The 2024 Red Sox are one big query mark made up of 1,000,000 smaller query marks, like a kind of photomosaics, an image comprised of 1000’s of minuscule photos.
In the yr of a baseball crew, there are seemingly infinite questions. Some have a transparent reply. (For instance, signing Pablo Sandoval was a really costly mistake.) Other queries are much less black-and-white, open to interpretation and ongoing debate, or solely answered by the passage of time, or by no means totally resolved in any respect. (Could David Ortiz have performed one other season?)
It’s a posh puzzle, and ever-changing because the offseason progresses into spring coaching, the common season, and should you’re fortunate, a postseason run. Free company, trades, and accidents rework the general picture, too. Who is aware of what the image of the 2024 Red Sox will appear to be per week from now? A month? On Opening Day? Next offseason?
Welcome to “Starr’s 7 Questions,” a brand new phase for the 2024 season. On Mondays, I’ll lay out seven questions on well timed matters, in order that we might ponder and monitor potential solutions all through the week, the month, and even the season.
Here’s the primary heptad:
1. Is Trevor Story the brand new chief of the Red Sox?
Trevor Story’s first two seasons in Boston have been a blended bag. He performed second base as a substitute of shortstop – and handled accidents – in ’22, then missed most of ’23 resulting from elbow surgical procedure. Thus, heading into the third yr of his six-year, $140 million contract, we’re nonetheless ready to search out out precisely what Story can do, and who he might be for this crew when totally wholesome and enjoying his pure place.
But if final week is any indication, Story is already rising to the problem of main a Red Sox crew that very a lot wants route. As promised within the early fall, he took it upon himself to host a pre-spring coaching camp for his fellow infielders, inviting Triston Casas, David Hamilton, newcomer Vaughn Grissom, and second-base prospect Nick Yorke to Dallas, the place Story makes his offseason dwelling. They labored out and skilled collectively, performed basketball and soccer, and attended a Dallas Mavericks-Memphis Grizzlies recreation.
It’s one thing Story discovered from longtime Colorado Rockies star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who invited him to an analogous camp when he was only a Double-A prospect. Now 31 years outdated, Story is the oldest, most veteran Red Sox infielder by far – Hamilton, 26, was the one infielder current older than 23 – and conscious that he must step up for his younger teammates.
“Tulo did it for me and it helped me so much,” Story instructed reporters in September. “I learned so much from him, how to work and go about an offseason. I still use a pretty similar template to this day. I want to do that to pay back the game and entrench myself in this organization even more.”
2. Can Triston Casas replicate his Rookie of the Year finalist season?
Speaking of infielders, blissful birthday to Casas, who turns 24 on Monday, Jan. 15.
After ending third in American League Rookie of the Year voting, what is going to he do in his sophomore season?
His first full MLB season obtained off to a gradual begin, however Casas quickly adjusted, and rapidly started determining the large leagues. After hitting .133 with a .576 between Opening Day and the final of April, he hit .257 with a .766 OPS in May, then put up higher numbers in every of the remaining months of the yr. He displayed a stage of endurance on the plate not often seen in additional veteran hitters, averaging beneath a strikeout per recreation. His 70 walks not solely led the crew, however tied for Tenth-most within the league. And of the 14 AL hitters who drew 70 or extra walks, he was the one one youthful than 25.
In different phrases Triston Casas will likely be a tricky act for Triston Casas to observe.
3. Why isn’t Rafael Devers coming to Winter Weekend?
Last infielder-related query this week, I promise.
For causes unknown, Devers received’t be at Winter Weekend this coming Friday and Saturday. One assumes he has a very good cause; the Red Sox comprehend it wouldn’t be an awesome search for the crew’s marquee participant to be skipping the occasion just because he didn’t really feel like going, and this crew doesn’t want any extra dangerous seems.
4. Do the Red Sox have sufficient energy?
This one feels rhetorical, as they didn’t even have sufficient energy final season, and now, Justin Turner and Adam Duvall are free brokers, and Alex Verdugo is on the Yankees. Verdugo’s 37 doubles and 5 triples led them crew, and Turner and Duvall have been two of 4 Red Sox gamers who hit not less than 20 dwelling runs final season. The two veteran sluggers mixed for 44 of the crew’s 182 round-trippers, and Boston nonetheless ranked a lowly Tenth within the AL.
5. Will Tom Werner handle “Full throttle”-Gate?
Did Brian Cashman ever focus on his “Do damage” feedback after the ’18 Red Sox did some main injury to his Yankees?
Red Sox chairman Tom Werner put Breslow & Co. in a tough place when, on the day Breslow was launched as the brand new chief baseball officer, Werner promised a “full throttle” offseason.
It’s change into fairly the unlucky soundbite, because the offseason to this point has been nearly total devoid of throttle. Among different issues, the phrase put much more stress on Breslow to make fast, immense change.
It’s additionally insulting to Red Sox followers, who’re intensely devoted and decidedly not falling for these empty guarantees. To paraphrase what one wrote to me just lately, ‘Don’t piss on our heads and inform us it’s raining.’
6. Who’s the Opening Day starter?
It was imagined to be Chris Sale, Alex Cora mentioned on the finish of final season. The Red Sox start their 2024 marketing campaign towards the Mariners in Seattle, so it might’ve been a full-circle second for Sale, who final obtained the ball for the ’19 season opener, which was additionally in Seattle.
Now what? Or fairly, who?
Is it Nick Pivetta? Now that Sale’s gone, he’s the longest-tenured member of the rotation.
Cora might additionally flip to Lucas Giolito, who’s seeking to rebound with the Red Sox after a pair of down years. That he’s a newcomer wouldn’t essentially preclude an Opening Day begin; Corey Kluber took the mound for the season opener final yr. (Though maybe that’s cause sufficient to not take a look at drive a brand new man on Day 1.)
Perhaps it’s Brayan Bello, who’s coming into his second full season within the Majors, and acquired monumental votes of confidence (and private teaching) from Pedro Martinez. Their most promising homegrown starter in years, the Red Sox are relying on Bello to proceed bettering. His day-game struggles final season wouldn’t be an issue both, as Opening Day in Seattle is at 7:10 p.m. native time.
7. How many followers will present as much as Winter Weekend?
The eighth annual Red Sox Winter Weekend returns to Springfield’s MassMutual Center this Friday and Saturday (Jan. 19-20), however will followers?
If you’re a nostalgic, there will likely be loads of former stars to see. David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez, Dennis Eckersley, Fred Lynn, Carlton Fisk, and Wade Boggs are among the many alumni slated to attend. On Friday evening, Jonathan Papelbon will likely be internet hosting a late-night model phase with NESN’s Tom Caron.
However, Papelbon’s occasion is changing the the city corridor, which afforded followers the uncommon likelihood to talk on to the higher echelons of the group. Or extra precisely, based mostly on final yr’s debacle, heckle and demand solutions from John Henry, Sam Kennedy, Alex Cora, and now, Craig Breslow as a substitute of Chaim Bloom.
A big contingent of followers are already sick of the dearth of accountability and accessibility, and the Red Sox simply gave them one more reason to not pay the value of admission. As of Sunday night, each day passes and weekend passes have been nonetheless obtainable.
Source: www.bostonherald.com