That Was a Week

I’ll say this, my fears that the Boston Red Sox would not be interesting in 2023 have been put to bed pretty strongly.  They aren’t particularly, y’know, good.  But they have been interesting and entertaining which is about as good as it gets I suppose all things considered.  The Sox had what can best be described as a challenging week, really a week and a half when you factor in the Tampa series, and I think all things considered 3-3 on the trip through Cleveland and the Bronx was kind of what the Sox would have wanted when the week started.  Having said that there were a few things worth discussing;

- I don’t care what Fox and ESPN say, Red Sox-Yankees is not anything close to an elite series right now.  Yeah there’s history and I understand how ratings work but man this series is not worth prime time slots let alone four in two weeks (guess what this coming week’s Sunday night game is).  As chronicled at length here the Sox are mediocre and the Yankees frankly are not anything special.  Once Aaron Judge comes out of that lineup it falls apart quickly.  They are 30-19 with him, 8-10 without him.

- From a Sox perspective the biggest news about this week is how they arrived at their wins.  The games they won were started by; Garrett Whitlock, James Paxton and Brayan Bello.  The games they lost were started by Kutter Crawford, Tanner Houck (who pitched well) and Matt Dermody.  As a Sox fan that is quite encouraging.  Bello was basically a fluke bounce away from 7 shutout innings in the Bronx and Whitlock was excellent.  The Sox have to feel good about the way the pitching is developing so far.

- Let’s talk about Dermody for a moment.  Look, I understand the whole “stick to sports” thing but man that is so tired.  From the National Anthem to God Bless America to Soldier of the Game to camouflage uniforms to…well whatever, teams have pandered to popular opinion for time immemorial.  “Dermody was just sharing his beliefs.”  Yes yes he was and if he said the same thing except about soldiers or the police the same people defending him would be outraged.

But here’s the thing I find fascinating.  If you’re the Sox, why do you waste your time on this?  Why let this be a story?  I’m not naive, I get how the world works and if you are good enough at your job you can do whatever you want.  Mookie Betts could wipe his ass with an American flag and Dodger fans would cope.  But why on earth do you let a story like this happen for Matt Freakin’ Dermody?  Are you telling me Joe Jaques (whoever he is) or Chris Murphy or Brennan Bernardino couldn’t have been the opener in Cleveland?  I’m not outraged from a human perspective (well I am but I accept that not everyone shares my views on the LGBTQIA+ community) but just from a business perspective.  If you are going to take the hit, take it for a guy who is an important part of the organization.  Tanner Houck is an unvaccinated putz but he’s pretty good.  I’d bet he thinks Dermody is right on.  Maybe not but if he does, hey you take the hit for a guy who will hopefully part of your rotation for the next few years, not for Matt Dermody. Dermody is gone and I don’t want this to be the focus of this but I wanted to get it off my chest.  The Sox lack of PR awareness in recent years has been astounding.

- Bad news out of the minor leagues where Miguel Bleis’ season appears to be over due to a left shoulder injury.  Left shoulders are not the Red Sox friend right now.  This sucks of course but Bleis is ahead of schedule and assuming he can come back next year he will be a 20 year old starting in Hi A and ready to shoot to AA in short order.  Assuming a full recovery, and I’ve seen nothing to suggest that’s not the expectation, his timetable should not be heavily altered.

- The benching of Alex Verdugo was certainly an interesting turn of events.  I didn’t think his effort on that play was THAT bad and Cora wasn’t so outraged that he yanked him immediately, he let him play the inning in the field before sitting him down.  Cora and Verdugo seem to have a really good relationship and I can’t help but feel like Cora was perhaps genuinely upset with the effort but also felt like he wanted to send a message to the team and used Verdugo as his whipping boy.  Maybe not, maybe this is the culmination of something but I don’t recall reading any stories this year or seeing anything alarming about Verdugo’s effort.

- Rafael Devers had some great swings this weekend and hopefully is coming to life.  The Sox need the bats to get going.  Since May 1 the only hitters with an OPS over .800 are Rob Refsnyder (.974 in 55 PA), Masataka Yoshida (.848 in 154) and Connor Wong (.811 in 84).  Justin Turner (.795), Triston Casas (.785) and Verdugo (.756) are the only others above .750.  Verdugo is a guy I see talked about a lot and I think part of the problem with him is one of perception.  He should not be one of your top players.  He’s Trot Nixon, he’s Andrew Benintendi, that’s a useful and important player but he should not be leading your team in WAR.