Sure, pitching and defense can win championships — so long as those traits are supported by thump.
Recent history has made perfectly clear the importance of power for teams trying to win championships. In the 2025 playoffs, clubs that outhomered their opponents forged a dominant 30-5 record. The last five World Series were won by teams that ranked in the top four in the big leagues in homers. Outside of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, every team that won the World Series — and, for that matter, reached it — since 2016 has had at least one 30-homer hitter.
That reality hovers over the Red Sox roster as spring training gets underway. With Monday’s trade for infielder Caleb Durbin from the Brewers, the Sox have built a team that seems capable of smothering opposing lineups with an elite rotation and a positional group that could emerge as one of the top defensive clubs in the game.
That said, the team’s commitment to defense likely came at the expense of power.
Read the full story from Alex Speier at BostonGlobe.com. | 
