Theo Epstein shares his thoughts on state of 2026 Red Sox

It’s been an up-and-down season so far for the 2026 Red Sox.

Following Wednesday’s win to conclude a sweep of the Royals, Boston holds a 22-27 record.

Read more Trump will ease refrigerant rule in effort to address surging grocery costs

For all of the optimism rooted in the Red Sox taking another step forward after last year’s brief playoff appearance, Boston has taken its lumps through the first seven weeks, with a largely listless lineup hindering a roster that has received quality pitching and defense on most nights. ​

But, even with Boston laboring out of the gate, Theo Epstein believes the Red Sox still have the means to pull themselves out of a sub-.500 start.

Epstein — who served as general manager of the Red Sox from 2002-2011 and won two World Series in Boston — now serves as a senior advisor and part-owner of Fenway Sports Group.​

While he’s no longer involved in the day-to-day workings of the Red Sox, Epstein was asked on the “Dirt from the Dugout” podcast about how Boston’s ballclub has fared up to this point.

“I’ve done a really good job of staying out of the media [and] the conversation around the team,” Epstein said. “That’s one of the cool things about just being an advisor is that I can just kind of give my opinion and I don’t have to be a part of the public conversation. … Pitching and defense have been fantastic,” Epstein said. “That’s not an easy feat to have that foundation.

“Having to figure out the offense and fixing it midstream is important. There’s something to build around with the pitching and defense and I know [Craig Breslow] and the guys are hard at work on fixing the offense.”

Getting Roman Anthony back in the lineup would be a welcome sight for the Red Sox’ lineup moving forward, although his recovery timeline from a sprained ligament in his right ring finger seems to have hit a snag in recent days.

Read more Democrats release contentious autopsy of 2024 presidential campaign

Still, Boston has started to show signs of waking up at the plate — scoring seven runs on Tuesday and another four during Wednesday’s victory at Kauffman Stadium.

Epstein helped construct several contending clubs during his standout career as a baseball executive — including a third World Series title with the Cubs in 2016.

​During his podcast appearance, the 52-year-old Epstein stressed that trust is one of the key components of building a sustainable, contending team in Major League Baseball. ​

“As someone who’s putting a team together or trying to build a championship organization, there’s nothing more important than players that ultimately you can trust to do a myriad of things,” Epstein said. “One — players that you can trust to put the team first, put the team interest, the collective interest, organizational interests, sometimes above their own individual interests. … That kind of trust is hugely important, and it cuts both ways, too.

“It’s just so important that you’re honest with your feedback, you’re honest in contract negotiations, you’re honest with where [players] stand, you’re honest about their development, and that’s where individual player development plans came from, and making sure you document the feedback, and that there’s buy-in, and that type of honesty is what’s essential to building trust that goes both ways and is mutual,” he added.

“If you have it going both directions, if you have players that you can trust to do the right things that we just articulated, and you’ve got players trusting the leadership — both with their manager and the GM and the ownership — you’re going to have a winning organization for a long time.”

Read more Closing Summer Street? On World Cup crowd management, Boston locks horns with the T.