Winning Two of Three In Anaheim Isn't The Story
On Trevor Story, the team's good (?!?) starting pitching, a series win, defensive issues, and probably other stuff.
It’s not clear as of this writing how much time Trevor Story will miss, but based on the face he made immediately afterwards, it could be a substantial amount. Which, to be clear, would be bad. As you likely know, Story injured himself diving for a Mike Trout line drive during the Red Sox April 5th win in Anaheim. He landed on his non-throwing shoulder and it was obvious immediately that there was a problem.
For now and some undetermined time into the future the Red Sox are down a starting shortstop. Let’s get into it.
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We’ll start with Story. He could be gone for a few weeks or a few months and right now we don’t know which one. Regardless, the Red Sox are in a bind. They need a starting shortstop and now they don’t really have one.
Let’s address a few things off the top. The solution isn’t to call up top prospect Marcelo Mayer. Mayer (pronounced My-er, not May-er) has 44 games played above High-A. It makes no sense to put him on the 40 man roster, start his service clock, and drop him in the starting lineup when he’s clearly not ready for any of that. That would be bad for the player and bad for the team.
A few guys are on the major league roster and represent options beyond Mayer, who, again, isn’t really an option. Pablo Reyes, who isn’t very good at hitting or fielding, can fake it at shortstop. I wouldn’t want him as any kind of long or even medium term solution, but if your other options all have severe diarrhea and are on a nonstop loop between the living room floor and the bathroom, he’ll do. He started at short on Saturday, inexplicably batting second (no, I don’t care about handedness, you don’t want to give the second most ABs on the team to Pablo Reyes), and went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts.
The Red Sox lost that game 2-1 in part because of Reyes’ lack of hitting out of the two hole and in part because Reyes couldn’t complete an easy third out in the sixth inning which lead to the Angels scoring the only two runs they’d manage all day. In fact that inning is worth looking at because my stomach isn’t completely upset yet, but also because it shows what the Red Sox are going to miss in Story and maybe where they have a few other issues as well.
Reliever Greg Weissert is pitching. He gets Aaron Hicks and Logan O’Hoppe for the first two outs of the sixth inning. Then he gives up a grounder in the hole between first and second to Luis Rengifo, which is very on brand for Rengifo. Enmanuel Valdez gets to it but sort of trips over his own feet and falls/dives/mostly falls during which he attempts to throw the ball to first, an act he fails spectacularly at. Probably out of pity, the official scorer gives Rengifo a single.
That’s a play any above average second baseman should make and I would argue any average second baseman should make it as well. Valdez is neither of those things and he really didn’t come close to making it. Mickey Moniak then walked. So the Angels had first and second with two outs. Boston should’ve been out of the inning at this point but also the Angels had two outs and Zach Neto of the .546 OPS at bat. So things were still pretty manageable.
Cora brings in Isaiah Campbell to replace Weissert and this is when the wheels came off. Neto hits a routine grounder to the shortstop’s right that Reyes fields cleanly. His momentum is carrying him towards second base so he decides to go for the force out there instead of throwing across to first to get Neto. Fine. He fields the ball and then A) takes like five steps before releasing it, and B) does this kind of backhanded flip thing thaaaaaaat taaaaaaaaaakes fooooooorrrrreeeeeeeevvvvvvveeeeeerrr to get there. The end result of these two things was that Moniak barely beat the ball to second base.
So, quick recap before we go on. Two weak, easy grounders to the middle infield with a walk sandwiched in between and the Angels have the bases loaded. But before we get to what happened after that, we have to look at yet another defensive mistake on the same play by Valdez.
While Reyes is taking his sweet sweet time getting the ball to second base, Rengifo is chugging towards third. He hits the bag and rounds it towards home. Why? Maybe he wanted to put pressure on the defense. Maybe he had a sudden and temporary memory loss and thought he was back running track in high school. Maybe he assumed that because Reyes was playing shortstop he’d be able to convert this easy grounder into the third out of the inning and it didn’t really matter what he did. Who knows! Regardless, Valdez, who caught Reyes’ flip to second, suddenly had yet another opportunity for an easy out as Rengifo went maybe 40 feet past third.
