Too much weight atop these Sox
Underwhelming thus far, can team get back upright?
The search for an explanation begins with the numbers.
Middle of the pack in runs scored. Slightly above average ERA. Second-most errors in the majors. Next, an audit of the personnel. Fifth-string option starting at third base. Three starting pitchers spending time on the disabled list. Top two set-up men still out of commission, weeks — not days — from joining the bullpen.
Then a casual look through the narrative.
Underwhelming offense blamed for slow start. Surprisingly bad defense bubbling to the surface at the end of April. Pitching depth becoming an issue most recently. It seems astounding that the Red Sox are only a game above .500 nearly a quarter of the way through the season — aren’t these guys supposed to be the division favorites? — but maybe it shouldn’t be all that surprising. Anything this topheavy is bound to fall over occasionally, the trick is getting it back upright.
“You know, the best way to describe it is we’ve got areas to improve upon,” manager John Farrell said. “That goes without saying. We know where the defensive shortcomings have come. We’ve been in a number of situations, particularly in the month of May, where I think we’ve been better offensively. There’s some really strong spots on the pitching side of things, but yet some areas to improve upon. It’s upon all of us to be more consistent.”
Well, not all of them, really.
Every team puts its best hitters at the top of the lineup and its best pitchers at the top of the rotation, but the Red Sox look a little more top heavy than most.
Their best player is Mookie Betts, who’s basically matching if not exceeding the slash line that made him a strong MVP candidate last season. According to FanGraphs, he’s ninth in baseball and fourth in the American League in Wins Above Replacement.
That same FanGraphs statistic ranks Chris Sale nearly a full win better than any other pitcher in baseball, a remarkable separation this early in the season. Forget the Cy Young. This is a season that would warrant mentioning on a Hall of Fame plaque if he keeps it up.
And the top reliever in baseball? Again, according to FanGraphs, that’s Craig Kimbrel, who’s faced 59 batters and recorded 50 outs, 33 of them via strikeout.
Add in a Rookie-of-the-Year caliber season from Andrew Benintendi, steady production from Xander Bogaerts, better than his win-loss record suggests performance by Rick Porcello, and at last some consistency from Eduardo Rodriguez, and the Red Sox have a winning core of headliners.
Even Dustin Pedroia, without much power, has stayed plenty productive, and guys like Mitch Moreland, Christian Vazquez, Robby Scott and Fernando Abad have exceeded relatively modest expectations. Add still-in-his-original- packaging Chase d’Arnaud — who has a hit in his one and only at-bat — and that’s more than half the roster that’s been basically good enough to lift the team higher.
But the roster remains dragged down by issues that seem predictable, are at least partially medical, and in some cases should be fixable.
Of the team’s 32 errors, nearly half (14) have been committed by four of the five players who have attempted to play third base. Errors are often a bad measure of defensive ability, but they do point to a certain level of sloppiness.
By trading Travis Shaw and Yoan Moncada, the Red Sox pinned their third-base hopes on a Pablo Sandoval resurgence, but Sandoval was inconsistent, and then he was hurt, and now it’s Deven Marrero — a sub-.200 hitter even Triple-A — who’s the latest position regular.
Depth has also been an issue for the pitching staff, which seemed to be a very real possibility from the very first day of spring training. David Price has yet to make a start, Steven Wright had season-ending knee surgery, and Drew Pomeranz — underwhelming when healthy — just hurt his triceps again, a return to the injury that caused him to start the season on the DL.
In their stead, the Red Sox have tried to round out their rotation with veteran Kyle Kendrick, who lasted just two starts, and now they seem to be seriously considering Hector Velazquez, who’d never played outside the Mexican League until this year.
An unreliable back of the rotation has put too many games in the hands of a bullpen that’s without Tyler Thornburg or Carson Smith, each of whom was meant to form a potent bridge to Kimbrel. Matt Barnes and Heath Hembree were excellent replacements for a while, but in the past week and a half, those two have faced 41 batters and 21 have reached base.
Early bullpen success has begun to correct itself in a bad way, while the team’s lack of home run power — which itself seemed due for a correction — has not come around nearly enough. The Red Sox are still last in the American League in home runs, and they’d be last in baseball if not for the occasional flashes of pop from Sandy Leon.
Hanley Ramirez, the most traditional power hitter of the bunch, has hit five home runs, all of which came in an eight-game stretch. Aside from that one hot streak: just three doubles and a barely .200 batting average from an all-bat, no-glove slugger. Add the .182 average for Jackie Bradley Jr., the unpredictability of the catchers, and the revolving door at third base, and the Red Sox don’t have nearly the lineup length they expected.
“We’re still trying to kind of find it a little bit,” Moreland said. “But we’re not in a bad place.”
Best thing about the place they’re in is that it’s the middle of May, and the baseball season is long. But one game above .500? Seems about right when you really think about it.