5 Things Boston Fans Don't Want to Admit About the Red Sox

Red Sox fans have been through a lot of ups and downs over the last 20 years. On the plus side, we've won four World Series titles—the most in baseball during that time—after going 86 long years without winning one. On the other hand, we've also finished last in the AL East six times during that stretch, including three times in the last four seasons.

We've seen the Red Sox at their best and also at their worst, and unfortunately they've been more of the latter recently.

It can be tough to admit when your team has flaws, especially when you love your team as much as Boston fans do. The Red Sox are far from perfect, however, and here are five things that we might be ashamed to say about them.

5 Things Red Sox Fans Don't Want to Admit

1. Our Farm System Isn't That Great

This one's a tough pill to swallow, because Chaim Bloom basically spent the last four years building up the farm system at the expense of the MLB roster. The team finished last three times during those years, but sometimes you need to take a step back (or multiple steps, in this case) before you can take a step forward.

Several publications recently ranked Boston's farm system as top-10 or even top-5, giving Red Sox fans hope that the next wave of championship talent is coming.

If you look under the hood, however, the farm system really isn't that impressive. It's top-heavy with a couple of big names like Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony and Kyle Teel, but all of the best prospects are position players. The club is still woefully short on pitching prospects, which has been the case for roughly 15 years now.

There's not much pitching talent on the MLB roster, either, as Bloom refused to spend on it or draft it. That means the Sox are overloaded with position players at both levels, creating logjams at several positions that need to be cleared.

Furthermore, some of Bloom's top prospects may not pan out. His 2020 first-rounder Nick Yorke was clearly a reach, and his 2021 first-rounder Mayer struggled in Double-A and got hurt last season. Red Sox prospects have a tendency to be overhyped, and that may be the case here.

There's a reason other publications have Boston's farm system in the middle of the pack. The lack of pitching depth is killer, and there are also a lot of filler prospects / Quad-A guys who don't have much upside. Bloom could have done much more to build up the farm by trading away veterans during the last two trade deadlines, but he failed both times.

Is the farm system better than it was before Bloom took over? Yes. Is it elite like many Red Sox fans seem to think? Probably not.