Red Sox Recaps 2025: March/April
- Om Brown
- 5 hours ago
- 6 min read
Welcome to Red Sox Recaps, my newest blog series! I typically cover all things football, mostly via Tales of the Titans, talking about all things Tennessee. However, I had a little more time on my hands this spring, and this offseason just so happened to be a big one for my Boston Red Sox. I broke down their potential season outcomes right before Opening Day, and now, I return to recap what has been a tumultuous first month their 2025 campaign. I plan to recap each month of Boston baseball, breaking down the Red Sox successes, as well as their struggles, and much more! Let’s get started and see what happened to the Sox as they opened up the season.
Overall Record as of 4/30 (March/April Record): 17-15 (17-15)
AL East Standings (as of 4/30): 2nd (1.5 GB of 1st Place)
Month MVP: 3B Alex Bregman (.328 AVG, 7 HR, 24 RBI)
Month Cy Young: LHP Garrett Crochet (3-2 W-L, 2.05 ERA, 50 K)
Month Breakout Player: OF Wilyer Abreu (.295 AVG, 6 HR, 21 RBI)
March/April Recap:
The bottom line is that May has just begun. The team is definitely underachieving, but it is still quite early in the season. The lineup has been hot and cold, struggling mightily to stay consistent. The pitching staff has done well enough to keep Boston in it, and are starting to get healthy, returning two right-handed starters in Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito. The bullpen has been surprisingly stable, anchored by the trio of LHP Aroldis Chapman, and righties Justin Slaten and Garrett Whitlock. RHP Liam Hendriks also made his Sox debut out of the pen late in the month, and though he struggled, it's great to see the 2023 Comeback Player of the Year make yet another big return, this time from Tommy John Surgery.
Crochet has come as advertised, already a stopper at the top of the rotation. Finally having a true ace on the staff is a lifesaver. Another newcomer, rookie INF/OF Kristian Campbell, is the front-runner for Rookie of the Year, ending his first month in the bigs with 4 dingers and 8 doubles. Abreu has been one of the biggest surprises in baseball, building on his Gold Glove season from last year by being a top hitter in the AL.Â
Another good sign from the last couple weeks is that both OF Jarren Duran and SS Trevor Story have come alive. If Duran can produce another All-Star like season from the leadoff spot, it would be tremendous for the middle of the order in DH Rafael Devers and Bregman. Story has already hit 5 homers, which is the same amount he hit in total during his last two injury-riddled campaigns. Those two being consistent and healthy this season could be the difference-maker for the Red Sox come summertime.
Positives from the Month:
1. Alex Bregman has been on fire.
Bregman, the winner of the March/April Team MVP, is currently an AL MVP front-runner. He leads the squad in the main three offensive categories (average, HR, and RBI), as well as hits with 41 and Wins-Above-Replacement (WAR) at a whopping 2.1. Bregman’s average, round-trippers, and base-hits are 3rd in the AL, while his 11 doubles are 2nd and WAR is 2nd. I would expect MVP chants at Fenway soon, if they haven’t started already.
2. Rafael Devers has broken out of his slump and become an elite table setter.
After starting out the season 0-17 with 12 K’s, Devers has hit 5 HR, coupled with 19 RBI while hitting in front of Bregman. While his average is sitting at .225, he has taken an AL-high 24 free passes, and has a top-20 on-base percentage (OBP) of .354. One concern is that he's currently hitting .211 vs. fastballs, but he's been known to come out of similar spells during his career. If he starts mashing heaters again, the lineup will be twice as deadly as it is now.
3. The pitching staff is getting healthy.
Like I said earlier, Bello and Giolito are finally back from the IL. Bello has gone a total of 11 innings over two starts, giving up just 4 runs while striking out 7. His stuff has looked great in those outings as well. If he can cut down on his walks, Bello has the potential to be a high-end #3 starter on the staff. Giolito, on the other hand, just made his Red Sox debut vs. the Blue Jays, throwing 6 innings of 3-run ball, with 7 K’s, but he did give up a pair of long balls. Giolito, the former White Sox ace, is returning from Tommy John and a hamstring injury, and while he isn’t the guy he used to be, he projects to be a quality 4th starter, something Boston would gladly accept.
Concerns from the Month:
1. Tanner Houck’s regression back to the mean.Â
After a breakout All-Star season in ‘24, Houck has struggled to a tune of a 7.71 ERA during the first month of the season. The signs of this were in place last year, despite the great 3.21 ERA for the whole year, Houck had a 4.29 ERA in 6 starts during August of 2024. The team has him penciled in as the #2 guy behind Crochet. It would be a big boost to a staff who is likely losing Walker Buehler to a shoulder injury for the month of May if Houck can show some improvement. He doesn’t need to put up another All-Star season, but it will be critical for Houck to put up some better numbers.
2. As a team, they lead MLB with 28 errors in 32 games.
I will start out by saying this; this is not Rafael Devers’ fault. He was scapegoated into being the sole problem for the Red Sox defensive issues these past few years. His replacement, Bregman, the reigning Gold Glover at 3B, is second in the AL in errors with 5. The team as a whole has played poor defense, and outside of the duo of Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela in center, it has been rough. Kristian Campbell, an outfielder in college, is still transitioning into a full-time role in the infield, which of course has had some growing pains. Fixing the defense would go a long way in trying to get to the top of the division.
3. As a team they are 28th out of 30 total in strikeouts as an offense.
In 2024, the Top-5 teams in the Majors in strikeouts all missed the playoffs. Boston was 3rd. As of the end of April, they sit back in the same spot. They are 5-13 in games where they strikeout over 10 times as a team. It's easy for me to say that this has to be fixed, but the lineup has shown this issue for over a year now. I don’t know what can be done to correct what is possibly their biggest flaw.
May Preview:
The Sox have to hit their stride this month, as does manager Alex Cora. He has made some head-scratching decisions so far, most notably playing Campbell in center and inserting David Hamilton at second more often than I would like. Campbell still needs to get his feet under him in the dirt, and sticking him out in center does nothing good for the team. It is a defensive downgrade as Rafaela is on the pine, as well as an offensive downgrade as the light-hitting Hamilton doesn’t have the same pop or potential in his bat as Rafaela. If Ceddanne needs a day off just put Rob Refsnyder in the outfield, as he doesn’t compromise the defense, and he adds some punch to the lineup as well.
The pitching being healthy (aside from Buehler) is something to watch. With Bello and Giolito back, the staff has 4/5 of their rotation intact, as opposed to just 3 of the top 5 to start the season. Hopefully, Buehler isn’t on the shelf for long, but Bello and Gio being ready to go is a great sign.
Look, it was just the first month of baseball, but the Red Sox need to figure it out. The squad is too talented to be hovering around .500, something that they’ve done the last two seasons with far less firepower on the team. Cora has the tools at his disposal, and he got his extension last summer. There are no excuses going forward as summer lurks in the weeds. May needs to be a big month for Boston.
Hot Take for Next Month: Both Top-15 overall MLB prospects, OF Roman Anthony and SS Marcelo Mayer make their debuts in May. Anthony stays for good as a main piece of the lineup.
I hope you enjoyed this piece recapping the rocky month of April (and a week of March) of Red Sox baseball. Continue to check in every month for blogs on Boston, as well as the league as a whole, espeically come summertime and October!