Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What led to the Red Sox's disappointing end to the 2025 season?
Yeah, there should be some passion. This doesn't have to be boring.
You don't get bored by baseball.
One thing the game needs is more people like you. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You.
You. You. You.
Hopefully, Bradfoe can bring some levity. The day after the aftermath, Red Sox lose 4-0 in New York. They lose the Wild Card Series. McFarlane! McFarlane! And his wife's like, shut up with the McFarland. Hi, guys.
Hi, guys. By the way, that was not me yelling McFarland.
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Chapter 2: Who is to blame for the Red Sox's Wild Card Series loss?
That was a staged McFarland by the producer. That's what we all say. But I will gladly yell McFarland 50,000 times. I just drove from New York to Philadelphia, and in every toll booth, I shouted it in their face. So there you go. I got through it for free. That's how it works.
No context, no nothing, just the name.
No, nothing.
McFarlane can do a lot of great things. Can they make us feel better about the fact that this series petered out? You win game one, and historically that means you win the series, except they didn't, and we have Kyle Hudson, Nate Eaton et al. to blame, Jaron Duran. Where is your angst most focused, if there is any, coming out of this disappointing end to what was a pretty entertaining season?
I don't know if I have angst. I think that today I've been saying to people, I think the reality of the Red Sox was something that we were sort of disguising for a little bit here. I kept saying to you guys a lot of times, I don't know how they're going to score a run, and then they put up a bunch of runs.
And I think that what happened is that you get to the point where you weren't putting up a bunch of runs. You weren't doing it. There wasn't the answers. And yeah, sure, you went up against really good pitching, but
that's another thing where I look at this team and I kind of, it was, I was a little wary of, which is when you go up against elite pitchers that they might have problems and they did have problems because they weren't elite hitters and their elite hitters weren't near elite hitters. So I think the biggest angst, if there's anything, it was like, Oh man, you know what? We fooled ourselves.
Like we fooled ourselves into thinking that when you go up against playoff caliber pitching, like you did, that you were going to be able to function like you had so many times when you were resilient, and that just wasn't the case.
Brad Foe, I guess along those same lines, what are you most disappointed in this year, or maybe even in the series, because it was kind of pretty much exemplified the whole season. Was it the hitting, the pitching, or the defense that you're most disappointed in?
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Chapter 3: What were the biggest disappointments in the Red Sox's performance?
Yeah.
Yeah, well, there you go. I mean, and also, like, you know, his defense, his throwing, everything. He just was a shell of what he was, used to be. And so, you know, we all knew, guys, that you're going to have to deal one of these outfielders with Roman Anthony. And let's not forget the Roman Anthony dynamic. I don't know if anyone cares about that. And by the way, he wasn't coming back.
He was like, he wasn't even doing baseball stuff. He was never coming back. And so, but, you know, I think that they have to trade one of these guys I think that what they saw from Duran wasn't necessarily exactly what they want from that position. They want better defense. They want more consistent offense. He wasn't able to hit lefties.
He wasn't the version of Duran they had the year before that San Diego fell in love with. So I would think that that would be a very, very real thing because it's going to be one of those guys, and my guess is that they like Raffaella and they like Leo Abreu, and obviously Yoshida sort of revitalized himself to show what he can do.
So, you know, I think that that's probably the guy more than anything, and I know that you're going to bring up Bregman, but, you know, I still, I'm sitting here, guys, and I'm like, wow, you know, you opt out of that deal, opt out of that deal with those numbers after that second half. Nope, no way he is. That's still hard for me to get my head around. It really is.
Rob Bradford, host of Baseball Isn't Pouring podcast, weei.com here on WEI Afternoons. What do you think the biggest need will be? You know, I know there's a long way to go to get into this, but is it a big right-handed bat? Is it Joe Ryan, that number two starter that everybody still has dreams of trading for? Where do you think the biggest need is for this team?
I do think that they have to take another run at Joe Ryan. I think they do. And they probably will. Because you look at what Bayou became, but still, you can't just say, okay, there's your no doubt about it number two guy. He's still a work in progress as we saw the other day. But you also have to find some offense guys. I mean, you just have to.
And what you're going to do at first base, that's going to be a big mystery. The guy I'm sitting here, you know, we're just in the clubhouse, Kyle Schwarber. And do I think he's going to end up with the Red Sox? No. Do I think they should make the strongest run possible at him? Yes. Do I think they will make the strongest run possible at him? No.
Because I think Alex Cora is no mystery how much he likes a guy and wants a guy. Basically, when they were in Philadelphia in his press conferences, all but called him over and said, hey, let me give you this bouquet of roses. Come on over just to be nice. But I think that for good reason. He's sort of the Bregman guy.
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Chapter 4: How did injuries impact the Red Sox's season and playoff chances?
Well, you know, I think that I'm going to go with the Yankees in the World Series because they have the three stars and they don't have to do those bullpen shenanigans, which every other team is trying to do. And I also go, I'll go with this team right here, the Phillies. So the Philly Dodgers, I think whatever team wins is going to be in the World Series.
But the Phillies, man, they're built for this thing. And I'll go with the Phillies to win it all. It'll be a good World Series, though. I know that nobody wants to hear it, but yay baseball.
Bradfo, this is probably too big a question to sneak in under the wire, but I'm going to try it anyway. We've gotten a lot of texts and complaints. Are they going to spend money? Are they going to fill the Devers slot? If a guy like Bregman opts out, will they fill the Bregman slot? Or is there a chance that they look at all the young players and just try to stay young and build?
There's definitely still concerns in Red Sox Nation about spending.
Yeah, yeah. See, it's weird because, right, they still don't have the benefit of the doubt when it comes to that, even after the offseason, even after the extensions, even after the crochet deal, even after you sign Bregman and all that. But, you know, I do think that they will spend money because of that.
I think they should get a little bit of the benefit off of last year, and they do have that money. And I think they also, they can taste this. Like, yes, they have young guys coming up, But there right now, they're at that point even more than last year where they sort of push their chips to the middle of the table. This is a time to get some more chips and push them even further.
And I think they understand that. I think they did under the deadline and they didn't execute. But in the offseason, listen, they're one for one with really good offseasons in the last year anyway. So, you know, let's see. I'm pretty optimistic they're going to spend some money.
All right, well, while you're down there, tell Schwarber that when he ups out, I mean, when he hits the market to come back to Boston. We need him. We want him. They'll pay him. I'll chip in $5.
Listen, a regular appearance on WEI Afternoons, that's gold.
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