The Red Sox Shouldn't Sell
Making the argument
Before we get to the main point, let’s just take a quick moment for a deep breath in honor of last night’s win over Cleveland.
And in fact:
Sometimes when things are going badly it seems like they’ll always go badly. It’s nice to be reminded that A) the Red Sox are an actual professional baseball team capable of beating other actual professional baseball teams in a game of actual professional baseball, and B) they’re good enough to actually do so now and again.
The last few weeks of Red Sox baseball haven’t been the rush for first place fans might’ve hoped for. In fact, it’s been pretty much the opposite, with just about everything that could go wrong going wrong. Injuries, bad bounces, injuries, bad pitching, minimal hitting, injuries, and did I mention injuries?
Also injuries.
And yet, here comes the thesis: I don’t think the Red Sox should sell.
That’s not the most popular opinion, but I think, for the moment, it’s the correct one. The most popular opinion right now seems to be something along the lines of, “These guys suck blow it up!” Did I get the gist?
It’s always easy to beat down a strawman argument, and especially so with a dumb strawman argument. But I’m not sure this is really dumb. It’s just emotional. And I get that emotion. I feel it too.
When the Red Sox get shut out by some mediocrity because their best hitters are on the shelf, when they can’t make simple plays in the field properly, when their middle relief implodes yet again, I get mad too. Maybe, like me, you’ve had some trouble watching the Red Sox recently. It’s not been the easiest watch, and that’s not just because they’re not winning. Losing 28-5 to Toronto goes beyond “not winning.” It’s just been rough, extremely rough.
And yet, I do think there is some promise left in this 2022 season. It might sound delusional at first, but actually we don’t even have to look that far for inspiration. Remember the 2021 season? The Red Sox finished 92-70, got hot in the playoffs, and we all had some fun with it. And in the end, knocking Tampa and New York out of the playoffs makes just about any season worth it.
In fact, we don’t even have to look back a season. Remember June? This very Red Sox team went 20-6, outscoring their opponents by 44 runs in the process. That was this team!
More pertinent still is the standings. The extra Wild Card means the Red Sox are just three games out of the last playoff spot, an eminently doable proposition in general, and maybe even more specifically when you consider who is in front of them: Cleveland, Seattle, Toronto, and Tampa. Are any of those teams demonstrably better than Boston? I’d argue no.
So what do the Red Sox need? A little health would go a long way for this team. They’re not going to get Chris Sale back, and if they do he’ll likely fall down a manhole on the way to the mound, so cross his name off any list that doesn’t start with “2023.” But Trevor Story and Devers could be back soon. JD Martinez should be back soon as well. That alone will transform the Red Sox offense. Last night we saw what a bullpen with a healthy John Schreiber, Garrett Whitlock, and Tanner Houck can do, and it’s not bad!
This team really isn’t *that* far away from contention. There’s no reason once they get healthy that they won’t score runs. The top of the lineup is too good not too. The rotation will miss a healthy Sale, but they didn’t have that last season either. Or in June. They have enough good starting pitching to go around once, again, they get healthy. A rotation of Eovaldi, Pivetta, Hill, Wacha, and maybe (dare to dream!) James Paxton? If not, then pick one of Kutter Crawford, Brayan Bello, Josh Winkowski, or the field.
They say the easiest rosters to fix are the ones with big holes, and this Red Sox team fills that bill perfectly. Heck, they should bring in the Webb space telescope in the offseason to study their holds at the outfield corners and first base. The good news there is those spots are typically the easiest to fill, and as such, there are options available. Josh Bell is a popular one on the market, so he might be tough to acquire, but he’d be a perfect fit at first base for the Red Sox. Assuming Juan Soto isn’t happening (I wrote about him and the Red Sox here just in case), Bryan Reynolds of the Pirates could be a good lineup lengthening option, too. There are certainly other options (maybe fodder for another newsletter?) but regardless, there are options available. Toss in a decent middle reliever and I think that’s a team that could really go on a 2021-style run.
This off-season might be choppy in terms of roster turnover. Heck, scratch “might.” Will be. It will be choppy. Change is coming to Boston. But it doesn’t need to arrive yet. This roster should still have a few more months to make a run. With a little help and a little faith, they can make some noise. We’ll find out soon if the front office agrees.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks, Matt.
You make some strong points, but kind of skip past the most salient one.
The 2022 aren’t winning anything. Could they sneak in to one of the wild card spots? Maybe. They might even win a series. Right now, both of those seem unlikely.
I’m not expecting a total sell-off along the lines of 2014, but there are 2-3 guys who won’t be on the 2023 team and could potentially fetch valuable pieces from the “real” contenders.
Specifically, I’m talking about JDM, Eovaldi and Vazquez.
I am not even mentioning Xander, because I still believe they want to keep him and he’d like to stay.
If either of those is untrue, all bets are off.
I could also see the Sox trading for some MLB players, but the focus must be in guys who can help them next year