When the Red Sox re-signed Stephen Drew, the hope was that he could provide a bit of a pick-me-up to the offense along with his always solid defense. Offensively though, the plan has been a disaster.
The struggles of Drew reached an ultimate low-point last night when John Farrell decided to pinch-hit Jonathan Herrera for him in the eighth inning, after Drew had gone 0-3 on the night.
Drew is now mired in an 0-23 slump, and is 6-45 since signing with the Sox. That includes only two extra-base hits and zero home runs (he has more injuries than home runs). He’s also struck out 13 times and only walked twice.
Is it a huge sample size? No. But it’s bad.
The Red Sox continue to claim that Xander Bogaerts is the shortstop of the future. Yet, even with the third worst record in the American League, they continue to play a struggling Drew at short. Why not sacrifice a little bit of defense to try to provide some offense and build for the future?
It’s important to note that since moving to third, Bogaerts has almost completely lost his bat:
Bogaerts .162/.213/.311 in 19 games since being moved to 3B. .296/.389/.427 at SS. #RedSox say it’s not the reason. But hard to ignore
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) June 24, 2014
As Pete says, there’s no way to prove that it’s the reason, but there is a massive difference in the numbers.
I’m not going to be one of those people that places all the blame for the team’s struggles on Drew. That would be shortsighted. But they’re certainly not better with him.
So it’s time to play for the future. And if the Sox front office hasn’t been lying to us (and to Bogaerts), that means playing Bogaerts at short and ending the Stephen Drew era.