It’s official. The Boston Red Sox are one of the worst teams in all of baseball.

That’s a shocking statement, considering Boston has been one of the top teams in the major leagues for nearly a decade.

It’s true Boston hasn’t won a playoff series since 2008, but it has won two World Series since 2004 and is always a playoff contender to the very end of the season.

Not now, however, not in this current Red Sox climate. As of Monday, Boston was 62-74. That record was only better than three teams out of the 14 teams in the American League. It was only better than eight teams total in all of the major leagues. This time last season Boston started struggling, but Red Sox fans still had hopes it would make the playoffs. After all, it was one of the best teams in baseball heading into September. Then the unexpected and still unexplained September collapse happened. By the end of the month, Boston no longer had the top record in baseball and didn’t qualify for the playoffs. It was shocking.

Now, Red Sox fans have sat through almost an entire season of watching an extension of that September fall. April, May, June, July and August saw the same type of bad baseball being played on a nightly basis. Stars who helped Boston win the World Series title in 2007, such as Josh Beckett and Kevin Youkilis, were traded midway through the season. Two big acquisitions made two years ago, in Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, were also traded. These are some of the biggest names in baseball who were wearing Red Sox uniforms, yet management didn’t think enough of them to keep them around. That’s how bad it has gotten in Boston. Those moves had to be made in order to right this sinking ship. Now the focus turns to fledgling manager Bobby Valentine with 25 games left to play in the season. Do the Red Sox keep him for the remainder of the season? Or do they fire him and start working on next season? That’s a difficult question to answer.

The Red Sox will not make the playoffs this season, so keeping Valentine doesn’t change the eventual outcome. If the Sox fire him, then an interim manager will come in and Boston will still not be able to hit, pitch, play defense or run.

Firing Valentine, however, could also say that the Red Sox are sick of the losing. It could make a statement that it’s not acceptable regardless of what stage of the season the team is in, and also send a message to the next manager that coming here and winning is expected.

We all know that Valentine will not be back in 2013. How could he after this year of infighting, odd managerial decisions and excessive closed-door meetings? Valentine isn’t a good fit for New England or Boston. It wasn’t from a lack of trying, as he did inherit a club that was fractured and already showing signs of disintegrating even before he stepped foot into Fenway Park.

He was never able to get the team to play his way, however, and that is what general manager Ben Cherington seems to have realized. Cherington on Sunday admitted this team was hard to watch. It’s going to be hard to watch for the rest of September. If a person turns on ESPN SportsCenter, they will see pennant contenders such as the Texas Rangers scoring runs in bunches, making good defensive plays and playing as hard as they can.

When the Red Sox highlights are shown, fans see a ho-hum effort, bad at-bats and a plethora of physical and mental mistakes.

Something’s got to change and it starts with the manager, but when?

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Today’s editorial was written by Sports Editor Al Edwards representing the majority opinion of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.