Why MLB Insider Thinks Red Sox Could Be Giant-Killer In 2025

The Red Sox haven’t made the playoffs since 2021, they have gone nearly seven years since winning the World Series, and they have advanced beyond the divisional series just twice in the last decade.

Boston enters the 2025 season with a much-improved roster, and there’s legitimate optimism for the first time since 2021, but saying they could be a threat to the Dodgers’ blossoming dynasty might be a slight stretch, right?

ESPN’s Buster Olney isn’t so sure.

ESPN.com staff debated which teams could provide the stiffest challenge to the Dodgers in 2025, and Olney circled the Red Sox. Before laughing away the suggestion, here’s part of his argument.

“We aren’t here to suggest that the Red Sox are the best team in baseball or even the second best. In fact, the evidence indicates that perhaps the top four or five teams in the majors are in the NL. In the end, however, an AL team will have a seven-game series to take down the Dodgers, and we submit the revamped Boston Red Sox are uniquely qualified to get this done,” Olney wrote.

Olney believes the Yankees’ injuries — Gerrit Cole’s season is already over and Giancarlo Stanton is up in the air — will allow Boston to usurp its rivals atop the American League East. Then, once they get into the dance, it’s the rebuilt Red Sox pitching staff that could propel a deep October run.

“In Game 1 of a World Series against the Dodgers, the Red Sox could lean on Garrett Crochet … and in Game 2, they’d have former Dodger Walker Buehler, who would relish the opportunity to take down his old teammates.”

Olney also loves Boston’s “outstanding lineup, headed by Jarren Duran, Rafael Devers and Alex Bregman,” while insisting “Devers and Bregman have the kind of postseason experience to lead this group through the biggest games of the year.”

For such a dream season to occur, everyone would need to stay healthy, of course, especially the likes of Buehler (in his second year since a second Tommy John surgery) and Devers (whose bat speed was severely hampered by shoulder issues in 2024). Olney also admitted the Red Sox need to figure out their bullpen situation.

Given a chance to reply to Olney’s proclamation, ESPN insider Jeff Passan thinks it might be a little too early to say the Red Sox are back in the hunt for the World Series. Passan admitted “the path to the World Series is not nearly as treacherous for the Red Sox” as it has been in the past, but he still thinks the talent difference in a potential Sox-Dodgers Fall Classic would be “more canyon than gap” in favor of LA.

Thinking the Red Sox could make some noise in the AL isn’t unfounded clickbait, though, at least if the betting market is any sort of indication. FanDuel Sportsbook has Boston’s odds to win the pennant at 8-1 as of Friday morning, the third-shortest odds in the Junior Circuit. That they trail the Yankees (+390) and Orioles (+650), two divisional foes, speaks to how competitive the regular season could be this season.