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Zach Eflin does it again, what Jarren Duran needs to do now, and other thoughts on the Red Sox
This weekend is the continuation of a stern run for the pitching-weary Red Sox.
COMMENTARY
Three Red Sox thoughts while reminding myself that the feeling the season is slipping through their fingers in mid-August would actually have been a positive in February . . .
The curse of Zach Eflin
The things on which we build defining narratives can be quite spongy. I thought of that again Thursday when the Red Sox were undone during their series opener in Baltimore by Zach Eflin.
Again.
Eflin, you may recall, was a free-agent target of Chaim Bloom during the winter of 2022, following seven years with Philadelphia. The Red Sox reportedly made him a solid offer of three years and $40 million, which Eflin — a Florida kid who grew up a Rays fan — took to Tampa, which also had been pushing to sign the strike-thrower.
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“They made a personal visit to my house, which was awesome. And we were in the process of having twin girls and our on-demand support help was two hours away as opposed to a three-hour flight, which was huge for us,” Eflin told the Globe in 2023. “I just honestly thought [Tampa Bay] was the best fit for me personally in my career and life.”
The Rays matched Boston’s offer, Eflin signed, and he’s been the pitcher both franchises thought he could become. Thursday was his 54th start on the contract, a top-20 total over that time period, and his 3.59 ERA is 11th among the 23 pitchers to throw 300 innings since the start of last season.
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He’s faced the Red Sox four times and his team’s won all four games. Eflin, 30, allowed three runs over five innings in each of the first three and, now an Oriole, one in six innings Thursday, the last with eight strikeouts and no walks.
Baltimore is 4-0 in his starts since it acquired him from Tampa in a late-July trade.
“You’re kind of forced to be comfortable this late in the season, especially in the middle of a pennant chase. Baseball never stops, so you’ve got to come in ready to go,” Eflin told reporters Thursday. “Everybody’s been so welcoming and so great, and it’s a really fun team to be a part of.”
“He has a lot of weapons,” Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, far less happy about them than he might have been in an alternate timeline.
It remains hard to fault Bloom for losing out as he did on Eflin, who was the youngest potential starter in his free-agent class with his pedigree, even if he wasn’t a full-timer in the 2022 Phillies rotation. The business remains hard to predict — Carlos Rodón, one of that winter’s free-agent jewels, has underwhelmed for the Yankees, and the Sox losing out on José Abreu remains a tremendous gift.
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But a Red Sox team with Eflin wouldn’t have had a bottom-half rotation in 2022, a bottom-10 rotation in 2023, and might still have Bloom running its baseball operations.
A Royal test
This weekend is the continuation of a stern run for the pitching-weary Red Sox (63-57), who are 2.5 games behind Kansas City (66-55) for the third and final American League wild card spot.
After four games in Baltimore, the Red Sox visit Houston — which swept them at Fenway last weekend — and return home to play Arizona, which has won 18 of 21 to get within two games of the Dodgers in the National League West.
Defining weeks? Perhaps. But when they end, the Royals have their own.
After visiting sub-.500 Cincinnati and the well-out-of-it Angels, Kansas City plays 19 straight games against playoff teams. Home to Philadelphia, at Central-leading Cleveland, at Houston, home to Cleveland and Central No. 2 Minnesota (which beat K.C. in two of three this week), and a visit to Yankee Stadium.
It’s not a two-team race for that final playoff spot, of course, with the Mariners (63-59) a game behind the Red Sox. But so much about modern baseball is about survival, and Boston finding a way through another stretch seemingly designed to break them forces their competition to answer the same call.
Duran and the din
Jarren Duran is 1 for 9 with four strikeouts since returning from his two-game team suspension for a homophobic slur in Sunday’s loss to Houston. For some, that incident will long be a starting point when they think about Duran, whose four years since breaking into the majors haven’t lacked for extremes.
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His adventures with fans in Kansas City two summers ago felt an endpoint for a former prospect who, to then, was a .220 hitter seemingly ill fit for the scrutiny of Boston.
His breakout 2023 came amid continued successes and struggles with his mental health. Duran’s public admissions of the latter made him an increasingly beloved figure at a time when the franchise needs more.
His play continued that rise into 2024, and Duran’s defiance and dynamism amid it all shone on the game’s brightest stage just a month ago Friday. He was All-Star Game MVP amid a groundswell of support and a drive to play in all 162 games for a surprise playoff contender.
Much of that feels like history in this moment for many reasons, among them that word that came quick in the heat of the moment because, we can safely assume, it’s long been in Duran’s holster.
I say that with some compassion because, though I’ve got 16 years on him, I grew up in a world where forms of that chatter were a playground stalwart. You probably did, too.
Duran turns 28 in September; those pointing out he’s no kid aren’t wrong. But it makes him about the age I was when the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network ran its “Think Before You Speak” campaign, which aimed to curb the use of “that’s so gay” as derogatory slang.
The ads were an award-winning series, but the one that stuck in my brain starred Hilary Duff; it was enough of a touchstone, by 2008 standards, that she redid it on social media a couple years ago. The aim was clean in its tagline, which stressed understanding while also being unequivocal.
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“When you say, ‘That’s so gay,’ do you realize what you say? Knock it off.”
That’s not ancient history for any of us, nor is it an explicit excuse for Duran. But it is framing to a conversation that, given the age, appears to only exist in social media’s toxic absolutes.
Walking around Fenway during Monday’s win over Texas, I was struck by the number of “F*ck ’em” shirts — itself pilloried by plenty, some of whom know he wears it daily and thus probably wasn’t using it to dilute the sincerity of his apology.
They kept popping up in a way impossible to avoid, worn by people who couldn’t yet have gotten them from the run on Duran apparel early in the week. I’d love to know the breakdown of “I relate to his mental health message” versus “I like wearing ‘f*ck’ on a T shirt” in that mix, but alas, we lack that tech.
The omnipresence of those shirts speaks to Duran’s. One of the most compelling parts of the 2024 Red Sox? Duran is nothing less than their embodiment. Real and raw, prone to the unworldly highs and lows — often in the same game — than the learning-on-the-fly Red Sox have put us through all season.
“We’re still learning. We’re still growing as a group,” Cora told reporters after Wednesday’s late crusher against the Rangers, remixing his regular refrain. “That’s not an excuse, because we are better than that. But we’ve got to learn from today and get better.”
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NESN caught Duran saying something terrible on Sunday, and his team put words far more eloquent than his in his mouth on Sunday night. He served a relative and deserved two minutes in the box, and those the loudest about the whole thing have already moved on to screaming about Sam Ponder.
“It’s still something I’m feeling terrible about,” Duran told reporters on Wednesday, his latest in a years-long line of comments beating himself up. “I’m just going to work to be better for myself and for everybody around me.”
I dare say that’s all the people behind those 16-year-old PSAs wanted. And I hope those final words are the ones that ring the loudest from this whole episode.
Because the sooner “just don’t be a jerk” stops feeling like a revolutionary idea, the better off we’ll all be.
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