It means that if the Sox do manage to get in, they have a VERY REAL and legitimate chance to make a deep run and maybe even win it all.
I, for one, am holding out hope that somehow, some way, they can squeak into the playoffs and then get hot like they did last year, which is totally possible and not a crazy thought at all
I think it's wild to ever diminish the Sox's possible playoff hopes IF they get in as a lottery ticket, when the Sox in a couple of their WC runs basically hit unicorn superfectas to win them. 2004: Down 0-3 in the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees, in case anyone was in a coma since 2003. In 2013: they bat .202 against the Tigers and if it wasn't for David Ortiz essentially saving their ass in Game 2 with that bomb off Benoit, it wasn't looking great.
There's an argument for the Sox not having the horses to get there for whatever reasons people want to use (Bloom built a bad team, a scourge of injuries and lack of depth to compensate despite the excessive injured list, even parity in the league with regards to A-list pitching etc.) I'm pessimistic the team can rebound, or that the FO will give them time to go on a run, but it's still 3.5 games back as horrific as they are playing.
Also, in 2022 last place means very little if you are in the AL East. Virtually every team in that division is over .500 and most teams in the division have gone on sick winning streaks at various times this season. The Blue Jays being the latest, the O's before the ASB, the Sox's insane June. It's a bloodsport. There's no margins, and there's more parity and two wild cards and the Sox had to play .770 ball in June *just to keep pace.*
Unless you have Yankees fans as coworkers that you don't like getting shit from when they talk trash, then to regard LaSt PlAcE without the context of the wild cards or the level of competition they face in the AL East in 2022 is "guy in the car long time first time" sports radio frustration. Which I get, they aren't fun to watch right now.
Some of the sentiment here is how one defines the team's success. If it's "value" based on their payroll then sure, run the WAR and the salaries and post accordingly. If it's essentially Steinbrenner-era "if we don't win a WS every year we're losers" privilege, then yeah the Sox DO suck every year they don't win one.
But it's also still Bloom's first full season with a proper manager (essentially a hire he cosigned), with no Covid-related shortened seasons and less restraints on team-building (but some DD moves to still reconcile), and looking ahead to a more flexible payroll, I think it's fair to cite small sample size if you're optimistic.
Regardless of half-full or half-empty or jumping off the Tobin takes, it's definitely agreed upon that they are not fun to watch right now, and their listlessness while compiling July's bad record is troubling. Their consistency is maddening, but going from .770 winning percentage in June to .273 in July
has to have something to do with the personnel, including but not limited to decimated starting pitching, injuries to their best hitters, lack of experienced depth to replace them, and a bullpen that was already their soft nougat center before the SP's went down.