The Red Sox have promised improvement in their teams playing for several years now although their actions haven’t backed up their words. During the off season the Red Sox purchased some promising new players such as third baseman Alex Bergman who is a two time All Star and two time World Series winner, as well as Aroldis Chapman and Walker Buehler, both new pitchers to the team. “We’ve had an exciting offseason with the additions,” said Red Sox president and CEO, Sam Kennedy before opening day on April 4. “But we need to get off to a good start.” Unfortunately, they haven’t and Boston fans could be in for another disappointing season.
The Red Sox pitching performance from Garrett Crochet and Buehler has certainly been a plus and one of their clear strengths but weak defense as well as inconsistent offense continues to be an issue for the Red Sox.
Chapman, Justin Slaten, and Garrett Whitlock have all been batting incredibly well but their teammates haven’t shown the same promise. Rafeal Devers is struggling through the start to this season with a .746 OPS. OPS means on base per slugging, a numeric measure of how well a player is performing offensively. An .800 OPS at the least is considered good. Triston Casas, with an .583 OPS and Caddnne Rafaela who has a .644 OPS aren’t performing well at the plate either, the three serving as weak points offensively.
As of now the Red Sox are ranked second in the American League East Coast (AL East) standings which is the standings of all five major league baseball teams on the east coast. It’s still however too early in the season for these standings to really mean anything.
Last year, the Red Sox had no luck in making it to the world series due to their poor performance. The Red Sox haven’t won the world series since 2018. A World Series being the championship that top teams compete in at the end of the season. They are still tied for third in which team holds the most World Series titles. They, as most other teams have done, have promised improvement and potential at bringing home another World Series title.
If the Red Sox’s season continues on this course, it’s incredibly unlikely they’d even make it to the playoffs and live up to their promises. It is certainly still possible for the Red Sox to turn themselves around but so far they haven’t shown many signs of improvement.
Image source: Mass Live