The halls of Major League Baseball are filled with unique personalities and amazing stories of triumph, and disaster too. It’s a near-perfect game for an imperfect collection of creatures.
Secret Base’s Jon Bois exclaims in his latest Pretty Good episode: “The baseball experience is overwhelmingly and definitionally pointless. It is an expression of pointlessness, a celebration of it, a monument to it; and. We. Love. It,” before the jazz kicks back in to bring home the emotional weight his creations frequently deliver.
With the season over for Boston fans, we have a choice to make. We can sit bitterly through the cold months to come, waiting for some offseason moves that may bolster the rotation, shuffle the logjam in the grass, and hopefully bring back Alex Bregman, all ahead of a reset in the spring.
Alternatively, plenty of exciting baseball remains on the schedule, and there’s more than enough room on the October bandwagon for fans to temporarily start rooting for another would-be champion. Perhaps fans will look to teams with the most former Red Sox players, hurling cheers behind those baseball personalities in the hopes of glory for the guys we once cheered for. We've scoured all eight remaining teams' 40-man rosters and came up with 15 who once suited up in Boston home whites.
15 former Red Sox who will have a chance to win the 2025 World Series
Ryan Brasier, Brad Keller, Reese McGuire, Drew Pomeranz and Justin Turner
If you’re looking for a team to get behind with the greatest connection to Boston in its roster, look no further: It’s the Cubs. With five former players in the Cubs’ clubhouse, Chicago offers plenty of reasons for Boston fans to be at least a little interested. As well, as far as curses go, the Cubs weathered their own debilitating World Series drought, drawing yet another parallel.
Justin Turner will be the most eye-catching name on this list, spending 2023 with the Red Sox and delivering leadership and good vibes to the team throughout. Drew Pomeranz, Ryan Brasier, Reese McGuire, and Brad Keller are also former Sox.
Walker Buehler, Kyle Schwarber and Matt Strahm
Three former Red Sox are on the Phillies. Walker Buehler landed in Philly after being released ahead of the postseason cutoff a month ago, although his recent comments on the ABS system will have fans scratching their heads. Kyle Schwarber is another magnetic name that once stood in the Fenway batter’s box. Matt Strahm rounds out this list.
Mookie Betts and Kiké Hernández (and Dave Roberts)
Sox fans might not want to throw their lot in with a team that Dan Patrick suggested might own the best lineup in MLB history (on 10/2). It’s a lot more fun to see a gritty, scrappy team prevail, after all.
But there’s plenty to root for here. Shohei Ohtani continuously rewrites what it means to play baseball professionally. Dave Roberts, a Boston legend for his postseason heroics, also happens to manage the team, and that has to count for something. Los Angeles is home to two fan favorites of recent years in the majestic Mookie Betts and Kiké Hernandez, a player who can still seemingly also do it all as the super-utility man for a team with astounding depth across the diamond.
Danny Jansen and Quinn Priester
Two Brewers players suited up in Boston in 2024: Danny Jansen and Quinn Priester. Priester came over in a trade with the Pirates but didn’t last long on the Red Sox roster before getting flipped for Yophery Rodriguez and Marcus Phillips (as a Competitive Balance Round A pick, initially).
Bill Shaikin at The Los Angeles Times suggested in July that Milwaukee “might be America’s team,” ahead of a dire warning of a lockout to start 2027 as a result of ownership potentially seeking salary cap implementation.
A Brewers championship would short circuit one key argument that the owners will try to make in saying that small market teams can’t compete on the grandest stage. Regardless of your feelings on competitive balance and salary caps, if a Brewers success story this year can help keep the lights on heading into a new season for all of us, that’s good enough for me!
Eduard Bazardo
Returning to Jon Bois’ work briefly, many baseball fans will secretly root for the Mariners as something of a second-favorite team thanks to his “History of the Seattle Mariners.” It’s fitting that the Mariners also have a postseason nemesis in New York. Eduard Bazardo is the single former Red Sox player suiting up for the M’s this postseason in the team’s pursuit of its first World Series appearance.
Bailey Horn
Detroit sports a single former Red Sox player in Bailey Horn. He came in as a reliever to throw 18 innings in 18 games for Boston in 2024, to the tune of a 6.50 ERA. He’s been far better in the Motor City, pitching to a 1.59 ERA while giving up a single home run in 11.1 innings (10 games).
Tyler Heineman
It’s not surprising that crossover between division rivals isn’t common, and only one player from the Red Sox historical lineups is playing in Toronto today. Tyler Heineman played in two games for Boston in 2024, offering the only roster connection for Red Sox fans to cling to. Even so, with Toronto hosting the Yankees to start the ALDS round, it’s not hard to root for the Jays in at least this one round.