Ten things we know — or think we know — about the Red Sox at the All-Star break
COMMENTARY
Well, that was a dud.
Take one look at the AL East standings, where the Red Sox ended up only losing a game on the first-place New York Yankees after dropping two of three in what was deemed a pivotal series at Fenway Park, and it’s hard to call what transpired over the weekend a “disaster.’’ Boston is still “only’’ 6 1/2 games off the pace at Major League Baseball’s All-Star break, still within striking distance considering the season’s low-point of a 10-game deficit in the standings on June 20.
With Clay Buchholz going on his annual trip to the disabled list, the Sox are still in last place heading into their four-day vacation. They are coming off one of their worst losses of the season, in what just might have been the most important game of the schedule to date.
So, yeah. Things still kinda suck.
Still, the way the team was able to knock 3 1/2 games from its division deficit in a three-week span inspires some level of hope. It might have fans wondering if a Morgan Magic-type resurgence can become the storyline of the second half. Remarkably, as The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier pointed out, no AL East team in the last 25 years has overcome a first-half deficit of more than three games to win the division. The last to do it was the 1989 Toronto Blue Jays. Before that, Joe Morgan’s Sox in 1988.
The only thing to conclude from that bit of trivia, though, is that all of us who remember those summers are old.
Through 89 games in 2015, we still don’t know much for sure about this Red Sox team. Left for dead a few weeks ago, they’ve at least made things interesting. At this point, you’re lying if you say you can truly get a handle on what this team is made of. However, there are some things we do know — or think we know — at the All-Star break. Finally. Mercifully.
Here are 10:
1. David Ortiz was sick. At least, that’s what we were told. Look, it’s easy to whip out the pitchforks and spark any number of conspiracy theories as to why the Red Sox designated hitter was absent from the lineup Sunday for what turned out to be an 8-6 loss to the Yankees. On the day before the All-Star break? On a day when manager John Farrell might have asked him to play first base? Was there a flight he had to catch?
Those are the sorts of theories you’re going to hear when a manager oversees a clubhouse with no apparent accountability (unless you’re Pablo Sandoval looking for a late-night date while your team is up at bat). If Farrell is covering anything up in reporting that his DH was sent home by team doctors prior to the game, this is more on him than it is Ortiz.
2. Nearly every major move general manager Ben Cherington and his baseball operations staff made during the offseason seems to have been an epic blunder. There’s really no other way to put it, is there? Hanley Ramirez has raked with a team-leading 19 home runs, but his six doubles are eye-popping, not to mention the fact that he’s turned in some of the worst fielding many of us have seen in our lifetimes. Sandoval, billed by some as a Wade Boggs-type player, is hitting like Boggs did (.265) during his final, worst season with Boston in 1992. Rick Porcello has been a nightmare. Wade Miley is 8-8 with a 4.80 ERA, which isn’t so awful. But on this team, that nearly makes him ace material. Joe Kelly and Allen Craig are both in Pawtucket while John Lackey, making all of $500,000 this season, won seven games with a 2.99 ERA for the St. Louis Cardinals, who ended the first half with the best record in baseball (56-33). And where in the hell is Rusney Castillo? Yuck.
The flip side? This is the same front office who last summer traded for Eduardo Rodriguez (5-2, 3.59), who has been the most pleasant development of the season thus far. It’s the same administration that has groomed 22-year-old should-be All-Star Xander Bogaerts, and has watched the rise of Mookie Betts. They’re the same guys waiting to see, with the rest of us, if the promise holds true for guys like Blake Swihart, Henry Owens, and Brian Johnson. It remains to be seen if we should cut the front office some slack for what’s on the way, when what they already delivered for 2015 has already become a failure.
3. Brock Holt being an All-Star says a lot about the Red Sox, and it isn’t good. See No. 2. Bogaerts should be there, Internet voting or not, and perhaps Dustin Pedroia would be too had he not gotten hurt. But the fact that a team with a $166-million payroll has one player, a part-time player to begin the season, as its lone representative is indicative of just how far beneath expecations key players have performed for much of the season’s first four months.
