Red Sox: Three New Year’s Resolutions for Boston in 2021
Three New Year’s Resolutions for the Red Sox in 2021
Happy New Year, Red Sox Nation! Now that we’re officially in 2021 by a couple of days we can start to really gear up for spring training. Like many of you out there, there are things that I’d like to work on in the coming year and have goals for myself. The Red Sox should be no different as they have plenty of things that they need to put on their goal board for this year.
A historically bad team in 2020 has set the tone for either a massive rebound like a phoenix rising from the ashes this upcoming season or another campaign at the bottom of the barrel. With the way that the front office is talking, you’d expect Alex Cora to be raising the Commissioner’s Trophy in October. However, with the way the front office is acting, it feels like it’ll be another year of disappointment.
When I look back at 2020 it feels like there are some obvious things that Boston needs to work on this year if they truly want to contend as the season progresses. This last year saw their pitching be atrocious and unreliable, the offense was stagnant, and the little mistakes pile up to cost the team wins. It really was one hell of a miserable year for this team.
With that said, let’s look at the resolutions that the Red Sox should make for 2021!
Red Sox Resolution #1: Pitch Better
Hey, should be an easy one, right? Don’t suck at pitching and the wins should start flowing right in! Well, it’s easier said than done. In 2020, the Red Sox finished dead last in the pitching department, per Fangraphs. That’s right, friends, the bottom of the dumpster 30 out of a possible 30.
It’s not hard to see why when two of you best pitchers are on the IL all season and the third gets traded away. Add in another veteran from your staff leaving via free agency and your starting rotation is now down to one man. Granted Nathan Eovaldi was stellar for much of the year and Martin Perez surprised the hell out of everyone. They weren’t given much of a supporting cast to work with.
It wasn’t until the end of the season with the debuts of Tanner Houck and the newly acquired Nick Pivetta, did Eovaldi and Perez get some sort of relief from other starters. For as well as Chaim Bloom did with some of his bargain signings, he failed miserably in the pitching department. Even in games where starters didn’t give away the game by the third inning, the bullpen couldn’t keep the team in the race either.
When you’re flipping the ball to a guy who hasn’t pitched in over half a decade in Mike Kickham, you’ve got problems. Even the trusted relievers of year’s past couldn’t hold up their end of the bargain. Boston’s ERA was the third-worst in the Majors at a nauseating 5.58, trailing just the Rockies (5.59), and Tigers (5.63).
Again, it sounds super easy to just tell the guys to pitch better but it’s true. Boston had the second-worst BB/9 in 2020 at 4.33, finishing a hair behind the Pirates (4.37). They did come close to finishing in the Top-10 of K/9 though at 9.22, good enough for 11th place. The moral of the story is that placing the ball is the key to success, being more selective with pitches will change things drastically. It was the key to success in 2018 and can be again in 2021.
Red Sox Resolution #2: Hit Better
You’re probably picking up on a familiar theme as we venture down this rabbit hole but stay with me, we’re going places. Much like in the previous slide this one sounds like a no-brainer but when you look at the numbers it gets pretty depressing. Like, staring out the window at a grey sky as rain falls down the glass and the saddest country song is on the radio levels of sad.
For 2020, the Red Sox finished 14th overall for their offensive efforts, which may not sound awful, but it is. Let’s just flip the calendar back, in 2019 they were seventh, and in 2018 fifth. That’s a massive decline, and I’m sorry, that freefall isn’t all because Mookie Betts wasn’t in the lineup. This is for the most part the exact same team from the last two years with a few pieces moved, so why the crash?
I’ll look at the same two categories that I did for the pitching, walks, and strikeouts. Boston ended the year with an 8.1 BB%, bad enough for 22nd in the league. The worst was a tie between the Tigers and Rockies at 7.1.
The best in the league you may ask, well, it was the Yankees at a solid 11.4. This tells us that the Red Sox batters simply had no plate discipline and were swinging away at every damn pitch. Which if you watched J.D. Martinez in 2020, you could attest to that.
As for striking out at the dish, the team finished 17th with an insane 23.7 K%. These dudes were literally striking out in just under 1/4th of their at-bats. Again, see Martinez, J.D. I think that was one of the most frustrating things for me as a fan this past season.
Watching guys who would never swing at some of these junk pitches just half-heartedly whiffing with baffled looks on their faces. Being more selective at the plate will be one of the biggest things that this team needs to accomplish in 2021.
Red Sox Resolution #3: Make Fewer Mistakes
This one is going to be an all-encompassing resolution as this organization was messing up from top to bottom in 2020. I’ll start with the front office and work my way down. Chaim, I get why you’re here and we all know what you’re good at. However, not every bargain player is a diamond in the rough, some of them, maybe even a lot of them, are just not good at this. There’s a reason why some guys are so cheap and haven’t played in an entire Presidential term, maybe we just leave them alone.
Next on my rounds here is going to be our manager. I won’t lambaste Ron Roenicke too much since he’s no longer with the club but I just have to say I can’t recall the last time I’ve question a manager that much in a single season. I felt baffled by at least one game related decision for the entire 60 game season in 2020. I don’t know how he did it but good job I guess. Roenicke was in a tough spot and more than likely knew he was a band-aid until Cora could return, I wish him well in his next chapter.
Speaking of Alex Cora, you’re not getting off the hook that easy. This is going to be more related to 2019 but will still have an effect on 2021 as AC wasn’t around in 2020. Stop trying to be cute and outsmart everyone. Let the guys know what position they’ll be at, where they’ll be hitting in the lineup, and when you’ll use them in the bullpen.
Obviously, there will be times where things need to be shuffled, but that shouldn’t be every damn game. No more shenanigans from 2019 this year please, get back to what you did in 2018 and we’ll be cool.
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Now for the players, oh boy, this isn’t pretty. Errors happen, you can’t escape them and sometimes the scorekeeper gives you one despite you not earning it. Well in 2020 the Red Sox finished third in errors, no not in a good way, as in they had the third most errors this year. The Yankees and Pirates tied for first oddly enough with 47, and Boston was right behind them with 45. Guys, we gotta tighten that up, it’s embarrassing.
Of those 45 errors, Rafael Devers had 14. My guy accounted for almost 1/3 of the entire team’s errors, yikes. Granted his number was down from previous years but we also had fewer games. I don’t even want to think about that number had we seen a full 162 and it’s far too early for me to break out the calculator. Just know that it’d be terrible. Next on the errors list is Xander Bogaerts with 5, just let that sink in. Raffy, we all love ya, but dude you gotta get this thing figured out.
Next. Five bold predictions for 2021. dark
We have a new year started and a new year approaching. I know these resolutions are pretty obvious but once you actually see the numbers it makes you want to put your head through a wall. We’re not far removed from dominating the league and winning a World Series. Yeah, some of the pieces may be different, but there’s no reason why the Red Sox should be this bad. Work on these resolutions, tighten up the basics, and Boston can climb the ranks once again.