Sporting News’ 2026 MLB Predictions Just Gave Red Sox Fans A Big Reason To Dream
The Red Sox didn’t sweep the board in Sporting News’ preseason picks, but Boston showed up often enough to make the message clear: this team is very much in the mix.
Sporting News’ 2026 MLB Predictions Just Gave Red Sox Fans A Big Reason To Dream originally appeared on NESN . Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here . The Red Sox didn’t completely take over Sporting News’ 2026 MLB expert predictions, but Boston still came out looking like a team that’s firmly in the contender conversation.
Across five staff ballots, the Red Sox were picked three times to make the playoffs , with two wild-card nods and one vote to win the AL East. That alone is a pretty solid sign of how Boston is being viewed heading into the season. Rob Cassidy had the Red Sox grabbing a wild-card spot, Teddy Ricketson picked them to win the division, and Dan Treacy also slotted them in as a wild-card team.
Daniel Chavkin added extra context by calling the AL East “the most exciting race” in baseball and describing it as a division with four legitimate World Series contenders. Garrett Crochet is the biggest Red Sox storyline in the picks If there was one Boston-specific takeaway that jumped off the page, it was Garrett Crochet’s Cy Young buzz . Three of the five Sporting News experts picked Crochet to win the American League Cy Young Award : Cassidy, Chavkin and Ricketson.
No other Red Sox player got that kind of concentrated love in the predictions. That’s a big deal for a team trying to separate itself in a brutal division. Even among all the Yankees, Blue Jays and Orioles noise, Crochet was one of the clearest places where Sporting News’ staff saw star-level upside for Boston.