Red Sox: Bobby Dalbec has been white hot on the west coast

Bobby Dalbec has been a force for the Red Sox on the west coast

There hasn’t been much from Bobby Dalbec to get Red Sox Nation riled up in 2022. He’s off to a similar start as last season with moments here and there but overall a relatively quiet first half for the most part. Well, it may be more of an outlier than what can be expected but this past week on the west coast has been pretty damn good to the big first baseman.

Since the Red Sox made their way to Oakland we have seen Big Bob slugging as if his life depended on it. And honestly, his baseball life very well may. Not only does he have Franchy Cordero playing incredibly well but he has Tristan Casas breathing down his neck. He can’t afford to have too many games where he doesn’t contribute in some form or fashion.

So, back to his current stretch! Boston has been bouncing around the west for over a week now and I don’t know if it’s the change in time zone or maybe that sweet Pacific breeze, Bob is loving life. Through last night’s loss to the Mariners, Dalbec is slugging to the tune of a .308/.367/.615 slash with two doubles, two homers, and six RBI. Hell, he’s even swiped a bag during this stretch.

Obviously, one good week doesn’t fix an entire season of underperformance but it does at least give him some confidence to turn things around. His season totals of .203/.279/.346 will make even the strongest of stomachs turn but there are some positives in his game to shine the light on. His walk percentage is up to 8.1% compared to last year’s 5.5% at this same point in the calendar while his whiff rate is down huge compared to 2021, from 36.8% to 27.9%.

These aren’t huge numbers but I’ll gladly take him drawing more walks than swinging wildly at everything. Some have already written Bobby off and want nothing more than to see him wearing a different jersey by the Trade Deadline but I doubt that’ll happen. The Red Sox have a lot of moving parts next offseason and they’re going to want to retain a chunk of the current core. In the future, I can see Rafael Devers replacing J.D. Martinez at DH, Bob moving to third, and Casas taking over at first.

There are some hiccups with that plan as well but at the moment it makes at least a small amount of sense. Then again, I’m just a fan with a keyboard and there’s a reason why Chaim Bloom makes the money that he does. But I do believe that Dalbec will be factored into the future of the Red Sox whether that’s at first base or not is still unknown.

It also depends on whether or not he can get more consistent at the plate. We’ve seen him thrive when he can platoon as he has with Franchy and Kyle Schwarber but that’s not the best long-term plan either. For those that want him traded, if he isn’t producing he won’t have value so that will handcuff Bloom in the deal department.

To bring this all back into one nice neat package, Bobby D is mashing on the west coast and it’s been a damn good time watching him do so. I hope this stretch gives him the boost he needs to continue raking as we saw in the second half of 2021. He definitely knows the stakes and what could be ahead of him as far as the Red Sox are concerned so he needs to keep being a productive member of the lineup. Let’s just hope that he can bring some of this west coast magic back to Fenway.