The Yankees gained an extra day of rest with a nor’easter canceling Game 162 against the Orioles on Sunday. It means they’ll have two days off before opening their 2026 playoff odyssey Tuesday night against the Red Sox in the AL Wild Card Series. Boston has one less day of rest after losing to the Cubs, 6-2, on the final day of the regular season. Earlier today, my colleague Josh provided a preview of Boston’s top-of-the-class pitching staff, and now we’ll look at the offense.
The Red Sox were seemingly
dead and buried on June 24th after dropping two of three to the last place Rockies. They sat in last place at 32-46, 15.5 games back of the first-place Rays, listless after the ground-shaking April 25th firing of longtime manager Alex Cora. But then a four game sweep of the Yankees at Fenway catalyzed one of the most stunning mid-season turnarounds in recent memory. They won an astonishing 27 of 30 games between July 3rd and August 7th to seriously threaten the Yankees’ position in second place. This owes a lot to, as Josh covered, a pitching staff that was fantastic all season long. However, the sudden emergence of impact hitters from the margins of the roster deserves as much of the praise for ultimately getting them into this playoff series against the Yankees.
Before we look at the individual players, we should recap how the offense in aggregate performed across the whole season. They finished middle of the pack in terms of OPS (.718), wRC+ (99), stolen bases (107), and fWAR (20.3). They hit the fifth-fewest home runs (162) in the league while striking out and walking at a roughly league-average clip. And as the Yankees deal with uncertainty over Aaron Judge’s availability, the Red Sox just got their own star slugger back just in time for this series.
Willson Contreras missed eight games after being struck on the hand by a pitch, but returned to the lineup in the final game of the regular season. The longtime Cardinal seemingly had a point to prove all season after getting traded to the Red Sox over the winter, and he was far and away Boston’s best hitter, slashing .276/.387/.518 with a team-high 27 home runs, 81 RBI and 4.1 fWAR, his 152 wRC+ third in baseball among hitters with at least 500 PAs. He thrives against fastballs and anything on the outer-half, his one weak spot up and in.
Roman Anthony appeared poised to step up as the league’s next superstar after a breakout rookie campaign, but a torn finger ligament limited him to just 54 games. He returned with two hits against the Yankees on August 30th and posted a 123 wRC+ in his final 24 games, though he finished with just five home runs in 240 plate appearances. Like Contreras, he loves to crush the fastball, but is certainly vulnerable to breaking balls from righties and changeups from lefties low and away.
Before the season started, the outfield was expected to carry the offense. Despite Anthony missing most of the season, the outfield still produced the bulk of the position player value. Ceddanne Rafaela posted his first above-average campaign by wRC+ (108) while maintaining Gold Glove defense in center but did deal with some right leg injuries in the final weeks of the season. Wilyer Abreu didn’t quite take the next step that many expected him to but still produced plenty of value by matching his career averages by batting .248/.327/.446 with 24 home runs, 76 RBI, and a 112 wRC+, though his defense regressed significantly from its usual sterling standard. The pair do the bulk of their damage against the breaking ball so expect a heavy diet of fastballs inside to Abreu and away to Rafaela.
All this being said, the story of the Red Sox season and in particular the turnaround in fortunes has been the transformation of other teams’ castoffs and their own borderline MLB players into impact contributors, not dissimilar from the Yankees’ next-man-up movement in 2019. Chief among them was Mickey Gasper, who was claimed off waivers over the winter and was optioned multiple times early before exploding for a 130 wRC+ in 67 games (though will miss this series with a biceps injury). One-time Yankee Jahmai Jones thrived in a platoon bench role, posting a 184 wRC+ in 179 plate appearances, almost exclusively against lefties.
Caleb Durbin was a sturdy three-win player who batted league average. Former Yankees first round pick Anthony Seigler was a revelation for 49 games at second posting a 102 wRC+, though his availability is threatened by a wrist injury. Nick Easton floundered in his first two big league seasons but was good for a 104 wRC+ in 65 games.
There are some softer landing spots in the lineup. Adley Rutschman never quite adjusted to life with the Red Sox with just a 77 wRC+ in 31 games after moving to Boston at the deadline and could yield playing time to Connor Wong behind the plate. Jarren Duran endured a miserable campaign at a 70 wRC+ in 150 games and likely played himself out of a starting role in the playoffs. Trevor Story could only a muster a 68 wRC+ in 63 games of another injury ravaged season.
For Boston, the question becomes whether this accumulation of injuries to position players leaves them blunted for this series. That being said, their main protagonists are all available just in time, Contreras, Anthony, Abreu, and Rafaela representing a potent threat at the top of the lineup. If the Yankees can limit the damage done by those four they’ll be in a good position to advance.
