What is going on with the Boston Red Sox, and how can it be resolved?
The Boston Red Sox are having a hard go of things right now, to say the absolute least. After sitting at a healthy 26-20 only a little while ago, they have now lost six of their last eight games, and sit at the bottom of the American League East once again. This is a tough pill to swallow both as a fan and a writer, as they were heavily in the race within the division and have now fallen back to the bottom after all that effort.
With that, there needs to be an intervention. There is a pretty hefty amount of issues plaguing this team currently, and many of which are solvable through a mix of time and players returning from injury. But a few are a little more deep-rooted and could take a while to fix. In this article, I will go over some of the most pressing issues with the Red Sox roster currently, and detailing how I would propose a fix to them in the short and long term.
Let's start with the most glaring issues.
Most pressing Red Sox issues: Shortstop & pitching rotation order
Issue 1 - Shortstop position
The glaring issues are also somewhat the most solvable fortunately for the Red Sox. The first of which is the shortstop position as a whole. As unfortunate as it is, Kiké Hernández is not the answer at shortstop. He has 11 errors on the year now, leading the league by two over the next player, and has been an absolute disaster fielding. If his batting was making up for it, then sure you could maybe overlook it in a few spots. But he is batting .237 through 49 games so far, with 39 strikeouts.
For those who like advanced stats, let's take a look at his BaseballSavant page quickly. He ranks in the 50th percentile or above in three total categories, which are strikeout percent (58th percentile), walk percent (52nd percentile), and chase rate (57th percentile). Now the negatives. He ranks in the 10th percentile or below in; xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, barrel %, and worst of all, outs above average (2nd percentile).
Resolution: You have a few options here. Short term, Yu Chang is making rehab starts, and you have him as an option once he is healthy. The Sox also have Pablo Reyes for now, who has been consistent, with a decent bat and good fielding the majority of the time. If the team wants to get fancy, they can call up David Hamilton, who we would like to see in the majors regardless. Long term? Trevor Story is the option, as there are reports that he will return at shortstop not elsewhere.
Issue 2 - Pitching rotation order
Next up we have the pitching rotation and how it will be set up/ordered. The Sox have quite a few bodies getting chances right now, who were not previously. To name a few, Justin Garza, Ryan Sherriff, and Joely Rodriguez. While the prior two have been decent so far, the latter has been a flop through four innings pitched so far.
Is it a small sample size? Sure. But at the same time, he has an 18.00 ERA, with two homers allowed, one of which being a grand slam in the first game of the series against Cincinnati. Aside from him, figuring out the role of Nick Pivetta and potentially Corey Kluber will be something that needs to be worked out, as well as where John Schreiber and Richard Bleier fit into things.
Resolution: In my opinion, Corey Kluber and Richard Bleier are probably DFA candidates at this point. Joely Rodriguez can be next up on that list if he has another relief outing in the same vein as he has been having. The relieving core should consist of Pivetta, Sherriff, Garza, Schreiber, Josh Winckowski, and Chris Martin. If they need another, look to Brennan Bernardino, who was doing good in his time on the Sox.