At 19-27 through May 17, the Boston Red Sox have been superior to only the Los Angeles Angels in the American League thus far in 2026. That is... not the kind of competition you want to be keeping as a preseason playoff favorite.
A lot of that is due to internal struggles. Injuries have deprived both the rotation and lineup of key figures. Established starters like Jarren Duran, Caleb Durbin, and Brayan Bello are suffering through season-long slumps. And the coaching staff was hit with a Craig Breslow-sized wrecking ball just one month into the season.
However, some of this malaise can be chalked up to the folks no longer in town. Everyone knows about the All-Star season Kyle Harrison is putting together in Milwaukee, and even Rafael Devers looks a bit like him old self these days. The real kicker, though, is that much-maligned reliever Jordan Hicks is on a huge run with the Chicago White Sox.
Scoreless in 14 of 17 appearances in 2026
— Bastards of Boston Baseball (@Bastards_Boston) May 14, 2026
Including his last nine straight. pic.twitter.com/JbPY6oEIj1
The Red Sox can't stop evaluating players incorrectly, including Jordan Hicks
Hicks did just get shelled by the Chicago Cubs for four runs in 2/3 of an inning, so his season-long ERA is back up to an unsightly 5.51. However, prior to that outing, he was on a streak of 10 consecutive scoreless appearances, earning a role as a high-leverage option in the White Sox's bullpen.
The point isn't that Hicks is suddenly an attractive relief arm again — he's still walking a comical amount of batters — but rather that the Red Sox have made a comedy of errors in recent years with choosing which players to add and who to subtract from the roster. The Kyle Harrison-Caleb Durbin trade is an obvious gaffe, as was the Chris Sale-Vaughn Grissom swap, but this isn't just a one-off issue. This has been plaguing the team across multiple front office regimes.
Some of this can absolutely be chalked up to bad player development infrastructure; that was reportedly a big reason why Cora and his staff were let go in the first place. Hicks' recent string of strong outings was never going to happen in Boston, where it felt like he became a scapegoat the moment he was acquired.
But there is also clearly an evaluation problem going on here. Whether it's the front office overvaluing specific traits or certain groups of players proving resistant to coaching, it's a huge problem that players seem to get better once they leave the Red Sox.
How one would go about fixing this is the billion-dollar question. Firing Cora and giving the wheel to Chad Tracy was a start, but this problem has deeper roots than just the man leading the dugout.
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