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Last, Again

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At the 2021 end of season press conference, an efforvescent Chaim Bloom, fresh off almost making the World Series, talked about his progress towards ending Boston’s feast-or-famine cycle of big seasons and last place finishes. The Red Sox baseball boss was positive. “In terms of this being the start of something, in terms of us feeling like we have a bunch of guys who joined this group, who are ready to help us win going forward, I think we’re there.”

A year later, the Red Sox finished back in the cellar, last in the division for the fifth time in eleven seasons. Sandwiched between those nadirs were five postseason appearances and two World Series wins.

The 2022 Red Sox finished at 78-84 (.481), the sixth lowest win percentage of the 15 American League teams. It’s the 43rd losing season in franchise history, the fifth since 2000.

Up and down, back and forth, feast or famine. It seems clear now, we’re not there yet.

Kennedy: Baseball Operations Responsible

This year’s end of season wrap up was a more sober affair. Sitting alongside Bloom, his boss, Red Sox President and CEO Sam Kennedy was unequivocal. “Finishing in last place is brutal,” he said. “The leadership of the organization is responsible for it…that’s on us, we need to be better.”

Kennedy drew a distinction that can be easy to overlook for some. The Red Sox ownership group provides the resources. They hire the executives to put those resources to work and those executives are responsible for the results. In other words, Kennedy’s own baseball operations group.

Ownership’s “commitment to spending has been there,” Kennedy told the assembled press. “How those resources have been allocated, the under-performance, just not getting it done, that’s on us, that’s not an ownership level thing. That’s on our level. We’re responsible for that.”

What’s lies ahead

Chaim Bloom surely anticipated a question about takeaways from the 2022 season. When it came, he pointed to two specifics.

First, Bloom said, the front office needs to build a roster “that can withstand some things going wrong because in most seasons, unless you get lucky, they do.” That seems, on its face, to be too obvious for someone of Bloom’s background not to have understood before this year.

Bloom’s second point was even more curious. “We all need to work together,” he said, “making sure that we are getting the most out of all the talent we have.” The unsaid part of that seems to be that Bloom believes the team didn’t get optimal performance from the players the front office signed. If that’s the case, it’s logical to assume Bloom favors changes in the way the team has been managed and coached.

Rafael Devers

Not surprisingly, Bloom was light on specifics of what the team is planning for 2023. While saying he’s not inclined to give blanket assurances generally, trading Rafael Devers isn’t “on our radar”. Devers is “a guy that we want to build around, and he’s hugely important to what we’re doing,” Bloom said. “We hope he’s here not just next year but in the years to come.”

Xander Bogaerts

The Red Sox have until five days after the World Series to make a new deal with Xander Bogaerts following his expected opt-out on the rest of his contract with Boston. At that point, other teams will be able to talk with him.

“Nothing I say really maters, unless there’s a deal,” Bloom said, “But our position’s been the same: we want to keep him here for a long time, we want him here on a deal that we’re going to look back on and say, ‘This is great for everybody.'” Bloom said the kind of deal he’s looking for would be similar to the one that just wrapped up with J.D. Martinez.

First base

Bloom had some nice things to say about rookie Triston Casas. “Sometimes the results were there, sometimes they weren’t, but he was a tough at-bat every single time, which is going to be one of his calling cards as he goes forward.”

Bloom admitted, “with what we went through this year,” having two quality options at first base with Casas and Eric Hosmer is a problem he’s happy to have. That said, though, he acknowledged that agreeing to bring Hosmer on was originally meant to keep from rushing Casas to the big leagues.

The front office will need to weigh whether Casas’ performance so far is enough to bet on him for the long haul, leaving Hosmer available to be part of other deals.

Catchers

In response to a question about Red Sox catchers, Bloom was positive about newcomers Reese McGuire and Connor Wong, “I think both of these guys showed well, which is good for them, good for us.” And while he was pleased with their work, he also plans to look for more. “This is one of the areas that I full expect we’re going to explore additions,” Bloom said. “We owe it to ourselves and everybody who cares about this team to look to get better.”

Pitching

In the understatement of the morning, Bloom talked about the issues he saw in the Red Sox pitching staff. “There’s a lot we that need to do this off-season, so we need to be focused on the whole board, but because of some of the depth on the pitching side that we built up, I think we’re going to be considering a different set of possibilities.”


Minor League Awards Announced

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The Red Sox today announced the winners of their Minor League Awards for 2022. Some names have already become familiar to Red Sox Nation, others are key up-and-comers for the years ahead.

