The Boston Red Sox have had a 2025 season that’s been filled with excitement, injuries and unexpected trades like sending Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants one Sunday afternoon in June.

Despite everything, Boston looks poised to clinch a postseason berth for the first time since 2021.

ESPN’s David Schoenfield released his annual regular-season grades for each team and gave the Red Sox a C+.

Here’s his reasoning:

If they end up missing the playoffs … well, this probably turns into an F in the hearts of Red Sox Nation. It has certainly been a season with enough drama to rival the Big Dig. The Rafael Devers trade will look even more controversial if the Red Sox do miss the playoffs, considering he had a 151 OPS+ at the time of the trade. With many strong performances across the board — Garrett Crochet with a near Cy Young-season; 4-WAR seasons from Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Trevor Story; Aroldis Chapman with one of the most unhittable relief seasons of all time; a nice comeback from Lucas Giolito; Roman Anthony’s sterling rookie season before he went down in early September — it feels like the Red Sox should have locked up a playoff spot by now, but that hasn’t quite happened. It might come down to the final home series against Detroit.

The Red Sox have the possibility to punch their ticket to the playoffs as early as Thursday, but at this point, they essentially control their own destiny.

Boston likely would have locked up a spot in the postseason earlier had it been able to win a handful of one-run losses throughout the season. The Red Sox are 21-26 in one-run games.

The Red Sox, Astros, Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers are all still in the hunt with three spots left to clinch. If the Tigers even up with Boston, Detroit will likely get the tiebreaker after it swept the Red Sox in May. The two teams face off against one another in their final series of the season beginning Friday.

If the Red Sox go 3-2 against the Toronto Blue Jays and the Tigers, they will get into the postseason regardless of how the other teams finish.

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