A pathetic season. Sale ends the season on the injured list, but I don't think injuries were his problem most of the season—he just plain stunk. Price had a good first half but then he went downhill. Porcello was downright terrible, perhaps the worst starter in the majors this season according to advanced stats, and hopefully the Sox don't re-sign him. E-Rod was better than I expected, so hopefully that continues next year.
Overall, I'm not confident that the pitching works out next season. Sale's best days may very well be behind him—he'll be 31 at the start of next season, has been injured the last couple seasons, and has always been a hard thrower despite being of slight build, which doesn't bode well for his body holding up. Price is now 34. Eovaldi has an extensive injury history. I mean, I think a lot of things will have to break correctly, and the odds of that happening are low.
Not to mention that even if they keep Mookie and JD returns, a decent chunk of the order is awful and needs to be addressed—Bradley is just not a good hitter, Benintendi isn't panning out, Leon is terrible, Holt hits for average but little else. A Betts/Bogaerts/Devers/Martinez core is a great foundation, but they'll need more than that to compete at a high level.
what you wrote above is not really accurate. it is more complex than stated.
in terms of mlb teams, the red sox are this season on offense:
- 4th in runs scored
- 1st in doubles
- 10th in HR
- 4th in batting average
- 5th in OPS
no team does this if a "decent chunk" of the batting order sucks eggs.
next - JBJ's offense. his batting average is poor, but in this day and age of advanced stats, we can know more about him than just that. his OBP = .317 and his OPS = .733. these place JBJ at 7th and 8th place among all center fielders in the mlb. oh, and let's not forget his 20 HR so far this year as well. that is good for 9th among CFers.
given JBJ's stellar defense in an important position these are very respectable offensive stats.
SoSH also had a prolonged discussion about how JBJ may be the most schizophrenic batter in the majors. he regularly has enormous periods of super-suck followed by periods of "babe ruth is reincarnated." this actually increases his value on offense.
the question SoSH posed was - which is better for team? a player who hits .000 for 1/2 of a season and .500 for the second 1/2, leading to a .250 BA for the season? OR...a player who gets one hit a game every game, leading to a .250 BA for the season.
it seems that being hot and driving in a boat load of runs a few times benefits a team more than a steady 1-hit production since the former increases the odds of winning more games. you can search SoSH for the discussion.
BROCKSTAR? his OPS is .793 this season. this is clearly due to more than simple batting average...oh, and how many positions does he play which allows Cora to make swaps on defense?
Leon, yeah, he sucks. but the difference between him and other teams' crappy back up catchers is not so great as to make a difference this year. plus he has batted in only 60 games this year. he is not pulling the team down day in and day out. and his sucky offense is somewhat compensated by his very good defense.
a frequently used RS line ups this year contained some combinations of:
mookie (OPS .910)
devers (OPS .911)
xander (OPS .933)
JD martinez (OPS .936)
vazquez (OPS .780)
mitch moreland (OPS .820)
benintendi (OPS .781)
JBJ (OPS .733)
BROCKSTAR (OPS .793)
for MLB, an OPS of .700 to .766 is average. of the above players, everyone but JBJ would be considered above average.
finally, how many teams put together a lineup that is from top to bottom filled with above average batters for their position - both in the line up and by fielding position? the sox offense was not really the major problem this year.
having your top three projected pitchers all stink, get injured, and stink some more hurt a lot. and a bad pullpen had a lot more to do with the poor season than their offense.
let's look at the trio of price, porcello, and sale in a simple way, wins.
2018, they combined for 45 wins among them.
2019, they combined for 26 wins among them. a difference of 19 games.
let me perform an unfair and overly simplistic calculation here. the sox so far have won 81 games. if we could magically add in those "missing" 19 games, the sox sit at 100 wins, two back of the first place yankees.
yes, it is too simple to simply use simple math and add 19 games. but the point is that it seems more likely that the pitching is the major culprit this year, not the hitting.
one final note on the pitching. in 2018 the Sox team ERA was 3.75, 8th in the majors. in 2019 the team ERA was 4.63, 19th in the majors. almost a run a game worse.