Four Boston Red Sox players made ESPN top 100 ranking for 2020

ESPN released their top 100 MLB players and four Red Sox made the cut. Let’s look at where they rank this season while projecting what can be expected.

Earlier this week, ESPN released their top 100 ranking for the upcoming 2020 season and four members of the Boston Red Sox made the list. Two hundred major league players were eligible for consideration, compiled by a group of forty person panel made up of MLB writers, analysts, and league insiders who also voted on the final rankings.

The four players to make if were left-handed pitcher Chris Sale, designated hitter JD Martinez, shortstop Xander Bogaerts, and third baseman Rafael Devers.

Let’s go through each of them one by one and see where they ranked last year, how they did during the 2019 season, and what we can expect from them heading into the 2020 season (whenever that may end up being given that Major League Baseball cancelled the rest of spring training and suspended the start of the regular season for at least two weeks.

We’ll start in ascending order from lowest to highest.

Chris Sale

First up is Chris Sale who comes in at number forty-three on this year’s list, a huge drop from 2019 when he was ranked at number nine. It’s not surprising that he’d fall this low as the 2019 season was his worst since he came into the league in 2010 and started his first full season in 2012. Especially glaring is the drop in his numbers from 2018 (which his 2019 ranking was based on) and what he did in 2019.

2018: 12-4 W-L, 2.11 ERA, 237 K, 34 BB, 158.0 IP, 0.861 WHIP (27 starts)
2019: 6-11 W-L, 4.40 ERA, 218 K, 37 BB, 147.1 IP, 1.086 WHIP (25 starts)

What’s remarkable is that other than his W-L and ERA, those numbers don’t look so different between the two seasons. The 0.861 WHIP in 2018 is otherworldly, but the 1.086 WHIP in 2019 is still quite good and one any pitcher would be proud to have. Sale also battled injuries late in both seasons. The major difference is how he pitched in each season (and yes, the lack of run support he got in 2019 also hurt him).

In 2018, Sale’s stuff was as electric and dynamic as ever and he was utterly dominant until he fatigued and started dealing with arm issues as the season wound down. The Red Sox were so far ahead in the standings that they were able to curtail his workload in September before the postseason run in October. That was in stark contrast to 2019 where Sale and the entire pitching staff were under-prepared coming out of spring training when the season started.

Once it began, Sale didn’t look right at all with his speed diminished and his stuff flat and lacking movement. In the starts where he did pitch great, he suffered from lack of run support (remember the back-to-back starts where he fanned seventeen and fourteen batters and lost both games). His poor 2019 season combined with his injury status contributed to his precipitous fall in the rankings.

With no clear timetable for when Sale will be ready to pitch in 2020, if he’s even able to pitch this year without requiring Tommy John surgery, it’s not clear what the Red Sox can expect from him. If recent history is anything to go by, it’ll most likely be more similar to what he did in 2019 than 2018.

JD Martinez

Next on the list is JD Martinez who comes in at number thirty-one on this year’s list, a drop of fourteen spots from last year when he ranked seventeenth.

It’s actually surprising that JD only ranked seventeenth in 2019 given the monster offensive numbers he put up in 2018; it most likely has to do with the fact that he’s predominantly a DH. There was a slight dip in his numbers between the two seasons to factor in as well.

2018: .330 BA, 43 HR, 130 RBI, 111 R, .402 OBP, 1.031 OPS (150 games)
2019: .304 BA, 36 HR, 105 RBI, 98 R, .383 OBP, .939 OPS (146 games)

Still, even though his 2018 season was phenomenal and there was a slight dip in his production in 2019, any other player in the league would be more than happy to put up the numbers that JD did in 2019.

The Red Sox should expect more of the same from Martinez in 2020. Because he’s still one of the premier slugger in the league, his ranking at thirty-one seems a bit low but is one I can live with.

Xander Bogaerts

Coming in at number twenty-eight is the new face of the Red Sox, Xander Bogaerts. He followed up his All-Star season of 2016 with a disappointing 2017 season, but came roaring back in 2018 to have a career year. That landed him at fifty-seven in ESPN’s 2019 rankings and his leap to twenty-eight makes him the only Red Sox player who went up instead of down from last year.

Bogaerts followed up the best season of his career in 2018 with an even better year in 2019, with another All Star nod while vaulting himself into the conversation as one of the top shortstops in the American League.

2018: .288 BA, 23 HR, 103 RBI, 72 R, .360 OBP, .883 OPS (136 games)
2019: .309 BA, 33 HR, 117 RBI, 110 R, .384 OBP, .939 OPS (155 games)

In addition to setting career highs in home runs and RBI in 2019, Bogaerts also smacked 52 doubles, good for second place in the league behind teammate Rafael Devers.

Although he’s been slowed thus far in Grapefruit League action by an ankle injury and only ended up playing in a few games before spring training was cancelled, it would appear that Bogaerts is set to have another big season as befitting his improved ranking.

Mookie Betts

Bonus time! You knew that I’d find some way to work Mookie Betts into this, didn’t you? Of course he’s not on the Red Sox any more, but he still fits into this discussion. Last year he was number two on the rankings, behind Mike Trout, thanks to his incredible MVP season in 2018. While he had a slightly down year in 2019, Mookie was still one of the best players in the league and comes in at number five for 2020, although now as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

2018: .346 BA, 32 HR, 80 RBI, 129 R, .438 OBP, 1.078 OPS (136 games)
2019: .295 BA, 29 HR, 80 RBI, 135 R, .391 OBP, .915 OPS (150 games)

While Mookie saw a bit of a dip across his numbers apart from runs scored, he still put up another excellent season’s worth of statistics last year.

It’s no use discussing the fact that he’s no longer on the Red Sox any more as that angle has been beaten to death, but it is worth noting that in losing their best player, the Red Sox also lost one of the top players in the league. Instead of having a top-five player, their best (Devers) ranks just barely in the top 30.

The interesting thing now will be in seeing if Devers and Bogaerts (or perhaps even someone else on the Red Sox) can elevate their games in 2020 to shoot up the list for 2021.