At the unofficial halfway point of the Red Sox season — unofficial because, at the All-Star break, they have played 60 percent of their games — it is time to take stock of their body of work.
All in all, pretty good. Riding a 10-game winning streak, they have a strong record (53-45) and just-as-strong playoff positioning (second American League wild card; just three games back in the AL East). Thinking back to the end of spring training, that is an outcome they would have signed up for, even if they took a circuitous, eventful, unexpected path to get there.
Let’s go through some first-half superlatives.
Team MVP: Garrett Crochet. As difficult as it is for pitchers to be named MVP at the national level, the Red Sox’ circumstances make this an easy call.
Crochet has been everything they dreamed of and more when they acquired him from the White Sox in a blockbuster trade in December. He cost the Sox four minor leaguers, three of whom already have reached the majors, and has been worth every prospect penny.
The numbers: 2.23 ERA (second in the majors among qualified pitchers), 1.04 WHIP (13th), 129⅓ innings (first), 160 strikeouts (first), .210 opponents’ batting average (14th), 20 starts (tied for first). He has been right there with Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes, and Zack Wheeler as the best pitchers in baseball.
Of the hitters who could have made a case: Alex Bregman was amazing for about two months, then missed seven weeks with a strained right quadriceps; Rafael Devers was so good (if dramatic) but is long gone; Ceddanne Rafaela leads Red Sox position players in Wins Above Replacement by significant margin. If he can combine his elite defense with surprisingly solid hitting the rest of the way, check back at the end of the season.
Top pitcher: Crochet. Obviously.
Crochet’s dominance is worth appreciating in a context larger than just this season.
To underscore the caliber of season Crochet, 26, is putting together: To date, he has compiled 4.3 WAR, in FanGraphs’ calculation. If he maintains the same level for the remainder, he would join 2017 Chris Sale, 2002-03 Pedro Martinez, and 2004 Curt Schilling with the best seasons by a Red Sox pitcher this century.
Rookie of the half-year: Carlos Narváez. That is remarkable in a season that began with Kristian Campbell making the team out of camp and Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer right behind him.
Instead of any of the Big Three, though, it is Narváez who has been the Red Sox’ best first-year player. To think, he was acquired on the same day as Crochet, in a minor trade with the Yankees (for pitching prospect Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz).
The Red Sox thought Narváez would be the backup catcher, or at least a candidate for that job. But he took over the starting role when Connor Wong was temporarily injured and has received consistent rave reviews from pitchers about his defense and game-calling — in addition to batting a way-better-than-expected .273 with a .786 OPS. He also leads the majors with 20 base runners caught stealing.
“I thought we were getting a defensive catcher who was going to grow into probably an everyday player with time, not this year,” manager Alex Cora said. “But Connor goes down with the injury and he took the baton and he’s still running with it. You better give him credit. For a guy who nobody expected this [from], he worked hard to get to this point offensively.”
Wildest moment: Pulling Rafael Devers off the team plane moments before a cross-country flight.
That remains a hard-to-believe sequence of words, but here they are.
Is it socially acceptable yet to say it’s working out just fine for the Red Sox?
In a stunning conclusion to the Devers-led soap opera — which began when his first public reaction to the signing of Bregman was to declare, “Third base is my position” — the Red Sox dumped their homegrown superstar face of the franchise on the Giants for four players, including reliever Jordan Hicks (and Kyle Harrison, the perceived prize of the return, who has a 5.94 ERA in four starts with Triple A Worcester).
The Red Sox went 3-7 in their first stretch after the trade but are 13-2 since.
Dealing with groin and back issues, Devers is hitting .202 with a .656 OPS and two home runs in 25 games with San Francisco. He has not played first base yet.
Best win: July 11, 5-4 over Rays. Maybe recency bias is in play here, but Fenway Park was electric last Friday night.
Start with the end: Rafaela hit a no-doubt, walkoff, two-run home run off closer Pete Fairbanks. On its own — a dramatic, come-from-behind victory over a division rival and wild-card competitor to steal a game they never led until the last moment and extend a season-best win streak — this matchup merits inclusion.
Then factor in some of the extras that this game brought, which solidify it as a standout date.
Rafaela’s big game marked the continuation of his hot streak — and ascent? — during his second full season in the majors. The Red Sox’ bullpen, spotty at times throughout the first half, covered 7⅓ innings after starter Hunter Dobbins suffered a season-ending ACL tear, giving the hitters a chance. And Bregman returned from a lengthy stay on the injured list, a harbinger, the Red Sox hope, of good things to come from their best all-around player.
Worst loss: April 30, 7-6 to Blue Jays (10 innings).
The Sox led, 6-0, as late as the sixth inning, on the strength of a big game from the top third of the lineup: Jarren Duran, Devers, Bregman. But then Lucas Giolito flamed out at the end of what had been a very strong season debut, and Garrett Whitlock blew a three-run lead in the seventh. Following four innings of silence from Sox bats, Justin Slaten lost it in the 10th.
Once again, on its own, that is a brutal one. But the context makes it worse. The Blue Jays lead the division — two games ahead of the Yankees, three ahead of the Red Sox — and it may well be a three-team race right to the end. If there is a one-game difference between the Blue Jays and Red Sox, perhaps deciding the AL East or wild-card spots, this one will hurt all the more.
Unsung hero: Whoever is playing first base that day.
When the Red Sox lost the struggling Triston Casas, who was supposed to be a big bat in the middle of the lineup, to a season-ending knee injury, it looked like a major blow. But it hasn’t played out that way.
Consider: Through May 2, the day Casas got hurt, the Red Sox had received a .194 average and .601 OPS from their first basemen. From May 3 on, those numbers have jumped to .264 and .734.
Maybe Casas would have turned his season around had he stayed healthy. They’ll never know. But in his place, Abraham Toro and Romy Gonzalez have been top-notch in what has basically functioned as a platoon, Toro against righthanded pitchers and Gonzalez against lefthanders.
Gonzalez was solid in a similar role last year, but this season has taken his game to another level, slashing an absurd .406/.462/.739 against southpaws.
Toro’s contributions have been even more unlikely. He didn’t have a team until the Red Sox gave him a minor league contract in late January. After spending about a month with Worcester, he got called up when Casas went on the IL and now has more starts at first than anybody else (36). The switch-hitting Toro, playing for his fifth team in five seasons, is batting .271 with a .739 OPS.
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.