Grading the 2022 Boston Red Sox with a mid-season report card
By Sean Penney
Red Sox infielders
It doesn’t get much better than the combination on the left side of Boston’s infield, at least when it comes to their production at the plate.
Rafael Devers leads the league in hits and he’s second with a .328 batting average. He leads the team with 17 home runs and his .592 SLG ranks fifth in the league. FanGraphs has Devers leading the league with 4.1 WAR.
Xander Bogaerts is right behind his teammate in the batting title race with a .326 average while ranking fourth in the league with a .397 OBP. His power has mysteriously vanished lately. Bogaerts hasn’t homered since June 3 and he’s sitting on only six for the season with 31 RBI. He’s still piling up extra-base hits though with 21 doubles. Bogaerts is sixth in the league with 3.5 fWAR.
Defense is always the sore spot with this pair of superstar infielders but they actually haven’t been that bad this year. Bogaerts is slightly above average with 1 defensive run saved. Devers is a bit below average with -3 DRS but that’s an improvement considering he’s typically near the bottom of the list.
The smooth transition to second base from Trevor Story has benefited the Red Sox infield defense. The former shortstop is playing at a Gold Glove-caliber level.
Story got off to a horrible start at the plate, which was to be expected since he missed almost all of training camp and was focused on learning a new position. His batting average still hasn’t recovered – his current .224 AVG would be a career-low. However, he’s displayed the power that proves he wasn’t simply a product of Coors Field. Story has 12 home runs and his team-leading 52 RBI are the fourth-most in the league. He also leads the team with 10 steals and his 9.4 BB% helps offset his batting average woes.
The weak spot of the infield has been at first base, which has been primarily filled by the struggling Bobby Dalbec, who is hitting a meager .205 this season. His power was supposed to offset an underwhelming batting average but Dalbec’s .330 SLG would put him near the bottom of the league if he had enough plate appearances to qualify.
Franchy Cordero has started seeing time at first base. While he’s not exactly lighting it up, his .252 average and .744 OPS are drastic improvements over Dalbec.
The star-studded infield deserves a strong grade that is slightly dampened by replacement level production at first base. Promising prospect Triston Casas will eventually take over that position so it’s not a long term concern, but it does drag down the infield grade slightly for the first half of the season.
Grade: A-