4. Mike Napoli will dominate to start the second half….then go back to being finished. It’s come to playing Ortiz at first base just to get the one-time slugger out of the lineup (and Ramirez out of left field). Expect more of the same from Napoli, except for this coming weekend when the Red Sox head to Los Angeles for three against Napoli’s former team. In nine games against the Angels this season, he’s hitting .556 with four of his 10 home runs. He’s hitting .193 overall.
Gee, if only he got up for the rest of the league like he does when he might have a personal vendetta involved, there might still be a place for him on this team.
5. Tenth player award? Betts? Nope. Swihart? Meh. Holt? Sure, maybe. But if we’re talking about a player truly coming out of nowhere, how about Alejandro De Aza, whose acquisition was scoffed at by wise guys across New England. But the former Baltimore Oriole has been a delight, hitting .323 with a .932 OPS over 31 games, and has added stellar defense in the outfield. Nobody is laughing anymore. Boston is 18-13 since picking him for cash and something named Joe Gunkel last month.
6. Shane Victorino is back. Did you notice? The outfielder is 4-for-21 since returning to the team on July 4. Is there any trade value at all for the guy, or will he find himself DFA’d by the end of the month?
7. The Red Sox need to sell at the trading deadline. But they’ll probably buy. Or, they’ll do what they did in 2006 by picking up a guy like Javy Lopez and make it look like they thought they were in contention. Truly, the best thing for this team moving forward is to hope Buchholz can make a start before the July 31 trading deadline in order to see what they can get for him. (Hey, as long as we’re talking conspiracy theories with Ortiz, what’s to say there isn’t one going on with Buchholz and his strained flexor muscle.) Seeing as the “ace’’ could be out up to a month with rehab involved, his non-waiver trade value is likely, now, nil. Still, is there value for a guy like Miley? Koji Uehara? Ortiz, even?
Cherington doesn’t seem to have the pieces to pull off another Rodriguez trade (Buchholz might have been his best bet, alas…), leaving the franchise in a sort of purgatory moving forward to the deadline. Unless the second-half’s opening West Coast road trip is a complete failure, the Red Sox should still be a handful of games out of first and playing Lloyd Christmas math, rather than summoning their inner Jerry Reinsdorf in order to start selling the pieces and preparing for next season’s last-place finish.
8. Should the team still fire Farrell? Hey, remember that storm of demand? Farrell as a field general leaves much to be desired, but he has actually addressed one of the biggest criticisms against him. A perceived inability to groom young players has dogged Farrell, but he’s watched Bogaerts, Betts, and Rodriguez become integral contributors. Swihart was decent enough after being rushed to the bigs in an emergency, and with guys like Johnson (here) and Owens (probably next month) due to the majors soon, he’ll have even more youth at his disposal. If he can help develop them over the next 2 1/2 months, maybe he’s safe during the offseason, an unexpected turn of events based on where this team was a month ago. (But talk to us in August.)
9. Red Sox owner John Henry didn’t panic during his state of the team address on June 2. Was he right not to? Sort of. Ever since Henry told Red Sox fans that “Everything was Awesome’’ in the midst of panic, the Sox have gone 20-18. The team has not exactly been lighting the world on fire, but has produced a much better record than the 22-29 start to the season. Still, to win 85 games this season, Boston would have to go 43-30 over the second half. Not impossible, but for a team that has already lost Buchholz, and will have a pair of rookies in the rotation to go along with the ATIRP (Abhorrence that is Rick Porcello), it sure seems a tall order.
10. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s ruling on Tom Brady’s appeal is coming this week. There’s no way the commissioner isn’t going to take the quietest week in sports to make NFL news. Book it for Wednesday.
How the Red Sox fix things? A look at how they’ve done it in the past
[bdc-gallery id=”106412″]
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com