I am going to go with D- between that and an F.
Yes there was "progress" in that we weren't the on going answer to any trivia questions for the history of Major League Baseball this season, but a couple of things stand out about that "progress". If you took this season in isolation, it is an easy F. They lost the third most games in franchise history, and were the 2nd worst team in Major League Baseball. I can give a few points for starting from the literal worst ever, and at least improving on it.
Some of us spent last season, and the first half of this season talking about how we needed to get some of these in between guys some playing time to find out what we had in them, and quit wasting time on absolute trash washed up utility players. It FINALLY seemed to happen a couple of months into this season, and lo and behold, some of those guys actually had some talent.
Lenyn Sosa, who was buried multiple times, for just flaming dumpster fire's of players over the last year and half, finally forced his way into the line up, and became the Sox most consistent hitter over the course of the season. Much like his MiLB career, he needed PAs to adjust, and he did.
Again, outside pitching took us a large leap forward, while the internal candidates mostly floundered or preformed as well as could be expected. The Schultz/HSmith/GTaylor crowd was all very disappointing from a group you are looking for all star starters from.
Position players from trades and from the previous regime also seemed to take nice steps forward. Seeing guys like Brooks and Chase push themselves on to the roster is a good thing.
The Catching crew is a real bright spot going forward.
Miguel Vargas, despite THE SWING CHANGE (don't know if you guys heard about that) ended up having a pretty pedestrian season, even including his blazing hot streak. Dude put up a 100 OPS+ after all of that fire.
We seem to have some hitting doing some things at the lowest levels of the minors, such as Caleb Boennmer, and even into the mid minors in the case of the BMontgomery.
Colson had the weirdest season I can recall, but seeing him have a huge period of success is a plus and shows he has a real ceiling in the majors. You just have got to keep him healthy and away from whatever seems to drag him down at various points of the season.
The inability to really get much of anything at the deadline, again, was also a disappointment, especially since they seemed to be determined to repeat those mistakes in some cases, again.