Preseason Preview Day 7: Boston Red Sox & Washington Nationals
Boston Red Sox
The BoSox - big market team or small market team…or neither? Ever since the Mookie Betts trade, the Red Sox have been stuck in a weird spot where they seem to be stuck at .500, only making the playoffs one time in the last five seasons. They have traded away Chris Sale, let Xander Bogaerts walk in free agency, although were able to retain Rafael Devers who is undoubtedly one of the best left handed hitters in baseball.
2025 looks to be an exciting year for the Red Sox. They had an active offseason from a pitching perspective, trading for dominant left hander Garrett Crochet and signing Walker Buehler, who was last seen closing out the World Series, to a 1 year, team friendly deal. With an absolutely stacked farm system featuring Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer, the Sox have some exciting young talent waiting in the wings that may either but here in 2025 to help the team down the stretch, or traded away to add some established big league talent to a pretty solid roster. Tristan Casas will be back healthy to start the year as well, so the Sox will be stacking Jarren Duran, Raffy Devers and Casas to start a very lefty-heavy lineup.
For a team that was in the mix pretty deep into the summer, these additions are going to provide the needed reinforcements they were missing last season. Let’s not forget they signed Lucas Giolito prior to the ‘24 season, but he went down and had Tommy John surgery before he had a chance to take the field. Crochet, Buehler, Crawford, Whitlock, Houck, Bello and Giolito stack up as a very deep, high ceiling rotation. The lineup features the big 3 mentioned previously, complimented by Connor Wong, Masataka Yoshida, Wilyer Abreu, Cedanne Rafaela, Trevor Story and others. If there is a question mark on this current team, it would be the absence of an impactful right handed bat, as well as a fairly thin bullpen. They were able to add future hall of famer Aroldis Chapman to bolster the pen, which includes Liam Hendriks, DICK FITTS (lol), Josh Winckowski and Zack Kelly.
The Sox current win total is set at 84.5 according to Draftkings. I personally believe the Sox are going to hit this total early to mid September and will be right in the mix for the AL East next to the Yankees and Orioles. While there are some question marks in the starting rotation as far as health, they were able to add to a young core of arms to ensure there are big-league-ready reinforcements available should one of the big guys go down for a period of time.
Washington Nationals
The 2024 Nationals entered the season with little expectation. While they did not do much as far as winning is concerned, finishing 20 games under, I do believe they out played what they were expected to do. With a team that has been completely restructured since their 2019 World Series triumph, the Washington Nationals seem to be rounding third in their rebuild.
For smaller market teams, there seems to be a cycle in which you have to navigate in order to build a winner. Over any given 10 year stretch, there is a roller coaster ride of being horrible, building through the draft, then finally seeing those picks develop and make their way to the show. Considering the Nats are not far removed from winning a championship, it is not necessarily a shock that seemingly the entire roster has rolled over since. Through a Juan Soto trade with the Padres, the Nats were able to acquire promising young talent Mackenzie Gore, along with CJ Abrams and James Wood, who are now in the big leagues and are already on all-star trajectories. Dylan Crews, their first pick in the 2023 draft, has already flown through the minors and debuted in the big leagues. Through a trade with the Rangers this offseason, they were able to add a proven left handed slugger in Nathaniel Lowe, who will hold down first base in 2025 and on.
While they have set themselves in a good spot to move forward with an excellent young core, the Nats having some glaring issues as far as their rotation is concerned. They really do not have much to write home about, as Mackenzie Gore and Josiah Grey have shown flashes of front line potential, but are still works in progress.
Dratkings has their win total at 72.5, I think this is a no brainer for the over. With all their young talent expected to be in the opening day lineup, I only think they will improve from their 71 wins last season. If they somehow add some pitching mid season, I think they can end up pushing 81 wins or at least remaining a couple games within .500.
