The first off-season move came on October 9th, when pitching coach Dave Bush and infield coach Carlos Febles were let go. On October 24th, the Red Sox hired their former pitcher, Craig Breslow to take over as the man in charge of baseball operations. He brought in Andrew Bailey to be the pitching coach. Bailey stressed first-pitch strikes, throwing one's best pitch with two sztrikes, lowering walk percentages and increasing strike percentages. He also wanted his pitchers to stop relying on throwing fastballs and use more breaking balls.

Breslow's first trade was to send secondbaseman Luis Urias to the Seattle Mariners for reliever Isaiah Campbell on November 17th.

On December 5th, Breslow traded Alex Verdugo to the Yankees, for minor league pitchers Richard Fitts, Greg Weissert and Nicholas Judice. Next, reliever Justin Slaten of the Mets, and catcher Mickey Gasper of the Yankees were chosen in the Rule 5 Draft.

Outfielder Tyler O'Neill was traded from the Cardinals for pitchers Nick Robertson and minor leaguer Victor Santos on December 8th. On December 12th, reliever Cooper Crisell was signed as a free agent and two days later free agent catcher Roberto Perez was brought in.

Chris Sale was traded to the Braves for a young secondbaseman named Vaughn Grissom at the end of December. Sale was in the last year of his expensive Red Sox contract and Grissom would be under Sox control for six years.

On December 29th, the Red Sox and pitcher Lucas Giolito agreed to a two-year, $38.5M contract, but in spring training he was lost for the season with a UCL tear that would need surgery. Other pitchers the Sox acquired were Greg Weisert, Chase Anderson and Naoyuki Uwasawa.

No important other moves were made during the offseason and the only other major move as it turned out, was pitcher Brayan Bello and the Sox agreeing to a six year deal worth $55M with a seventh year club option.

Opening Day was in Seattle on March 28th and the Red Sox beat the Mariners, 6 to 4. Rafael Devers homered and doubled, but the news was newcomer, Tyler O'Neill who also homered. It was his record fifth consecutive Opening Day home run. The Sox lost the next two games despite great pitching efforts by Kutter Crawford and Nick Pivetta.

The Sox and Mariners did split the series thanks to an outstanding game pitched by Garrett Whitlock, 5 to 1 on March 31st. Whitlock pitched five innings and gave up three hits. The four Sox starters registered a 1.64 ERA in the series. Rookie Justin Slaten impressed in his second relief appearance retiring all seven batters he faced on 15 pitches. Enmanuel Valdez's three-run homer led the Red Sox hitters.

The Sox next moved down to Oakland on April 1st. Tanner Houck shut out the A's 9-0 on four hits and 10 strikeouts. Jarren Duran (3-for-5) stole three bases, bringing his season total to five thus for, becoming the first Red Sox player to ever do so.

Trevor Story (3-for-5, 2 RBIs) came through in a big way in the next game on April 2nd, singling home the tying run in the seventh inning and leading the Sox to a 5-4 victory over the A's.

Aside from Jarren Duran's 4-for-4 day on April 3rd, there was not much activity from the Red Sox bats in a 1-0 win at Oakland. Nick Pivetta (0.82 ERA) shut out the A's for five innings and has given up just one run in the eleven innings he's worked thus far.

Down in Anaheim on April 5th, Jarren Duran's home run put the Sox on top to stay in the eighth inning, winning 8 to 6. The red hot Tyler O'Neill launched two of the Sox five home runs. Two days later on April 7th, the Sox (7-3) rolled over the Angels by a score of 12-2. Tanner Houck pitched six more shutout innings and the batters supported him with four homers. David Hamilton belted his first homer in the majors.

On April 8th the Sox locked up Ceddanne Rafaela with an eight year extension.

The Red Sox returned home to celebrate Tim Wakefiled and the 2004 World Series Champs, but they were swept by the Baltimore Orioles by playing shoddy defense and having the bullpen blow leads. With Trevor Story out for the year, the defense had suffered. After 14 games, the Sox led the majors with 16 errors.

TANNER HOUCK

After losing four straight at home, Triston Casas slugged a 429-ft homer sandwiched between RBI singles from Masataka Yoshida and Cedanne Rafaela to lead the Sox to a 7-2 win over the Angels on April 13th. On April 14th, Kenley Jansen walked a ninth inning tightrope to save a 5-4 victory over L.A.

