Is World Baseball Classic To Blame For Red Sox's Slow Start?
Why hasn't Boston's dominant WBC translated to the regular season?
Is World Baseball Classic To Blame For Red Sox's Slow Start? originally appeared on NESN . Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
It seems like forever ago, but it was just two months ago that the Boston Red Sox were dominating the World Baseball Classic . Roman Anthony, Wilyer Abreu, Jarren Duran and others took the WBC by storm, making the Red Sox look like a potential juggernaut this year. Instead, many of them slumped once the actual season started.
A quarter of the way through the 2026 campaign, Boston has yet to get untracked , going 18-25 and toiling at the bottom of the AL East standings. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, their strong WBC has not carried over into the regular season. And they're not the only ones.
Boston was one of seven teams that sent at least 14 players to the tournament, according to The Athletic (subscription required). Of those seven, six had a winning record last year. New from me: What We've Learned from the First 40 Games ABS is changing more than how we call balls & strikes NL domination WBC=slow starts Pirates bound for October?