If you’re wondering how the 2024 Red Sox will go down in history, answer this question about the 2015 edition in five seconds or less: What is your predominant memory of that season?
Exactly.
To be fair, it was probably Rich Hill’s two-hit shutout against the Orioles in September, which ended with Mookie Betts stealing the win from Chris Davis at the bullpen fence. Otherwise, it was a year of transition — from Ben Cherington to Dave Dombrowski in the front office, from free-agency misses Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez to Killer B’s Xander Bogaerts, Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. on the field.
When we think of 2015, if we think of it at all, it’s just a stopover. One year later, the Sox returned to the playoffs and said goodbye to David Ortiz. And two years after that, they won it all in the most dominant season in franchise history.
In this context, 2024 was always doomed to play a supporting role. Either the Red Sox would finish last again, as Vegas predicted, or they would manage to hold our attention for a while before inevitably fading into the background.
They gave us Option B, and hooray for that, although that doesn’t mean it will stick. Management can only hope that the truly memorable seasons remain part of a hypothetical future where young talents Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony and Kyle Teel grow into stars. Maybe we’ll even get a glimpse of that next month.
In the meantime, we should be clear about the limitations that were always going to limit this season. Ownership did not give Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow, himself a successor to Chaim Bloom, the authority to address multiple needs over the winter. Even as young players like Jarren Duran, Tanner Houck and Wilyer Abreu made significant strides, there simply wasn’t enough support to get them across the finish line.
The march to mediocrity continued Monday in Houston, where the Astros left the beleaguered bullpen with a 5-4 victory. The Red Sox have now lost eight of 12 games and their playoff chances have dropped to barely 20 percent. Their chances of making the postseason haven’t been this slim since mid-June.
There is a way out of their current misery, but it is getting narrower by the day and requires more luck than skill. While the July 30 trade deadline offered the illusion of improvement, the only hope now is that the worst parts of the roster, concentrated primarily in the bullpen, stop failing en masse. That’s it. Either they flip a magic switch or it’s over.
That’s how bridge seasons work. We remember the foundations they laid and eventually forget the fumes that drift by.
Duran, Houck, Kutter Crawford, Ceddanne Rafaela – they’re parts of the future. The same probably can’t be said for Romy Gonzalez, Dom Smith and Enmanuel Valdez, although all have contributed at some point. Rewinding to 2015, they’re this year’s versions of Ryan Hanigan, Rusney Castillo and Robbie Ross, guys who can fill out a roster and contribute on occasion, but not someone you’ll be talking about in the winter.
Just two weeks ago, I said the Red Sox were becoming a team of destiny like the Marlins were last year. Improbabilities kept coming, injuries couldn’t slow them down, and we didn’t yet know that their new additions would become a net loss at the trade deadline. And with Alex Cora, perhaps the best manager in baseball, pulling the strings, the Red Sox might just play beyond the sum of their shares forever.
But the inevitable story of this season has finally caught up with them. They remain firmly focused on the future, even as they allow themselves to be pleasantly surprised by the unexpected delights of summer.
But that’s the problem with summer – eventually everything wilts, the leaves change color, and the calendar turns to fall. The Red Sox gave us everything they had for months, but this season was always destined to be a footnote.
