There are disappointing seasons, and then there are disappointing seasons that point to bigger issues within an organization. Sometimes, a team gets walloped by injury while finding that it made a few poor personnel choices, and while it can knock them down a peg for a year, it's rarely fatal for an organization. But sometimes, the disappointment is a symptom of a foundational issue. The latter is where the Boston Red Sox appear to be.
After the Red Sox's June 16 series-opening loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, the only team with fewer wins than them is the Colorado Rockies. Even the lowly Los Angeles Angels, who were in last place in the American League for weeks, now have more wins than Boston.
Sure, injury woes like what has happened with Garrett Crochet can make it hard for a club to contend, but that's not why the Red Sox are where they are today. Instead, it has been a series of systematic failures.
When you look at the Angels and the Rockies, you'll find not only poor performance, but also a lack of direction and toxicity that is truly frightening. The 2026 Red Sox share those characteristics, and like an infection, it might not be just a one-year bugaboo.
The Red Sox's association with toxic franchises like the Angels and Rockies tells you all you need to know about their woes
When it comes to solving Boston's issues, one has to find the head of the snake. The organization tried to sell firing Alex Cora as the solution, but if that were the case, we'd have seen the Red Sox bounce back and begin living up to expectations when Chad Tracy took over.
The easy comparison is the Philadelphia Phillies, who dismissed Rob Thomson shortly after the Cora firing. After a 9-19 start, Philadelphia has gone 29-13 under Don Mattingly. For the Red Sox, they've only been marginally better under Tracy, with a 19-24 record following Cora's 10-17 showing.
You can blame Craig Breslow for his horrid asset management, and you'd be justified given the mountain of examples of poor trades, signings, and inaction when it came to addressing critical team needs, but again, you still haven't reached the crux of the issue. Going up another rung, you can note the clear disingenuous nature of Sam Kennedy's vote of confidence in Breslow, but you're still just scratching the surface.
Instead, one has to look at recent history and go straight to the top, and there you'll find the problem lies with John Henry and the unstable culture that his ownership has fostered over the past decade.
Henry isn't as public in his meddling as problematic Angels owner Arte Moreno is. But just as Moreno has not fostered a coherent vision for his ball club, with the aborted Shohei Ohtani-Junior Caminero trade and subsequent loss of Ohtani in free agency serving as just one of many examples, Henry has failed to allow for a consistent strategy to be developed. That cuts just the same.
When you see clearly talented young players like Marcelo Mayer, Kristian Campbell, and so many others veer so far off course in reaching their potential, you begin to realize that the issue isn't with the players or the coaching, but rather, the organization itself.
Over time, that compounds, and a team suffering from this sort of cultural bankruptcy finds itself landing in baseball purgatory, just like the Angels and the Rockies, who year after year are an afterthought in the playoff chase.
The Red Sox aren't yet that far gone. They can turn it around, create a vision, and revamp their culture before the next decade sees them sink deeper into the quicksand of mediocrity, but they'll have to act fast. Pushing the right buttons at the trade deadline will help, but it will only be a band-aid until Henry decides that he wants to restore his ball club to its former glory.
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