2020 Red Sox Season Looks Just as Gloomy for So Many Reasons

A year after a historic 2018 campaign that ended in a World Series title, the Boston Red Sox have been mediocre (to put it nicely) in 2019.

Everyone waited and waited for this team to wake up and play like champions, but it never happened. And their bitter enemy, the New York Yankees, ran away with the AL East and will finish the regular season with well over 100 wins.

Next year will be better, right? It was a just a World Series hangover they never got past, right? There aren't any absolutes in sports, so yeah, they could bounce back and contend. But I doubt it.

The first issue Boston has to settle is whether they want to continue going over the MLB's luxury tax threshold. They flew by it this year with the largest payroll in the sport at roughly $229 million.

They could get under it with Rick Porcello coming off the books, but to be firmly under the tax, Boston has to hope J.D. Martinez opts out-- and they should possibly even consider trading Mookie Betts, who is due to get a ton of money in arbitration this offseason.

(Boston might save some money, but their team in 2020 gets a lot worse if they move on from Betts and Martinez. So, yeah, they won't let that happen.)

Of course, if they had some talented young players on the horizon, they could hand the keys to them. However, former front office boss Dave Dombrowski didn't pay too much attention to boosting up the farm system, which is now one of the thinnest in baseball, during his tenure.

Back to Boston's bloated payroll. David Price, Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi will combine to make $79 million in 2020. That's a problem, because Price may need offseason surgery, Sale is recovering from an elbow injury, and Eovaldi isn't the October superstar they once fell in love with.

They need at least one more starter, but they don't have a lot of payroll flexibility and their farm system can't get them anyone that's a sure thing.

Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Andrew Benintendi and even Christian Vazquez make up a solid core for this Red Sox team. However, they want to regain an AL East crown, and that becomes a major headache if Boston decides to trade Betts, who sounds increasingly like he won't sign an extension.

The Red Sox have the resources to turn this around quickly, but for 2020, you might see more of the same coming out Beantown. Good luck to the next chief decision-maker in that front office. They're going to need it.