The Boston Red Sox enter Monday’s off day at 25-33 and in last place in the American League East. While things haven’t gone exactly to plan in the first 36-percent of the season, there are still a few reasons to be optimistic that the Red Sox can turn things around and salvage the 2026 campaign.

Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow constructed the 2026 Red Sox to prevent runs, and thus far, the team has excelled in that facet of the game, featuring one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. 

After a slow start to the season, the Red Sox pitching staff was one of the 10 best in baseball in May, posting a 3.24 ERA in 27 games, the seventh-lowest mark in the sport for the month. The month from the pitching staff was especially impressive when you factor in that 2025 Cy Young Award runner-up Garrett Crochet missed the entirety of it while working his way back from shoulder inflammation. Furthermore, big ticket free agent signing Ranger Suarez was much less effective than he was in April. 

The Boston staff was led by veteran Sonny Gray, as well as rookie left-handers Payton Tolle and Connelly Early, the three of whom combined for a 2.48 ERA over 80 innings pitched in the month. 

Overall, the Boston staff is tied for the ninth-lowest ERA in all of baseball through the first 58 games of the season. 

After years of being one of the worst defensive teams in the sport, Boston has completely flipped the script in 2026 with one of the best defensive rosters in baseball. The Red Sox have posted a defensive runs saved of 49 in 2026, giving them a large lead over the next closest team, the Los Angeles Dodgers (34). They also rank second in baseball in both outs above average (17) and fielding run value (18), trailing only the Chicago Cubs. To put into perspective just how much the Boston defense has improved in 2026, the 2025 Red Sox finished the season with just 30 defensive runs saved, a mark they have blown past in just 58 games. 

If the Red Sox can even reach a league-average level of offensive production, their run prevention unit is more than capable of winning them low-scoring games. 

The Boston offense got off to a brutal start to the season, entering May as one of the league's worst units in baseball. However, they will enter June on a much more positive note. In the 27 games the team played in May, they ranked in the top 10 in baseball in batting average (.265), on-base percentage (.330), and slugging percentage (.406).

There was just one problem: they struggled to convert those hits into runs. The Red Sox' struggles converting hits into runs come from two very easily identifiable problems: the lack of home runs and poor hitting with runners in scoring position. After hitting the third-fewest home runs in baseball in April, the Boston offense finished with the sixth-fewest in May with 23. They also hit just .228 with runners in scoring position, leading to the seventh fewest runs scored in the sport for the month. 

While the inability to consistently convert hits into runs is certainly concerning, the signs are there that the Boston offense is on the cusp of at least becoming league average, which, with the strength of the pitching staff, may be all they need to turn things around. 

This is perhaps the biggest reason for optimism among the struggling American League teams; the AL is about as bad as it has been in recent years. Despite being eight games under .500 and 12 games back of Tampa Bay for the American League East lead, Boston finds itself right in the thick of the Wild Card race, trailing Toronto by just three games for the final Wild Card spot. 

While it has been a wildly underwhelming start to the season for the Red Sox, if they can pair their already elite pitching staff with a passable offense, they can rise to the top of the mediocrity that has filled the American League in 2026 and make their first consecutive playoff appearances since the 2017-18 seasons. 

After a brief three-game road trip, Boston will return home for a three-game set with the Baltimore Orioles that gets underway on Tuesday night. Connelly Early (5-2, 2.95 ERA) gets the start for the Red Sox, opposite Shane Baz (2-5, 4.48 ERA) for the Orioles. First pitch from Fenway Park set for 6:45 p.m. ET. 

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