As he lifted the World Series trophy, Boston Red Sox owner John Henry proclaimed the 2018 edition was “the best Red Sox team in history in so many ways”. It wasn’t surprising that Henry would be inspired to say that while he was caught up in the joy of victory; what was surprising was that he was probably right. The moment that the Red Sox defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series, they cemented their place as the best all-around team in the history of Boston baseball.

It’s something of a bold claim for a team that has has been around, in one form or another, since 1901 and now has nine championships to its name. Still, the numbers alone back it up. The Red Sox won 108 games during the regular season, a franchise record, and combined to win 119 games in total after they breezed their way through the postseason. The Ringer’s Zach Kram, making the case for the 2018 Red Sox being one of the best teams of all time, noted that the only teams that won more combined games were the 1998 New York Yankees and the 2001 Seattle Mariners (and the Mariners didn’t even make the World Series).

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Then there are the teams the Red Sox had to beat during this year’s playoffs. In the ALDS they faced a New York Yankees team that won 100 games. In the ALCS, they defeated a Houston Astros team that had won 103 and then easily handled a very dangerous Dodgers team to secure their fourth championship of the century. In the end, the Red Sox lost a grand total of three playoff games, losing once per series. It took the Dodgers 18 innings to beat the Red Sox in the only World Series game they won and even then they needed Boston second baseman Ian Kinsler to make several game-changing errors to pull it off.

If it feels strange to call this the greatest Red Sox team, it may be because they lack the mystique of past teams. There’s no Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez or David Ortiz on the 2018 Red Sox. Mookie Betts will almost certainly win AL MVP honors, but few outside of New England would be able to pick him out of a lineup. Yet it many ways, it was the most complete Red Sox team we have ever seen. Their starting rotation features Chris Sale, and Cy Young award winners David Price and Rick Porcello. Offseason acquisition JD Martinez hit 43 home runs during the regular season while shortstop Xander Bogaerts had one of the quietest 100+ RBI seasons in recent baseball memory. Craig Kimbrel, despite his shaky playoff performance, has been one of the most dominant closers in baseball for much of his career.

It wasn’t just about the star players either. Everyone on the roster was capable of having a big game, something that became very apparent during their postseason run. Outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr hit ninth for much of the regular season, but he was named ALCS MVP thanks to an unexpected power surge. Steve Pearce, a bench player the team acquired for basically nothing, ended up being the World Series MVP. They were stronger than their individual parts, and the parts were pretty damn good on their own.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Steve Pearce, a baseball journeyman, was named the World Series MVP. Photograph: Adam Davis/EPA

Every World Series is special in its own right. The 2018 squad will never be the most important Red Sox team in history, that will always be the 2004 edition that won the franchise’s first championship in 86 years. The 2007 team was noteworthy because it proved that Boston could win with a group of homegrown talent (Dustin Pedroia, Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, Jacoby Ellsbury). The overachieving 2013 team helped the city recover from the trauma of the Boston Marathon bombing. (It will require a baseball historian to say what the Boston teams that won in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918 meant to fans.)

The greatness of these 2018 champions was that they made baseball look easy. They began the season on a 17-2 run and never relinquished their lead in the AL East for too long, even with the Yankees putting together their own 100-win season. They practically clinched the division way back in August after they swept their arch rivals in New York in a four-game series. Like every team, the Red Sox had their share of painful losses, but they had a remarkable ability to bounce back. They never lost more than three games in a row at any point of the season. In many ways, the club adopted the character of their first-year manager Alex Cora, who remained calm and optimistic no matter what chaos swirled around him.

“Calm and optimistic” are not traits normally associated with Red Sox Nation, so it took time for fans to adjust to being the odds-on favorites for most of the season. If they complained too much about the bullpen or David Price’s occasional implosions during the regular season, it was more because fans always need something to complain about. In any case, when it came down to the postseason, even those perceived weaknesses turned into strengths. Because that’s how things went for the 2018 Red Sox, a team that put together the most successful and, indeed, enjoyable seasons in team history.

• This article was amended on 31 October 2018 because Chris Sale has not won the Cy Young award as an earlier version said.