Red Sox coach talks ‘breaking point’ in games, hitters to watch in 2026
The 2025 Boston Red Sox were, in many ways, an offensive tour de force.
They were a top-10 team in runs, RBI, stolen bases, and both on-base and slugging percentages, and top-five in hits and batting average. They led the majors in doubles for the 17th time in the last 25 seasons. They were the only team with multiple inside-the-park home runs, a niche, though perhaps skewed reminder of their athleticism.
Yet too often, the Red Sox were a frustrating example of wasted opportunities. Literally.
They were a top-10 team in leaving runners on base. They had more Productive Out opportunities than any other American League team, but the fourth-worst rate of Productive Outs success. They led the majors in plate appearances with no outs and a man on second, yet only the Colorado Rockies had a worse rate of runner advancement.
These are the ‘dualities’ that grate at the man tasked with running the offense.
“You look at the overarching hitting, for me, the fact that our group led baseball with opportunities to score runs, and we scored the most runs in those situations, is a really good place to begin,” Red Sox hitting coach Pete Fatse told the Herald earlier this month. “I think (it) comes down to understanding the context of the game, and what the game is requiring you to do in specific moments.”
That situational awareness was the missing piece a few too many times last year, he said.
“There’s times to take your shot, there’s times to emphasize putting the ball in place, there’s times to emphasize contact,” Fatse said. “The ability to create constant run-scoring states is really important, but I think continuing to emphasize – and we always do – runs is what we’re all about.
“Continuing to emphasize the process behind scoring runs, that’s something we talk about a lot. We’ll talk about our Plan A and our Plan B. And you have to have the ability – Trevor Story was a great example of that – you have to have the ability when the game calls, to get the guy in. Sometimes that requires you to try and hit a line-drive to right, or it’s a situation where maybe we’re sitting on a pitch, or something that specific.”
No other team lost more one-run games in which they stranded at least 10 men than the Red Sox.
