The Boston Red Sox received significant contributions from several players in 2025 that far surpassed reasonable expectations. Not to malign their efforts, but whenever a player has a career year, one should expect a downward trend in the next season (see Jarren Duran going from MVP candidate to merely very good).
Even within this guideline, three Red Sox players should be treated with additional suspicion by the front office while planning next year’s campaign.
Platoon Player Breaks Out?
Romy Gonzalez’s major league career before 2025 showed no signs of exceptionality: three seasons with the Chicago White Sox brought forth no value greater than any other fringe backup infielder bouncing around the league, and even an average performance with the bat in 2024 with the Red Sox merely reflected good luck on batted balls.
His 2025 season marked a career year in nearly every metric—playing time, conventional, and Baseball Savant's Statcast hitting measurements, all but in stolen bases. After returning from injury on June 2, Gonzalez slashed .304/.339/.494 while playing in 80% of the team’s contests between first and second base as improved performance against right-handers persuaded manager Alex Cora to lean more heavily on the 28-year-old infielder.
However, the basis of Gonzalez’s brilliant season was built on straw and clay. For example, his .378 batting average on balls in play was 80 points above the league average; in comparison, Duran had a .345 BABIP in 2024, then a more normative .326 this year. Gonzalez also had a higher strikeout rate (23.8%) than the free-swinging Ceddanne Rafaela (19.9%) and a walk rate only half a percentage point superior.
Quality of contact explains some of this phenomenon: Gonzalez ranked among the very best hitters in the league at hammering the ball. But this too largely resulted from what could be considered luck—his skillset and talent did not fundamentally change this year, he merely made contact marginally more frequently and harder, which paid disproportionate dividends. A slight regression to his true level of skill will return Romy Gonzalez to relative obscurity.
The Redemption Story
In his first fully healthy season since 2019, Trevor Story survived April, nearly lost his job in May, then became the team’s best player for the last four months. Going forward, the first question the Red Sox must be asking themselves is which is the “real” Trevor Story: the man who seemed a few days away from being released in May, or the one who slashed .289/.334/.492 for two-thirds of the season?
Story has never had more than poor control of the strike zone, as even in his prime, he struck out in a minimum of a quarter of his plate appearances while walking an average amount at best. His 2025 rates of 26.9% and 5.0%, respectively, comprise worrying signs of future deterioration: that whiff frequency ranks among the better marks of his career, while the walk rate is easily the worst.
Previously, he got away with this by hitting the ball hard and consistently for line drives; what Gonzalez pulled off in 2025 was Story’s established record. But while the shortstop continued to sting the ball, he also suffered more trouble getting it off the ground than ever before (his groundball rate of 43.4% bested his previous high by eight points).
At age 32, his defense at short also showed a worrisome drop-off. The injury to his shoulder that cost him much of his first two seasons in Boston never fully recovered, but his range at the position proved to be the real drag, costing the team somewhere between seven and 10 runs on the year.
In short, the Red Sox should consider Trevor Story’s bat an enigma entering 2026 while preparing to move him across the infield to second base at some point during next season. Approximating his 2022 performance while playing a full season would be a reasonable expectation.
Southpaw Flamethrower Found Control
Since his electric debut in 2010, Aroldis Chapman’s skillset has remained consistent, as he routinely features 100 mph heat and a clean bill of health. What did change in 2025 seems methodological rather than physical or luck-based: Chapman walked a career-low 2.2 batters per nine innings while using his sinker more often and his slider less, resulting in the best season of his illustrious career.
Specifically, Chapman used his sinker and four-seam fastball interchangeably as his main offerings. Based on Statcast readings, this reduced reliance on the slider made it more effective as a strikeout pitch, while the increased heat made it easier for Chapman—whose sole career weakness has been consistent control—to find the strike zone.
While that level of command will inevitably degrade, of the three players discussed, Chapman remains the most well-poised to approximate his recent form. His performance deserves recognition for both its place in his career and in the history of relief seasons; even a small step back will keep the ninth inning secure for the Red Sox.