The Calendar has officially flipped to 2026. We are 48 days away from Spring Training, so Baseball is almost in the air. When we all enter the new year, everyone has resolutions. Whether it’s exercise, dieting better, or setting a personal goal there is always something we as humans set out to do. For the Boston Red Sox, there are resolutions and things they’ll want to get better at during the 2026 season.
Here’s a look at the 2026 Boston Red Sox New Years resolutions.
Cutting Down the Strikeout Rates
The amount of times we’ve gotten to watch this team and have a crucial moment come up at the plate, only to see them strikeout was frustrating. This can be chalked up to a debate, but the Red Sox do have a strikeout problem. It’s not ideal and certainly a recipe that needs to change going into the 2026 season.
Just the last two seasons (2024 & 2025), the Red Sox find themselves in not elite company. Over those last two seasons, the Red Sox had the fourth most strikeouts AND the fifth highest strikeout rate. The only teams ahead of them? The Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels and Pittsburgh Pirates. Being in similar company to the historically bad Rockies is not a good sign. Granted, the Red Sox strikeout rate did improve from 2024 to 2025 (25.4% to 22.9%), but still being bottom ten in 2025 in strikeouts is bad.
This past season saw the Red Sox have 11 batters that had at least 50 plate appearances with a strikeout rate over 24%. What made the Red Sox frustrating was also their inability to capitalize with runners in scoring position. Oh how many more wins this team could’ve had if they capitalized with runners in scoring position. No team struck out more than the Red Sox with RISP (394).
Pitching is only getting better and the arms coming into this league are becoming more polarizing. The Red Sox need to have better approaches at the plate and need to cut down on the strikeouts.
Get Back to Being Fundamentally Better Defensively
It’s all about getting back to the basics. When you watch teams that do the fundamental things well, you see how smooth the execution is across the board. One team that comes to mind that was fundamentally good at baseball was the Milwaukee Brewers. They run the bases well, play good defense, and don’t make boneheaded mistakes.
When you watch the Red Sox play at times, they make the silliest mistakes. Miscommunication is a big thing and it’s important to communicate when out on the field. There have been countless times in the outfield where Ceddanne Rafaela and Jarren Duran did not communicate and who’s ball it was out there. Primarily in Game 2 against the Yankees and also against the Orioles back in August. That’s just two instances in what’s a long grind of a 162 season.
Let’s talk about the defense, which has once again been porous and leaky. Outfield defense is more than fine, as the team had two gold glove players out there, while also getting sufficient defense from Anthony in either corner. The errors were a killer and the Red Sox led the league in errors this past season. Furthermore, they had the second most throwing errors and the most fielding errors. Nothing brings back stressful memories than Kristian Campbell sailing one from second base past the catcher and the Brewers score on an error to win the game.
It’s really not a great sign when you are dead last in fielding percentage. It should help that the team does have a reliable first baseman that can play serviceable defense, but this is why bringing back Bregman is important. Here’s where the Red Sox stood in metrics at the infield positions:
First Base: -9 defensive runs saved. -6 outs above average
Second Base: -9 defensive runs saved. -6 outs above average
Short Stop: -6 defensive runs saved. -10 outs above average.
Third Base: -1 defensive runs saved. 2 outs above average.
Trevor Story had a good year overall, but had a tough September defensively. First base the Red Sox didn’t have a single positive defender at the position and second base was heavily weighed down by the tough stretch of Kristian Campbell. Willson Contreras was a good defender in his first season at first base, which should help enormously.
The Red Sox are a very fun group. They have a special blend of speed and are unafraid to cause chaos on the basepaths. Continuing to use their speed will be important because their ability to swipe bags and put themselves in scoring position is huge. Just, you have to do something with that when you get that chance (as mentioned above).
Being fundamentally better defensively is important. At some point it has to change and if not Craig Breslow needs to target infielders who are elite defensively, while being serviceable at the plate.
Let’s Hit Some Dingers
The Red Sox have always had the polarizing home run hitter. We’ve been blessed with David Ortiz being the designated hitter and striking fear into the opposing pitching staffs. Manny Ramirez was an absolute DAWG and the amount of towering home runs he hit for this organization is a lengthy list.
We’ve seen the Red Sox have 30+ home run hitters over the years as well. The best team assembled (2018) saw Mookie Betts (32) and JD Martinez (43) pave the way. 2019 the Red Sox have a trio of players hit 30+, and a duo hit 30+ in 2021. It did help that four players hit 20+ as well. That team was fun. However, 2022 didn’t produce many home runs, and the team did bounce back in 2023. 2024 saw the Red Sox rank 9th in home runs, led surprisingly by Tyler O’Neill and then Rafael Devers.
This now leads us to 2025 and the Red Sox being a see-saw when it comes to hitting the long ball. Devers was an impactful bat for the Red Sox in 2025. He had the highest walk rate of his career and saw the ball better than he ever had. Kind of funny considering the historically bad start to the season he had. Devers finished with 35 home runs overall between the Giants and Red Sox. With Devers in the fold, the Red Sox were ninth in home runs. Once get inevitably got traded, the Red Sox plummeted down to 23rd. Yikes.
This is why everyone was banging the drums for Kyle Schwarber and Pete Alonso. There is at least room for optimism in 2026 regarding hitting the deep ball. Trevor Story hit 25 home runs and it’s hard to expect that yet again, but there is 20 homerun potential in that bat. Wilyer Abreu hit 22 home runs and missed time. A healthy Abreu and a player that Alex Cora said will play more against left handed pitching, should be able to crack the 30 home run mark. Willson Contreras is a player that can net you 20+ home runs. He’s never hit more than 24, but the power is there for him to land you 20, as he’s done it three times in the last four seasons.
It’s not easy to sit here and lean on a 21 year old in Roman Anthony. But one of the biggest storylines for the Red Sox is seeing him blossom into a superstar. Anthony showed enormous promise, with elite bat speed, hard hit rates, high exit velocities, and a great eye for the ball. Anthony hit eight home runs and a full season should see him hit at the very least 20. Anthony finished the season with a 37.4 LA Sweet Spot rate, which is a good indicator of measuring good contact. If he does improve his liftoff ability, the sky is the limit.
Per Fangraphs and their Steamer Projections, does not have a single Red Sox batter hitting 20 home runs. That seems low and quite shocking. But we saw what a Red Sox team lacking power looked like and its safe to say that they need to hit for more power in 2026.
There’s so much to be excited for with this Red Sox team. A full season of Roman Anthony. Year two of the War Pig in Garrett Crochet. The amount of upside with the youth in the pitching laboratory. This was a Red Sox team that made the playoffs, but if they can achieve at least two of the three things mentioned above that’ll make them better than what they were in 2025.
