BOSTON, MA – MAY 29: Mookie Betts #50 of the Boston Red Sox reacts after hitting a solo home run during the first inning of a game against the Cleveland Indians on May 29, 2019 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
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The Boston Red Sox entered the 2026 postseason hoping to revive a franchise that has not won a championship since its 2018 title run. Instead, their season ended in familiar fashion, with another early playoff exit against their historic rival.
“For the second year in a row, the Red Sox season ended where it began: at Yankee Stadium,” Julian McWilliams wrote for CBS Sports. “Only quietness existed inside a clubhouse that will have to chew on two humiliating losses in the American League Wild Card Series.”
The Red Sox will be left to regroup this winter and take another run at the championship next year. And the loss officially marks another futile chase since the team’s last World Series championship, won in 2018.
Mookie Betts Sends Harsh Boston Red Sox Message After Joining Los Angeles Dodgers
The Red Sox’s last title was captured thanks to a stellar season from superstar shortstop Mookie Betts, who is now preparing to chase his third straight title with the Los Angeles Dodgers as his old team heads into the offseason.
And shortly before his own playoff series began, Betts sent a harsh message about how he looks back on his career split between the two teams.
“When I’m done playing, I’ll remember Boston, of course,” Betts said, according to The Athletic’s Katie Woo. “But what I’ll really remember is if somebody said, ‘Oh, you played baseball, like who did you play with?’ These are the guys I’m going to say I played with. (The Dodgers are) my team.”
The Red Sox selected Betts in the fifth round of the 2011 MLB Draft, and he eventually became a four-time All-Star and the 2018 American League MVP while helping the club win the World Series that season.
But the Red Sox decided to trade him before he reached free agency, and that changed the course of his career and their own franchise. The Dodgers acquired Betts and David Price from the Red Sox in exchange for Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs and Connor Wong before Betts signed a 12-year, $365 million extension with the Dodgers and helped lead a golden age for the franchise.
“At the start of the 2020 season, it was impossible to picture Betts anywhere but Boston, and (Freddie) Freeman anything but a forever Atlanta Brave,” Woo added. “Yet things changed fast. Betts was shipped over from the Boston Red Sox before that season began in one of the most highly criticized trades this decade.”
Former Boston Red Sox Star Mookie Betts Picks Los Angeles Dodgers Legacy
The trade has ultimately produced a dramatically different legacy for Betts. He helped the Dodgers win the 2020 World Series and has since added championships in 2024 and 2025, giving him four career titles, three with Los Angeles.
Betts has said that he plans to retire after his Dodgers contract ends following the 2032 season, meaning his playing career is increasingly defined by his time in Los Angeles. And his latest reflection indicates that he will consider the Dodgers to be “his team” once he retires.
For Boston, meanwhile, the post-Betts era has yet to produce another championship. The Red Sox’s consecutive Wild Card Series losses to the Yankees only reinforce the distance between their current reality and the championship team Betts helped lead.
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