Boston Red Sox
For the first few months of the season, a watchable Sox team seemed too much to ask.
Playing nine innings while starting to forget what Triston Casas looks like …
1. The Red Sox’ recent excellent play, which includes six wins in a row and 11 in their last 13 games after Thursday’s win over the White Sox, was as welcome as it was unexpected. With the World Cup winding down and the relentless, Jaylen Brown trade drama having reached an unsatisfying conclusion for most, New England sports fans are going to need something to keep them entertained until Drake Maye and friends arrive for Patriots training camp later this month.
For the first few months of the season, a watchable Sox team seemed too much to ask. In the heart of summer, they’ve turned into … well, what? At least a decent one? I suppose that counts as progress.
2. But their improved play doesn’t mean we should set aside our skepticism about the construction of this team, especially when it comes to making sure they don’t go 37-47 again next season from the season opener through the last day of June.
Sure, they are on the fringe of the playoff race, just 2½ games back of the third wild-card spot entering Friday, but have the Twins, Astros, and Blue Jays ahead of them for that final spot. It’s a confirmation of the massive hole they dug that they’re still six games under .500, and a smelly 10 under at Fenway Park (17-27) even with their recent and somewhat extended hot stretch.
I hope I’m proven wrong, but this feels like the embodiment of the illusion of contention that colleague Dan Shaughnessy often cites.
3. It’s going to require something close to this high level of play to seize a wild card … and even then, the highly likely end result? A heartache, a fool’s game, and a rapid elimination. This team, with a lineup that features at least three utility players on a daily basis (welcome aboard, Brett Harris), isn’t going to hit enough to achieve anything memorable. The starting rotation has been downright superb over the last few weeks, but with Ranger Suarez placed on the injured list Thursday and Connelly Early dealing with a sore left elbow that counts as the latest of suspicious injury diagnoses, attrition is suddenly a concern.
4. I’m not totally sure of the power dynamics in the Red Sox front office at the moment. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow appears to have a relatively small circle of trust, which may include more souped-up Commodore 64s than actual human beings for all I know.
But I do find myself wishing that he’d hire a general manager focused almost exclusively on identifying hitters to possibly acquire. Breslow, at worst, has done a good job finding quality pitching, but he’s done little to earn any trust as a evaluator of offense beyond acquiring Willson Contreras.
5. I won’t go so far as to suggest Breslow should be hollering “Sell! Sell! Sell!” like (timely reference coming up) Randolph and Mortimer Duke in “Trading Places (timely reference completed to many chuckles). But as trade season perks up, at the least he should conclude, “Sell? Yes, sell, if this price is right.” Even with their recent excellent play, the mission needs to be to make sure they have a better-constructed — and just plain better — team next season.
6. There should be a robust market for Aroldis Chapman, and as delightful as it has been to watch him lock down ninth inning after ninth inning during his two seasons with the Red Sox, he’s 38 years old, enduring a nagging hamstring injury that threatened to become worse … and did I mention the robust market? Breslow should be seeing what’s out there for him, and the asking price should be steep. Contreras, however, should go nowhere. This is his baseball home now.
7. It was very nice of Chaim Bloom to aid his former employer by sending Contreras and Sonny Gray from the Cardinals to the Red Sox in the offseason. I imagine Breslow will look to thread the needle again at the deadline, so perhaps he should reach out to Bloom and see if there are any other fine players he might want to offload for a few names found in Baseball America’s small type.
8. Raise your hand if you thought Gray was going to be a flop here after he got hit around by the Twins for five earned runs in four innings in his third start. Get those hands up, I heard what you said, pal.
Welp. In 12 starts since, he’s gone 8-0 with a 2.08 ERA and absolutely should have made the All-Star team. He’s someone the Sox should probably shop, too, but it’s been awfully fun to watch him pitch.
9. Sending a person to Florida for any reason is alarming, and I don’t get why that is the best place for Roman Anthony to be right now. It’s not like the Red Sox have earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to best handling his hand/wrist injury. Their greatest priority, above everything else, should be making sure he’s right physically and mentally for 2027.
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