For Craig Breslow: Make a decisive long-term decision that may or may not come back to haunt you
I want to see Craig Breslow plant a flag somewhere in 2026. Nearly every move that he has made in his two-year tenure has been risk-averse, as seen in the short duration contracts he chases:
Trade for Sonny
Gray, who has one year remaining.
Trade for Willson Contreras, who has two years remaining.
Alex Bregman three years for $120M? He’ll opt out after one year.
Rafael Devers has eight years left? Get him out of town; that contract is underwater.
Michael Fulmer? Patrick Sandoval? Liam Hendriks? Sure, they’re hurt for a year, but we might hit the jackpot in that second year! And if we don’t, no harm done. (Narrator: There’s been no jackpot.)
And I’m not talking about signing Garrett Crochet or Roman Anthony to a long-term extension. A monkey could do that.
Go out and sign a free agent that you believe in, Brez. Sign that player for several years, decisively, without any opt-outs on either side. It’s possible that when 2030 rolls around, you’ll regret what you did. Or, believe it or not, you might not!
– Bob Osgood
For me: Learn to interpret a new metric
Learning what vertical approach angle is and how it affects different pitches was really useful for me in becoming a better analyst. This year, I want to learn about horizontal approach angle. Alex Chamberlain put out a piece about it, but it’s never quite clicked for me. I also want to eat a little bit healthier. But mostly the horizontal approach angle thing.
— Jacob Roy
For me: Crochet a Garrett Crochet Jersey
I’ve never been a person who makes crafts or clothes but signing Garrett Crochet last year somehow sparked an interest in crochet. Maybe I’m just that open to the power of suggestion. Maybe by going so low-tech, I’m giving a middle finger to the rise of the machines and their slop. I don’t know, but I’m weirdly into it. At the beginning of the 2025 season, I learned just enough from YouTube to make some Crochet-inspired coasters. I was proud of how they turned out and wanted to keep going. I looked into crochet classes, but my skill level only qualifies me to learn to make amigurumi (crocheted creatures), or “granny squares” (which are exactly what they sound like), or flat Christmas tree ornaments. I know I’m supposed to learn to walk before I run, but none of that inspires me. I have something advanced in mind: a full-on Garrett Crochet Red Sox jersey that I can wear, with name, number, buttons, everything. And it has to look good. This is apparently so unheard of that I’m not able to even locate a pattern for it—though even if I could, I wouldn’t know how to read or execute it. My sources say that two patterns might be required, then figure out how to integrate them in the way I want. My work is cut out for me, and I’ll need to start haunting the backrooms of yarn shops, where very nice people offer assistance when you get in over your head.
— Maura McGurk
For the whole team: Try not to leave so many guys stranded on base
This one seems like a pretty obvious one, folks.
Maybe it was just me at first, when I was thinking of what to put as a resolution. I thought to myself, “Maybe the Red Sox didn’t strand as many runners on base as I had thought.” After all, all 30 MLB teams have the same struggles over the course of a season: stranding runners, injuries, making outs on the bases, stuff like that. Perhaps this idea was just a matter of the grass being greener on the other side. Maybe I was just overthinking things. Maybe those multiple anecdotes of being frustrated at the outcome of leaving chips on table were just that: anecdotes, without a basis in fact.
But after checking the numbers… nope, this wasn’t a notion that was just in my head. The Red Sox, in recent memory, have been pretty poor when it comes to bringing in runners on base.
Boston finished tied with San Diego at 22nd in 2025 (the bad 22nd, as in 22nd-best; sometimes these rank-based stats can be confusing—just ask anyone who listens to a fantasy football podcast listing out where a player or team ranks across the NFL) with 6.95 runners left on base per game.
In fact: the Red Sox have ranked in the bottom half (or, top half? Again, this is confusing—let’s just say they’ve had more stranded than 50% of the league…but that’s also confus—ah fuck it you know what I mean) of the league when it comes to stranding runners every season since the start of 2013. They’ve been in that bad batch of 10 every year in that stretch with the exception of 2023 and 2021.
Not much in this universe annoys me more than unrealized gains on offense. Let’s fix that in 2026.
Although…….doesn’t the very existence of stranded runners indicate that a team is doing a good job of getting on base in the first place? Don’t we want the Red Sox to keep the line moving, especially when they play the majority of their games in positive environments for offense?
…………I dunno. I just don’t want the lineup to piss me off like that.
— Fitzy Mo Peña
For me and the team: Be More Annoying to New York
The Yankees haven’t been a bad team in recent years, per se (though, like Boston, if you listened to the average fan discuss Aaron Boone on a daily basis, you’d think they were on a breakneck historically bad pace). Still, even with the two World Series wins since 2009 (and that’s not an arbitrary year selection!) the Red Sox haven’t won a decade-long series against the Yankees since the 1970’s. The free agency scoreboard looks worse. The Red Sox ranked twelfth from 2020-2024 in money spent in free agency, as the Yankees shelled out over a billion dollars in financials. And, yet, the Sox’ youth movement catapulted the new generation right into a playoff series of old that made it to the final game (even if it was just a best of three). And so far the Sox trail the Yankees 48-43 with four years left to play in this decade.
My own next personal chapter is about to enfold in 2026 after a tumultuous 2025, as I’ve relocated from my native Connecticut – that itself is a middle ground – to the Capital District in New York. While it’s about the same distance from my new neck of the woods to both Fenway and Yankee Stadium, the state on my license, and plate, will say New York (and, yes, I’m already looking at vanity plates) and, for the first time in my life, I’m not living in New England. I’m not one of them! I drink Dunkin every day, I don’t round my r’s, and I complain about minor inconveniences. And if you think I haven’t worn some sort of New England garment every day since I’ve moved in, I have a Masataka Yoshida five-year contract to sell you.
Starting in 2026, here’s to a new chapter that follows that first glimmer of promise to both myself and my beloved team. And next time the Sox see Cam Schlittler, who made the same move and so quickly forgot his allegiances (though, when a team stands to pay you several million and lets you live out a childhood dream, that’s understandable… we won’t talk about Ben Rice, though…) let’s hope they knock him for a few out of the park.
– Dean Roussel
For all of us: Watch some good starting pitching from someone not named Garrett Crochet
Now, don’t get me wrong — I very much enjoyed being able to watch Brayan Bello’s resurgence and journey to increased efficiency and reliability. But watching Lucas Giolito pitch a game with a WHIP close to 2.00 for the majority of the season wasn’t my idea of a good time. We had some excitement late last year with Payton Tolle and Connelly Early making their Red Sox debuts (along with some consistency from Bello’s end), and while I will always love and appreciate young pitching, a solid No. 2 — or really any spot in the order — would be an absolute blessing to have next year. And it is also a necessity for any team looking to go to the playoffs this year.
— Avery Hamel
