Ranking every Boston Red Sox season from this decade

2015

Boston tried to climb out of the basement by throwing lucrative contracts at a pair of free agents, only for the plan to backfire spectacularly. Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval were epic disasters during their tenure with the Red Sox.

It never made sense to sign two players whose best position was third base. The Red Sox experimented with Ramirez in left field but the leaning curve proved to be too steep. Ramirez was awful in the outfield and his bat did little to make up for it.

Sandoval was somehow even worse at the plate and his conditioning quickly became a topic of concern. These were two former All-Stars who the Red Sox shelled out big money to sign but they each provided below-replacement level value in their first year in Boston.

Giving away Lester at the deadline the previous year left the Red Sox without a legitimate ace to anchor their rotation. The team quickly lost interest in Cespedes after getting a half-season look at him following the Lester trade. They flipped him that offseason to the Detroit Tigers for Rick Porcello, who had the worst year of his career in 2015 as the supposed savior of Boston’s rotation. Porcello went 9-15 with a 4.92 ERA in his debut season with the Red Sox.

Boston “improved” to 78 wins but remained in last place for the second consecutive season and third time in four years.