MVP season for Betts
The Red Sox under Dombrowski have the highest team payroll in baseball, currently standing at $240.4-million, well into luxury tax territory. Nobody’s turning into a pumpkin here. But for Sox fans, the best team in the organization plays in Boston, not AAAPawtucket, AA-Portland (ME), A-Salem (NC) or anywhere else on the farm and that’s the way it should be.
Remember that Jays fans when you’re looking to deal major-leaguers with several years of club control for prospects so that AAA-Buffalo, AA-New Hampshire and the rest of the system can post better records than the big club.
The Sox under rookie manager Alex Cora found themselves off to a jackrabbit start in midApril, going 17-2 and forging early separation from the Yankees. Now, since June 21, the red-hot Red Sox have been 30-8 including a step-on-thethroat four game sweep of the Yankees in the Bronx this past weekend.
Mookie Betts has been a constant as a superstar with this team over the past few years, but this year he is the clear leader in AL MVP consideration, with teammate J.D. Martinez also among the Top 5 candidates.
Betts has posted a .342 average and 1.080 OPS, with 29 doubles, three triples, 26 homers and 21 stolen bases. Martinez, who established himself as a star last season, was signed by the Sox as a free agent late in the off-season and has responded as the primary DH. He entered the Jays series with a .324 average, with 28 doubles, one triple, 33 homers and 93 RBIs. He added another anoth- er homer and went 3-5 in Boston’s 10-7 win over the Jays to open the series on Tuesday.
Spending the most money on MLB payroll doesn’t always mean better starting players, but it does allow the easy luxury of a deeper bench. With starting third-baseman Rafael Devers and second-baseman Kinsler each nursing wonky hamstrings and on the 10-day DL, those two have been capably replaced at third by Eduardo Nunez and at second by Brock Holt, the ultimate supersub.
All that being said where does that put beleaguered Jays manager John Gibbons and the job he has done this year compared to what the rookie Cora has accomplished getting his team on pace to a franchise record win total?
Rumours have quietly mounted that Gibbons might be major-league toast before the season is over. His contract runs through 2019. Respected MLB insider Ken Rosenthal suggests he will be let go at the end of the current season, while others say it could happen before that. What makes some of those rumours more sinister is that some of those sources include media within Rogers own empire. The best guess at this time is a mutual parting of ways at season’s end.
The bottom line for the reeling Jays has been injuries, a key suspension and playing in the AL East with the dominating Red Sox and Yankees. And now after winning three of four in Seattle, the Sox are in town after sweeping the Yankees.
“Really, it’s 5-6 teams been playing good baseball in the American League,” Gibbons pointed out. “It’s kind of an odd year. When you’re struggling, you don’t look forward to playing those guys. They’ve had their way with us pretty good.”
The Jays entering Tuesday were 3-10 vs. Boston and 4-9 against the Yankees. Against the rest of baseball they are 44-41. Gibbons believes this has been one of his toughest managing jobs, nothing like the playoff years 2015-16.
“Definitely,” Gibbons agreed. “When you have those (Jays) teams that go to the postseason, they’re good, strong, solid teams. You bring them out there to play and most things just kind of fall in place for you. When you’re scuffling, you do more juggling, naturally.”
Gibbons was not suggesting the Jays should have kept Roberto Osuna following his suspension for alleged domestic assault, but he is ready to identify that May 8 morning of the closer’s arrest, as a key moment to a spiralling season. “You knew when something happened to Osuna it was probably going to be tough,” he said. “We kind of like the pieces we put in our bullpen (this spring), but you take away your closer and you know things are going to get more difficult.
“I think for the most part those other (relievers) hung in there, at least for a while. You never really know for sure, but if you’re in the game long enough, you know there are certain spots you lose certain guys. It doesn’t mean you can’t do it, but it gets that much more difficult.”
Now every day, with injuries mounting and players seeming to take longer to heal than predicted, it gets more and more difficult for Gibbons and his Jays.