Who has been the MVP of the Red Sox so far?
J.D. Martinez, Mookie Betts, and Chris Sale all have a real case.
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The All-Star break is coming up. Assuming nothing drastic happens in that time, who would you say has been the Red Sox’ Most Valuable Player to the so-called halfway point? Has to be J.D. Martinez. – Kevin P.
Well, as good as the majority of the roster has been this season, I’d say you can narrow it down to three players: Martinez, Mookie Betts, and of course, Blake Swihart.
Whoops, I meant Chris Sale. My bad.
Martinez, Betts, and Sale all have a real case. Martinez has had a Manny-type start to his Red Sox career. He’s not goofy or especially charismatic, but like Manny, he’s a dedicated student of hitting, and there is no doubt he’s helped their culture this year. What a pickup.
I have no idea why Betts endured a relative power outage last year, but he has been at least as good this year as he was two years ago when he had a decent argument to be the American League Most Valuable player over Mike Trout. He’s also a sensational right fielder.
Sale is having a season much like his first in Boston and much like something you’d see on Pedro Martinez’s baseball-reference page. In other words, he is everything an ace should be.
In terms of WAR (the Baseball-Reference.com version), the order goes Betts (5.0), Sale (5.0), Martinez (3.8), with Rick Porcello (2.9) and Andrew Benintendi (2.8) rounding out the top five.
Martinez’s value takes a hit because he’s played just 34 games and 293 innings in the field, but I think I’m with you — he’s my choice.
He leads the majors in homers (27), runs batted in (74), and total bases (212), and he actually has a higher OPS+ this year (173) than he did for the Diamondbacks last year (170) when he hit 29 homers in 62 games. His acquisition is the main difference between the Red Sox being good last year and potentially the franchise’s first 100-win team since 1946.
But what do you think? Who has been the Red Sox’ Most Valuable Player so far? I’ll hear you in the comments.
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