Here’s our All-Quarter-Century Red Sox team
Many of the choices were easy. A couple are worthy of serious debate. And every player selected won a World Series with the Red Sox.
All in all, it’s been a decent century so far for the Red Sox, wouldn’t you say?
Four World Series titles and an epic reversal of fortune with the Yankees in 2004 were the best of times. The last half-dozen seasons, save for a hiccup of a deep playoff run in 2021, haven’t been nearly as much fun, to put it mildly.
But this current whole-is-greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts 2025 team has brought the good vibes back to Fenway, and super-rookie Roman Anthony has decided to stay awhile. The next few seasons have a chance to deliver some good times.
As further circumstantial evidence that time seems to be accelerating, the century already is a quarter complete — more than that if you count 2000 rather than 2001 as its start, which we do here, since that’s when we celebrated the century’s turn while exhaling about Y2K.
With that it mind, it seemed a fitting time to put together our All-Quarter-Century Red Sox team. A few rules : We used Wins Above Replacement as a major factor, but not always the deciding factor, since sentiment and nostalgia must be at play here.
Also, our roster is 25 players, with everyone in their appropriate role. You’ll see what that means.
Many of the choices were easy. A couple are worthy of serious debate. One I left up to you. And every player selected won a World Series with the Red Sox.
Sure couldn’t have said that last century.
The squad:
Catcher: Jason Varitek
Who else? The stoic captain of the 2004 and 2007 champs is the only player ever to catch four no-hitters, and few Red Sox have ever had a higher approval rating. From 2000 until his retirement after the 2011 season, he provided 22.3 Wins Above Replacement, more than three times the Red Sox’ second-most productive catcher of this century, Christian Vazquez (6.9 WAR). Also, Varitek is the all-time leader in the wildly undervalued sabermetric stat MARETM — Making A-Rod Eat The Mitt.
First base: Kevin Youkilis
A.k.a. the Greek God of Walks, or, more colloquially, YOOOOOOOOOOUK! He spent plenty of time at both infield corners for the Red Sox during his 2004-12 run, playing 464 games at third base and 613 at first. His greatest successes came while playing the less hot of those corners. He won a Gold Glove at first base in 2007, finished third in the American League MVP voting in ’08 and sixth in ’09, and averaged 5.7 WAR per season from 2007-10.
Second base: Dustin Pedroia
Dare you to tell him someone else is the pick. Actually, based on sentiment, there is no other choice, and based on analytics, he’s the easiest call in this exercise. The 2007 AL Rookie of the Year (and World Series scourge of Jeff Francis) and ’08 MVP (when he had 54 doubles, 213 hits, and 118 runs), four-time All-Star, and annual Heart Of It All accounted for 51.8 WAR during his 14 full or partial seasons with the Red Sox. Among players who played at least 40 percent of their games at second base, Mark Bellhorn is a very distant second at 4.1 WAR.
Shortstop: Xander Bogaerts
This might seem a tough call for someone who has spent many words here over the years arguing with great effectiveness that Nomar Was Better Than Jeter*. (*from 1997-2003. Then the world turned cruel). But it’s not, you see, because this is a vote for stability over mercurial excellence. Nomar Garciaparra did have spectacular seasons after the turn of the century. He hit .372 to win his second straight batting title in 2000, with 7.4 WAR, and after a wrist injury wiped out his 2001 season, he came back perhaps stronger than we recall in 2002 (6.8 WAR) and ’03 (6.1). I trust you know what happened in 2004. Bogaerts, who tallied 34.6 WAR to Garciaparra’s 20.8 with the Sox this century, was a picture of poise and professionalism in Boston while contributing to the 2013 World Series victory as a 20-year-old kid and the ’18 championship as one of the core stars of the most dominant Red Sox team ever.
Third base: Gonna leave this one up to you, friendly reader.
Welp, the analytics claim the choice is easy: Rafael Devers, whose 24.8 WAR more than doubles runner-up Mike Lowell (10.6). But no one within 100 miles or so of the 617 area code wants to go with Devers after his shenanigans this season, and hey, by the way, here’s a fun fact:
The Red Sox and Giants with Devers this season: 53 wins, 62 losses.
The Red Sox and Giants without Devers this season: 68 wins, 46 losses.
Makes you think, right?
So if you remain Devers-averse, and I presume you do, take your pick at third base among the steady Lowell (Alex Bregman reminds me of him a lot), Mariano-slayer Bill Mueller, one awesome year of Adrian Beltre, or anyone but Pablo Sandoval, really.
Left field: Manny Ramirez
Seventeen years — yep, it’s been that long — after he was traded to the Dodgers, I still miss watching him hit, and I will even beyond the day his 2007 playoff home run off Angels closer Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez finally lands.
Center field: Johnny Damon
Yeah, yeah, he left to sign with the Yankees after the 2005 season, and helped them win their most recent World Series in ’09. (Wow, it’s been awhile.) Call him a traitor if you must, but nothing he could have done — or ultimately did — in the Bronx could come close in relevance to his two-homer, seven-RBI all-timer of a clutch performance in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. His time in New York was temporary. His time here is forever.
Right field: Mookie Betts
Betts’s 42.5 WAR is third among Red Sox hitters this century, trailing only David Ortiz (52.5) and Pedroia (51.8). But they were each here for 14 seasons. Betts was here for just six, averaging more than 7 WAR per season, including a staggering 10.7 in his 2018 MVP season, when he hit .346 with 32 homers. Somehow, he’s in his sixth season with the Dodgers, and anyone who wants to come out of the woodwork to say his tough 2025 season validates the Sox’ foolish decision to trade him can go chew gravel.
Designated hitter: David Ortiz
“He is the greatest clutch hitter you, your dad, your granddad, and in all likelihood, your unborn children will ever see. He’s Big Papi, larger than life, bigger than the biggest moments.” I wrote that in June 2005, and 20 years, countless highlights, and one Hall of Fame induction later, all I’d change is including your wife, mom, and grandmother, as well.
Starting pitcher: Pedro Martinez
As we said in the ‘80s: No duh. His 2000 season stands as one of the greatest in baseball history: 18 wins, 6 losses, a 1.74 ERA (in the juiced-hitter era, when the league average was 4.91), 284 strikeouts in 217 innings, and 11.7 WAR, the most by a starting pitcher this century. Following the greatest pitcher I’ve ever seen in the rotation: Jon Lester (29.9 WAR), Josh Beckett (22.3), Curt Schilling (17.7), and Chris Sale (17.0).
Closer: Keith Foulke
Jonathan Papelbon actually has the most WAR among Sox closers since 2000, and he closed out the 2007 World Series with style. But Foulke got many of the most tense and toughest outs in Red Sox history during the 2004 postseason. He’s the choice. And I’m keeping Koji Uehara on this roster to get it to 25 players, and because he induced the least stress of any closer the Red Sox have ever had.
Others to fill out our 25-man roster:
Lefthanded setup man: Hideki Okajima.
Righthanded setup man: Mike Timlin.
Utilityman: Brock Holt.
Player you want fielding the last out of a playoff series: Pokey Reese.
Backup outfielder: Gabe Kapler.
Pinch runner: Dave Roberts. Stole a base of some magnitude once, I’ve been told.
Designated inspirational speechmaker: Kevin Millar, for the Don’t Let Us Win Tonight schtick that proved prescient, and then legendary.
Designated series-clinching pitcher and team goof: Derek Lowe.
Pitcher who always has his spikes on just in case: Tim Wakefield. Because there’s no point in having this team without Wake.