6 immediate Red Sox changes stand between disaster and saving the season

There are few things more frustrating right now than the experience of being a Boston Red Sox fan. While the Alex Bregman injury is a kick to the stomach, the frustration was there before that. If the offense plays well, the bullpen and starting pitching let the team down. If the pitching is great, like it was in Garrett Crochet's start on Wednesday against the Milwaukee Brewers, the offense goes dormant. It's a frustrating cycle that has the Red Sox two games below .500 and feeling like the season might already be spiraling down the drain.

What makes that particularly frustrating is that this feels like the same script of the past few seasons since the unexpected playoff run in the 2021 season. The problem with that is that, even with Bregman out of the mix, the roster in Boston is substantially better than it was in 2022, 2023 or 2024. Not to mention, this is one of the best farm systems in baseball with talent to pull from there as well. So for this team to underperform to the degree that they have to this point is, frankly, inexcusable.

If you were to boil down this team's problem to one thing, it would be that, even with Bregman, they weren't putting out the best lineup possible in any given day within the organization. Without Bregman for a potentially extended period of time, however, that now becomes a death sentence for the 2025 season.

This Red Sox season can still be saved, though. However, it will take manager Alex Cora and general manager Craig Breslow making some big-time changes in order. Specifically, these six fixes and decisions — some of them tougher than others — would help to save Boston's season and get them on track to making the postseason for the first time in four years, especially once Bregman is back in the fold.

Bring up Roman Anthony, move Ceddanne Rafaela to SS or a utility role

It's completely asinine to have the top prospect in all of baseball, Roman Anthony, sitting in Triple-A for a club that is underperforming offensively while he has nearly a four-digit OPS. It's been time — in fact, he probably should've been in the Opening Day lineup — and now it's absolute necessity to call him up to the bigs.

Anthony is the offensive spark this team is lacking. The primary argument against calling him up has been that the outfield is set in stone and there's nowhere to put him. Are we sure about that? Last I checked, outside of one short-lived hot streak, Ceddanne Rafaela has an OPS barely above .600 and has never worked a count in his life.

There's no question that Rafaela's glove in center is a massive asset. At the same time, Jarren Duran was a plus defender in center last year as well. The drop-off is negligible defensively, which makes it impossible not to make this move when you consider that moving Rafaela to either shortstop or a utility role, the latter being my preference, improves the offense with Anthony having a spot on the roster.

If the goal is to win and the Red Sox need their best players to win, this is where it all starts.

Get Trevor Story out of the lineup

We're past the point of Trevor Story being a veteran leader and clubhouse guy mattering. After Monday's loss, even after reaching base twice, his OPS is still at .594 for the season. He can't hit a major-league fastball anymore, his defense has gone from a plus attribute to being sub-average, and it's all alarmingly bad for the Red Sox right now.

I have a hard time believing that Boston would DFA someone like Story (though they absolutely should be considering it). However, they have to get him out of the lineup. He's an active detriment to both the offense and defense on the whole right now and, no matter how much money Chaim Bloom signed him for, the fact of the matter is this is supposed to be a playoff team. They aren't with Story in the lineup.

Now that Marcelo Mayer is already up in the wake of the Bregman injury, move him to shortstop, get Nick Sogard at third until Romy Gonzalez returns, and call it a day. Or move Rafaela to short until Bregman's back. Whatever you want to do, there are pieces to move that can help this club win ballgames. Story is not one of those pieces anymore and it's well past time that Cora and whoever needs to make that call in Boston realize it.

Replace Connor Wong with Yasmani Grandal

Connor Wong has been with the Red Sox for a hot minute now, but he's become a non-starter. When the options in 2024 at catcher were Wong, Reese McGuire and then Danny Jansen, it was nice to have Wong, even if his defense left quite a bit to be desired. Now that rookie Carlos Narvaez has arrived immediately and been such a substantial upgrade, though, the lack of quality from Wong is just far too glaring.

Even though Wong has improved his defense this year, his bat has gone missing in action. He flew out uncompetitively with the bases loaded in the loss to the Brewers for the final out, which brings his OPS to a truly appalling .387 on the season. Sure, he dealt with some injuries. But that's not a playable bat.

Yasmani Grandal isn't some kind of savior as a backup catcher but, as he remains in Triple-A for the Red Sox, he's the better option. He won't hit for average but the pop in the bat and his switch-hitting ability is still an asset with veteran-level defense. Wong, at 29 years old, is no longer part of this team's future, which means prioritizing more of a win-now depth move in Grandal is clearly the more favorable option.

Move Brayan Bello to bullpen, DFA Liam Hendriks

This might be the most overreactionary move of the six when it comes to Brayan Bello, but I've simply seen enough. When he came up to Boston, there was talk of the "next Pedro" and him being a No. 1 starter for the future. The reality has become that he might be a No. 5 starter but even that is in question right now. We're now going on four straight starts in which Bello has not gotten out of the fifth inning. To be clear, that's out of seven total starts on the year.

