The Boston Red Sox enter Wednesday’s series finale against the Los Angeles Angels with a record of 80-66 and firmly in possession of the second wild card spot in the American League. As the Red Sox appear headed toward their second consecutive playoff appearance, do they have enough star power capable of winning a World Series? 

ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranked all 30 Major League teams based on the star power of their core on Wednesday morning. Here’s what you need to know about how the Red Sox stack up: 

As noted by McDaniel, he ranked the team’s “core” players both at the big-league and minor-league levels based on their projected WAR for the next two and a half seasons, separating them into three tiers: elite (5+ WAR), plus (3-5 WAR), and solid (1.5-3 WAR). 

The Red Sox check in on McDaniel’s list at No. 3, trailing only the reigning back-to-back World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers, who currently possess the best record in baseball. McDaniel ranks Boston one spot higher than the rival New York Yankees and a shocking 21 spots higher than the likely AL East Champion Tampa Bay Rays, who come in all the way down at No. 24. 

Notably, Boston has no players ranked in the “elite” tier. However, they are well represented in the “plus” category, where Payton Tolle, Willson Contreras, Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu, and Garrett Crochet find themselves. 

“The Red Sox are stacked in the plus category (and at the top of the solid category), with a number of established big leaguers and one of the top three prospects in baseball. This is a franchise, along with a few others such as the Padres, that has the true core of the big-league team to build around for years,” writes McDaniel. 

Included in the “solid” tier for Boston are Garrett Whitlock, Ranger Suarez, Jarren Duran, Caleb Durbin, Jake Bennett, Brayan Bello, and prospects Franklin Arias, Justin Gonzales, and Henry Godbout. 

While many have criticized the Red Sox' massive trade deadline deal, dampening their prospect capital, McDaniel instead praised Boston Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow for his trade approach, writing, “The farm system has been used for acquiring more players than just stacking up young players for the sake of it.”

McDaniel missed the mark in his assessment of the Red Sox core. Boston has several players who will be “perennial All-Stars or five+ WAR players.” While 2025 Cy Young runner-up Crochet struggled to the tune of a 6.30 ERA through the first month of the season before landing on the injured list, he is undoubtedly one of the five best pitchers in baseball when healthy and showed flashes of that even while struggling. Crochet posted a 5.7 fWAR in his 2025 campaign, and he is still just 27 years old, in the prime of his career. For McDaniel to insinuate that a shoulder injury that did not require surgery bumps him down from an elite pitcher is disingenuous. 

Then there’s Tolle, who is quickly becoming one of the best young arms in the sport. Through 24 starts, Tolle has posted a 3.6 fWAR, putting him on pace for a 4.9 fWAR if he were to start 32 games (a full season's workload). That mark that would have him on the brink of the elite tier for 2027 and beyond, even if he doesn’t take any steps forward. 

Finally, you have Boston’s trio of outfielders, Anthony, Abreu and Rafaela. Since his return to the lineup, Anthony is hitting .256/.333/.488/.822 with two home runs. In just 31 games in 2026, the 22-year-old has accumulated 0.9 bWAR, a 6.1 bWAR pace for a 162-game season. While the former No. 1 prospect in the sport hasn’t immediately shown the star power that made him one of the most-bet-on players to take home the American League MVP award in 2026. He has shown flashes of being that guy at only 22 years old. If the Red Sox truly do have a core that is the third-best in baseball, it’s because Anthony is an elite asset capable of carrying the team. 

While both Rafaela and Abreu don’t jump off the page as “elite” players. They comfortably fall under McDaniel’s own criteria, as they have both already surpassed the five-WAR threshold thanks to their gold-glove-caliber defense, with room to grow if their bats continue to improve.

Finally, McDaniel is quick to praise Breslow’s move to trade prospects for established players; the piece they used all of that prospect capital to acquire, three-time All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman, is noticeably absent from Boston’s “core players.” While the logic is sound, trading prospects for established big leaguers removes the variability of prospect development. Boston gave up a massive haul of prospects to acquire Rutschman, including at least one, Anthony Eyanson, who would have fallen into the “solid” tier 

Rutschman obviously hasn’t had the start that he or anyone with the Red Sox had dreamed about when they made the blockbuster deal to acquire him, hitting just .188/.253/.391/.645 in 19 games. However, as McDaniel writes about “stacking young players just for the sake of it,” you also should not trade young players just for the sake of it. Either Rutschman is a key piece of the team’s core moving forward, and Breslow should be praised for the move, or he’s not, and Breslow should be criticized for unloading the prospect cupboard for a piece that will have minimal contributions. 

While McDaniel’s ranking of the Red Sox seems fair, his method of getting there certainly feels as though he’s vastly undervaluing Boston’s best players. 

The Red Sox will look to kick off the penultimate homestand of the season with a series win as they take on the Los Angeles Angels in the finale of a three-game set on Wednesday night. Jake Bennett (9-6, 3.34 ERA) will get the start for Boston opposite Ryan Johnson (3-8, 5.17 ERA) for Los Angeles. First pitch from Fenway Park is set for 6:45 p.m. ET.