The “What EVEN Are You?” Boston Red Sox

Things are beginning to feel different in the city of Boston —the sports town that has a history of winning (and probably caring) more than anyone else in America.

In 2012, there was an iconic ESPN: The Magazine cover entitled “WELCOME TO BOSTON, LOOZAH!” sporting a fist of diamond-crested championship rings for the Pats, Bruins, Red Sox, and Celtics.

Suddenly, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are gone from the Patriots, and Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye are going to have to turn things around.

The Bruins were a disappointing dumpster fire of turmoil while Brad Marchand is in the Stanley Cup Final, scoring goals for the hated Florida Panthers.

The Celtics went from perennial dynasty contenders to losing Jayson Tatum to a torn Achilles in the postseason and likely next year.

That leaves all eyes on the utterly weird Boston Red Sox.

We just had the iconic, primetime-slot-filled Yankees-Red Sox rivalry for the first time this weekend, in which the underdog Red Sox took two of three on the road in the Bronx; it was much-needed elation after the season has been a rollercoaster of fight, oddity, and disappointment.

PHOTO: Joe Nicholson/Imagn Images

Based on the moves that the Red Sox made this offseason, it felt as if the team was going for it for the first time since the tragedy of the Mookie Betts trade, which is spoken of like the era of the Great Depression. They paid Alex Bregman more money than the rest of his suitors, they traded and extended for ace pitcher Garrett Crochet, and solidified the rest of the pitching staff. It didn’t come without weird, “my own worst enemy” drama, though, as suddenly the highest-paid Rafael Devers wasn’t consulted on the Alex Bregman signing, and now no one knew who was going to play third base. Nevertheless, after a Yankees World Series implosion where they lost Juan Soto, a revamped energy around the club with a trusted manager, and an unpredictable American League, many had them winning the division preseason.

What have been the results? On a team with high expectations in the trending up bucket, it may be amplified due to the lack of attention on the other Boston teams, but the amount of frustration experienced by a team that has been at or around the .500 mark has been astronomical due to the way that it’s happening. It feels as if it’s self-inflicted, and that’s why we keep talking ourselves into them being capable of turning it around.

They’re losing close games- they’re 6-17 in one-run games that could have been a coin flip if not for what feels like chaos.

They commit the most errors of any team in the major leagues and would have been in the bottom three for the last three seasons – these are fundamental mistakes rather than a lack of talent.

On top of that, there is constant drama surrounding playing in Boston, which is heightened by the expectations, and the drama is amplified. There are pregame scuffles with the Angels‘ pitching staff over sign-stealing. There are quotes and non-quotes from Rafael Devers before Alex Bregman, who had been raking, gets a long-term injury, and now no one knows who will play first or third, with Tristan Casas also getting injured. Trevor Story was the “Xander Bogaerts big contract replacement” and now, fighting through injuries from multiple seasons, is a DFA candidate depending on who you talk to.

You also have the prospect conundrum; Kristian Campbell has been the ultimate warrior from a leadership standpoint at just 22 years old; he came and went about his business by batting .300 for the first 30 games of the season after getting his extension done early; in contrast to Devers, he even said he’d be willing to play anywhere in the field. The mindset is welcome, but he’s now having to figure that out in the majors, going through a slump rather than getting help in the minors.

The other two of the “big three” prospects, Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony, were supposed to be seen as luxury ads later in the season to be the cherry on top of the contending sundae rather than pieces of desperation; they’ve gone from being reinforcement spark plugs off the bench in a Celtics game to being asked to be Larry Bird, which is a lot to ask of guys that haven’t even reached 23 years old yet.

Amidst all this drama, we have no idea what they are. They just took two of three from the Yankees and will hopefully get Alex Bregman back in months, and have now called up Roman Anthony to take his role as the prince who was promised. The 33-36 start has them 3.5 games back of the last AL Wild Card spot, but the reality is that the teams ahead of them in the standings feel just as easy to have a lack of faith in. We just saw last season the Tigers make the postseason with a less than 1% chance in August, and they had nowhere near the top-end talent of Crochet, Bregman, and Devers when all things are clicking. The heart and the youth of the team is still there, especially with a front office that is feeling a sense of desperation, and that’s what has made the team that is capable of putting up fights in every single game so desperate.

We don’t really know what they are right now other than a team that is young with top-end talent and pitching that you don’t trust aside from strikeout leader Garrett Crochet. What we also know is that we’re still romanticizing about them possibly being able to turn it around at some point, because that’s what makes baseball great. Coming off the All-Star Break, when teams typically turn it around and the “buyer or seller” mark is definitively set, they start off with series against all teams that are in postseason contention: the Cubs, Phillies, Dodgers, Twins, Astros, Royals, and Padres.

We may already have a sense of how much of a rollercoaster this has been thus far, but the season is a marathon, and they may have experienced three tragedies and four triumphs by then.

PHOTO: Joe Nicholson/Imagn Images