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Boston's Morning Newsletter
Why this year's Red Sox season 'should look a little different than the last handful'
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
It's giving spring out there. The cascading orange nasturtiums have returned to the Gardner Museum. Check out photos here (or see them at the museum's free "first Thursday" next week).
Meanwhile, optimism is blooming over at Fenway Park:
Hope springs eternal: The Red Sox open their season today at 4:05 p.m. on the road against the Texas Rangers. And despite six years of almost uninterrupted mediocrity since the team's last World Series (us post-curse Sox fans are an impatient bunch), the 2025 vibes are high. WBUR's Fausto Menard talked to Boston Globe sports reporter Alex Speier to explain why things could be looking up:
- The new guys: First and foremost, Speier says the Sox made big moves this offseason to improve their hitting and pitching. The highlights include trading for giant, lefty pitcher Garrett Crochet and signing third-baseman Alex Bregman, a two-time World Series champion with a history of — to use a baseball term — raking at Fenway Park.
- The young guys: Speier says rookie Kristian Campbell, one of the Sox' highly touted trio of prospects, is set to make his MLB debut today at second base. (The other two, shortstop Marcelo Mayer and outfielder Roman Anthony, could be called up later in the season.)
- The no-longer-injured guys: In addition to returning Rafael Devers and Jarren Duran, the Sox are also getting back some stars who missed extended time due to injury. That includes power-hitting first baseman Triston Casas and shortstop Trevor Story, who missed most of the last three seasons. Speier says Story has shown "glimpses" in spring training of "the talented, multidimensional player that the Red Sox thought that they were signing back in 2022."
- The big question: Can the pitching get (and stay) healthy, too? Three Sox starting pitchers — Lucas Giolito, Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford — are already on the injured list, and Speier says Crochet is expected to pitch more innings than he ever has before.
- Speier's prediction: Don't plan the World Series parade just yet. Speier expects a "learning-to-win process," especially among the younger players. But he says the Sox should be competing to win their division and return to the playoffs. " As long as their pitching remains relatively healthy and intact, then this represents a season that should look a little bit different than the last handful of them for the Red Sox," he said.
- Mark your calendars: We'll have to wait another week to see the Sox play at Fenway Park. Their home-opener is scheduled for Friday, April 4, against the St. Louis Cardinals.
- Go deeper: Read NPR's full MLB season preview here.
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The latest: More than a thousand people gathered last night in Somerville to protest the arrest and possible deportation of Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk. Footage from a neighbor's security camera showed masked, plain-clothes agents taking Ozturk into an unmarked SUV outside her apartment Tuesday. Tufts officials say Ozturk is currently being held at a detention facility in Louisiana.
- Why was she arrested? It remains unclear. The Department of Homeland Security said Ozturk "engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization," but did not provide any material evidence. The fact that Ozturk co-wrote an opinion piece in the Tufts student newspaper last year criticizing Israel over the country's treatment of the Palestinian people — and the lack of any other explanation for her arrest — has sparked concerns that the Trump administration is punishing political speech it disagrees with.
On strike: Over 100 non-tenured faculty at Wellesley College are heading to the picket line this morning. The Wellesley Organized Academic Workers union, which formed in January 2024 and represents a third of the college's faculty, has yet to reach a contract. "We're now striking to get them to meaningfully bargain with us and to try to resolve the contract by the end of this academic year," Anne Brubaker, a senior lecturer and union member, told WBUR's Dan Guzman.
- Wellesley College leaders argue the strike is "arbitrary and premature." In a statement, they told students to attend class per usual, unless directly notified otherwise. The union is calling on non-striking faculty to decline to cover impacted classes.
Measles in Massachusetts? Not quite, say state officials. Despite reports about an infected passenger on an Amtrak train that originated in Boston, state Department of Public Health officials said yesterday that the passenger boarded the train in New York, not South Station, when en route to Washington, D.C.
P.S.— Famed poet Maggie Smith is coming to CitySpace next Tuesday for a conversation with fellow award-winning poet Saeed Jones about the 10 elements she has identified for living a creative life. But first, Smith shared one of her hallmark pep talks about saying "yes" — and "no" — for Cognoscenti. Read it here.
