What's wrong with the Red Sox? Boston having one of its worst offensive months of the century

The Red Sox are 9-16 to start the 2026 season, and their entire approach is failing them at the plate

For the seventh time in their last 10 games, the Boston Red Sox were losers Thursday night. And for the sixth time in their last seven games, the Red Sox were held to two runs or fewer. The New York Yankees completed the three-game swept at Fenway Park on Thursday (NYY 4, BOS 2) to drop the Red Sox to 9-16. They have the AL's second-worst record.

"They pitched a lot better than us and got clutch hits, and we got swept. That's it," manager Alex Cora said after Thursday's loss.  

The latest offensive no-show spoiled lefty Payton Tolle's impressive 2026 debut. Filling in for the injured Sonny Gray, Tolle struck out 11 Yankees and allowed just a solo home run wrapped around the Pesky Pole in six innings. The bullpen then surrendered three runs in the seventh to blow the game, which is as many runs as the Red Sox scored in the entire three-game series.

Cam Schlittler, last year's Wild Card Series Game 3 hero, again silenced the Red Sox across eight innings. The Red Sox managed four hits and one walk in the game, and needed an error to help push across one of their two runs. As a team, they're hitting .223/.305/.331 this season, and their 83 OPS+ is fourth-lowest in baseball. The entire team is 17% below average offensively.

Since 2000, the Red Sox have played 54 months of baseball. In only five of those months have they performed worse offensively than they have in April 2026:

1. Sept. 2012: 64 OPS+
2. Sept. 2023: 77 OPS+
3. April 2022: 80 OPS+
4. July 2017: 82 OPS+
5. April 2026: 83 OPS+ 

The Red Sox were a last-place team playing out the string and auditioning young players in 2012 and 2023, hence their poor offensive showings those Septembers. They still have six games to play this month, but it would be fair to call April 2026 one of the Red Sox's three worst offensive months in a season in which they were expected to contend this century.

"It's not a secret, we got to be better," catcher Carlos Narváez, who hit a solo home run Thursday, said after the game.

Power was a concern for the Red Sox coming into the season and they've done nothing to answer those questions. Boston's 14 home runs are tied for the fewest in baseball with the San Francisco Giants, who play in homer-unfriendly Oracle Park. Willson Contreras leads the Red Sox with four homers, the same total as Yankees utility man Amed Rosario.

This is not a case of the Red Sox just having to stay patient and wait for the tide to turn either. Their entire offensive approach is not one that will produce big results. Here are their numbers:

Red Sox woes

Walk rate

8.9% (23rd in MLB)

9.7%

Strikeout rate

23.2% (20th)

22.3%

Chase rate

30.7% (20th)

29.4%

In-zone swing rate

61.8% (28th)

65.1%

Ground ball rate

46.6% (29th)

42.4%

Barrel rate (what's this?)

7.6% (20th)

8.3%

Pulled fly ball rate*

14.3% (27th)

16.7%

Collectively, the Red Sox chase too many pitches out of the zone and swing at too few pitches in the zone, which has led to worse-than-average strikeout and walk rates. When they put a ball in play, it is too often on the ground and not hit hard. Pulled fly balls are the most productive batted balls (they have a .457 batting average and 1.628 slugging percentage in 2026), and only three teams produce fewer of them than these Red Sox.

The Red Sox aren't hitting for power (or hitting in general) because they're not doing the things that generate power. Their swing decisions are a mess and their batted balls are low-impact grounders and opposite-field fly balls. Lefties who use the opposite field in Fenway Park will be rewarded by the Green Monster, sure, but that can't be all an offense does.

On top of that, the Red Sox don't steal bases either. Only 13 steals in 17 attempts in 25 games. They don't hit for power, they don't draw a ton of walks, and they don't steal bases. How do the Red Sox expect to generate offense, exactly? Sit back and wait for three singles in an inning to score one run? It's 2026, folks. That approach will only take you so far.

This is at least partly a roster construction problem. Caleb Durbin, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and Andruw Monasterio are light-hitting righty bats who do their best work on the infield. The Red Sox have three of the same player. Roman Anthony is getting on base a good deal, but his power has been muted. Erstwhile top prospect Marcelo Mayer isn't hitting. Trevor Story is long in the tooth.

Contreras, Wilyer Abreu, platoon DH Masataka Yoshida, and half-time catcher Connor Wong are the only Red Sox with even a 100 OPS+, or league average. To put it another way: Abreu, Contreras, Wong, and Yoshida are hitting .270/.367/.418 with seven homers in 282 plate appearances. The rest of the Red Sox are hitting .203/.279/.294 with seven homers in 648 plate appearances.

There isn't much help waiting in Triple-A. Kristian Campbell, who looked like The Next Big Thing at this time last year, has one home run in 21 Triple-A games and is slugging .342. Nate Eaton and Nick Sogard are more utility types. Maybe it's worth trying former first-round pick Mikey Romero at third base over Durbin? Romero hasn't hit much in his limited Triple-A time though.

It is a very long season. Last year's Red Sox are a good reminder of that. They were 43-45 last June 2, then won 10 straight games and had the American League's best record the rest of the way (46-28). Things don't look so great right now -- the rebuilt pitching staff is 23rd in WAR, which isn't helping matters -- but it is only April 24, and the Red Sox still have 137 games to play.

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For sure though, this offense is not good enough. It's not good enough because the personnel is not good enough and because that personnel has a really poor approach. I don't think the Red Sox's offense is really 83 OPS+ bad, but I have a hard time seeing it being, say, a 105 OPS+ offense the rest of the way unless they're more patient and start driving the ball in the air more often.

You can't win a division in April but you can certainly let one slip away, and the Red Sox currently sit in last place in the AL East, seven games behind the Yankees. The third wild-card spot is very forgiving, and let's be real, the AL is pretty mediocre overall. It is not yet panic time for the Red Sox. It's also time to maybe change things up offensively, if not with personnel than with approach.