As another Red Sox year slumps to a close, there’s no shortage of future contenders
The Red Sox have provided some promise this year that they'll be in contention in upcoming seasons, but so have many other American League teams.
COMMENTARY
Some nights in your life, you’ve gotten to genuinely think about whether all four of New England’s major pro sports teams could win a championship in the same year.
On Thursday night, you got to flip your screens between the Red Sox getting one-hit by a guy they signed, used, and dumped over a week last May and the Patriots offense needing nearly 39 minutes to collect 50 yards.
At least the Bruins’ general manager isn’t calling out podcasters over the contract negotiations with his No. 1 goalie, right? And the Revolution aren’t giving away points at home by coming out for second halves flatter than Louisiana marshland?
As usual, I digress. It’s just, after hearing Craig Breslow Yale-ify the Red Sox annual second-half swoon with the phrase, “We have been poor clusterers or sequencers of performance” . . . that right there is some clustering.
The easy crack is that Jacoby Brissett got hit as many times in three hours as the Red Sox got hits in three days at Tropicana Field. The more thematic might be Shohei Ohtani’s 6-for-6, three-homer, 10-RBI night in Miami isn’t all that far off from the sum of Boston’s work in St. Petersburg — 10 hits, three homers, five total runs.
“We’re collectively slumping. . . . Same thing that’s been happening for a month and a half,” manager Alex Cora told reporters after his team — as noted by the Globe‘s Peter Abraham — made six first-pitch outs and got to just four three-ball counts without working one walk.
And with that, we’ve reached the Twins series that’s been the light on the horizon of Cora’s missives for most of that month and a half. Believe it or not, it still is.
As the Red Sox have lost 12 of 18, the Twins have dropped 12 of 19, allowing in excess of five runs per game. If Boston somehow swept the three games at Fenway, it’d be just one back of Minnesota.
Of course, the Red Sox have not won three straight at home against anyone since the All-Star break, and their dueling slumps allowed two others into the mix. The Tigers pulled into a tie for that final wild-card slot on their Thursday offday, with the Mariners two behind dropping a midweek series to the Yankees.
No AL team has done more since the break than the Tigers, who’ve won 27 of 40 to gain 10.5 games on the Twins and leapfrog four teams. A.J. Hinch has used 11 starting pitchers in the last 50 games; they’ve thrown collectively the fewest starter innings in the sport, but the team’s allowed its fewest runs.
The Tigers have done it with defense. They’ve done it with luck and momentum — remember them? Notably, they’ve done it with pure youth. Their best three hitters in this 40-game span are all yet to reach arbitration, and the only one of their top nine (!) making more than $2 million this year is Colt Keith — a 23-year-old who signed a potential nine-year deal before he made his MLB debut in March.
It got me thinking about what’s ahead. Not in September, but beyond it, when the Red Sox are poised to get younger and better.
Cleveland, which clinched a postseason berth on Thursday, sports the youngest position player average in the game and Stephen Vogt, who pieced together a likely division winner in his first year as a manager. José Ramírez just turned 32, but he’s the exception.
Baltimore’s core needs no further explanation here, and it still has a No. 3 farm system, having ceded No. 1 to . . . Tampa, whose ability to conjure contenders out of little similarly is well known. Seattle has six top-100 prospects, all position players, with five 20-somethings and three first-round picks in a solid rotation.
The Yankees? I have questions, truth be told, at least until they lock in Juan Soto long-term. (Much like Jaromir Jagr retiring, I’ll believe their payroll trims when I see them.) The Royals have Bobby Witt Jr. secured for the next decade, but a far more transient, aging roster beyond him. The Astros seem to keep doing it with smoke and mirrors, with Spencer Arrighetti the latest, but they keep doing it.
That’s eight American League cohabitants I’ve named, and I skipped the reigning world champion Rangers (oldest pitching staff in the game) and, well, the Twins, who appear content to keep building their hopes on Byron Buxton, Royce Lewis, and Carlos Correa when it’s impossible to expect any of them to stay healthy. (Their four primary starters, it should be noted, do all have ERAs at 4.00 or lower, including Saturday’s probable starter, Pablo López.)
However you want to view this latest September fold from the Red Sox, it doesn’t change that these six months of baseball brought plenty of optimism. There are things to build off, challenges levied to numerous players looking into the offseason, and positional battles looming come the spring in Fort Myers.
Fingers crossed, they stay out of last, though that’s going to take more than they showed at the Trop.
Still a long way to the top, though. Optimism does spring eternal in baseball, and there are plenty of other AL franchises eager to make 2024 the year when the corner got turned.
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