The Red Sox will raise the Commissioner’s Trophy in 2022
Finally, here we are with the biggest prediction of them all! This one surrounds the grandest prize in the business and that my friends is the Commissioner’s Trophy. Every player, on every team, gets up every day of the season with hopes of helping their squad get close to the silverware. The Red Sox were close in 2021, and with some tweaks here and there, I think they win the whole damn thing in 2022.
So far I’ve made some predictions around the MVP, Cy Young, and Manager of the Year, why not take a shot at the throne? Nobody expected the Red Sox to get within two games of the World Series this past season and I think they can ride that momentum into the next campaign.
Had they been able to finish off the Astros I fully believe that they would’ve halted the Braves and we’d be raising another banner. Well, my friends, we may just have to wait another year as we’re bringing it home next season.
When the lockout ends, I expect Chaim Bloom and his team to go into overdrive with making moves to strengthen the roster. Whether that comes via signings or trades, they’re going to build a tank of a squad to steamroll the rest of the league.
It won’t be an easy task as I’m sure Brian Cashman will eventually do something to help his bumbling gang of doofuses. And I don’t doubt that Kevin Cash is working over some analytics and spreadsheet somewhere in Tampa. Baltimore will Baltimore so we can keep rolling. Toronto, Toronto is very scary and while they’ll still finish fourth, it won’t be easy.
The Red Sox are well ahead of their rebuild and now that they’re under the old Luxury Tax and with conversations totally frozen, Bloom and his team can plot for their attack once the gates open back up. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him write some checks and spend some cash, now recklessly as that’s not his style, but he’ll more than likely splash cash like never before.
So why am I so confident? Well, as I’ve said we’re well ahead of schedule and this team literally had the World Series ripped from its fingers. That had to leave a bad taste in their mouths and surely lit a fire to make sure that doesn’t happen in 2022. There’s also plenty of guys that are going to want to prove themselves with their futures hanging in the balance.
J.D. Martinez, Nathan Eovaldi, and Kiké Hernández were three of the biggest pieces of the 2021 team and all can walk after this season. Christian Vázquez can also call somewhere else home as he’ll be a free agent next winter. Then we have the Captain. Xander Bogaerts is able to opt-out of his current deal after this year. He’s going to want to put on a show as we’ve never seen from him in order to bring his value to its absolute peak.
We have a front office that’s built a team that far exceeded any and all goals ahead of schedule and now knows they can hang with the big guns of the league. Next, we have a manager that has more than enough experience winning and is still looking to change the narrative surrounding his name. Then we have a gang of guys that carried this team in the past and are all playing for their futures, the ultimate motivation.
At times in 2021, the Red Sox were the hottest team in baseball and at others, I wanted to turn my tv off before the midway point of the game. When the dust settled on this season and the stories were all written, the Boston Red Sox finished as the fourth-best team in all of baseball. This, just one year after finishing as the fourth-worst team, an amazing turnaround in the blink of an eye. So get the beer on ice, gas up the duck boats, and let’s get ready to raise banner #10!