Sports Q: Will anyone on the Red Sox be a pleasant surprise this year?
Chad Finn believes it could be Jose Peraza, who could be decent, or Alex Verdugo, who could be excellent.
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, and email. 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. It’s been one bad thing after another with the Red Sox this spring, from the Mookie trade to Sale’s injury to the sign-stealing situation costing Alex Cora his job and still hanging over everything. Is there anything positive? How about this: Who will be the most pleasant surprise on this team this year? Is there even a candidate? I’m having a hard time finding anything. – Jim L.
You know, I’m sure there will be, but it’s harder than I would have thought to identify someone specific right now. I guess that’s what would make it a surprise, right?
It can’t be Xander Bogaerts or Rafael Devers. Expectations are rightfully high for them now. I think most of us expect Andrew Benintendi to be better. Eduardo Rodriguez can’t get much better, and that probably goes for Christian Vazquez too. I think we know what we’re getting, both good and bad, from Jackie Bradley Jr.
The bullpen should be pretty good, but that had a lot of pleasant surprises last year, like Brandon Workman and Josh Taylor. Maybe someone like Austin Brice or Josh Osich will break through there. At this point, anything positive in the starting rotation would qualify. Martin Perez might be decent despite that 5.12 ERA last year. The Yankees scored six runs in the first inning of his start the other day, but not one ball was hit hard.
I’ll give you two names. Jose Peraza, who was miserable last year (.631 OPS, minus-0.9 Wins Above Replacement), is a decent bounce-back candidate in his age-26 season. Two years ago with the Reds, he had 14 homers, 23 steals, and a .742 OPS. That version of him would be a helpful player.
The other is Alex Verdugo, but that comes with a caveat. He hasn’t swung a bat this spring as he continues his recovery from a strained oblique and a stress fracture in his back that curtailed his promising 2019 season. Manager Ron Roenicke said a few days ago that Verdugo could begin swinging this week, which obviously would be a significant step. If he’s healthy, the 23-year-old will be an asset – last year, he had 12 homers and an .817 OPS in 377 plate-appearances.
His potential has probably been overlooked somewhat because he came over in the Mookie Betts deal and we were all too annoyed by that to acknowledge that he’s probably pretty good.
To answer the question, I’ll say Peraza, who could be decent, or Verdugo, who could be excellent. But the reality is that the biggest pleasant surprise probably isn’t on the roster yet.
What does everyone else think? I’ll hear you in the comments.
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