If Bello isn't helping to protect the bullpen with the inconsistency he shows, then he's not a valuable option in Boston's rotation anymore. That's especially true with the pitching depth the Red Sox have and will have available. Richard Fitts was quite impressive before he hit the IL with a pec injury, but is due back in the coming weeks. Kutter Crawford should be back before the All-Star break. Hunter Dobbins has been solid for a rookie to this point. And even Patrick Sandoval could return to help the rotation.

Bello's raw stuff has never been the problem and I've long wondered what he could be in the bullpen. With the revolving door of Sean Newcomb and Cooper Criswell, why not put a simply more talented pitcher like Bello into that role. It doesn't have to be a permanent move but, for the time being to get him and this team to right the ship, that would be the role I'd be most comfortable having Bello help this team in.

Meanwhile, Liam Hendriks is a great person and was once a great pitcher. That time has since gone by. It was a worthwhile experiment but I'm more than ready to call it a failed one and let him go find a job elsewhere.

Keep Luis Guerrero on the big-league roster

Speaking of frustrations in the Red Sox bullpen, stop playing this back-and-forth game with Luis Guerrero. I know this probably feels less emphatic after his latest call-up was costly as he struggled with control and allowed one run and five base-runners in 1.1 innings of work. At the same time, though, that's quite literally the first time in his brief run at the major league level in which he's given up a run. That's right: In 13 appearances, Guerrero has given up exactly one earned run.

Bring Guerrero up and let him be one of the stalwarts of this bullpen. It's been a bit erratic in Triple-A but there is nothing in Boston that indicates that's a long-term problem. Moreover, the Red Sox were inexplicably asking him to rely on a middling slider in that blow-up outing against Baltimore, so maybe just let him stick to his fastball-changeup combo that's been so dominant to this point in his career.

For a bullpen that has been a struggle for Cora and this team all year, though, it seems almost too easy to point out that Guerrero and his track record, albeit a brief one, have more than earned the chance to be a regular piece in this reliever rotation.

Find a solution at first base, whether that's Kristian Campbell or otherwise

Most Red Sox fans know by now that Kristian Campbell has been practicing to potentially take over at first base in the wake of the Triston Casas injury. At this point, I'm ready to rip the band-aid off and unleash him at a new position.

Campbell has been struggling mightily after the plate after the rookie's breakout April that earned him AL Rookie of the Month. For as talented of a player as he is, it really feels like he's pressing as he's trying to take on too much. If he's going to move to first base, let him take his lumps there but grow in his comfort level at the position, which could then allow him to get right at the plate, which is what the Red Sox need more than anything from him at this point.

And if Campbell isn't the long-term solution, then be aggressive sooner rather than later in finding such a player. While it is still a bit early on the trade market, it's hard to justify a struggling offense consistently having Nick Sogard and Abraham Toro slotted in at first base right now. It's a position where the offense is more important and, of the immediate options on the roster, no one has the upside of Campbell, even if he's completely new to the position.

Red Sox lineup, rotation and bullpen following these changes

Red Sox lineup

As mentioned, this lineup gets the best possible nine bats available right now into the mix. Furthermore, when you then think about shuffling some guys around when Bregman returns in the 3-hole, it gets even better. Rafaela can fill in for spot starts along with Gonzalez or even David Hamilton as a utility player but the best lineup then has three of baseball's top prospects entering the season, a red-hot Devers, Duran creating havoc in the leadoff spot and a ton of juice moving forward. Not to mention, it's always nice to have lefty-masher Rob Refsnyder there when you need him as well.

In the immediate with Gonzalez still on the IL — I would move him to second base over Hamilton and DFA Toro in that case — Hamilton is a fine option at second base to potentially be a spark plug with everyday at-bats as an injury fill-in before moving to be a backup middle-infield option.

Red Sox rotation

With Bello moving to the bullpen, this is the best rotation the Red Sox can field in the immediate with Richard Fitts nearing a return after one (or perhaps fewer) more rehab starts. Things do get a bit more complicated once Kutter Crawford is back and ready to throw, the same of which is true for Patrick Sandoval as he returns from Tommy John. At the same time, though, we've seen the need for depth already this season, and there's also a chance Crawford could be a bullpen upgrade as well.

Red Sox bullpen

Until further notice, this team can't rely on Garrett Whitlock in every high-leverage situation. He simply hasn't been the same guy he once was. And perhaps they should also consider not using him (or anyone) in multi-inning roles unless absolutely necessary. There are still options in the minors with guys like Nick Burdi, Cooper Criswell and even David Sandlin if the Red Sox get into a pinch, but this gives the bullpen their best cast of options overall moving forward.