Sox have it within them
Best get might by these leaps
Teams that win 93 games two years in a row don’t overhaul their coaching staff without truly believing their players underperformed.
And as the Red Sox offseason has inched forward at a crawl, they’ve maintained that one of the best things they can do this winter is prepare their own players to have better seasons in 2018.
The best free agents remain unsigned, and the Sox still have money to spend, but if they don’t make another addition president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said at midmonth that he’d be good with it. “I do believe a lot of our people will be better internally than last year,” he said. “We are looking to improve it ... but yeah, I feel comfortable.”
Where is Dombrowski’s optimism coming from?
Here’s our take at who can have the most impactful improvement and how: • 1. CHRISTIAN VAZQUEZ The comparison to Yadier Molina has followed Vazquez throughout his career because he hasn’t wavered off the Molina path. His throwing arm regained strength in 2017 and at times was back to pre-surgery levels. But his offensive performance is what the Sox should be most excited about.
After July 28, he hit .343 with an .888 OPS, pushing his season average to .290 with a .735 OPS. His OPS has changed from .617 to .535 to .735 in three seasons.
Molina, a surefire Hall of Famer soon to be entering his 15th season, didn’t reach the .700 OPS mark until his fourth season. Since then, he’s averaged a .780 OPS while winning five of the last seven Gold Gloves.
The common belief is that with defense-first positions such as catcher and shortstop, a player’s bat is the last part to develop. And with John Farrell no longer calling shots, it’s possible that a full-time role awaits Vazquez, and his production will improve with more consistent at-bats.
• 2. MOOKIE BETTS
Betts won another Gold Glove, finished sixth in the MVP voting and had 72 extra-base hits in a down season in which he rarely looked comfortable. Without David Ortiz to provide the big hits, it often appeared that Betts was putting too much pressure on himself. The fact that he was moved around in the lineup so often against his preferences probably didn’t help.
But the most noticeable difference could be seen in his plate approach. He wasn’t the same aggressive hitter he was in 2016, when he nearly edged Mike Trout for the MVP. He saw a 5 percent increase in looking-strike percentage, while swinging at 5 percent fewer strikes than he did a year ago. It didn’t help that he saw 5 percent fewer strikes, and his overall swing percentage dropped six points.
And where he used to be aggressive early in the count, he became gun shy. His first-pitch swing percentage fell six points, and after seeing just 27 3-0 counts in 2016, that number jumped to 50 in 2017.
The addition of a middleof-the-order bat (J.D. Martinez?) could take the pressure off Betts, as might the move back to the leadoff spot, where new manager Alex Cora said he wants to position his best hitter. A more aggressive approach, also something Cora has preached, could be beneficial.
• 3. RAFAEL DEVERS
If he’s simply just as good as he was in 2017 (.284 average, 10 homers, .819 OPS in 58 games) over a full season, he’s an All-Star third baseman at age 21.
A look back at other players 20-and-under who hit at least .280 with an .800 OPS (minimum 200 at-bats) is enough to spark excitement: Trout (2012), Alex Rodriguez (1996), Ken Griffey Jr. (1990) and Tony Conigliaro (1964).
The left-handed Devers showed no flaws, hitting .400 in 57 plate appearances against lefties while making quick adjustments to pitchers and avoiding lengthy slumps.
And he beat some of the best pitchers, with extrabase hits off Aroldis Chapman, Chris Archer, Trevor Bauer, Charlie Morton and Lance Lynn.
• 4. XANDER BOGAERTS If the season ended on May 31 or June 30 each year, Bogaerts would be on a Hall of Fame track.
He was hitting .337 on May 31 this year. It was .350 on May 31 last year. And .304 on May 31, 2014.
Bogaerts has peaked around that time in three of his four big league seasons, with 2015 the only exception, before fading in the final months. Injuries and fatigue have been the culprit of his troubles, with Farrell riding Bogaerts hard as the everyday shortstop in each of the last three seasons.
On June 30, when he was supposed to get his second game of rest this year, Bogaerts wound up getting the game-winning RBI off the bench in the 10th inning, and hurting himself in the process.
A little rest could go a long way for the franchise shortstop.