So… how ‘bout them Red Sox?
As the confetti settles from the city of Boston’s week-long high celebrating the Boston Celtics’ latest title, it’s batter-up from the Boston Red Sox.
The Celtics’ rallying cry this year was their assertion that it was “different here” in Boston, a claim they backed up in full by becoming the first team in NBA history to win 18 championships.
Now, Alex Cora’s team has a similar opportunity in front of them. Boston’s next title on the diamond would be its major league-leading fifth of the 21st century. Even with four titles in the last 20 years, the Red Sox stand alone in the sport.
But unlike Wyc Grousbeck’s ownership group, John Henry is no longer operating with “win at all cost” expectations. Nonetheless, the Sox’s players and coaches still have the ability to take matters into their own hands.
In the 2024 Celtics, Cora sees a blueprint with some similarities that his Red Sox could follow to get back to the top of the mountain.
“They did a lot of good things, right?” Cora told WEEI’s Jones and Mego with Arcand program in his weekly interview. “They went through a process when Brad (Stevens) got there, right, to make some trades and killed it in the draft and then adding some pieces when they felt they were ready. It was a process that is part of sports, right, and right now it feels like where they at after this season … they were the best team by far.”
Hopefully Craig Breslow was listening, because Cora identified what he can do to speed up the process: making some shrewd trades, and killing it in the draft.
We already know Breslow is laser-focused on the latter, particularly in the pitching department, but it remains to be seen if the first-year CBO will be able to step up to the plate when it’s time to make the deals around the edges that can make or break a season.
As we saw with these Celtics, although the centerpieces were Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, it was the additions like Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White (plus the reacquisition of Al Horford) that put them over the top.
“It’s a complete team, but it feels like staying together in the next few years, they should win at least two more in the next four, I believe, because of where they at — buying into the concept of Joe (Mazzulla), how Brad works in the front office, and obviously, the buy-in of the players,” Cora said. “They’re in a great spot as a franchise and it was fun to watch.”
While Cora can’t control the buy-in of the front office, he does have the buy-in of his players. That much is clear as the Sox have finally been able to string enough momentum together to put themselves more than a game or two over .500 — on a team that should probably be well under it.
Cora also knows what challenges the Celtics will face when they return to the court next season and try to run it back, something he was unable to accomplish after guiding the Sox’s record 108-win World Series campaign in 2018.
“Yeah, I did a mistake saying that early on saying that we gonna just do the same things that we did the previous year and expected to win it again, and that’s not the case,” Cora said. "We made some adjustments with the lineup different than ’18 … and it didn’t work. Obviously, injuries came into play. You have a target, right, you’re the world champs and you’re gonna take the best punch — everybody’s gonna try to kick your butt."
His team isn’t the one with the target on their backs anymore, but Cora still believes he has it in him to whip this year’s squad back into a form that the world champion Celtics would be proud of…
“From my end, hopefully I can do it again and I have a lot of good ideas, you know, to try to repeat, but we get there when we get there,” He said. “ But it’s not easy, it’s not easy.”
Jays for three
The Red Sox got their ducks in a row this week… more accurately, their Blue Jays.
Boston followed up an impressive week against the Phillies and Yankees by taking care of business up north, sweeping the Jays in a three-game series that saw the Sox outscore their division counterparts 18-9.
The Sox scored seven runs twice in the series while allowing three in each outing. A 7-3 win in the series finale Wednesday extended their winning streak to five games, matching their longest of the year since winning six of their first eight games during a season-opening 7-3 road trip.
"I'm really proud of the guys to beat the Phillies and the Yankees and get greedy (and) come here and play three great games,” Cora said.
We had a pretty good idea even before the Sox faced the Jays, but this week only confirms that Boston is a step above Toronto in the hierarchy of AL East teams in 2024. The Sox enter Sunday third in the division at 41-36, 5 1/2 games clear of the last-place Jays. Boston is also four games ahead of fourth-place Tampa Bay, who the Sox also have a winning record against this season at 4-3.
