Reviewing the Red Sox: Three lingering questions that will carry over to the new season
Hey, don't forget about Steven Wright. Or Blake Swihart, for that matter. And as for replacing Papi ...
COMMENTARY
In my first two installments of this three-part exit interview of sorts on the 2016 Red Sox, I looked at season’s positive developments, (there were many) followed by the negative (ugh, that ending sure was quick and painful). The third segment, which you have right here, was supposed to focus on the season’s bewildering and unusual plot twists, but I ended up touching on that sort of stuff — like Xander Bogaerts’s soaring start and slumping finish — organically along the way. So, instead, let’s wrap this up with a couple of questions that will linger through the offseason and cannot be answered in full until the new season is well underway.
Which currently overlooked young player is poised to contribute significantly next year? Kind of a loaded question, right? Most of the Red Sox’ young players are either established cornerstones (Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts), on the fringe of becoming high-end contributors (Andrew Benintendi), or already talked about too much to the point that their potential is exaggerated (Christian Vazquez). The obvious choice here, at least to me, is Blake Swihart. He was a forgotten man after suffering a season-ending ankle injury in June after playing just 19 games. But he should not be. Swihart is a 24-year-old catcher (or outfielder … or third baseman .. hey, he’s versatile) who was rated a top-20 prospect by Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, and MLB.com before the ’15 season. Rushed to the majors that year because of injuries to Vazquez and Ryan Hanigan, it took him time to get acclimated, but he came around enough to hit .303 in the second half. He’s still a work in progress as a catcher, but he’s 20 months younger than Vazquez and despite the fits and starts of his career has already demonstrated ability to hit major league pitching at an above-average level. He has a chance to be a very good player, and soon, especially if the Red Sox finally decide what they want him to be.
What should we make of Steven Wright? I suppose we could just chalk this up as another goofy whim of baseball. But even then it’s hard to believe given that perennial enigma Clay Buchholz started the do-or-die Game 3 of the ALDS (spoiler alert: they died) that the Red Sox had three starting pitchers on their staff this season who made the midseason All-Star Game: Rick Porcello, then-Padre Drew Pomeranz, and Steven Wright. The 31-year-old knuckleballer was no lock to make the staff when spring training began, but he ended up being essential to their first-half success, delivering a performance (10 wins in 17 starts, 2.65 ERA) that came right out of a Best of Tim Wakefield highlight video. Unfortunately, he made just seven starts in the second half, his season all but ended when he injured his shoulder in Los Angeles after John Farrell somehow mistook him for Herb Washington. The unpredictable streakiness of a knuckleballer is another goofy whim of baseball, of course, and it’s hard to know what the Red Sox can expect from Wright entering next season. We do know, though, that he can be highly effective for long stretches, and also that his second career as a pinch runner has probably met its end.
Who replaces David Ortiz? When all that he’s meant to and done for the Red Sox — and this [expletive] city — is considered, the answer is obvious: No one. No one replaces him. Ortiz in full is as irreplaceable as it gets in Boston sports lore, save for arguably Bobby Orr, Bill Russell and those transcendent few chiseled permanently on to that theoretical Boston Sports Mt. Rushmore. But there are some intriguing possibilities to that more practical question: Who replaces him, or at least attempts to, in the heart of the Red Sox’ lineup? I hope the Red Sox don’t go with the status quo — and I doubt they will. There’s no guarantee that Hanley Ramirez will duplicate his sensational ’16 season without Ortiz to lean on. Projecting Travis Shaw as the next Brian Daubach may have been an overstatement. And Pablo Sandoval? As a DH, don’t you have to be able to H at least a little? I assume Dave Dombrowski will go out and get someone, and doesn’t it seem like we’ve been talking about Carlos Beltran coming here since, oh, 1999? Ortiz himself has endorsed Edwin Encarnacion, much to the aggravation of Blue Jays fans. That makes the most sense production-wise: Encarnacion hit 42 homers, four more than Ortiz, and tied Papi for the major league lead in RBIs (127). But he’s 34 in January, and there has to be some limit to how far the Red Sox will push their payroll. Are we sure Ortiz doesn’t want to come back? Really? Maybe someone could ask just one more time?
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