Red Sox player power rankings: Hanley Ramirez powers his way to the top
In typical Red Sox fashion, Hanley Ramirez has gone from worst to best, following his dismal '15 with an amazing '16.
COMMENTARY
The Red Sox bullpen has been much maligned this season, and it has often been difficult to figure out both what the pecking order is and what it should be. But when the team has needed it, the bullpen has stepped up. In the past two weeks, Red Sox relievers have combined to put up the best bullpen ERA in the majors and it isn’t particularly close (note: all stats through Sunday). Eight of the 11 Red Sox relievers who pitched in that timespan did not allow a run. They’re not quite Hanley Ramirez hot (nothing and no one is as hot as Ramirez) but they’re pretty darn close, and just in time.
36. Henry Owens (Not Ranked): With Owens back up, the only members of the 40-man roster who aren’t on the active roster are Bryce Brentz, Roenis Elias, Williams Jerez and Brian Johnson. Gotta wonder who those guys pissed off, huh?
35. Deven Marrero (35): Marrero only had two plate appearances the past two weeks, but he drew walks in both of them, so that’s something.
34. Ryan Hanigan (34): Still around, somehow. Of the 424 players who have tallied at least 100 plate appearances this season, only 40 have been worth less than has Hanigan.
33. Bryan Holaday (33): Holaday’s not exactly good, but he’s better than Hanigan.
32. Noe Ramirez (32): One of the three relievers who did allow runs the past fortnight, Ramirez doesn’t figure to see much action while the division is still in the balance.
31. Yoan Moncada (11): I’ve said my piece on this. I think burying him is a huge mistake — history is littered with superstars who had a rough introduction to the major league level. But that is not the way the wind is blowing, and at this juncture, it appears he won’t even make the postseason roster in a pinch-running capacity.
30. Fernando Abad (24): He couldn’t hold down a five-run lead on Friday, and at this point, doesn’t seem like a trustworthy member of the bullpen. Combine that with the rest of the ‘pen pitching well and you have a player whose stock is sinking fast.
29. Christian Vazquez (27): He’s still not back into the starting mix, but he did get some sub work on Sunday at least.
28. Aaron Hill (23): He’s received three starts since Moncada was banished, and he’s managed a solitary hit in each of them, which has seemed to prop him back up in the eyes of manager John Farrell.
27. Marco Hernandez (28): Is he going to be the designated pinch runner in the postseason? Is he really an upgrade if he is? He’s certainly not in league with players like Dave Roberts and Quintin Berry in terms of speed.
26. Brock Holt (22): The one-two punch of Holt’s shoulder trouble and Andrew Benintendi’s return have put a severe dent in Holt’s playing time. Before being named to Monday’s starting lineup, he hadn’t started (or played) in any of the past seven games.
25. Drew Pomeranz (10): It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Pomeranz. He hasn’t reached the sixth inning in any of his last three starts, and in his last two, he’s allowed nine runs in 5.2 innings pitched. If the Sox face the Indians in the American League Division Series, it might not even be a good idea to start him.
24. Heath Hembree (25): The final reliever who did allow runs the past two weeks, Hembree was nonetheless pivotal to the team’s success, as he soaked up innings early in the game while the team trailed, and pitched well enough to keep them in those games and allow them to come back. Sunday was the latest example, as Hembree relieved Pomeranz in the fourth, quickly retired human home run machine Gary Sanchez to end the inning, and then dispatched the Yankees in the fifth as well. By the end of the fifth, the Sox had drawn the score from a four-run deficit to a one-run deficit, and were able to do so in part because of Hembree.
23. Robby Scott (30): He’s up to 4.2 innings pitched in his brief major league career, and he still hasn’t allowed a run.
22. Travis Shaw (29): He’s worked his way back into favor. He still isn’t great, as he has posted an 83 wRC+ over the past two weeks (ie 17 percentage points worse than league average) but the team seems to be more comfortable with Shaw’s floor than they are Moncada’s.
21. Clay Buchholz (15): As soon as the team started facing good offenses, he turned right back into a pumpkin, but given the struggles of Pomeranz and Eduardo Rodriguez, the nails are not in Buchholz’s coffin quite yet.