The winners are:

Among the more familiar names, starting pitcher Brayan Bello stands out. Right before our eyes this season we’ve watched Bello make his Major League debut, struggle in the early going, and then steadily improve with every outing since. Bello has recorded a 1.65 ERA over his five starts of September, including just one earned run allowed over 11.0 innings in two starts against the Yankees this month.

Young Ceddanne Rafaela, who has yet to make his MLB debut, also stands out. He was impressive to watch back in 2022 Spring Training. Just 22 years old this month, Rafaela split this season between High-A Greenville (45 games) and Double-A Portland (71), and led Red Sox minor leaguers in hits (144), extra-base hits (63), total bases (259), and RBI (tied, 86) while batting .299 (144-for-181) with an .880 OPS, 32 doubles, 10 triples, and 21 home runs. 

Zack Kelly earns Lou Gorman Award

In addition, the Red Sox announced that reliever Zack Kelly, who made his MLB debut one August 29, has been awarded the club’s prestigious Lou Gorman Award.  Created in 2011, the award is given annually to a Red Sox minor league player who has demonstrated dedication and perseverance in overcoming obstacles while working his way to the Major League team.

Kelly, ab undrafted free agent out of Division II Newberry College, signed with the Athletics in 2017 and the Angels in 2018 but was released by both clubs. The righty was signed by the Sox after undergoing elbow surgery to repair a UCL injury during the 2020 season. In 44 appearances at Triple-A Worcester he recorded a 2.72 ERA in 44 appearances. With the big league club since August 29, the 27-year-old, has a 2.79 ERA (2.70 FIP) and 1.034 WHIP over his first nine MLB games (9.2 IP).


New Baseball Rules for 2023

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Major League Baseball will implement a variety of sweeping rules changes for the 2023 season. While the focus has reasonably been on a pitch clock and restrictions on defensive shifts, there are far more changes for the new season that haven’t been discussed widely.

The changes to the rules are meant to improve the pace of play and also encourage more offensive action.

The rules were approved by an 11-member competition committee, but not unanimously. The Players Association, which holds four committee spots, voted against the biggest changes involving pitch clocks and shift restrictions, according to a statement they released after the vote.

We’ll have the off-season to digest and prepare for all of it. But to start, here is the overview of what we’ll see next year.

Pitch Clock & Batter Timeouts

  • Pitchers must begin their motion before the expiration of a timer.  The timer is set to 15 seconds between pitches when the bases are empty, up to 20 seconds between pitches with one or more runners are on base.
  • A pitcher may step off the mound rubber (what MLB calls a “disengagement”) twice per plate appearance without penalty. But any subsequent disengagements generate a balk, unless the pitcher’s move results in a runner being called out, such as in a pick off. The disengagement count resets if the runner advances, such as after a stolen base.
  • Hitters receive one timeout per plate appearance and must be in the batter’s box and alert to the pitcher with at least eight seconds remaining on the pitch clock.

This season, MLB conducted tests at the Minor Leagues with versions of these rules. They say that compared to 2021, the pitch clock reduced an average nine-inning game time from 3 hours, 4 minutes last year to 2 hours, 38 minutes this year, a 26 minute difference.

By limiting pick off moves, stolen bases at the Minor Leagues went from 2.23 per game in 2019 to 2.83 in 2022, with stolen base success rate jumping from 68% to 77% over that time.

Defensive Shifts

MLB says that defensive alignments with four players in the outfield increased nearly 6x across across baseball since the start of the 2018 season. The new shift restrictions, the league says, will return baseball to “a more traditional aesthetic.”

  • Two infielders must be positioned on each side of second base when the pitch is released.
  • All four infielders must have both feet within the outer boundary of the infield when the pitcher is on the rubber.
  • Sides: Infielders may not switch sides unless there is a substitution.

Bigger Bases

The physical size of the base pads next year will increase from a 15-inches square to 18-inches. Bigger bases will reduce the distance between first and second and between second and third by 4½ inches.

This change, MLB says, encourages teams to attempt base stealing more frequently and generally to be more aggressive on the basepaths.


Looking ahead to 2023

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Major League Baseball today announced the much-anticipated 2023 full season schedule. Opening Day is set for March 30. The Red Sox will start the new campaign at home against the Baltimore Orioles.

The new approach to scheduling baseball games for next year is no small feat and it may result in some teams, including the Red Sox, having an advantage they haven’t had before. Here’s how it works (and if you don’t care, just scroll on down to the 2023 Red Sox schedule).

A new kind of schedule

The new schedule is considered balanced in that all 30 Major League teams will face each other over the course the season. Currently, competition is limited to a select number of teams from the opposing league.

