Boston Red Sox: Five things fans won’t miss about 2020

Red Sox fans won’t miss these miserable aspects of 2020

We can safely say that most of us will be glad when this year is finally over. 2020 has been an insufferable year marred by a global pandemic, civil unrest and crippling financial struggles. For Boston Red Sox fans, the misery goes even deeper.

Last season was one of the worst in franchise history. The Red Sox finished at the bottom of their division with the fourth-worst record in baseball. Ownership sent a clear message from the start that this would be a rebuilding year but few anticipated the decline to be this steep.

The new year presents an opportunity to turn the page, opening a new chapter that we expect to be a vast improvement. Hey, it can’t get any worse, right?

Let’s explore five things that went terribly wrong for the Red Sox this year that we anticipate will no longer be an issue heading into next season.

Red Sox fans won’t miss the shortened season

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the sports world into a lock down that lasted for several months. Major League Baseball eventually came up with a plan to safely begin the season but the loss of revenue from holding games without fans in attendance led to a heated feud between owners and the Players’ Association. Players were already losing a significant chunk of their paychecks by accepting prorated salaries in a shortened season but owners demanded they take additional pay cuts to balance out the revenue they were losing from the inability to sell tickets.

The sides reluctantly came to an agreement that rescheduled Opening Day for the end of July, by which point there was only time for 60 games.

It’s hardly a guarantee that the 2021 season will start on time. A vaccine for the virus is in the early stages of being distributed but it could be months before the majority of the population is protected. If some teams reside in states that won’t allow fans to fill the ballpark in April, we could be right back in the same spot we were in earlier this year.

There’s growing optimism that a return to relative normalcy is around the corner. Fan attendance might be limited early in the season but teams should be able to open their gates by the summer. It’s possible that Opening Day will be delayed, perhaps forcing MLB to trim the schedule, but we’ll almost certainly get far more than 60 games.

Red Sox fans won’t miss interrupted routines

Regardless of whether or not the season begins on time next year, we can be fairly certain that MLB will make it through training camp without interruption.

2020 was a disaster for many players in large part due to a wrench being thrown into their routines when the pandemic forced teams to shut down during the middle of spring training. Players spent months being isolated from the team with limited resources to stay in game shape. When an agreement was finally reached to bring baseball back, players were rushed through an abbreviated summer camp that left many unprepared for the season.

Baseball players are creatures of habit so they can easily be thrown off by drastic alterations to their routines. Few were impacted more than J.D. Martinez. The Red Sox designated hitter sputtered through the worst year of his career, hitting a meager .213 with a .680 OPS. His lack of defensive value leaves him essentially useless when he’s not swinging the bat well, leaving him with a -0.6 WAR.

A normal training camp should allow players to hit the ground running next season. Hitters will have sufficient time to find their rhythm at the plate and starting pitchers will be able to properly build up their workload.

A slow start doomed the Red Sox this year since the shorter schedule didn’t leave them nearly enough time to dig themselves out of an early hole. Returning to their regular spring routine will help prevent this team from stumbling out of the gate again.

Red Sox fans won’t miss using an “opener”

Chaim Bloom found success building a pitching staff that relied on the opener strategy during his tenure with the Tampa Bay Rays but the plan backfired in Boston.

The Rays had the personal to make it work with a deep bullpen loaded with versatile arms. The Red Sox were forced into the unorthodox strategy out of necessity when they struggled to patch together a full five-man rotation. To the surprise of no one, bullpen games don’t work well when you have one of the worst groups of relief pitchers in the league.

Boston led the majors with 278 innings pitched by relievers. Their collective 5.79 ERA and -0.6 fWAR both ranked fourth-worst in the majors.

Relying heavily on an under-performing core of relievers is a recipe for disaster but that shouldn’t be as problematic next year. Eduardo Rodriguez should be back to lead the rotation on Opening Day and Chris Sale is expected to join him at some point in the first half. The late-season emergence of Tanner Houck and Nick Pivetta provide optimism that the Red Sox will have some reliable options at the back end of the rotation. Boston is also searching the free-agent and trade markets for a starter.

The Red Sox aim to build sufficient depth for their rotation so that they won’t need to use an opener. Reducing the workload of the bullpen means the top relievers won’t struggle from being overworked and the fringe pitchers clinging to a roster spot won’t be tested early and often.

Utilizing an opener is a strategy that we’ll see other teams toy with but this Red Sox roster clearly isn’t built for it.

Red Sox fans won’t miss hearing about financial flexibility

The overwhelming narrative of the year was ownership’s insistence on shedding salary in order to dip under the luxury tax threshold and reset the punitive penalties.

Boston was successful in that endeavor, dropping their payroll from a major league-high $229.2 million in 2019 when they paid a franchise record $13.4 million tax bill all the way down to  $184.9 million. That figure dropped to $64,338,341 when accounting for prorated salaries for the shortened season, nowhere near the $208 million tax threshold.

As it turns out, no major league team had a payroll that was even halfway to the tax once salaries were prorated for the 60-game season. The tax was suspended this year, meaning all the effort to cut payroll was for nothing.

The Red Sox could have kept Mookie Betts and David Price without paying a tax penalty. Obviously, there was no way to know that at the time they made the blockbuster deal with the Dodgers, nor could they have predicted Price would opt-out of playing in 2020 so that they wouldn’t need to pay him anyway.

In retrospect, the goal of slashing payroll was even more disastrous than we thought at the time. That shouldn’t be an issue heading into next year. With the tax reset, Boston has found the financial freedom they craved.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they are going to splurge on all the top available free-agents. They will most likely stay below the tax again in 2021. This roster still has too many questions with players returning from injury or down seasons to expect them to contend even with a high-priced free-agent or two in the mix. Those are moves you make to put yourself over the top but this team isn’t there yet.

They will spend some money though. While the moves they’ve made so far have been relatively minor, the vast majority of free-agents remain on the market. Boston has their eye on several targets and not all will come from the bargain bin. They intend to patch the holes on their roster with viable options and can improve the team without chasing the most expensive stars.

More importantly, there’s no longer a mandate to cut payroll. There will be no salary dump trades this winter. Those days are mercifully behind us. While we can’t assume the Red Sox will return to outspending everyone else right away, they are trending back in the right direction.