The Red Sox season is over (in a competitive sense, at least; there’s nothing wrong with just enjoying a few baseball games over the weekend). For the third year in a row and the fifth time over the past six seasons, the Sox will not be playing postseason baseball. But this year’s collapse feels a little bit different than the collapses of the past two seasons, because there really was a playoff berth there for the taking. Alex Cora didn’t mince words about what happened, simply saying that the team blew it. (Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic)
But there were some developmental successes this year, particularly with some younger and inexperienced players like Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela, Tanner Houck, and Jarren Duran, who now see how hard it is to stay consistent over 162.