Red Sox Of The Future Are Here
The Future, Conan?
Towards the end of yesterday’s otherwise nondescript Spring Training game between the Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates, a rather extraordinary thing happened. The Red Sox of the future appeared.
In the top of the eighth inning with the Pirates up 6-0, Triston Casas took over at first base. Nick Yorke took over at second base. Marcelo Mayer took over at shortstop. Alex Binelas took over at third base.
That’s Boston’s last three first round picks and the main guy they got for their starting right fielder. That’s Boston’s first, second, third, and 18th prospects by SoxProspects. That’s the 16th, 19th, and 29th best prospects in baseball by FanGraphs. That, folks, is the meat of the Red Sox farm system. In a word, it’s the future, and it was on display in Bradenton, Florida in the early afternoon on a Tuesday.
It’s not often players are projected, drafted, developed, and finished into exactly that projection for exactly the team that drafted them. That’s always the hope, and sometimes it does happen (Xander Bogaerts), but even the great ones sometimes move around a bit. A whole bunch of Red Sox draft picks were expected greatness from, and failed to deliver. Even guys who made the majors didn’t always do it in the way it was expected. Jonathan Papelbon was a starter who became a closer. Andrew Benintendi was a center fielder who moved to left and then got moved to the Royals. Mookie Betts came up as a second baseman and turned into an All Star in right field and then sadly disappeared following the 2019 season and nobody has heard from him since.
This is all to say these things can’t be predicted so much as educatedly guessed. It would be a minor miracle if all of those four prospects developed, remaining at their current positions, and turned into starters with the Red Sox. That kind of thing pretty much doesn’t happen. Like, not ever. Someone is going to get hurt, someone isn’t going to develop, someone is going to move to a new position, and someone is going to get traded. Don’t be surprised if, in five years, you look back at this post (OK, be extremely surprised if anyone is looking at this in five years, but go with me here) and even two of those four are in starting in Boston at the positions they played yesterday.
But it’s a pretty cool idea though, isn’t it? Just because something is rare doesn’t mean it’s not worth striving for. The Red Sox have four guys with an extreme level of talent and projection (if I can be generous and toss Binelas in there too) all on the path to the majors, and none are currently in any of the other’s way. That’s something!
So how’d they do yesterday, Matt? They must’ve killed it for you to write all that lovey-dovey mumbo-jumbo about them, right Matt? Right? Matt? Matt? Hello? Matt?
Oh sorry, I decided to hide under the couch there for a second. Totally unrelated. For sure.
By the way, this all reminds me. I forgot to say hello I’m Matt Kory and this is Sox Outsider, my Red Sox newsletter. So, hello I’m Matt Kory and this is Sox Outsider, my Red Sox newsletter. Subscribe please. It’s free. I hope you’ll enjoy it. Thank you.
So yeah, the actual on-field performance wasn’t great. Casas flew out. Nick Yorke managed a patient at-bat and worked 3-1 walk. Mayer struck out. Binelas popped up. So on the whole, not the greatest showing. But on the other and really only true hand, who cares?
This isn’t about performance. Sure, you want those guys to get hits. You always want them to get hits. But for 19-year-old Marcelo Mayer who was finishing high school this time last year, just standing in the batters box and looking like he belongs, which, for the record, he really does, is a big win. Nick Yorke is another guy just out of high school. Their time will come. Right now it’s about learning, improving, and gaining experience.
That and teaching announcers how to correctly pronounce their names.
I get how people mispronounced “Mayer” - for the record its pronounced “My-er” not “May-er” - but Yorke is a pretty common last name and I think it’s always pronounced the same whether it is spelled with the extra E on the end or not.
Anyway, if you were at all concerned about performance, which, again, you should absolutely not be for any of these guys, but if you were, here’s Marcelo Mayer homering off of Nathan Eovaldi during an intrasquad scrimmage a few days ago.
The funny thing about all that prospect power on display yesterday is that it was upstaged. First by Ceddanne Rafaela, a 21-year-old outfielder who is currently 24th on the Sox Prospects list, who homered after Mayer struck out. That was kinda funny because Rafaela isn’t known for his power at all. In fact, he’s pretty much a speed and defense kind of player.
The real star of the day though was Kutter Crawford. Crawford was a 16th round draft pick in 2016 and made his major league debut in 2021 throwing four scoreless innings for the Sox. He’s been a starter in the minors, but it’s not clear if that would be his role in the big leagues. Regardless, he looked fantastic yesterday, striking out five guys in just two innings of work.
In fact, the reason I haven’t written anything about the Super Prospect infield’s defense is that Crawford was on the mound while they were playing the field and he struck out every Pirates batter he faced. They never had to make a play on batted ball because there weren’t any.
We’ll certainly get back to Crawford and his potential sometime soon, but for now the Red Sox are building towards something. That much is plain to see. When that will show at the major league level or if it ever will are guessable but ultimately unanswerable questions, but the promise is evident. The Red Sox of the future, at least in our imaginations, look fantastic.
Matt - You had me at “The future, Conan?” Been reflexively saying that out loud every time the word future is said in a convo for like the last 23 years. Love it when it connects.
Enjoyed this post and hoping you can squeeze in check-ins on this group throughout the year.
Appreciate having you on the beat.