Red Sox All-Star Can Be Game-Changer In 2025: Deep Dive

The Boston Red Sox have a chance to have a vastly improved bullpen in 2025.

Boston's bullpen arguably is the biggest reason why the club collapsed in the summer of the 2024 campaign and ended up missing the playoffs. The Red Sox finished the season with the 24th-ranked bullpen ERA at 4.39. Now, the Red Sox are going to have a completely new looking bullpen.

Top guys from last year's bullpen, like Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin, are no longer with the organization. The Red Sox re-tooled and added guys to the organization like Aroldis Chapman, Matt Moore, and Adam Ottavino. Internal options are expected to play a big role in 2025 like Garrett Whitlock, Liam Hendriks, Justin Slaten, and maybe even Michael Fulmer. There are other guys in the mix as well. All in all, there's a lot of talent for this bullpen right now.

One thing that's especially interesting to follow is the closer battle. It seems like Hendriks, Chapman, Slaten, or Luis Guerrero have the best shot at the job, although things are completely up in the air.

Hendriks is a guy who hasn't had the spring he wanted yet, but fans shouldn't be worried about yet. As of writing, Hendriks has appeared in four games and has allowed six earned runs. He has struck out three batters and hasn't allowed a walk yet. He's allowed two home runs, which has skewed his earned runs allowed.

It's not too shocking that Hendriks hasn't been red-hot in Spring Training so far. It's his first time pitching in Spring Training since 2022 as he dealt with cancer and an arm injury. He pitched in five games at the big league level in 2023 and six games in the minors in 2024. In the minors last year he had a 1.80 ERA.

If you look at his Spring Training numbers over the course of his career, sometimes he has been a slow starter. He had a 7.04 ERA in 2016 and then had a 3.76 ERA in the regular season. He had an 8.22 ERA in 2017 and had a 4.22 ERA in the regular season. In 2020, he had a 3.00 ERA in Spring Training and then an eye-popping 1.78 ERA in the regular season.

Spring Training is a small sample size anyway, but his numbers throughout his career typically tend to be much better in the regular season. Plus, after just five games at the big league level since 2022, it's not shocking the spring hasn't started off super strong. He's only pitched games so far in the spring so by the end the numbers could look better anyway.

This is a guy who can be a game-changer for the Red Sox in 2025. There's no need to worry.