20. Matt Barnes (31): Speaking of coffins, Barnes is back from the dead, and thriving once again in pressure situations. It’s hard to figure out which Matt Barnes we’re getting on any given day, making him sort of like the reliever version of Buchholz, but when he’s on, he can get out anyone.
19. Robbie Ross Jr. (19): He’s still doing fine, but over the past two weeks, Scott saw more pressure packed situations than did Ross. It will be interesting to see if there is a changing of the left-handed reliever pecking order happening.
18. Junichi Tazawa (21): He’s being used in even less pressure packed situations than is Ross, but his velocity has stabilized, and he seems to have found a definitive home in the sixth inning.
17. Steven Wright (20): He’s throwing again, and his return would be most welcome.
16. Chris Young (17): In the past two weeks, Young has homered three times. He’s having his best offensive season of his 11-year career on a rate basis, as his batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and isolated power are all easily at career-high levels.
15. Andrew Benintendi (14): The Sox faced a bunch of left-handed starters right as he was coming back, so he hasn’t played a great deal, but when he has, he hasn’t done anything to take the shine off of his phenom status.
14. Sandy Leon (12): He’s struggling a little bit, but for the month of September he’s still been more or less an average major league hitter, which is far more than can be said for the team’s other three catchers.
13. Eduardo Rodriguez (7): The Yankees rudely interrupted Rodriguez’s sparkling second half on Thursday, tagging him for eight hits and four runs in just 2.1 innings. If you’re looking for good news, it’s that Rodriguez has controlled his walks big time this season. He’s walked three or more batters in only two of his last 14 starts, and in just four of 17 overall.
12. Brad Ziegler (16): He’s worked in the seventh inning in each of his last three outings, and has done well there.
11. Joe Kelly (26): Ever the wild card, Kelly is showing that he can be trusted in crucial situations as a reliever. While the bullpen pecking order figures to be Craig Kimbrel in the ninth, Koji Uehara in the eighth, Ziegler in the seventh and Tazawa in the sixth, Kelly has shown that he is capable of joining Barnes and Ross in that floating “pitch whenever” role that teams need to have to be successful.
10. David Price (6): It didn’t start well for him on Saturday, but Price was able to hang in there and make it through six innings. While the Yankees were able to get to him with hits, he didn’t walk anyone, and over his last three starts, he has struck out 24 batters against zero walks in 21 innings pitched. That’s pretty tasty.
9. Jackie Bradley Jr. (13): For the non-Hanley Ramirez members of the offense, three is the magic number. Young, Bradley, Xander Bogaerts and David Ortiz all homered three times in the past two weeks.
8. Xander Bogaerts (8): Consistency in the second half has been hard to come by for Bogaerts, but games like Saturday’s – when he hit a homer and two doubles – show that there is still a special player in there. That homer on Saturday was his 20th , making him the first Red Sox shortstop to hit 20 in a season since Nomar Garciaparra did so in 2003.
7. Mookie Betts (2): He is slumping a little with the bat, but he hasn’t let that affect his fielding or his baserunning, both of which are regularly so good that he is beginning to elicit “M-V- P” chants from the Fenway faithful.
6. Koji Uehara (18): If there was any question about if he’s back or not, consider them answered. The only question that remains is he can he stay healthy through the end of the postseason.
5. Dustin Pedroia (1): He’s cooled off, but if he can pick it back up, he’ll have a very small chance of catching Jose Altuve for the AL batting crown.
4. David Ortiz (5): What more can you say? Watching him this season has been one of the biggest thrills of them all.
3. Rick Porcello (3): The calm in the storm, Porcello hasn’t allowed more than three runs in a start since July 24th .
2. Craig Kimbrel (9): On August 9th , Kimbrel walked four Yankees hitters and afterward copped to some lingering knee soreness following his surgery and accelerated rehab. If you were worrying then, you can stop now. Since that day, Kimbrel has tossed 11.1 scoreless innings, with 20 strikeouts against just three walks. Simply put, he’s been amazing.
1. Hanley Ramirez (4): It’s difficult for a baseball player to go all Cedric Maxwell and strap the team to his back, but that is just what Ramirez has done. I wrote more about him on Friday at FanGraphs, but the bottom line is this – Ramirez is so hot right now that when he comes to bat, you’re expecting him to homer, and he usually does. Watch out now!
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