Five Early Takeaways About the 2026 Boston Red Sox

The veteran shortstop was a passable May away from having a borderline All-Star 2025 campaign. Regardless, he still finished the year with the most home runs (25), runs batted in (96), stolen bases (31), and games played (157) on the team.

For the Red Sox, it was the first real glimpse of the player they signed ahead of the 2022 season. There’d been flashes, but his previous career high for games played in Boston was 94 in 2022.

This year, they’re asking Trevor Story for even more than he gave last year. Even though he posted 3.0 fWAR and turned into a major run-producer in 2025, they have now asked him to take the reins in the lineup spot that often goes to the best hitter on a team: the two-hole.

It’s way too early to pull the plug on Story being a meaningful contributor to the Red Sox offense. But through six games, he’s slashing .138/.138/.276 with 13 strikeouts in 29 plate appearances.

The strikeouts, though likely not at a rate bordering on 50% all year, will always be part of his game. Oftentimes, it’s a byproduct of being a power hitter; not every two-hole hitter is Juan Soto. However, Story’s best days as a Red Sox yielded an overall wRC+ of 101.

That’s just not good enough to hit second in the lineup. Where the Red Sox run into trouble, unfortunately, is that there isn’t really someone who sticks out as a reasonable alternative, especially if they want to split up all their lefties at the top of the order.

2. Early Cracks in the Run Prevention Machine

That works almost as a double, maybe even triple, entendre. First off, the Red Sox rank 26th in the majors in staff ERA, at a whopping 4.91. It’s come in a small sample, and a couple of bad games set the numbers back tremendously. However, the only team worse than them with legitimate postseason aspirations is the Philadelphia Phillies.

Second, first innings in particular are killing the Red Sox. They’re tied for 24th in first-inning ERA at 7.50, but that’s not telling the full story, as only three teams have it worse.

Moreover, even their scoreless firsts have been laborious. Connelly Early — who gave the Sox 5.1 innings of one-run ball in his season debut — pitched a scoreless first but threw 24 pitches. He was able to make it to the sixth inning, but an opening-inning labor hinders a starter’s ability to pitch deep into the game.

When your team is designed to have the starter go six, then give way to the three-headed monster of Justin Slaten, Garrett Whitlock, and Aroldis Chapman, starters have a lot of pressure to be on point from jump street.

That said, Early was, overall, a major bright spot. Despite being in a competition just to make the team out of camp, he entered 2026 as the de facto No. 3 starter. While some of that is due to buildup issues surrounding Ranger Suárez and Brayan Bello, Early took to his role with grace and rewarded the Red Sox for that vote of confidence.

3. Connor Wong May Be Viable in 2026

The last remaining piece of the Mookie Betts trade had a promising, albeit suboptimal based on batted ball data, season in 2024. The 2025 season was essentially the inverse; a lot of Connor Wong‘s contact was the same, but the results were exceedingly negative.

He didn’t achieve his first RBI until June 23 last year, his first extra-base hit on July 25. Across four games this year, he’s already got three doubles and an RBI, overall slashing .500/.500/.800 with 0.3 fWAR.

Wong is likely not returning to even a 50% share of games played, thanks to the breakout of Carlos Narváez on both ends last year.

That said, Narváez was scratched from the Red Sox’s most recent loss on April 1 for an undisclosed “non-injury-related” reason. Cora and his starting catcher kept it close to the vest, emphasizing a desire to keep it between them, but that’s at least something to note.

Regardless of the Cora-Narváez situation, Wong being a viable secondary option is critical. Last year, Narváez played much of the second half on a torn meniscus, contributing to a major decline in production offensively post All-Star break.

Worth noting, Wong broke his right hand early in 2025, missed roughly a month, and had offseason surgery on it. If that’s cleaned up, it should render him much more useful to the Red Sox in 2026.

4. Wilyer Abreu Looks Really Hitter-ish To Start the Season

The two-time Gold Glover is once again opening the season on a torrid pace. Through the team’s first six games, Wilyer Abreu is slashing .417/.417/.917 with a team-high three home runs. He’s also driven in six runs and has 0.6 fWAR.

There’s no denying he’s someone who can carry an offense for extended stretches. The issues with him in his career are health- and platoon-related. The Red Sox are committing to him against lefties, at least to start 2026. He’s just 2-for-10 against them so far, but it’s still very early.

If he’s able to play at a passable level against lefties and buck the injury concerns, the Red Sox have a budding star at the corner opposite to Roman Anthony, who is already emerging as a star-caliber player in his own right.

Abreu’s pull-air rate stuck out in recent years. After debuting at just an 11.3% rate in 2023, it jumped to 22.9% in 2024 before exploding to 25.7% last year. Early returns show that was no fluke; it’s 25.0% to open 2026. If he can sustain that, maybe even improve on that number from last year, he’s a candidate to hit the 30-homer plateau.

He’s already a gem defensively in right field. There’s a potential four or five wins in this player if his bat is humming and he’s on the field enough.

5. There’s a Lack of Strategy to the ABS Challenges

Sure, there will be some variance to the success rate on automated ball and strike challenges this season, for all teams. However, the Red Sox are struggling not only to get their challenges right, but also in determining when to use them.

In their game two loss to Cincinnati on Saturday, they lost their second challenge in the third inning. After that, they watched as they repeatedly came up on the short end of ABS challenges, or lack thereof. Story especially lost out on not having challenges, as he was rung up on a 3-2 pitch above the zone.

The Reds also won several challenges throughout the game. It almost felt like that scene from SpongeBob where Squidward is watching from his house as SpongeBob and Patrick are running around having fun outside.

Against the Astros, outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela burned a challenge on an 0-0 pitch in the third inning of a 1-0 game. Sure, you never want to willingly lose a strike, but it was such an inconsequential pitch. He also got it wrong, so that felt doubly silly.

There’s seemingly been a lack of strategy and feel when it comes to using the ABS system. It’s new, so that’s expected, but the Red Sox are having an especially tough time with it.