The Red Sox need a lineup overhaul. It’s complicated, though.

Boston added a real bat last offseason in Willson Contreras – who produced an All-Star season and did homer to produce one of just the two runs the Red Sox scored in the Wild Card series. Contreras alone clearly wasn't enough, especially after the spaced-out departures of Rafael Devers and Alex Bregman from last year's team.

Caleb Durbin had a nice summer improvement. Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu each get ridiculously hot for a few weeks. The potential still remains in Roman Anthony despite a frustrating injury finish to the season. But as a sum of the parts, the Red Sox took a massive step back offensively in 2026.

They scored just two runs in the series. They've scored just 11 in eight postseason games dating back to Game 4 of the 2021 ALCS (more of a historical trend than current lineup analysis but you get the point). Most notably in a trend I've followed for awhile, Boston finished outside of the top-10 in team OPS for the first time since 2017. Clearly, there's a lack of slug and lack of clutch production among the group.