“My Fenway perpetual calendar” by joyosity is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The new schedule splits all play into Division Games, Intraleague Games (against teams in the same league), and Interleague Games (against teams in the opposing league).

Beyond seeing all other teams, the new schedule’s biggest impact may be the reduction of games played against division rivals. This was a necessary concession made in order to fit the goals of a balanced schedule into the confines of a 162-game calendar. Division Games will drop from the 19 played this year to 13 next year.

In practice, this means the Red Sox will play 52 total games (rather than the current 76) against the Blue Jays, Orioles, Rays, and Yankees. Those 52 games will be evenly split, with 26 home games and 26 played on the road.

In addition to a reduction in division games, the number of Intraleague Games will go from 66 this year to 64 next year, while games against the opposing league will rise from 20 this year to 46 in 2023.

New Start: Spring Training

The official Spring Training calendar starts on Friday, February 24, with the Sox taking on Northeastern University, for the traditional exhibition game that day. The first official Spring game for Boston comes the next day, when the Sox will open Grapefruit League action at the home of the Braves, CoolToday Park.

In all, the Sox are scheduled to play 32 spring games, including 18 at home at JetBlue Park at Fenway South in Lee County, Florida.

Red Sox 2023 Calendar

After a home series to open 2023 against Baltimore, the Red Sox will face the Pirates at Fenway in an immediate turn to Interleague action. The Sox will then go on to host the Braves, Cardinals, Dodgers, Marlins, Mets, Reds, and Rockies at Fenway next season. On the road, Boston will see the remaining National League teams and will also see the Braves in Atlanta, as well.

The new calendar makes for more travel for all teams next year and includes some long stints out west for the Red Sox, including a nine-game stretch to the homes of the Padres, Angels and Diamondbacks at the end of May.

If all goes to plan, the regular season will wrap up on October 1 with a four-game set against Baltimore, the team where it all started back in March.


Devers climbs leaderboard in Red Sox win

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On Sunday the Red Sox completed what seemed an improbable series victory, taking two of the three games from the visiting New York Yankees.

Before a national audience, the Red Sox got an outstanding performance from starter Michael Wacha. Just back from the Injured List, Wacha sparkled with 7.0 shutout innings, retiring each of the first 14 Yankees he faced on just 47 pitches. It was Wacha’s third scoreless start of the season and his ninth career scoreless start of 7.0+ IP.

In a season where it’s easy to point fingers at the Red Sox front office for what some might call neglect, credit the Jersey Street collective with finding untapped potential in Wacha.

More history for Rafael Devers

Sunday’s game featured another big-stage, standout performance for Rafael Devers, who was 2-for-4 with a home run that drove in two, thanks to a lead off base hit for Tommy Pham.

Devers’ home run was his 320th career extra-base hit, tying him with Mookie Betts for the most ever by a Boston batter aged 25 or younger (Devers turned 26 on October 24). Devers’ XBH tally includes:

  • 176 doubles, tied with Xander Bogaerts‘ record for fourth-most by such players.
  • 137 home runs, which is second only to Tony Conigliaro‘s 160 long balls from 1964-70.

In franchise history, the Red Sox have had 23 players with 1750 or more at-bats before turning 26 years old. Among those:

  • Devers ranks 4th-best for slugging percentage (.520) after Hall of Famer Ted Williams (.642), Nomar Garciaparra (.566), and Hall of Famer Jim Rice (.541).
  • Devers is ranked 6th for OPS (.861) after Williams (1.123), Garciaparra (.933), Hall of Famer Tris Speaker (.903), Rice (.894), and Mookie Betts (.888).
  • Devers is 7th for OPS+ (125) after Williams (190), Speaker (166), Rice (138), Garciaparra (135), Betts (134) and Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski (127).
  • Devers is also 7th for WPA (8.9) after Williams (25.8), Betts (14.9), Rice (13.0), Yastrzemski (11.3) Conigliaro (11.2) and Reggie Smith (10.6).

Playing to potential

The Red Sox played to the level of their opponent this weekend, not only winning the series, but limiting arguably the best offense in baseball to just five runs over the three games.

Sunday’s was the first Red Sox shutout win versus the Yanks since July 16, 2021 and the first such game at Fenway Park since July 16, 2017. It was the first game in which Boston pitchers limited New York to two or fewer hits since August 3, 2018, when Rick Porcello threw a one-hit complete game against the “bombers” at Fenway Park.

Timing is everything

The Red Sox caught the Yankees at a good time. Since August 1, New York has gone 3-9.

For Boston, Sunday’s win meant, remarkably, their first three-game series victory vs an American League East rival this season. Perhaps just as remarkable, it was the first series lost to an AL East team by New York since the first month of the season.