BOS Vs CLE Series Recap: How Bad Are The 2024 Red Sox?
The day is April 19th, and the Boston Red Sox are dead.
Following the series against Cleveland, the Boston Red Sox are treading water at 10-10. If I’m being honest though, it feels like the team is already slipping into the murky depths of irrelevance.
DEFENSE:
The current iteration of the Red Sox infield is actually painful to watch. David Hamilton (despite winning 2023 defensive player of the year in Worcester) might be worse than Enrique Hernandez at shortstop. Pablo Reyes is good for at least one awful throwing error per series. Enmanuel Valdez is actually getting slightly better at 2nd base, but is still probably a AA caliber player defensively. I truly feel bad for Ceddanne Rafaela, who (despite being AWFUL at the plate) has been the only guy holding this team together defensively. His play in center field and at both middle infield positions has given Alex Cora the chance to adjust his lineup frequently. He seemingly has no problem changing defensive positions numerous times during any game. Despite having Rafaela as a sort of ‘plug and play’ guy, the Red Sox have the worst defense in the MLB through 20 games. The numbers back this up. The Red Sox lead the MLB in errors with 20. Yes, you heard that correctly. The Red Sox are (on average) committing an error per game, giving them the lowest fielding % in the league as well.
David Hamilton (Former Woo Sox Defensive Player Of The Year)
STARTING PITCHING:
One of the lone ‘bright spots’ of 2024 so far has been the starting pitching. It has not been perfect, but the impact of new pitching coach Andrew Bailey is immeasurable. Tanner Houck is always a pitcher who I have liked more than most fans, but it wasn’t until his first starts of 2024 that we have seen him be truly unlocked.
If you are a fan who only occasionally watches the Sox, I recommend watching this guy pitch. Houck has the best stuff on the staff, and he works at an electric rate. His complete game shutout against Cleveland set records as one of the fastest games from start to finish in the modern era.
Garrett Whitlock left his start in the 5th inning with an oblique injury. I can’t even pretend to be surprised about this. Garrett Whitlock is NOT A STARTING PITCHER. How many times do we have to see Whitlock hurt himself before the team starts protecting him. He CLEARLY cannot handle a starting workload over the course of a season.
Additionally, watching Cooper Criswell play baseball does a great job highlighting ownership’s lack of interest in a competitive baseball season. If they wanted to compete, they needed to add better depth arms. If the Red Sox are going to be competitive over 162 games, Whitlock needs to exclusively come out of the bullpen, even if he needs to pitch multiple innings.
THE PEN:
In this series, the bullpen continued to be a detriment to the ball club. Kenley Jansen continues to get on my nerves, blowing his first save of the year in a Red Sox extra innings loss. Joely Rodriguez does not belong on a major league mound. Greg Weissert had a promising start to the season, but has fell off very hard in the last couple of weeks. Josh Winckowski is as consistently inconsistent as anyone, and he has not bucked that trend to this point. Also, my life would be so much better if I never had to watch Chase Anderson pitch again.
On the bright side of things, Justin Slaten remains a revelation for this Red Sox bullpen. Similarly to how Chaim Bloom wore Garrett Whitlock as a feather in his cap, it seems that Craig Breslow can do the same with Slaten. Additionally, Brennan Bernardino is one of the most trusted arms in the bullpen alongside Chris Martin. Although Martin recently had the worst outing of his Red Sox career, he looked more like himself in this series.
AT THE PLATE:
Enmanuel Valdez produces exciting at bats on a relatively consistent basis, but the results absolutely do not reflect that.
Wilyer Abreu is a guy who interests me greatly. He is far from a perfect player both defensively and at the plate, but he continues to show sparks. Defensively, he has a TREMENDOUS arm, and at the plate, he is clearly capable of working an at bat. His plate discipline reminds me of Triston Casas on occasion.
It’s good to see Rob Refsnyder back in the outfield, but I have a hard time believing that he will make any significant impact.
David Hamilton isn’t the worst hitter in this lineup, but his hit tool does little to justify his defensive shortcomings.
Pablo Reyes’ bat is closer to Rafaela’s than Devers’.
Both Wong and McGuire are providing league average production at the plate.
Jarren Duran is VERY important to this team and it’s ability to score runs.
With Devers and O’Neill hurt, Casas has become the team’s only source of consistent power at the plate.
All things considered, the lineup on Thursday was one of the worst I’ve seen in a long time as a Red Sox fan.
