With Opening Day a week away, it’s surprisingly easy to be excited about these Red Sox

The 2026 Red Sox open their schedule a week from today, taking on old friend Terry Francona and his Reds. First pitch is set for 4:10 p.m., so you’d best come up with your game plan soon on how to weasel out of work early next Thursday.

(And they say service journalism is dead.)

Maybe it’s because of this annual March malaise, where the temperature outside seems to read 31 degrees two out of every three times I check, but I can’t wait for the season to begin.

I’m intrigued by what the Red Sox have in store. Optimistic, even.

Much to my own surprise, to be honest.

Let me explain: In some previous Red Sox administrations, the final innings of the 2025 season — when Yankees rookie Cam Schlittler, a Walpole High and Northeastern product, shut out his boyhood team for eight innings, whiffing 12, in the deciding third game of their wild-card series — would have been beyond unacceptable.

Two decades ago, maybe even one, such a defeat to the Yankees would have been in the impetus for an offseason reloading. Shut out in the final game of the postseason by a Yankees rookie, and one with deep local ties, no less? Time to add a couple of big-name booming bats to the lineup to ensure such an embarrassing scenario never happens again.

The Red Sox, as presumably you have noticed, did not take such an approach. Pete Alonso, the ursine former Mets slugger, appeared an ideal free-agent fit, but Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow did not agree. Alonso signed a reasonable five-year, $155 million contract with the Orioles. The Red Sox chose not to make his decision difficult.

They did add former Cub and Cardinal Willson Contreras, whose swing suggests he’ll fit well at Fenway. But Contreras isn’t an elite hitter — his career high in home runs is 24, set seven years ago. And the Red Sox actually lost one of the bigger-name players along the way when Alex Bregman — a steady all-around player if no longer a slugger — departed for the Cubs after they gave him a no-trade clause.

Breslow’s decision to not add obvious firepower to a lineup that appeared to need it was annoying, and it does not help that he sometimes explains his decisions like a beta version of a baseball chatbot.

But he had an alternate plan, and though he didn’t zig the way some of us had hoped/demanded this offseason, his zag was … compelling. Intriguing. Probably even clever, and possibly wise.

Breslow prioritized pitching, signing Phillies lefthander Ranger Suarez to a five-year, $130 million contract, and that came after acquiring veteran righty Sonny Gray from the Cardinals. With Garrett Crochet holding True Ace status, Bryan Bello now in a back-end slot, and prospects like Payton Tolle and Connelly Early most likely waiting in the wings of Worcester, the Red Sox feature arguably the best rotation in the American League.

Suarez is a fascinating addition. He’s reliant on command and control rather than velocity, an old-schooler in repertoire and attitude. I had heard that he was beloved in Philadelphia, where he spent his first eight seasons, and it takes a special kind of athlete to be beloved there. Philly fans are like Boston fans if 25 percent of us had some new strain of non-fatal rabies, so it was intriguing to read the well-wishes for Suarez in Boston.

The respect for him was confirmed to me recently during, of all things, a recent visit to my dermatologist. I’m paler than your favorite ale, obviously, so I check in with my doc — a Philly native and avid sports fan, I’ve learned over the years — more than most. At my last visit a few weeks back, he spent as much time lamenting losing Suarez as he did zapping potential trouble spots off my noggin. If Philly fans love Suarez, Sox fans will too, presuming he pitches here like he did there.

The Red Sox’ outfield defense was excellent last year and will remain so, and the infield should be much improved this year. Contreras is a big upgrade defensively at first base, and Marcelo Mayer — if he has both feet outside of Alex Cora’s doghouse — will be smooth at second. Trevor Story is steady at shortstop, though he wore down late last season.

At third base, Caleb Durbin takes over for Bregman. He was acquired as part of a trade with the Brewers that sent lefty Kyle Harrison to Milwaukee. This should make all of us suspicious. Trading pitching to the Brewers — as the Sox should have learned last year with Quinn Priester’s breakthrough in Milwaukee — is as risky as, oh, swinging a deal with Brad Stevens in NBA circles. Harrison looked like Just A Guy during a brief trial last season. But it wouldn’t shock me if the Brewers turn him into a Red Sox regret.

That’s no knock on Durbin, though. He probably won’t hit for much power — Fangraphs projects him for 10 home runs — but he’s slick with the glove. Given that he’s a smaller fella (5 feet 6 inches) by MLB standards, Red Sox fans will be ready to hug him and pet him and squeeze him and call him the next Brock Holt if he produces at all.

Oh, and they’ll score enough, even without Bregman and the addition of a true slugger. You could tell me any enthusiastic statistical outcome for Roman Anthony this season — .975 OPS, 40 home runs, an AL MVP candidacy, an AL MVP win — and I’d just say, “Yep, that sounds plausible.” The next Red Sox superstar has arrived, folks.

The result is a team that will pitch well, field much better than they did a year ago, and hit plenty, and the result should be a team that plays a crisp, fun style.

Maybe they weren’t built the way we anticipated, or wanted, after last season’s disappointing end. But they’re built to be a playoff team, and perhaps even stick around for a while this time.

I can’t predict now what the ending will look like. But I can’t wait to see the beginning.

Chad Finn

Sports columnist

Chad Finn is a sports columnist for Boston.com. He has been voted Favorite Sports Writer in Boston in the annual Channel Media Market and Research Poll for the past four years. He also writes a weekly sports media column for the Globe and contributes to Globe Magazine.