Red Sox Punch Their Ticket!

On December 10, the Boston Red Sox signed 37-year-old Aroldis Chapman to a three-year deal. Few noticed. The Red Sox became Chapman’s fifth team since 2022. Chapman was the hardest throwing in baseball — probably baseball history — and he still had at least a three-quarter tank of gas left, but he was also exceedingly wild and mercurial. You never really knew what you’d get with him.

Chapman has had a season for the ages, probably the best season of his vaunted career. He has cut down his walks by almost two-thirds, he’s turned his sinker from his fourth-best pitch to one of the most dominant pitches in the game, and he just went 17 consecutive outings without giving up a hit.

The next day, the Boston Red Sox traded a handful of prospects to the Chicago White Sox for a 25-year-old pitcher named Garrett Crochet. It felt like a promising move for sure, but not without risk. Crochet was very good for a dreadful White Sox team in 2024, but he had been injury-prone, and it was only 146 innings.

He has turned out to be a dominant ace, even better than the Red Sox could have hoped. He likely won’t win the Cy Young in the Time of Tarik, but he’ll finish second, and he almost singlehandedly gives them a shot in any short series.

On February 15, the Boston Red Sox signed Alex Bregman to a one-year deal. Well, technically, it’s a three-year deal, but Bregman can opt out if he has a season to remember. Well, he’s had a season to remember. The numbers are solid enough for an injury-plagued season — 128 OPS+, very good defense, etc. — but it’s the leadership that really stands out. Bregman, in a short time, has become the heart of the team.

I bring this up because all three of those feel like huge wins. Then you add some other things — Trevor Story got healthy and is putting up a three or four WAR season, Cedanne Rafaela has added a little bit of offense to his already otherworldly defense (Platinum Glove this year?), Roman Anthony was called up, and before he got hurt, was reminding old timers of a young Yaz, Lucas Giolito, who seemed ready to wash out of the big leagues because of injuries and inconsistency, has become a solid pitching option, and so on …

… and it has taken ALL OF THAT to move the meh 81-81 Red Sox to an 88-win team that clinched a wildcard spot Friday night with a walkoff win against the Tigers.

That’s how hard it is to improve in baseball. People always talk about being “one player away,” but no team is ever one player away, not in baseball. You need a whole bunch of things to go right to move the needle even a little bit. The Red Sox moved that needle.

American League East: The Yankees and Blue Jays remain tied after both won Friday night.

The Yankees beat up on Baltimore’s Trevor Rogers, who was an absolutely incredible story. Well, he still IS an incredible story, just a little bit less so — coming into the game, Rogers’ ERA was 1.35, and he had allowed just 67 hits and three home runs in 106 innings. Nobody, and I mean nobody, could touch him.

In the first inning, he left his fastball up, and Giancarlo Stanton blasted it 400 feet to right field.

In the third inning, he left his sinker up, and Aaron Judge played it 423 feet to center.

Two batters later, he left his changeup up — that’s not what the up in changeup is supposed to mean — and Stanton blasted it 451 feet to left-center.

Now, his ERA is 1.81, and he’s allowed six home runs. So it goes.

The Blue Jays won in less flashy style — Nathan Lukes hit a two-run homer to give Toronto a 4-2 victory over Tampa Bay.

So, they tied. If they stay tied, the Blue Jays get the division and first-round bye. Their magic number is two with two games to play. The Yankees will need a little help.

American League Central and wildcard: There are three teams playing for two playoff spots (the AL Central title and the last wildcard), and all three of those teams lost on Friday.

The Tigers, as you know, lost to the Red Sox in Boston.

The Guardians continued their non-hitting ways and never led in their 7-3 loss to Texas.

And Houston got Mike Trouted in Anaheim — Trout banged two home runs and the Angels won 4-3.

So here’s what we’ve got — the Guardians and Tigers remain tied for the AL Central. The Guardians have the tiebreaker, so they, like Toronto, have a magic number of two.

The Astros are one game back — AND they lose the tiebreaker to either Detroit or Cleveland. So basically, the only way they can get in is to win their last two games and hope that either Detroit or Cleveland loses both.

National League Wildcard: Uh oh, New York. The Reds beat the Brewers 3-1 — three-hit pitching from five pitchers — and the Mets blew a 2-0 lead and lost to the Marins 6-2. So now the Mets and Reds are tied for that last wildcard spot, but the Reds have the tiebreaker and are in control of their own destiny. If they win out, they’re in no matter what the Mets do.

No Mets fan needs to be reminded that this team was 62-44 and cruising on July 27. They are 20-34 since then and need help from the Reds to sneak into the postseason. What a world. What a world.

PCA joins 30-30 club: Pete Crow-Armstrong. became the SIXTH player in 2025 with 30 homers and 30 stolen bases. In the first 100 years of baseball, only five players had done it in total. PCA doesn’t look like a serious MVP candidate now, but he really has had a spectacular season — especially when you consider how rarely he gets on base.

Highest bWAR for a player with a .285-or-lower OBP:

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