Given the disaster the Red Sox have gotten themselves into this season, let’s take a look back on how the ballclub could have been in a better position to compete, both in 2026 and other recent seasons with just two playoff appearances in the 2020s.
Boston currently ranks last in baseball with just 67 home runs as a team. Guess which player leads the sport in long balls?
That would be Kyle Schwarber, the three-month power boost the Sox acquired at the 2021 trade deadline in a swap with the Washington
Nationals that’s among the larger wins of Chaim Bloom’s complicated tenure as chief baseball officer.
The 2016 World Series champion didn’t immediately hit the field after the trade as he worked back from injury. Once he did take the field, he elevated an already talented lineup. Schwarber hit .291 with seven homers in a .957 OPS in 41 regular-season games for Boston. Finding a brand new role at first base, he also elevated the inconsistent Bobby Dalbec to the best two-month stretch of his life with 15 homers in 49 games in the last two months of the year.
Schwarber also popped three dingers in the postseason, with memorable moments from his solo shot off Gerritt Cole in the American League Wild Card Series to blowing open a raucous Game 3 of the ALCS off Jose Urquidy.
That was really the end of the fun on an unexpected run. Boston’s bats fell quiet from there on out and eventually fell to the Astros in six games that series. Schwarber headed to free agency and Boston chose not to bring him back given that designated hitter J.D. Martinez was still there for another season, Dalbec was available to play first, and the eventual arrival of touted power prospect Triston Casas.
The Red Sox never should have let him walk out the door. Keeping him paired with Martinez (at least for part of 2022), Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers would’ve made for a lethal lineup with a cemented core, even after the Mookie Betts trade in 2020.
Boston had options to make that work. The front office could’ve traded Martinez to clear the way for Schwarber on a longer deal. They could’ve let him ride out first base until Casas or Dalbec truly forced the issue, at least defensively to an extent. But that never happened.
Instead, Schwarber walked to the Philadelphia Phillies on a four-year, $79 million deal. That’s a pretty good bargain for someone who led the league in home runs twice during that contract. And the Red Sox should’ve matched it.
After four playoff appearances and a trip to the World Series with the Phillies, Schwarber hit the market again this past winter. The Red Sox had an open chance to right their wrongs and add real power to a lineup that truly needed it in its modern construction.
The Red Sox never made him an offer. Once again, he signed on with Philadelphia, this time for five years and $150 million. Don’t like that number for a 33-year-old? Too bad, he continues to back it up.
There’s obviously several “what if” personnel decisions to look back on over the last half-decade in Boston. For the Red Sox, Schwarber continues to play to a level worthy of topping that list.
