Complaining is easy. Sports radio proves that every day. We spent the last piece breaking down how this front office got us here. This one is about what I’d actually do to fix it. For the purposes of this piece, Craig Breslow is fired. I’m the GM. Here’s the plan.

The Red Sox are 31-45 and dead last in the AL East. Craig Breslow built a roster with no margin for error, then watched the errors pile up. Garrett Crochet and Roman Anthony have both missed significant time. Alex Cora got fired after 27 games, which sounds impossible until you remember this is Boston. The offense is bottom five in runs scored.
You know all of this.

How Championship Teams Are Actually Built

Every World Series champion since 2010 finished in the top 13 in slugging percentage. Nearly all got high-end production from their lineup. Nine of the last eleven finished in the top half of baseball in on-base percentage. The 2018 Red Sox led the AL in runs scored. The 2013 team ranked top five in both OBP and runs. Neither won because they had some untouchable rotation. They won because they could score.

You cannot over-index on pitching and expect no offense to matter. That is exactly what Breslow’s Red Sox did. They built an impressive staff. Garrett Crochet did not pitch like an ace before getting hurt, but zoom out and the point still stands. Sonny Gray, Ranger Suárez, Early, and Tolle have all posted ERAs of 3.21 or better, and the bullpen’s 3.08 ERA ranks third in baseball.

And it still didn’t matter.

The offense became the worst in baseball. The pitching was never the problem.

The Core Is Real

Roman Anthony is 21, locked up for eight years, and looks like the real thing. Surround him with talent. Garrett Crochet is still the frontline starter this franchise has needed for a decade. Marcelo Mayer needs to play every day. Short, second, third, I don’t care. Put him in the lineup. Connelly Early and Payton Tolle have already shown they belong in a major league rotation.

Then there’s Franklin Arias. At 20 years old in Double-A Portland, he’s hitting .331 with 13 home runs and a 1.027 OPS through 41 games. Keith Law ranked him the No. 3 prospect in baseball. He looks like Boston’s future franchise shortstop, and somehow he barely gets mentioned because the big league club is such a mess.

Two more deserve mention. Wilyer Abreu is 26, productive, and already has two Gold Gloves. He’s a keeper. And yes, Caleb Durbin. I buried him in the last piece, but I’m coming around. He rarely strikes out, can play all over the infield, and makes almost nothing. He’s our Mark Bellhorn. Championship teams need players like that.

The real problem is simpler: there’s no middle-of-the-order thump. Willson Contreras is the only hitter who consistently makes pitchers uncomfortable.
That is what everything below is designed to fix.

What I'd Do Tomorrow

Before the deadline, before the offseason, here’s what changes this week.
Kristian Campbell is back up. Not to play center, first, and second in the same week. That’s what broke him. He’s a second baseman. Full stop.

He has the athleticism to handle center in a pinch, but his arm belongs at second and that’s where he stays. No more position roulette. He was AL Rookie of the Month in April 2025, then the organization handed him three gloves, crushed his confidence, and sent him down. He’s slashing .481/.548/.852 over his last seven games. Get out of the way and let him play.

Marcelo Mayer plays every day. Narváez catches. I am sending Mikey Gasper to collect carts at Market Basket.
Roman Anthony gets all the time he needs to recover. Masataka Yoshida gets real at-bats, not because we believe in him, we don’t, but because we need to know what we have and whether anyone will absorb that contract.
Dead weight in the bullpen gets released. This season is over. Stop pretending otherwise.

Play the players who matter in 2027 and 2028.

The Deadline: What I'm Doing

Aroldis Chapman is our best trade asset. He converted 29 straight saves before finally blowing one against Colorado. Even with that, his 2.08 ERA is still elite. The window to sell high is right now.
Target return: one legitimate top-100 prospect. Cleveland is my first call. Angel Genao makes a lot of sense. Talented, blocked, and realistically available.

The Dodgers call too. They always call. If they want bullpen help for October, they can pay like it.
If attaching Masataka Yoshida helps clear 2027 payroll, I’ll listen. But I’m not discounting Chapman just to salary dump Yoshida. That’s bad process.

Sonny Gray gets moved too, assuming he approves. He’s 7-1 with a 3.20 ERA, and contenders always need pitching. Chicago makes sense. They need rotation help, and their farm has Matt Shaw, a player I’m asking about immediately.
Gray has to approve any deal, but does he really want to waste the rest of the year here?

Then there’s Jarren Duran.
I know fans won’t like this.
Move him.
The tools are still there. The contract is team-friendly. But we need to clear the outfield logjam. There are already too many bodies fighting for at-bats, and more talent is coming fast from Double-A and Triple-A.
Something has to give.

The Direction: What We're Building Toward

The payroll gets cleaner once Sonny Gray and Aroldis Chapman come off the books. That gives us real flexibility heading into 2027.
The big bat comes via trade, not free agency. The 2027 hitter market is thin.
Matt Shaw is coming to Boston.

A 24-year-old, Gold Glove caliber infielder with multiple years of control solves third base and gives Roman Anthony a legitimate running mate. That’s the centerpiece move.

In free agency, Jazz Chisholm Jr. is the dream fit. Power, speed, athleticism, edge. But I’m not doing another reckless mega-deal. Baseball is littered with teams buried under bloated contracts. I watched Trevor Story become $140 million worth of buyer’s remorse. I’m not doing that again.

If Jazz wants shorter term and big annual money, I’m interested. If he wants eight to ten years, good luck.
But the real wildcard is Kristian Campbell.

If Campbell comes up and proves he can hit, he may solve second base himself. That’s the best-case outcome. Younger, cheaper, already ours.
For the bullpen, spend intelligently. Add one legitimate late-inning arm. No bargain-bin roulette. Build a bullpen that shortens games again.

The Front Office and the Dugout
Let’s assume John Henry does the right thing.
Between Chaim Bloom and Craig Breslow, this organization has spent the better part of a decade changing directions, overpaying the wrong players, and underbuilding the lineup. The next regime needs a clear philosophy: offense first, build around the core, spend where it matters, and stop pivoting every 18 months.
Chad Tracy goes back to Worcester. He’s handled an impossible situation professionally.
That’s not enough, to be the guy next year.
Torey Lovullo is the first call. His contract in Arizona expires this fall. He knows Boston, he’s won here, and he’s taken a team to the World Series.
After that, pick your preferred New England native: Rocco Baldelli or Ryan Flaherty.
One of those three should be managing this team in 2027.

What the 2027 Lineup Actually Looks Like

Stop reading this as a rebuild.
Roman Anthony in left. Jazz Chisholm Jr. at second, if the price works, or Kristian Campbell if he earns it and we spend elsewhere. Willson Contreras at DH and first. Wilyer Abreu in right. Marcelo Mayer at short. Matt Shaw at third. Carlos Narváez behind the plate.
Then go get one more bat.
Not a depth piece. Not another “buy-low” project. A real middle-of-the-order hitter.
Caleb Durbin becomes the utility infielder who never strikes out, plays three positions, and annoys the hell out of opposing pitchers.
Rotation: Garrett Crochet, Ranger Suárez, Early, Tolle, plus Bello or Eyanson for the fifth spot.
Bullpen: Garrett Whitlock as the bridge arm, David Bednar as the target closer, Bryan Abreu as the target setup man, plus whatever arms come back from this summer’s trades.
And by September 2027, Franklin Arias is playing at Fenway.
That is not a dream. That is the plan.
Two disciplined offseasons and this team is dangerous by 2028. The bill has come due. The question is whether the people running this organization have the discipline to pay it correctly.