Here is another post full of cards I acquired through TCDB.
1. Carl Yastrzemski. The single greatest season by WAR by a Red Sox player was Yaz's 1967 Triple Crown-winning season. What separated him from Ted Williams was his defense. On top of being a fantastic hitter, he was a great fielder as well.
2. Mo Vaughn. First-basemen get penalized in bWAR for playing the position. Even though Vaughn was not a good first-baseman in the first place, the penalty drops his 1995 season to a 4.3. By fWAR, it was 5.1. Either way, it is unlikely we would see a season like that win the MVP at this point in time. By either metric, his 1996 and 1998 seasons were better.
3. Jarren Duran. Duran's 2024 season was 9.0 by bWAR and 6.9 by fWAR. No, I don't know why there is such a discrepancy there.
4. Jack Lopez. It's weird sometimes how I get cards of certain players in clusters. Lopez has very few cards, yet I have gotten two in a very short amount of time.
5. Martin Perez. I really liked Perez during his two-year stint with the Red Sox. He was one of the team's best pitchers in 2020 and was a decent role player in 2021. He returned to Texas in 2022 and had the best season of his career, being named to his only All Star team.
6. Alex Verdugo. Verdugo was an incredibly talented player who just never lived up to it. It's crazy that he has not played at all this year, at just 30 years of age. He had All Star talent, but was such a head case that he could never harness it.
7. Connor Seabold. I thought Seabold was going to be the best player the team received in the trade of Brandon Workman to the Phillies. Seabold could never stick in the Majors, and so the better player ended up being Nick Pivetta.
8. Connor Seabold.
9. Josh Winckowski. Winckowski ended up being the best player the Red Sox acquired in the Andrew Benintendi deal. Franchy Cordero was also a part of that trade, but he never really hit well in the Majors. Winckowski was great in 2023 when he had a 2.88 ERA in 60 games.
10. Dustin Pedroia. There's always a player on the Hall of Fame ballot whose candidacy I monitor closely. Since Billy Wagner was elected, that player is Pedroia, with apologies to Jon Lester who will be eligible for the first time with the next ballot (though I think he will be elected fairly quickly). Pedroia was one of my favorite players while he was active. He is in a better position than Wagner was at the same time in their eligibility. He gained a lot of votes this year. If he has another big gain, it may help determine if he is going to be elected.
11. Kenley Jansen. The Red Sox have had three closers over the last ten years that all look like they could make it into the Hall of Fame between Craig Kimbrel, Jansen and Aroldis Chapman. Jansen looks like he could be the safest bet. His 495 career saves at the moment is enough to put him in third place of all time. He is not likely to make it into second place, but he should make it in.
12. Masataka Yoshida. He is probably out for the season, but Yoshida hit .274/.347/.399 for a 111 OPS+, one of the better seasons of his career in the Majors. He also had five home runs.
13. Bill Lee. I have to grab cards of someone like Bill Lee when he appears in sets. Lee was an eccentric southpaw with the Red Sox in the 1970's. He was an All Star in 1973 when he was 17-11 with a 2.75 ERA.
14. Tris Speaker. Speaker was Boston's first homegrown superstar, inasmuch as players could be homegrown prior to the draft and minor league systems becoming common. Speaker was the first player who made his Major League debut with the Red Sox to become a superstar. He spent more time with Cleveland, but he had more great seasons with the Red Sox and first made his mark in Boston.
15. Alex Bregman. His only season in Boston saw Bregman make the All Star team and hit .273/.360/.462 with 18 home runs and 62 RBIs. It was a nice season, but he played in just 114 games.
1. Kristian Campbell. Campbell has really turned it on this year in the minors. Hopefully that is a sign of things to come for him and he can make it back to the Majors next season.
2. Wally the Green Monster. I am not a fan of mascot cards. I didn't pick this out, I just didn't turn it down.
3. Pedro Martinez. Martinez was not the first player to make the Hall of Fame whose entire time in Boston I got to experience as a fan, but he was the first one to wear a Red Sox cap on his plaque. The first player was Rickey Henderson.
4. Tessie. Another mascot card.
5. Roman Anthony. Anthony won the game Sunday night, with a clutch base hit that scored the winning run. Boston is going to be counting on him a lot in the postseason.
6. Masataka Yoshida.
7. Wilyer Abreu. Abreu is one of the most underrated players in the game. He is third in position player WAR and looks likely to win his third straight Gold Glove Award this year.
