD: 78-84, fifth place in A.L. East
EVIDENCE THEY WERE BAD: 4.85 ERA, 12th out of 14 teams in A.L.
HOW YOU KNEW THEY WERE BAD: In the final week of the season, GM Dan Duquette ordered first-year manager Jimy Williams to remove starter Steve Avery from the starting rotation so the team could avoid Avery vesting a player option for the following season. Williams gave Avery the start anyway, enraging Duquette. "I look at credibility,'' shrugged Williams in explaining his decision.
REVEALING STAT: Of the five pitchers who made the most starts that season, three -- Aaron Sele, Jeff Suppan and Avery -- had ERAs over 5.00.
PLAYER WORTH WATCHING: Nomar Garciaparra. Mo Vaughn (.980 OPS, 35 homers) was a force in the lineup, but he had already established himself as an elite run producer. The arrival of Garciaparra, meanwhile, was a revelation. Installed as the leadoff hitter by Williams, Garciaparra, a rookie at 23, slashed .306/.342/.534, belted 44 doubles and set a franchise record for most RBI for a leadoff hitter.
SUMMATION: This was an "in-between'' year for the Red Sox. Clemens had left via free agency, winning the Cy Young Award in Toronto, and his return to Fenway in a Toronto uniform was one of the most dramatic in recent team history. Clemens dominated his former team and on his way off the mound, made sure to look up at the executive box where Duquette and owner John Harrington were seated. The arrival of Pedro Martinez after the season would signal the team's renaissance, but for that year, the pitching was godawful.
2012
FINAL RECORD: 69-93, last place in the A.L. East
EVIDENCE THAT THEY WERE BAD: Bobby Valentine was the manager.
HOW YOU KNEW THEY WERE BAD: In the final weeks of the season, Valentine, seated in the manager's office, lifted his lineup card and, in front of a roomful of reporters, and very much on the record, said: "This is the weakest roster we've ever had in September in the history of baseball. It could use help everywhere.'' For once, Valentine might not have been wrong. But it was still a mighty strange thing for a manager to say about his own team on the record.
REVEALING STAT: The Red Sox finished 26 games out of first place, the largest gap for the franchise they were 40 games out -- in a then-10 team league -- in 1965.
PLAYER WORTH WATCHING: David Ortiz. Ortiz was second on the team in homers (23) and fourth on the team in total bases. What's unusual about that? Oh. I forgot to mention that he missed almost half the season (appearing in just 90 games) because of a heel injury.
SUMMATION: The previous season, the Red Sox came unglued in September with tales of chicken and beer in the clubhouse. Terry Francona was not invited back, and Theo Epstein bolted for Chicago. Things got off to an inauspicious start in spring training, with Valentine calling out veteran infielder Mike Aviles during an infield drill. Two weeks into the season, Valentine ripped Kevin Youkilis. And it was pretty much downhill from there. As the season unfolded, it became painfully obvious that the game had passed Valentine by and the players tuned him out. The second-half, played mostly without Ortiz, was excruciating to watch. In August, a handful of veterans got an audience with ownership, pleading with them to fire Valentine. The day after the season ended, they got their wish.
2014
FINAL RECORD: 71-91, last place in the A.L East.
EVIDENCE THAT THEY WERE BAD: .369 slugging percentage, 13th in the league.
HOW YOU KNEW THEY WERE BAD: At the trade deadline, the Red Sox appeared to wave the white flag, dealing off 40 percent of their starting rotation (Jon Lester, John Lackey). I say "appeared'' because instead of moving the veterans for prospects, the Red Sox took back veteran players -- Yoenis Cespedes for Lester and Joe Kelly and Allen Craig for Lackey. Had they gotten younger players, it would have accelerated the rebuild. Instead, all three players coming to Boston underperformed and the team finished last again the following season.
REVEALING STAT: The Sox hit just 123 homers, their lowest total since 1994. Only three players on the roster reached double-figures in home runs.
PLAYER WORTH WATCHING: Ortiz. At the ripe old age of 38, Ortiz still hit 35 homers and posted an OPS of .873.
SUMMATION: It was hard to believe that the Red Sox had won the 2013 World Series. A number of the short-term free agents who performed so heroically the year before (Mike Napoli, David Ross, Jonny Gomes). After Lester and Lackey left, there were not much left in the rotation. Clay Buchholz led the team in starts with 28, but also had was arguably his worst season with a 5.34 ERA. Sadly, it wasn't about to get better anytime soon for the organization.
So, where does that leave us?
Is this, in fact, the worst Red Sox team of the post-McNamara Era?
With fewer than 30 games played, it's premature to make that judgment. You could go back to very good Red Sox teams and find an atrocious month of play in the middle of a season in which the Sox would go on to qualify for a playoff spot. It's the ultimate in small sample size.
But a combination of no fans in the stands, interminable length of games (couldn't they just be awful in under three hours?), the lingering resentment from the labor war that consumed us in the spring and early summer and plain o' recency bias has perhaps made this team seem even worse than it is.
Which is, to say, really, really bad.
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