Good morning! Boston saw its first significant snow storm of 2026 yesterday, and it’s well below freezing today. In other words, it very much does not feel like baseball season here. But baseball is being played all around the world, including in the Dominican, where a spot in the LIDOM championship series was decided by […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
It’s hard to believe that the Red Sox are about one quarter as many years removed from the 2004 World Series as the total length of the curse that was broken that year. A huge difference, of course, was the addition of three more trophies. With the announcement of Jon Lester being enshrined the the […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
Hello and happy Monday, friends. Hell of a Pats game yesterday, wasn’t it?! I mean, Drake’s gotta hold on to the ball better going forward. Even against Jarrett Stidham, we can’t afford to put the ball on the turf four or five times against a tough Denver defense on the road. I’m gonna need more […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
Welcome back to the 2025-26 edition of Smash or Pass, in which we examine potential free agent and trade targets to determine whether the Red Sox should pursue them and what it would take to land them. Today we look at a Gold Glove infielder. Who is he and where does he come from? He’s Nico […]
about 2 months ago | 9 reads
Good morning! Kyle Tucker signed a massive free agent deal with the Dodgers last night. Don’t waste your breath arguing that this is bad for baseball. It isn’t. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Dodgers are causing fans to lose interest in the sport. In fact, the evidence suggests that they are increasing interest […]
about 2 months ago | 6 reads
I was still in substantial shock over the sudden departure of Alex Bregman and spinning out over the state of the Red Sox infield right before the Ranger Suárez signing. Yet in the space of 20 minutes, I went from freaking out over the thought of Nick Sogard as our Opening Day second baseman to […]
about 2 months ago | 4 reads
There’s a disgracefully long list of reasons the Red Sox lost Game 2 of last year’s Wild Card series to the Yankees, and I don’t think any of them are brought up enough. Ceddanne Rafaela tried to get a bunt down twice on a pair of pitches that were each about a foot outside of […]
about 2 months ago | 5 reads
With all the infield rumors swirling and the Red Sox third base situation thrown in flux in the aftermath of Alex Bregman signing with the Cubs, Marcello Mayer’s role grows more interesting. He’s never played more than 91 games in a season, but boy does he look the part defensively whether you play him at […]
about 2 months ago | 6 reads
On September 1, 2020 the Red Sox, in the midst of a crazy year in every sense of the word, decided to go for broke with a completely unhinged tweet: The text on the tweet read “iykyk,” which stands for, “If you know, you know.” The Red Sox were referencing the team resetting the luxury […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
Who is he and where did he come from? He’s Ranger Suarez, and he comes to Boston via major league free agency. He signed for five years and $130 million. He did have a qualifying offer attached, so the Red Sox will forfeit two draft picks and $1 million in international bonus pool money. Suarez […]
about 2 months ago | 5 reads
As the dust settles on the Alex Bregman departure, details about the Red Sox failed free agent pursuit are starting to trickle out. Unsurprisingly, Alex Speier has a ton of interesting nuggets, including: the Red Sox had a trade for Nolan Arenado all but completed last offseason until Bregman and Scott Boras approached the Sox […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
Good morning! The Red Sox don’t have a third baseman, but they do have two of the best left-handed pitching prospects in baseball. MLB Pipeline put both Payteon Tolle and Connelly Early on their top-10 list: That’s Tolle in the number two slot, just behind Miami’s Thomas White, and Connelly Early landing at number eight. […]
about 2 months ago | 8 reads
Regarding the Red Sox offseason, you may have heard, among other things, that they have not yet signed a Major League free agent. That is true. It is, in fact, unclear if the front office is aware that free agency began on November 6th. Minor league free agents, though? The action is hot. The Red […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
Welcome back to the 2025-26 edition of Smash or Pass, in which we examine potential free agent and trade targets to determine whether the Red Sox should pursue them and what it would take to land them. Next up, a former top prospect. Who is he and where does he come from? He’s old friend Yoan Moncada, […]
about 2 months ago | 5 reads
In the 19 years between 1993 and 2011, the Red Sox didn’t finish in last place in the division a single time. In the 14 years since 2011, they finished in last 6 times. The lean Chaim Bloom years were intended, according to Fenway Sports Group, to serve as something of a resent to avoid […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
The Red Sox made it through Fenway Fest before the Alex Bregman news broke. After months of negotiations and all the work that went into acquiring him last year, the saga is over. Only a few people will ever know how whether the Red Sox were genuinely serious or if this was a pursuit designed […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
Welcome back to the 2025-26 edition of Smash or Pass, in which we examine potential free agent and trade targets to determine whether the Red Sox should pursue them and what it would take to land them. Next up, a (mostly) second baseman who may or may not be on the trading block. Who is he […]
about 2 months ago | 5 reads
I don’t want to say I told you so — because I definitely wasn’t alone in my worries about this whole situation, although I did take considerable heat for it on Twitter — but let’s just say that what unfolded this weekend with Alex Bregman is exactly what I figured would happen immediately following the […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
And how was your weekend? Yeesh. I’m still a bit shocked that Alex Bregman ain’t coming back to the Red Sox. I guess I just had too much confidence that something would’ve been figured out. Luckily, the gang here at OTM will be here to take you through the fallout of the third baseman signing […]
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
The Chicago Cubs signed former Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman to a bad contract tonight: five years, $175 million with no opt-outs. The Great Bregman Saga, which has consumed two consecutive offseasons for the Red Sox, is now over. The final line reads: 114 G, 18 HR, .273/.360./462, 3.5 bWAR, $40 million, 1 postseason […]
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
Perhaps the title of “Renaissance man” is thrown around too much. Sure, folks can be talented in multiple different disciplines of the arts. Culture is a broad spectrum that reaches billions, and the beauty of it is that its auteurs and practitioners can reach across any construct of division that might separate us: race, gender, creed, language […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Hello one and all, and happy Saturday. To those who will be in attendance: happy Fenway Fest to you and yours! I won’t be able to make it this year, sadly, as I missed the boat on ticket inventory. I gambled that the event wouldn’t sell out, and I lost. If it’s your first time, […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Good morning. Camp Story is wrapping up somewhere in Texas. Time to do some scrapbooking: Talk about what you want, write to your new camp buddies, and be good to one another.
2 months ago | 1 read
There’s a long history of people being associated with things they never *exactly* said. On July 15, 1979, exactly 18 months after I was born, Jimmy Carter gave a speech about a “crisis of confidence” in America that’s commonly referred to as the “malaise” speech, despite Carter never having used the word. But the brain […]
2 months ago | 1 read
It’s early January in Boston. Every day, or so it seems, there is the dreaded wintery of sleet/snow/rain/ice and of course wind. But over the next month there will be more and more stories about guys “in the best shape of his life” and heading to Florida for Spring Training. And as soon as those […]
2 months ago | 1 read