Hope springs eternal! The Ticket's 2025 Red Sox predictions

Before the 2025 season commences tomorrow in Texas, a game you can catch on Maine's Sports Leader 92.9 The Ticket with coverage beginning at 3:05pm, take a moment to look over what The Ticket's crew expects from the Sox this season...

Jim Churchill: 94-68, 1st place in AL East; ceiling - World Series.

Mark Paulette: 90-72, 1st place in AL East; ceiling - ALCS.

Jeff Hoak: 89-73, 2nd place in AL East; ceiling - ALDS.

Greg Hirsch: 88-74, 2nd place in AL East; ceiling - ALCS.

Ernie Clark: 86-76, 2nd place in AL East; ceiling - ALDS

Aaron Jackson: 85-77, 2nd place in AL East; ceiling - not a playoff team.

As you can see, before Aaron had to go and throw water on our rosy parade, The Ticket is expecting to see the Red Sox return to October baseball this season.

While the majority see a runners-up finish in the division, I would encourage you to look around at the other four teams and make the case as to why you feel better about their chances than Boston's. What you will find is the two teams at the top regressed. New York due to an early slew of injuries this spring and Baltimore due to sitting on their hands all winter. Toronto looks good on paper, but that has yet to materialize into winning results in this most recent iteration of the somewhat spendings Jays.

It's not just us homers thinking that, either. DraftKings has Boston's win total at 86.5 for the season. Last year, 86 wins was good for the second and the third Wild Card in the American League. In ESPN's 2025 MLB predictions article published today, take a peak at their popular pick to win the East.

The only reason there isn't more excitement about this team at the outset is because of the excellent job ownership has done insulating the club in a bubble of apathy the last few years. By the middle of summer, I expect them to be the hottest ticket in town.

For the truly diehards, here are my yearly stat projections for the lineup, rotation, and kids. It should be noted, I'm not factoring future injuries into these numbers, so take them as "if they play 162," even though we know that's not a thing in today's game.

1. Jarren Duran, LF: .279/18/70

2. Rafael Devers, DH: .285/32/95

3. Alex Bregman, 3B: .270/30/90

4. Triston Casas, 1B: .265/30/78

5. Trevor Story, SS: .263/23/79

6. Kristian Campbell, 2B: .267/16/63

7. Wilyer Abreu, RF: .266/14/52

8. Connor Wong, C: .268/12/55

9. Ceddanne Rafaela, CF: .256/17/70

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*Roman Anthony, OF: .259/9/38

*Marcelo Mayer, SS/3B: .278/8/41