Sox shift to high gear
Cora likes moving infielders
FORT MYERS — In breaking down the Grapefruit League opener, Red Sox manager Alex Cora sounded more like Celtics coach Brad Stevens.
“The spacing today wasn’t great,” Cora said. “That sounds like basketball, but the spacing on the shift, it wasn’t great. But we’ll get it down.”
Consider that the most tangible evidence of a new sheriff in town.
Against the first batter of yesterday’s first Grapefruit League game against the Minnesota Twins, Cora had first baseman Hanley Ramirez standing some 15 feet off the line. Second baseman Ivan De Jesus was stationed near the bag but not completely up the middle. Xander Bogaerts was slightly toward the hole at shortstop, and third baseman Chad De La Guerra was a step or two from foul territory.
That was against a righthanded hitter. When a lefty followed, the infield shifted into a mirror image, covering more of the right side, except with the third baseman in on the grass. And when a more potent lefty, Max Kepler, came to the plate, the shift became more extreme so Bogaerts was the only infielder on the left side.
The Red Sox shifted that way against a third of the Twins lineup, regularly bunching three infielders together on the same side of second base.
And that was in Game 1 after just one set of drills to practice Cora’s shifting strategy. There will be many more of those drills this spring.
“You’re defending lanes,” Cora said. “That’s the easiest way to put it. There’s teams that are more aggressive than others, but it’s all about putting guys in the (most likely) line that the ball is going to be hit. That’s easy. And it works. It works.”
According to FanGraphs, the Red Sox shifted against 867 batters last season. That was second-fewest in the American League. The Astros, with Cora as bench coach, shifted 1,754 times, most in the AL.
Cora’s convinced it works, and he wants the Sox doing it a lot more. Yesterday was a preview, and it paid off in that very first inning when Kepler hit a routine ground ball right to De La Guerra playing the extreme shift up the middle.
Kennys Vargas got the same treatment with the right side overloaded, and righty Mitch Garver got the opposite treatment, with everyone but Ramirez positioned on the left side. Ramirez played Garver almost halfway between first and second base.
“To see (Ramirez) today, all the way over there, it was eye-opening,” Cora said. “I was like, ‘OK, cool, he’s buying into the concept.’”
Early in the game, Bogaerts stayed at shortstop when the Red Sox shifted heavily to the right side. In the middle innings, he began shifting to the opposite side. That’s new for Bogaerts, but Cora prefers his shortstop to be the one shifted up the middle because he should have better arm strength when going to his right for a throw up the middle.
“(During the) inning he said he probably wants me over there,” Bogaerts said. “And that’s why I did it the other way around. That’s something we’ll work on because I’ve got to work on the feeds at second base. I’m not a second baseman, so it’s not something I’m used to. The double play is awkward for me because I don’t take double plays from a third baseman or shortstop, but if you work on that type of stuff, you should be good.”
So Bogaerts is buying into the concept too?
“If a guy hits three (straight) ground balls up the middle, I think you should stand up the middle,” Bogaerts said.
Shifting no longer is an idea that requires much convincing. Cora broke into the major leagues in 1998 and remembers shifting only against Barry Bonds. Dustin Pedroia came into the majors in 2006 and said he never shifted in the minors, only doing it with the Red Sox.
Deven Marrero made his MLB debut in 2015.
“I’ve done it since, like, high school,” Marrero said.
The idea of shifting no longer is revolutionary in the game. It’s just a matter of degree. Every team does it, and Cora’s planning to make the Red Sox into league leaders.
Bogaerts said the players are not given the underlying data. They’re just taught how to play in different spots and are positioned by coaches from the dugout.
“They should know why they’re moving us,” Bogaerts said.
“I believe they do. So you just believe in what they say and go with it.”
Or, as Pedroia put it: “You just go stand there. It’s not that big of a deal for infielders making plays and stuff. You make plays anywhere. You’re just starting in a different area because they’re hitting the ball there more. That’s it.”