Boston Red Sox: Five things for fans to look forward to in 2020

With so much negativity surrounding the Red Sox and their offseason, let’s take a look at five things that should be fun to watch in the upcoming season.

I’m normally a very positive, optimistic person in my “real life” and I usually try to take the glass-half-full view when it comes to sports as well. However, that’s been increasingly difficult to do this offseason when it comes to the Red Sox.

I’ve found myself, certainly not alone among fans, in disbelief at what the team is doing and how they’re building (or not) the 2020 roster. The tipping point was the Mookie Betts trade which marked the nadir of the offseason and ripped the collective heart out of Red Sox Nation.

After writing my last two articles excoriating the Red Sox for trading Mookie (and getting a paltry return) and for somehow becoming the most irrelevant of the four teams in Boston, I sat back, caught my breath, and took stock. There’s been so much negativity swirling around the team this offseason, but they’ve still got some talented players and while they will most likely miss out on the postseason again, it might still be a fun season.

Beyond that, it’s baseball and baseball is always fun. That got me thinking about what are some things to look forward to this season to counter all of the negativity? I came up with five things I’m excited to watch once the season starts next month.

We’re going to strike a positive tone with this list and remember that whether they win it all or finish in last place, the Red Sox are still our team and there’s good that can be taken out of every situation. Let’s begin.

J.D. Martinez

The first thing that popped into my head when I started thinking about this list was JD Martinez, and in particular, watching him hit. Let’s be honest, he’s a poor outfielder and the less he plays in the field, the better.

As a hitter, though, he has few peers. The 2017 Red Sox suffered from missing a big bat in the heart of the order after David Ortiz retired following the 2016 season. One of the best moves the team made in recent history was signing Martinez to fill that hole.

JD’s story is well known: he came up with the Houston Astros and was released early in his career when he struggled to hit. Martinez used that as motivation to tear down, rebuild, and hone his swing, becoming an obsessive student of hitting in the mold of Ted Williams.

After stints with the Detroit Tigers and Arizona Diamondbacks, the Red Sox signed Martinez as a free agent prior to the 2018 season and he instantly showed his worth in a monster debut season in Boston.

After flirting with the Triple Crown all season, JD finished 2018 with a .330 average, 43 home runs, 130 RBI (which led the league), a .402 OBP, and an OPS of 1.031. He followed that with a slightly down year in 2019, but still finished with a .304 average, 36 home runs, 105 RBI, a .383 OBP and an OPS of .939 while battling nagging back issues all season.

Watching JD Martinez hit is like watching a master work at his craft. It’s been one of the most enjoyable things about the Red Sox over the last two seasons. There’s no reason to doubt that he’s won’t have another productive season which is something I’m really looking forward to seeing.

Young Stars

Besides (former) Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts, who was their best player before being traded this past week, the Red Sox have several other excellent homegrown players. Three of them took huge leaps in 2019 and look to continue on that trajectory for 2020 and beyond. These three, in particular, are the cornerstones on the brink of stardom, so we’ll go through them one at a time.

Xander Bogaerts had already established himself as one of the better shortstops in the American League by the end of the 2018 season, but he took it to another level in 2019. He finished the year with a .309 average, 33 home runs, 117 RBI, a .384 OBP and an OPS of .939, all career highs.

His defense was greatly improved and he also brought home a Silver Slugger as well as an All-Star nod. Xander went from being a very good shortstop to one of the best in the American League and there’s no reason to think he won’t continue to be in 2020.

The knock against Christian Vazquez had always been that he was all defense and no bat, but he put that notion to rest in a big way in 2019. In addition to his excellent defense behind the plate at a premium defensive position, Vazquez hit a career-high 23 home runs (besting his previous high of five in 2017) to go along with a .276 average, 72 RBI, a .320 OBP, and an OPS of .798.

Those are excellent numbers for a catcher (especially these days) and if he can show that the increased power wasn’t an aberration and is actually here to stay, that will help the Red Sox greatly this season.

Perhaps no player took a bigger leap in 2019 than Rafael Devers. The young third baseman had a solid year at the plate in 2018 but was such a liability on defense that there was serious talk of having him become JD Martinez’ heir apparent at DH or moving him to first base.

Devers put in a lot of work over the winter and after a shaky start to 2019, turned into a solid and dependable third basemen with the glove. It was at the plate, though, where he made his greatest strides.

Devers went on a tear in 2019 and apart from a few relatively short stretches where he slumped slightly, he was a monster. His .311 average, 32 home runs, 115 RBI, .361 OBP, and .916 OPS were all career highs and he finished with 54 doubles, leading the league and narrowly edging out Bogaerts (who had 52). As long as Devers continues on this trajectory, the Red Sox should be set at third base for a while…and by the way, he’s only 23.

Jackie Bradley Jr in CF

One of the most fun things to watch over the last few seasons has been the Red Sox outfield. In Andrew Benintendi, the recently departed Mookie Betts, and Jackie Bradley they have three of the best defensive outfielders in the game with five Gold Gloves between them (one for Bradley, four for Betts). While Mookie patrolled right field and Benintendi handled the Green Monster in left, it’s been Bradley who has covered the spacious Fenway Park center field with grace.

I’m going to leave Bradley’s notoriously streaky hitting out of this, although his final line of a .221 average, 21 home runs, and 62 RBI in 2019 was perfectly adequate for a guy hitting out of the nine-hole in the order. It’s his defense that really rounds out his full worth to the team and keeps him in the lineup day after day despite his oftentimes long dry spells at the plate.

There are too many great plays Jackie has made over the last few years to go into detail and the fact that he only has one Gold Glove is a crime (although it also speaks to how loaded at center field the American League has been). With the speed and smoothness with which he moves and his rifle of an arm, I always enjoy watching him track down any ball that’s hit his way and I expect it to be ever the same this year.

Benintendi’s Bounceback

For all of the great young homegrown talent the Red Sox have, there was one player who didn’t take his game to the next level in 2019 the way his three teammates mentioned previously did. That would be Andrew Benintendi, who followed a very good 2018 season with a dismal campaign in 2019. His power numbers have been in decline since the second half of 2018, but they seemed to abandon him altogether in 2019.

As I analyzed earlier this year, Benintendi saw a sharp decline not only in his power but in every other offensive category. Additionally, his defense in left field was not nearly as good as it had been in the past and his body language and visible frustration were evident throughout the season. It was a miserable year for an exciting young player who looked ready to make the leap in his third full season in the big leagues.

Even though the Red Sox and Benintendi were far apart on his worth, arbitration settled it in Benintendi’s favor and he netted a huge pay raise, going from $717,500 in 2019 to $4.9 million in 2020. With that increased price tag are going to come increased expectations for Andrew to have a great season in 2020.

I’ve been a Benintendi fan since he first came up to the majors in the second half of the 2016 season and one of the things I’m looking forward to this year is seeing him bounce back and get back to being the player we all expected him to be after his first two years.

I not only want to see him get and keep that sweet left-handed swing on track, but I want to see him get back to the solid defensive outfielder he was before. And if he could become a better baserunner (my one consistent knock on him his entire career), all the better.