Do you Brock Holt a guy who is probably your best defender at center and short, but might not hit well enough to play the corners every day?
Indeed. It is inconceivable that the Red Sox might have to contend with injuries at SS, CF, or elsewhere.
There is a difference between having a guy fill in when you have injuries (Mookie Betts pretending to be a utility infielder instead of All World right fielder for the Dodgers this year) and dooming a top100 prospect to a utility role before he even makes his debut.
I can't speak for @Philip Jeff Frye but Rafaela is already considered (AFAIK) a ML ready + defender at SS and in CF. He's a right handed hitter who lacks discipline, and that is the Achilles heel here.
Right. Long term, it looks like he's a CF if he sticks with the club. But it's very easy to see him playing at least some SS until Mayer arrives.
Doom is overstating it, probably.
Someone noted somewhere else he's had a lot of errors at SS in limited innings this year -- only 9 games there with five errors. Last year it was 21 games with 2 errors. So maybe this year is an outlier, but five errors in 9 starts is a lot.
I think there are a lot of shoes to drop before we even get there. Does Duran stick? Is Verdugo extended? What's the SS logjam look like in 2024?
If winning MLB games right now were the only objective, he'd be a better fit for the roster right now than Hamilton, IMO. But of course, there are other considerations, and the Sox are smart to not rush him.
Exactly!!! We're not talking about some in season experiment like we've seen in recent years. We're not talking about a Brock Holt type who when pressed in to duty on regular basis in multiple positions becomes a bit exposed, but rather a guy who is used to carrying 2 gloves and by some accounts plays elite defense at two of the positions that you want your best defenders to play. Every team is placing some level of focus on positional flexibility and there a few guys that are considered everyday players who play multiple positions. If you have THAT sort of asset and a need, why would you shy away from it?
This is exactly my point. We have a brain trust that values positional flexibility. Rafaela apparently offers that in spades. If they thought he only had a future as a centerfielder, why would he be wasting time at shortstop, especially with Mayer coming along at the same time? It seems likely that they see him not as Brock Holt, a not especially talented player who was nonetheless useful because he could play different positions, but as Tony Phillips/Ben Zobrist/Matt Carpenter, quite talented players who are even more useful because of their ability to play multiple positions.
Keeping all options on the table? You never know. Maybe he has more value as a trade chip if teams think he's ready for SS. Maybe Mayer gets hurt, or traded, or just flames out. Playing him once a week at SS is probably worth whatever minor loss there is of his CF reps.
To me, even if he does wind up as “just” a glove-first multi-position utility guy, that’s a valuable role for a good team, so I’d be okay with it. Maybe not what you expect from a top-five organizational prospect, but useful all the same.
Why not Duran in left? If Verdugo re-signs after this or next year, that could make sense. Yoshi can DH and spell each outfielder once in a while playing left. Might have a log jam if the Sox decide they are better off with Casas as DH.
I think this makes the most sense and is likely the best scenario for the outfield.... Yoshida plays mostly as a DH but can play the occasional game at LF in Fenway and give everyone a break- everyone else can shift around for day-offs. And Rafaela can occasionally take SS and/or 2B to give the middle IF a break too. I really don't think the Sox will be parking Casas as a regular DH at all. It would have been great if Dalbec was able to level off his talent to something in between horrible and his August of '21, he'd be great as a corner IF and DH platoon to give Casas and Devers a break but it's beyond clear to anyone that he's an elite AAAA talent and that's it. Best option for him is to end up on a non-contender for next season. So they'd still need a corner IF/DH platoon guy (which Turner really is doing quite well at being right now and wouldn't see him back in '24 if he's not traded away). I'm also not totally sold on Rafaela being ready to start game one on the ML roster next season but not against it if he can continue playing well and showing plate discipline in AAA (with a potential call-up) but I expect him to really struggle either way for his first several months no matter what at the ML level.
Their streakiness also doesn't line up nicely in good vs bad teams like last season. It's maddening.... but somewhat expected.
Lots of young players, possible injuries were higher likelihood than other teams. If I could graph out how I expect young players to perform, on the left side of the graph would be a lot of W shaped lines that slowly move more towards a less undulating line going rightwards further into their career.
Just when it appeared that they've kind of got things going, beating Minnesota for the second time in a row to get to 39-35, they lose 5-4 in a game they never ever should have lost. Then they get blown out by Min for a series split, then won one game over ChW, and now have lost 4 in a row. So after getting 4 games above .500, they've gone 1-6 since, to drop back one game under.
Exactly what I was going to say. Look at last night's lineup
Young isn't necessarily about age, but in this case it's about experience at the major league level. Wong, Casas, Duran, Hamilton, Valdez and to a lesser degree Dalbec are young in their MLB careers.
In terms of the team this year, the median age is what it is. But I think roster construction and playing time is worth paying attention to.
This month they’ve had one six game streak of scoring 3 runs or fewer, and are currently in the midst of a 6 out of 7 stretch. In Eck vernacular, yuck.
and the problem is a bit deeper than that... of the 81 (not including today) games the sox have played this year
This is some incredible performance art. "Sure, if you're dumb enough to simply look at the ages of the Red Sox players and compare them to the ages of the players on other teams, then you might come to the dumb and wrong conclusion that they are older than most other teams. But if you: (a) discount 14 total players because they are 'stopgaps' or 'role players', (b) invent your own 'long-term core' off 11 players, only 3 of whom have even proven themselves capable of starting for a first-division team, and (c) arbitrarily decide that 28 is the cut-off between young and old while also discounting half the season, then you will see that the Red Sox are obviously one of the youngest teams in the league."
I don't disagree, but there's a pretty big difference between being merely below average (Kiké has a career OPS+ of 94) and being plain bad (69 OPS+ in 2023).
He had a 73 OPS+ last year, so is it that surprising?
I take "Hitting better" to mean something other than "we need a bunch of guys to hit way above their career stats." Aside from home runs, the team's offensive stats don't look that horrible except for the fact that they're not translating into wins. Situationally, we don't hit when we need to.
I think we are looking down the barrel of another last place finish this year. That is not assured but the AL East is a real gauntlet and we are built to compete in the AL Central. That said, if we do trade Duvall might we see him for a cup of coffee in Sept. More likely we keep him in AAA for service time restrictions. There are some good things happening on this team but not enough to make a run.
Couple of points: yeah, Kike and Arroyo could be better... but I think their performances thus far are well within their career possibilities. Like you said, Kike was bad last year too. It's possible he's just lost 'it.'
