Boston Red Sox: Four areas of need heading into the 2020 season
The Red Sox roster for the 2020 season looks to be almost complete as spring training starts. Here are four areas in which they should try to improve before Opening Day.
With spring training starting this week, the Red Sox team construction is nearly complete. Gone are Mookie Betts, David Price, Rick Porcello, Brock Holt, and Steve Pearce from the core of the team that won the World Series just two years ago. Newcomer Alex Verdugo will do his best to fill the enormous shoes Betts left behind, while President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom has made several low risk/low reward trades to add roster depth and restock the minor leagues.
When it comes to the big league club, though, there are still several areas of desperate need heading into the season. The big league roster is set at most positions, but there are serious depth and talent questions at first and second base and the pitching, both starting, and relief, is perilously thin and short on talent as currently constructed.
Even if the team had kept Mookie and Price, these four areas would have been in need of some upgrades. Let’s take a look at each of them and see what the Red Sox options are on the remaining free-agent market, as well as any potential internal options.
First Base
With the Sox re-signing Mitch Moreland, it would seem that the team has their starting first baseman. Moreland brings Gold Glove defense and some pop with the bat and has been a valuable member of the team since 2017.
However, he’s also 34 and coming off of a season in which he battled nagging injuries including a back issue, never a good thing for someone in their mid-30s.
The Red Sox have some interesting internal options at the position, first and foremost Michael Chavis. He spent some time at first during Moreland’s time on the injured list and played pretty well.
He’ll probably spend some time bouncing between first and second this season. They’ve also got prospects Bobby Dalbec and Triston Casas, both corner infielders who could see time at first if they show that they’re ready for primetime in spring training.
That would be ideal because it’s slim pickings on the free-agent market for first basemen. Old friend Steve Pearce (he of the -0.9 WAR who is 37 and most likely retiring) remains, as do Mark Reynolds (36, -0.8 WAR), Lucas Duda (34, -1.0 WAR), and Yonder Alonso (33, -1.2 WAR). As I said, slim pickings.
Unless Chaim Bloom can find someone willing to trade a decent first baseman, it looks like the Moreland/Chavis platoon, with perhaps some time for Bobby Dalbec or Triston Casas, is what they’ll have to go with.
Second Base
This was a position that killed the Red Sox in 2019. The year prior, they were able to paper over it with a platoon of Brock Holt, Eduardo Nunez, and Tzu-Wei Lin before acquiring Ian Kinsler near the trade deadline to stabilize it.
In 2019, with Dustin Pedroia still unable to play, the Red Sox relied on rookie Michael Chavis which worked out fairly well until he went down with an injury halfway through the season.
Right now the Red Sox have Jose Peraza as the lone big league second basemen on their roster, but there’s no way they can go into the season with only him manning the position.
Top prospects Bobby Dalbec and Triston Casas project as corner infielders and while the Red Sox could try to convert one of them to second base, having already done so with Chavis doesn’t lend itself to doing so again.
That means that right now, second base will be a rotation of Peraza and Chavis. With a dearth of second base depth in the minor leagues (Jeter Downs, acquired in the Mookie trade, looks to be at least a couple of years away), the Red Sox will most likely need to look for additional depth on the free-agent market.
Of course, there’s always Brock Holt, but with the popular utility man still being available, there must be some reason the Red Sox don’t seem to be in any hurry to bring him back.
Perusing the realistic free agents still available, some intriguing names remain, the most interesting of which include Jason Kipnis, Ben Zobrist, and Scooter Gennett.
Zobrist might be a good, cheap depth move given his age (38). Kipnis and Gennett are both younger in their early 30s and could easily take the bulk of the time at second with Peraza and Chavis being used as backups. That would free Chavis up to take more time at first base as stated previously.
Starting Pitcher
Pitching is probably going to be the one area that will kill the Red Sox chances in 2020, at least as the roster is currently constituted. After losing Rick Porcello in free agency and trading David Price, the Sox current rotation is Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Martin Perez.
The first two have spent significant time on the injured list the last two seasons while Rodriguez pitched the best season of his career (and the most innings) in 2019.
As for Perez, he was at best thought of as the number five starter when Bloom acquired him in the offseason. There’s also not a lot of pitching depth in the minors, with prospects Jay Groome, Tanner Houck, and Bryan Mata still a ways off from seeing big league action.
Unless the team (and fans) want to see a steady diet of Brian Johnson and Hector Velazquez starts again, the Red Sox need to add some pitching and fast.
There are some notable names left on the free-agent market, although none of them are particularly attractive. Andrew Cashner, who was unimpressive in Boston after being acquired last year, would at least be a known quantity, but I’m not sure the team or fans want to experience that again.
Aaron Sanchez is only 27 and was decent for Toronto and has experience pitching in the always-tough AL East. Matt Harvey could be an intriguing option provided he can stay healthy.
Older available pitchers like Jason Vargas and Jeremy Hellickson don’t move the needle at all and should be last-ditch signings if it gets that dire. Of course, old friend Clay Buchholz is also available…let’s move on.
Bullpen
As with the starting rotation, the bullpen as currently constituted is a mess right now. It’s been the one area of the team that the Red Sox have consistently ignored for several years and while they pitched fairly well in 2019 given the circumstances, I don’t think anyone wants to go through another whole season of “closer by committee.”
Unless the Red Sox somehow pull a shutdown closer out of their hat, Brandon Workman should be named their closer based on what he did last season.
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The rest of the bullpen is a mishmash of inconsistent arms (Matt Barnes, Heath Hembree, Ryan Brasier, Colten Brewer, Darwinzon Hernandez) and guys who probably have no business being in the major leagues.
Again, the Red Sox don’t have much help on the horizon coming from the minor leagues, so this will most likely be another area where they’ll have to find some guys in the free-agent bargain basement and hope they can eat up some effective innings.
There are actually quite a lot of names that could work, starting with Collin McHugh. Other interesting possibilities include Sam Dyson, Tony Sipp, Chad Bettis, Aaron Loup, Addison Reed (remember him?), Wily Peralta, Tommy Milone, and Pat Neshek. None of these guys are particularly good, but right now the Red Sox just need warm bodies with arms that can eat innings in relief.
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For all of these areas of need, the Red Sox will probably need to shell out a fair amount of money for any free agents, but with all of the payroll they just freed up in the Mookie/Price trade (some $20+ million under the $208 million tax threshold), the Red Sox should be able to cobble together something before finalizing the roster for Opening Day. Let’s see what Chaim Bloom has up his sleeve over the next month.