Of course, this can all change over the course of Boston’s remaining 85 games. Four or five games aren’t a lot to overcome in the grand scheme, but we’ve seen enough baseball this season to tell us that these Sox are superior.
So what does that mean, and where does that leave them? There aren’t any trophies for third place in the division. It’s an improvement from last season’s last-place mark, so they have that going for them… which is nice.
More importantly, though, Boston now sits just a half-game out of the playoff picture in the American League. Above them are Baltimore, Minnesota and Kansas City. Just below them are Houston and Tampa Bay, both of which are more than four games back of the third AL wild card spot.
We know the Sox aren’t on the same level as the O’s, and the Sox dropped two of three in Minnesota earlier this season and are yet to face the surprisingly decent Royals this season. Boston will face Houston six times after the All-Star break.
Looking around, the Sox are definitely in a solid position to make a playoff push. If the current trend continues — Boston has won an impressive eight of its last 11 games — then the odds are favorable that the Sox will be playing postseason baseball this October.
Probably not much of it, mind you, but some is certainly more than none…
Breslow’s (cautious) optimism
Count Craig Breslow as one who likes where this Red Sox team is headed…
Breslow shares the cautious optimism that has been slowly simmering around this team in the first half of the season, and his comments about how he will handle his first trade deadline in a GM role provide hope he might actually add to this team.
"I think we can all see the reasons for optimism. Exactly how that materializes over the next five weeks or so, six weeks, remains to be seen,” Breslow told The Athletic. “… And we’re going to learn more and be realistic and also be decisive.”
That last part is murky executive speak, through and through, and it means nothing until there’s action to match it. Yet it seems pretty clear that, while he likes where the Sox are headed, he also embraces the reality that nothing is set in stone about this team’s course in 2024.
The jury is still out, and Breslow will be grading all the way up until the July 30 trade deadline — as any good GM would.
What’s even more encouraging is that Breslow acknowledges that hedging at the deadline is not a realistic option, telling The Athletic that “it’s extraordinarily difficult to try to accomplish both (buying and selling).”
That alone should make Sox fans feel encouraged after Chaim Bloom’s tenure was mostly marked by deadlines where he tried to do both — and failed miserably. But it seems that, wherever the Sox are at once the end of July roles around, Breslow and the organization will commit to a direction.
So we’ve also got that going for us… which is nice.
Wilyer’s back
Wilyer Abreu’s return came ahead of schedule as the Sox activated their promising young outfielder ahead of Saturday’s game in Cincinnati.
After hitting the ground running in his rehab assignment for an ankle sprain in Worcester, Abreu did the same on Saturday with a 1 for 3 showing out of the two-hole and scoring a run in Boston’s 4-3 comeback victory to even the three-game series with the Reds.
Abreu’s double in the sixth was immediately followed by a Connor Wong double to bring him home, pulling the Sox within a run at 3-2 before Boston’s two-run rally in the seventh was capped by a go-ahead sacrifice fly from Rafael Devers.
It’s good to see Abreu looking like he’s ready to pick up where he left off when he was establishing himself as one of the better rookie in the game. Abreu is slashing .273/.344/.488 with a 1.7 offensive WAR — a marked improvement from his 0.7 WAR in 28 games in 2023.
Abreu’s return also creates a bit of a logjam in the outfielder, as with Masataka Yoshida back in the fold at designated hitter, that leaves three spots for Tyler O’Neill, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Abreu.
On Saturday, that problem was solved by keeping O’Neill out of the lineup before using his as a pinch hitter in the seventh, which bumped Rafaela from center to short. Much as I have voiced my concern for how that’s going to impact Rafaela’s development, it looks like the easiest solution for this year’s team will be for Rafaela to play more shortstop.
Having too much talent to squeeze into the lineup is always a good thing, though, and the Sox are trending upward as we’ve entered the all-baseball portion of our sports calendar here in Boston.
It’s your time to shine, boys.
Gethin Coolbaugh is a columnist for Boston Sports Journal. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on X/Twitter.