Tanner Houck (3-1, 1.35 ERA) became the third MLB pitcher to toss a complete game this season, when he overpowered the Guardians, 2-0, giving up just three hits on April 17th. He threw 94 pitches, 69 of which were strikes.

The Sox (10-10) lost 7-of-10 on their opening homestand primarily to playing lousy defense. They led the majors with 20 errors, leading to 25 unearned runs. The pitching was keeping them afloat with a 1.82 for the starters.

In Pittsburgh on April 19th, Brayan Bello pitched six shutout innings and allowed just one hit, beating the Pirates, 8 to 1. The Sox batters belted out four home runs in his support.

Kutter Crawford took the mound in Pittsburgh the next day with the best Sox ERA (0.45) through four starts since Roger Clemens in 1991. Twice he pitched out of trouble and got his first win of the season, beating the Pirates 4 to 2, on April 20th. Masataka Yoshida (3 for 4) helped him with a two-run homer.

TYLER O'NEILL

With injuries to half the starting lineup, the piching carried the Sox to a sweep of the Pirates with a 6-1 victory on April 21st. Wilyer Abreu was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs, and again played solid defense in the outfield.

April 24th proved to be a very productive day for the Sox. Rafael Devers, who missed five games with a bruised knee, came back strong. He belted a single, a double and a home run. Wilyer Abreu continued his hot hitting with a 4-for-5 game and Connor Wong banged out two homers of his own. With Brayan Bello, Nick Pivetta and Garrett Whitlock all down with injuries, Cooper Criswell picked up the slack and started, hurling five scoreless innings and giving up just three hits.

After losing two of the three played in Cleveland, the Sox returned to Fenway to meet the Chicago Cubs. On April 27th, the Sox exploded for seventeen runs on 21 hits in a 17-0 rout of the Cubbies. Ceddane Rafaela belted out four hits including a homer, brining in seven of the runs. Massataha Yoshida also had four hits and Tyler O'Neill had three, including his MLB-leading ninth homer.

With a rib injury to firstbaseman Triston Casas, that placed him on the 60-day DL, the Sox acquired Garrett Cooper from the Cubs.

Tanner Houck (1.60 ERA) lowered the staff ERA to 2.08 by pitching 6 2/3 innings, allowing one run and striking out nine on April 28th vs the Cubs. The Sox won the game on Tyler O'Neill's walk-off bloop single, 5 to 4.

Cooper Criswell (1.65 ERA) took his turn against the Giants on April 30th and shut them out five innings, giving the Sox a 4-0 victory. Meanwhile, Jarren Durand was 3-for-4 and the red hot Wilyer Abreu also went 3-for-4 with a double and a triple.

On April 30th, the Sox acquired firstbasemnan, Dominic Smith from the Rays and infielder Zack Short from the Mets.,

Through the end of April, the unheralded starters that began the year with low expectations, posted a 2.00 ERA with a .211 opponenent average against them and six shutouts. The team ERA was 2.59, their lowest mark since 1920 Red Sox and the lowest in MLB since the 1981 Dodgers posted a 2.06 ERA.

The Red Sox (17-13) sat in third place in the AL East, 2 1/2 games out, in spite of losing Trevor Story and Lucas Giolito for the year, Triston Casas on the 60-day DL and with injuries to pitchers Brayan, Bello, Nick Pivetta and Garrett Whitlock. This was also in spite of a stretch where the defense led the MLB in errors and unearned runs at one point.

The Sox beat the Giants for a second time on May 1st, 6 to 2. Kutter Crawford (1.56 ERA) pitched seven innings, while Connor Wong rapped out three hits icluding two doubles.

In Minneapolis, the Sox lost two of the three game played against the Twins. On April 5th, they stopped the Twins' 12-game winning streak by beating them 9 to 2. Cooper Criswell (1.74 ERA) was excellent on the mound and he was backed by homers from Rafael Devers and Cedanne Rafaela as well as Jarren Duran's MLB leading fith triple of the season.

The Sox lost both games in Atlanta and had Chris Sale shut them out 5-0 on May 8th. After returning home and losing on May 10th to Washington, it marked the 12th time in 38 games that the Sox had scored two or fewer runs. They led the majors with 94 strikeouts with runners in scoring position and have gone 2-for-29 in that situation.

Rafael Devers came through and hammered a pitch with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, that slammed off the wall for a go-ahead, two-run double on May 11th, and led to a victory over Washington, 4 to 2. Given the recent struggles the Sox had at the plate, the timing couldn’t have been better for their best hitter to come up clutch with the game on the line.