Now, I’ve never played major league baseball before, but I can tell you what to do in that situation. You, the second baseman, run at the runner who is way off the base. This forces the runner to commit to a base. As soon as he does you throw to that base, the tag is applied, and the inning ends, or, failing that, you start a rundown. Valdez does not do any of that. Instead he immediately throws the ball to home plate. This gives Rengifo time to stop, turn around, and run back safely to third base.
The next play is Anthony Rendon’s bouncer to Devers at third, and Devers screws it up, the ball goes into left field, and the Angels score the only two runs they’d score all day, which also turns out to be the only two they’d need. And it only took like four defensive miscues back-to-back-to-back-to-back to make it happen! See? They didn’t need that Ohtani guy after all!
I kinda digress, but not really because my gosh do the Red Sox need Trevor Story, and Pablo Reyes simply isn’t going to get the job done. Devers and Valdez are other matters, but at least for now, the Red Sox have a few options when it comes to shortstop besides Reyes. David Hamilton was called up from Triple-A and played in Sunday’s 12-2 demolition of the Angels. He homered and singled, all, I might add, from the ninth spot in the batting order (crowd gives a standing ovation). Hamilton doesn’t have the arm for short, but neither does Reyes. So whatever on that front.
I’m not making the argument that Hamilton should play over Reyes because he went 2-for-4 on Sunday. It’s largely a wash between those two, though I do think Hamilton can probably hit a bit better on the whole. The other option, and one that Ian Cundall of Sox Prospects has publicly called for, is for the Sox to shift Ceddanne Rafaela from center field to shortstop. Rafaela has played a lot of shortstop in the minors.
The argument against it is that his defense in center is as necessary as Story’s was at shortstop, and by moving Rafaela, you’re robbing the team of both. I’m sympathetic to that argument.
However, Rafaela is the best shortstop the team has who is A) on the 40-man roster, and B) healthy enough to play the position currently. Also, between Tyler O’Neill, Jarren Duran, and Wilyer Abreu, the Sox have the depth to cover for him in the outfield. No, it’s hardly a perfect solution, and I expect the team will experiment with other options (Reyes and Hamilton being two of them), but I do agree with Cundall that Rafaela is likely their best option at shortstop at the moment.
It’s worth pointing out that while Story’s defense was foundational, he had yet to find his hitting stroke (just an 83 OPS+ on the short season). So if we’re talking about replacing Trevor Story, All Star Shortstop, that’s tough, but if we’re talking about replacing 2024 Trevor Story, that’s actually a lot easier, if not actually easy.
On to other items…
I’m at 1,400 words so far and I’ve yet to discuss anything beyond the Story situation, so I’ll try some rapid fire items here.
The Red Sox are tied for fourth in team homers with 13. Boston’s top to home run hitters so far are Tyler O’Neill (five), Rafael Devers (two), and Reece McGuire (two). You’re as likely to win Powerball as you were to correctly predict that.
The Red Sox are fourth in fWAR from the catcher position. Red Sox catchers are hitting .333/.366/.538. Again the Powerball thing. Short sample baseball is the best.
Red Sox starting pitching has been the best (THE BEST!) in baseball so far. Boston’s starters sport a 1.53 ERA and 1.7 fWAR, both league-leading numbers.
The Angels aren’t good, but they’re better than the A’s and Boston took two of three from them on the road. It could’ve easily been another sweep too if Devers could field that ball or any of the other stuff I whined about above hadn’t happened. So I guess what I’m saying is two out of three wins on the road is pretty good, even if that one loss still stings a bit.
Tyler O’Neill is hitting .357/.514/.893. He’s tied for the league lead in homers with five with someone you might have heard of before: Mookie Betts.
AAAHHHHH!!!!!
The Red Sox open up Fenway Park for the first time tomorrow, Tuesday, April 9th, against the Orioles and Corbin Burnes.
There will be a ceremony before Tuesday’s game commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 2004 World Series-winning team and honoring the lives of Tim and Stacy Wakefield.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks, Matt.
Story is a double-barreled loss. Not only do they lose a premier fielder at the most important defensive position, but also a quality RH bat in a lineup with only one other
It's early yet, and he hasn't really gotten going, but I suspect every time Xander Bogaerts makes a highlight reel while Story is on the IL this year is going to feel like a stab in the gut.