Lack of offense starts at the top
Sox not getting enough from leadoff spot
It won’t solve all their problems, but the Red Sox need more from the leadoff spot to jumpstart their offense.
The Red Sox’ 2-3-4 hitters — Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez — have predictably been their only consistent offensive performers this season. In fact, for all of their offensive deficiencies, the Red Sox, with that trio, are the only team in baseball that has three players with a batting average of .290 or better entering Monday.
But the Red Sox aren’t setting the table for them with any regularity.
From the leadoff spot, the Red Sox rank 26th in baseball with a .269 onbase percentage and 25th with a .577 OPS. That’s a far cry from the production from that spot last season, specifically from Kiké Hernandez. After a slow start last year, the center fielder reassumed his spot at the top of the lineup in late June and batted .271 with a .374 OBP and .876 OPS over his final 73 games. He became a monster in the postseason, when he slashed .408/.423/.837 with a 1.260 OPS in 11 games.
Those October numbers are obviously unrealistic to sustain over an entire season, but the Red Sox aren’t getting close to that regular-season production. Hernandez started the season at leadoff before losing it to Trevor Story, but neither of them have ignited the offense the way the Red Sox need.
“That’s the thing that we battled with on a daily basis,” manager Alex Cora said over the weekend. “We always talk. If you think about it, when an offense is going, probably three guys are hot and somebody else contributes. Right now, it feels like we have two hot guys and the other guys have stuff. When I make the lineup, I love hitting Raffy second because it’s more atbats with him. He’s one of our best hitters and you can protect him, being a lefty against righties. But how are we going to get traffic in front of him? How are we going to do that? So far, obviously with the struggles that we’ve had, it’s been hard.”
Bogaerts has been by far the Red Sox’ best hitter through the first month. The shortstop’s .343 average ranks tied for fourth in the majors and his .393 OBP ranks inside the Top 10 in the American League. Has there been any consideration to put Bogaerts at the leadoff spot?
“Not yet,” Cora said. As Cora noted, the leadoff spot isn’t the only issue. When they do have situations with runners on, they’re among the worst in baseball, an indictment on anyone in the lineup not named Devers, Bogaerts and Martinez. Their OPS ranks 29th in baseball with runners in scoring position and RISP with two outs, and 27th in any situation with runners on.
“I think it’s overall,” Cora said. “You lead off once in the game, but we haven’t been able to create traffic in front of the big boys from that spot or the bottom of the lineup. That’s where we’re at right now. When we have traffic, we haven’t been successful driving them in. I think the only way we’ve been driving in runs is sac flies. I think we have like 17 or 18 this season. But this is where we’re at right now. We just have to get better overall. There’s a lot of things that we’re not doing well offensively, and that’s the reason we are in this hole.”
No rush on Casas
First base continues to be one of the Red Sox’ biggest problems. Their .413 OPS from the position is dead last in baseball. Bobby Dalbec’s struggles have been alarming and Franchy Cordero
hasn’t produced much in limited playing time.
But don’t expect Triston Casas to save the day any time soon.
The Red Sox’ No. 2-ranked prospect is doing relatively well in his first season at Triple-A, with an .873 OPS, six homers and 20 RBI through 29 games. But after a 2020 in which the minor league season was canceled, and a hectic 2021 that included the Olympics, the Sox want the 22-yearold Casas to continue developing and go through the growing pains of a season before declaring him ready for the majors.
“He had a really interesting and great developmental year last year, but just because of how it was broken up with the Olympics, moving levels, he wasn’t necessarily in one place for long enough to really have the league make a lot of adjustments to him and then for him having to adjust in return,” Chaim Bloom said. “And one of the things about the game today, more than at any point maybe ever, certainly longer than I’ve been in it, is when you get to the major leagues, there is already a book on you. …
“Our job is to try to position everybody to be where their odds of success are as good as they can be, and to have him be here when they’re ready to be here. That’s certainly something that we think he can get out of this year.”
Odds & ends
Red Sox top prospect Marcelo Mayer is expected back in games for Single-A Salem this week, according to a source. Mayer hasn’t played in a game since April 23 due to workload management and then suffering minor right wrist soreness that kept him out longer.
Mayer, the No. 4 overall pick in last year’s draft, was off to a good start in his first professional season. He’s slashing .333/.397/.491 with an .888 OPS through 13 games. …
The Red Sox are 10 1/2 games back of the firstplace Yankees going into Tuesday’s two-game series at Atlanta. … Garrett Whitlock will start Tuesday and Nathan Eovaldi on Wednesday against the Braves. The probable starters for this weekend’s series at Texas are yet to be determined.