For the story alone, the Red Sox deserve a better regular season grade than ESPN gave them

It's nearly the end of the MLB regular season, which means a moment for reflection before the chaos and drama of the playoffs commence. In the spirit of looking back, ESPN's MLB writer David Schoenfield just released letter grades for each club's regular-season performance. For whatever reason, Schoenfield undersold the Boston Red Sox's miraculous campaign.

Schoenfield gave the Red Sox a "B" grade, which was disappointing and a tad unfair, given all that Boston overcame during this season.

On paper, the grade doesn't look abnormal. It's not like the Red Sox won the division or even finished atop the Wild Card standings, after all. But since we all know how Boston's season actually went from start to finish, the grade doesn't fit the achievement in this case.

ESPN's "B" grade for the 2026 Red Sox's regular season doesn't make sense

That's because the Red Sox overcame organizational tumult, the firing of their manager and other coaches, as well as a terrible wins-and-losses start to the season to end up with a shot to make a World Series run. They're in the postseason. But things didn't look headed in that direction at all when they were 10-17 to start the season under Alex Cora, nor when they were 32-46 on June 24, 15.5 games out.

This was a dark period for the franchise, and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow looked like he was the next scapegoat headed out the door. And then everything turned around, thanks to the leadership of then-interim manager Chad Tracy and tenacious veteran leaders in the clubhouse like Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray.

The Red Sox exploded for a 21-4 July in which they tied a club record with a 15-game winning streak, capturing the attention of MLB and becoming the baseball world's main talking point. Boston's 27-3 record from July 3 to August 7 was the best 30-game stretch in franchise history. All done without star players Roman Anthony and Garrett Crochet.

A team that was completely counted out revitalized its entire season within a month's span — an achievement that doesn't happen more than once or twice every decade across the sport. And yet ... such a climb was only awarded a "B" grade by Schoenfield? Make it make sense.

Context matters when grading each team, so why didn't it factor into Boston's grade? We'll never know. But that'll cease to matter much in a few days when the Red Sox begin their postseason journey at Yankee Stadium against their most bitter rival.

Whatever mountain the Red Sox climbed to get here doesn't give them any extra credit when Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series gets underway. What it might give them is the type of fighting spirit forged from adversity that can propel them on another improbable run. We're about to find out.

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