#3: Eduardo Rodriguez is Detroit's new ace
Something you will notice on this list is that all three members are pitchers, both due to their talent and the Sox need for late-rotation starting pitchers. Eduardo Rodriguez being the first of them, as a talent that was traded to the Red Sox back in 2014 from the Baltimore Orioles for Andrew Miller.
Rodriguez always had been a solid starter for the Sox and was a reliable arm in the middle of the starting rotation. From 2015-2022 with Boston, he threw a 4.15 ERA through 170 starts and 947.2 innings pitched. He also had 964 strikeouts to 328 walks, nearly a three-to-one ratio exactly. With a 69-44 record during his time, home runs were always one of his biggest struggles, giving up 119 in his 170 starts which is not horrid, but also not great.
This season, however, Rodriguez has turned into the ace for a middle-of-the-road 20-24 Detroit Tigers team. In nine starts this season, he has a 2.06 ERA through 56.2 innings pitched, averaging 8.3 strikeouts per nine innings to only 1.9 walks per nine innings (only 12 allowed total). He has a sub-1.0 WHIP at 0.865, and has 52 strikeouts on the season, with only five home runs allowed, much better than previous seasons.
At 30 years old, he still has some of his best baseball ahead of him as well. We will see how long his quality pitching lasts, but for now, he has been absolutely phenomenal with Detroit this year.