Boston Red Sox 2020: High anxiety or high expectations?

The Boston Red Sox offseason has created for me two highs – one is anxiety and the other is expectations. Which will win out?

I am on a high – a baseball high, but it is confusing as I drift back and forth in an emotional cauldron between high anxiety and high expectations. The anxiety is rather simple to determine and neither Doctor Phil or Doctor Oz is needed. The root cause is located south of Boston and the defending American League East champions. I will let the obscene words escaped my lips – the New York Yankees.

Invariably the Red Sox and Yankees are linked, not in passion but dread – just what is the other guy contemplating to make my baseball existence excruciating tormenting? New York managed to accomplish just that with the purchase of the baseball soul and right arm of Gerrit Cole. An ace by any criteria one wishes to stir up. A possible antidote to postseason trauma that the Yankees have suffered for a decade.

Meanwhile in Toronto (AKA – Hog Town) movement is also afoot and it is positive. The Blue Jays – owners of a less than spiffy 67-95 – are slowly or quite possibly rapidly building a squad that could push the Red Sox closer to Baltimore in the standings. The ominous signs are management is being aggressive, tossing around money, and most importantly a youthful core.

Invariably baseball outcomes are determined by pitching and Toronto’s 2019 staff was a bit wanting. The Jays staff was quite generous in 2019 allowing 828 runs with the offense plating just 726. One does not need a doctorate in mathematics to know when you give up more than your produce you invariably lose. They cemented that rational in 2019 but Toronto also opened up their wallets and left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu is now one very wealthy Korean and bringing his 2.32 ERA to Canada.

The promised land is building from within and that is where the Jays are distancing the Red Sox in the world of pitching. For Boston, just what do they have from the farm system for the mound? If your answer was nothing, you win! The Jays have Trent Thornton, T.J. Zeuch, Ryan Borucki, and Jacob Waguespack all vying for a spot on the staff. Toronto’s abysmal season certainly opened up opportunity and tryouts see just who may be the next Roy Halladay? One must think positive with youthful arms.

The other combatants in the East are the woeful Orioles whose roster appears to be need of an EPA intervention and the Tampa Bay Rays. If the O’s make any runs it may be at the Cleveland Spiders 20-134 record of 1899. The Rays? A perpetual nightmare for one and all with the ever-present wealth of pitching, but I tend to dismiss the Rays – a habit that comes back to haunt me.

New York and Toronto have made bold moves and the Bostonians have concentrated more on attempting to find value while dumping salaries. The bevy of Red Sox free agents has drifted elsewhere – either to new contracts, retirement, or awaiting offers of employment. The Red Sox signings have elicited few sparks of interest that the team shoring up the roster. The big news from Boston is there is no big news.

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The news is yet to happen or maybe it will not happen? The drama of trades of all sorts that would make a contortionist look like the Gordian Knot is tossed about. Fantasy? Reality? At this point it is unknown. What is known is a new baseball savant in Chaim Bloom sitting in the director’s chair and maybe orchestrating moves that would stun and startle one and all. A baseball Bobby Fisher? We may all know and soon.

A baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint as teams that look positively wretched can find some magical elixir for winning. It could be “Morgan Magic” of leadership or a sudden spark of baseball divinity that allows the troops to form some type of camaraderie that spurs them to collective success. The marathon analogy – which I am not particularly proud of – applies to the offseason.

This segues into another high and that is high expectations. Boston fans are as spoiled as that dreadful Vecula Salt child in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. No longer the skinny little franchise bullied by New York and verbally harassed these many past decades. We now win.

When will the hammer fall? The Red Sox will make moves and they will reverberate for seasons to come. Bloom will make his mark of franchise history and just what will that mark be? My expectations are high that judicious moves will transpire that could energize the locals with both increased short and long-term expectations.

The forecast for the immediate future is the Jays and Yankees may be the rivalry this coming decade and that is where Bloom comes in. Decisions made will determine if the American League East will return to Beast status once enjoyed with the Red Sox being the apex predator.