Red Sox Roundtable: Five questions about the Opening Day roster
By Sean Penney
List your ideal batting order for the top four hitters in the lineup.
Brandon: To me, Rafael Devers is one of the best bats the Red Sox have, but shouldn’t be rushed into the top half of the lineup so early in his career. Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts and others have struggled at times dealing with the pressure of batting highly in the order. I also think Bogaerts has more success when he’s not pressured to produce huge numbers in the first half of the batting order. If I had to pick the order I’d go: Dustin Pedroia/Eduardo Nunez, Andrew Benintendi, Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez.
Rick: Nunez, Benintendi, Betts, Martinez to start out April. Nunez is a strange one for me to put there with only six walks and a 3.79 PPA, but he makes contact and had the highest RC27 (6.82) on the team.
Jake: I’m a firm believer in your best player batting second, and I’ve come around on batting J.D. Martinez cleanup instead of third. So it would be Benintendi, Betts, Devers, Martinez.
Josh: My ideal top four for the batting order would look something like this: Eduardo Nunez, Andrew Benintendi, Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez.
Hunter: Mookie Betts – Andrew Benintendi – Hanley Ramirez – J.D. Martinez to start. Once the season gets rolling and the Red Sox are sure Rafael Devers is comfortable I want a massive move though. I’m think a Betts/Benintendi/Martinez/Devers front four would be absolutely deadly. Then you can put Ramirez behind Devers to protect him as well.
Bryson: Ideally it is Betts-Benintendi-Bogaerts-Martinez. Alex Cora has already said that Ramirez will bat third, but having Bogaerts in the top half of the lineup would be a wise choice. Betts should be locked into the top spot and Benintendi is the guy for two. Having Martinez bat cleanup with those two guys ahead of him will give him tons of opportunities with guys on base. You can protect Martinez with Devers, who in my opinion is going to be a 25 home run hitter in his own right this season. You can move Ramirez to the bottom half to let him see better pitches and if he responds to that, you can make adjustments from there.
Stephen: I like Betts, Bogaerts, Benintendi, and Martinez to start the year. Once Pedroia is back, he can replace Bogaerts in the No. 2 spot. Pedroia gets on base reliably and needs to stay in the top of the order. I also think the Red Sox need to be more consistent with their lineups than in the past, having a solidified lead-off and cleanup hitter we’ll help them do that.
Next: Three player predictions for 2018
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