Sports Q: What is your biggest concern with the Red Sox?
Discuss the team's potential weaknesses with Chad Finn and other Sox fans.
Welcome to Boston.com’s Sports Q, our daily conversation, initiated by you and moderated by Chad Finn, about a compelling topic in Boston sports. Here’s how it works: You submit questions to Chad through Twitter, Facebook, email, and any other outlet you prefer. He’ll pick one each weekday to answer, then we’ll take the discussion to the comments. Chad will stop by several times per day to navigate, but you drive the conversation.
What’s your biggest concern about the Red Sox this year? Has to be closer, right? There’s really not much else to worry about so far. –Tom P.
I think the key words there are “so far,’’ Tom. There was very little drama with the Sox last year beyond whatever happened to be going on with David Price at a given moment — and, in the end, he got his redemption and then some. I mean, they had the best record in baseball in spring training, won 17 of their first 19 in the regular season, and we were probably talking about the postseason pitching rotation around here before May was over. It was as drama-free of a season as we will ever see.
One of the many things that went right was their collective good health. J.D. Martinez played 150 games. Mookie Betts missed some time here and there but still played 136 games and won the Most Valuable Player award. Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Andrew Benintendi all played at least 136 games as well. The core of a lineup that led the majors with 876 runs remained healthy and available virtually all season. Who knows if that happens again?
That brings me to the pitching, and the answer here. It’s not the closer. Matt Barnes — who had very similar statistics to Craig Kimbrel last year — seems ready for the role, and I think Ryan Brasier could handle it, too. He certainly has the stuff. And if they do go “closer by committee,” I trust Alex Cora to handle it much more effectively than Grady Little did 16 seasons ago. Might be kind of fun, actually.
No, the biggest concern is Chris Sale. You know why. He made just five regular season starts and pitched just 17 innings after July 27 due to a shoulder injury that’s still somewhat mysterious. The lasting memory of the postseason is of him making Manny Machado look like a cartoonish fool on the final out of the World Series, but he did struggle at times in the playoffs, finishing with a 4.73 ERA in his three starts. The Red Sox will be cautious with him, but sometimes not even caution is enough to prevent an injury-related absence. To me, Sale’s health and status remains the No. 1 question/concern entering this season.
But what does everyone else think? I’ll hear you in the comments.
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