8. Ted Williams. Williams's best year according to bWAR was his 1946 season. Not the year he hit .400. Not either of the years he won the Triple Crown. That year he hit .342/.497/.667 with 38 home runs and 123 RBIs and won the MVP for the first time.
9. Sonny Gray. I am finally starting to add a few cards of Gray. It's been slow getting any of the new players acquired by the Red Sox for the year. Gray, with his third card, is the most. I need to fix that.
10. Pedro Martinez.
11. Connor Wong. This was the card that started this trade. As I said the other day, I still add cards of Wong when I can find them.
12. Brayan Bello. Bello has had a perplexing year. He has been terrible in the first innings of games, but when used as a bulk reliever, he has been lights out. I don't get it.
13. Jenn Tran. I don't care for these first pitch cards either. I have no idea who this is. She's pretty, but I don't know who she is.
14. Enmanuel Valdez. The other player acquired in the trade that brough Wilyer Abreu to Boston. Valdez last appeared in the Majors with the Pirates in 2025.
15. Carlos Narvaez. I'm finally starting to get a few Narvaez cards, of course after he was traded away.
16. David Ortiz.
The next scan is actually three separate two-card trades.
1. Pablo Reyes. Reyes had a huge moment when he walked off the Royals with a grand slam in 2023. He had a nice year that year, but couldn't keep the success going.
2. Ceddanne Rafaela. Rafaela's injury keeps him from making the 20/20 mark. Unless he goes on a real tear, which is possible, but unlikely.
1. Pedro Martinez.
2. Masataka Yoshida.
1. Masataka Yoshida. I am beginning to think Yoshida is one of those players traders are perfectly willing to include in deals to get rid of.
2. Ceddanne Rafaela. Yes, I consider this a Rafaela card. This is from one of his walk-offs.
1. Roger Clemens. Clemens's best season by WAR with the Red Sox was 1990, the year he was robbed of the Cy Young Award by Bob Welch, because Welch won 27 games for a great A's team while Clemens won 21 for Boston.
2. Roman Anthony.
1. Triston Casas. It will be interesting to see what happens with Casas going into next season. He has not played since early last year, but at some point he just has to get healthy again.
2. Rafael Devers. He had been on fire lately until hitting the IL and ending his season. He will have to wait another year to see if he can beat his personal record of 38 home runs. I still wish Boston hadn't traded him away, but I have moved on.
3. J.D. Martinez. It appears that his career is over. Martinez finished with a line of .283/.348/.516 with 331 home runs and 1,071 RBIs. Those numbers are not going to get him into the Hall of Fame. He had some Hall of Fame-worthy seasons, but not enough of them.
4. Ceddanne Rafaela.
5. Paul Quantrill. The Canadian-born Quantrill made his Major League debut with the Red Sox and pitched his first couple years there before being traded to the Phillies in the deal that brough Wes Chamberlain to the Red Sox. Quantrill went on to some big success with the Blue Jays, Dodgers and Yankees.
6. Rob Refnsyder. It's strange. I had some arguments with a Yankees fan early in Refsnyder's career about how good he was going to be. I was correct by and large because I said he would not be a star (the other guy definitely drank the Yankees prospect Kool-Aid, you know what I'm talking about). It's odd though because Refsnyder's best years actually came with the Red Sox.
7. Trevor Story. Story is also healthy for the first time all year and has had some big moments with the team this year. Hopefully he can produce similar to what he was doing when healthy last season. We need that version of Story for the postseason.
1. Vaughn Grissom. Grissom has bounced back in his first full season in the Majors to become something close to the kind of player he was expected to be when the Red Sox traded Chris Sale for him. Unfortunately, it comes too late to salvage that trade as anything less than a total disaster.
2. Payton Tolle. I think Tolle might be my second-favorite player for the team currently. Just above Wilyer Abreu and behind Ceddanne Rafaeala. Roman Anthony could climb quickly if he stays healthy and productive.
3. Caleb Durbin. This is my first card of Durbin, who was a major acquisition by the Red Sox this year. He had a horrifically slow start to his Red Sox career, but has come around to be a reliable contributor who plays Gold Glove-worthy defense.
4. Yoelin Cespedes. Cespedes is an interesting prospect. He could be a top prospect, but just does not seem to take the lep forward necessary to make it. He's just 21 though, so it could still be coming.
5. Juan Marichal. Panini put Marichal with the Red Sox? Yes, they did. Of course I had to grab it.
























