Tomase: Crazy how little remains from the '18 World Series champion Red Sox

It's hard to imagine an organization better positioned to win multiple titles than the 2018 Red Sox.

After rampaging to a franchise-record 108 victories, they sailed through the playoffs en route to the fourth World Series championship of the John Henry era. The pieces could hardly have fit together more perfectly. An unforgettable campaign felt like only the beginning.

The Red Sox featured youth in all the right places. The American League MVP, Mookie Betts, had only celebrated his 26th birthday at the start of October, just a week after All-Star shortstop Xander Bogaerts. Slugging third baseman Rafael Devers was only 22. Potential batting champ Andrew Benintendi was 24. Catcher Christian Vazquez was 28.

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On the pitching side, ace Chris Sale, former Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello, and trade deadline savior Nathan Eovaldi hadn't even turned 30. Emerging left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez was only 25. Matt Barnes, 28, looked like a future closer.

The Red Sox were set, and that's before mentioning monster DH J.D. Martinez or Gold Glove center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. They were what one local talk show host would call "a wagon."

Except then the wheels flew off. The 2019 Red Sox missed the playoffs, costing president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski his job. Replacement Chaim Bloom arrived with a mandate to trade Betts, who had no intention of signing a contract extension a year before reaching free agency.

Three years later, only four players remain from that championship club. When one considers what the Red Sox turned the rest of the roster into, it's an indictment of two regimes, one that clung too hard to the magic of the past, and another consumed with building a better future.

The result was a last-place finish in 2022, which feels like the first of many. A breakdown of how the Red Sox lost their departing stars reveals exactly that -- a complete and total breakdown. So let's undertake this ugly exercise, focusing on the key contributors who no longer call Boston home.

The Holdovers

--Devers, Sale, Barnes, Ryan Brasier

That's it. Four players. We'll see how long Devers lasts until he's going, going, gone, too. But for now, he's the only holdover you'd entrust with a major role. Sale has transformed from cowboy alpha ace into borderline laughingstock, with a series of increasingly ridiculous injuries limiting him to just 11 starts over the last two years. Trusting him to front the 2023 rotation feels ... optimistic.

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Barnes has suffered an even more perplexing fall, from 2021 All-Star to mop-up man. He finished last season strong, but the Red Sox rebuilt the bullpen this winter and can certainly afford to move on if he fails to live up to the final year of his two-year, $18.75 million extension.

As for Brasier, he must have nine lives, because he keeps surviving bullpen purges despite mediocre results.

The Free Agents

--Bogaerts, Martinez, Bradley, Porcello, Craig Kimbrel, Rodriguez, Eovaldi, Joe Kelly, Brock Holt, Eduardo Nunez

Under Dombrowski, the Red Sox would've been happy paying everybody. He gave Sale and Eovaldi huge extensions that both looked lousy out of the chutes, though Eovaldi later rebounded to qualify as a bargain. That largesse earned him unemployment, with Henry prioritizing a leaner budget and Bloom obliging.

The problem is the Red Sox watched a *lot* of talent walk out the door for basically nothing. They lowballed Bogaerts into the arms of the Padres, paid lip service to retaining Bradley before he signed with the Brewers, and failed to trade Martinez at this year's deadline when they had the chance.

You can't pay everyone, and the only player on that list that really stings is Bogaerts, but simultaneously taking yourself out of the market for homegrown players and external free agents is no way to replenish a talent base.

Traded Away

--Betts, Benintendi, Vazquez, Mitch Moreland, Heath Hembree, Brandon Workman, David Price, Sandy Leon

Here's the real killer. There's a world where the Red Sox could've reloaded following trades of Betts and Benintendi, but we're not living in it.

Under Bloom, their returns in veterans-for-prospects deals have consistently underwhelmed. The Dodgers fleeced them for Betts, swapping the exceedingly average Alex Verdugo, the recently DFA'd Jeter Downs, and backup catcher Connor Wong for half of Price's salary and the former MVP, who immediately signed a monster extension in L.A. and then won a World Series.

They went the quantity route for Benintendi with lackluster results. While Benintendi was winning a Gold Glove and making an All-Star team with the Royals, all the Red Sox had to show for him was Franchy Cordero and Josh Winckowski, along with a handful of minor leaguers. No one in that deal seems likely to make an impact in Boston.

The two prospects Bloom received from the Padres for Moreland flamed out, and it's too early to evaluate the return from the Astros for Vazquez.

That leaves Bloom's one hit, acquiring right-hander Nick Pivetta for Hembree and Workman, who were both washed up. But even that deal suffered last year, with Pivetta unable to win in the division and looking more like a back-end starter at best.

Final tally: Poor

The trade returns have proven meager, especially with Verdugo continually failing to take the next step. The only compensatory pick they've received is Florida high schooler Roman Anthony, whom they selected 79th overall last year after losing Rodriguez to the Tigers. They'll get a pick for Bogaerts this summer and one for Eovaldi, too, assuming he signs elsewhere, but either way, that's virtually nothing to show for one of the franchise's all-time great teams.