Red Sox Off Season 2022/23

[W8ting2McHale]

The Boston Who Sox 

Not a lot of power in that line up, that is for sure.  We had 155 HR last season (9th in AL).  We lost Bogaerts (15 Hr) and Martinez (16 Hr).  We'll see how Yoshida does but that line up should have good OBP.  We should still score runs.  Maybe Story has a bounce back year, provides some power.  Casas may give us more power at 1B than we had last season.  Verdugo and Hernandez should both be better (I'll remain optimistic).

As I said elsewhere though, it is the starting pitching that worries me, not the line up.  We will score runs, but not 6 or 7 a game.  We averaged about 4.54 runs/gm, 4th best in the AL, last season.  We gave up 4.85 runs/gm, 14th in the AL.  We have big questions in the starting rotation.

Red Sox just announced that Story might miss most of the 2023 season after elbow surgery. Now they need to fill both middle infielders spots.

That’s less power in the lineup too.

Starting pitching is a big question mark. Last year the bullpen really let the team down. Hopefully that’s improved. Even with an anemic offense they still scored runs. The relief pitching and outfield defensive gave that all back and more.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

The Boston Who Sox 

Not a lot of power in that line up, that is for sure.  We had 155 HR last season (9th in AL).  We lost Bogaerts (15 Hr) and Martinez (16 Hr).  We'll see how Yoshida does but that line up should have good OBP.  We should still score runs.  Maybe Story has a bounce back year, provides some power.  Casas may give us more power at 1B than we had last season.  Verdugo and Hernandez should both be better (I'll remain optimistic).

As I said elsewhere though, it is the starting pitching that worries me, not the line up.  We will score runs, but not 6 or 7 a game.  We averaged about 4.54 runs/gm, 4th best in the AL, last season.  We gave up 4.85 runs/gm, 14th in the AL.  We have big questions in the starting rotation.

Red Sox just announced that Story might miss most of the 2023 season after elbow surgery. Now they need to fill both middle infielders spots.

That’s less power in the lineup too.

Starting pitching is a big question mark. Last year the bullpen really let the team down. Hopefully that’s improved. Even with an anemic offense they still scored runs. The relief pitching and outfield defensive gave that all back and more.

Great. The Story contract is looking worse and worse, like the Sale contract.

And I'm not high on the lineup at all. McGuire and Arroyo are lightweights offensively, Casas is unproven, Kiké's injured a lot, Verdugo probably maxes out at 20 homers (at best), Turner's old, whoever replaces Story is likely to be a lightweight. I mean, the lineup is basically Devers + spare parts.

The rotation has big issues, too.

I can't imagine the Sox will finish the season any better than .500.

[Silas]

The Boston Who Sox 

Not a lot of power in that line up, that is for sure.  We had 155 HR last season (9th in AL).  We lost Bogaerts (15 Hr) and Martinez (16 Hr).  We'll see how Yoshida does but that line up should have good OBP.  We should still score runs.  Maybe Story has a bounce back year, provides some power.  Casas may give us more power at 1B than we had last season.  Verdugo and Hernandez should both be better (I'll remain optimistic).

As I said elsewhere though, it is the starting pitching that worries me, not the line up.  We will score runs, but not 6 or 7 a game.  We averaged about 4.54 runs/gm, 4th best in the AL, last season.  We gave up 4.85 runs/gm, 14th in the AL.  We have big questions in the starting rotation.

Red Sox just announced that Story might miss most of the 2023 season after elbow surgery. Now they need to fill both middle infielders spots.

That’s less power in the lineup too.

Starting pitching is a big question mark. Last year the bullpen really let the team down. Hopefully that’s improved. Even with an anemic offense they still scored runs. The relief pitching and outfield defensive gave that all back and more.

Great. The Story contract is looking worse and worse, like the Sale contract.

And I'm not high on the lineup at all. McGuire and Arroyo are lightweights offensively, Casas is unproven, Kiké's injured a lot, Verdugo probably maxes out at 20 homers (at best), Turner's old, whoever replaces Story is likely to be a lightweight. I mean, the lineup is basically Devers + spare parts.

The rotation has big issues, too.

I can't imagine the Sox will finish the season any better than .500.

To modify a great REM song...It's the end of the world as we know it (and I don't feel fine)

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

The Boston Who Sox 

Not a lot of power in that line up, that is for sure.  We had 155 HR last season (9th in AL).  We lost Bogaerts (15 Hr) and Martinez (16 Hr).  We'll see how Yoshida does but that line up should have good OBP.  We should still score runs.  Maybe Story has a bounce back year, provides some power.  Casas may give us more power at 1B than we had last season.  Verdugo and Hernandez should both be better (I'll remain optimistic).

As I said elsewhere though, it is the starting pitching that worries me, not the line up.  We will score runs, but not 6 or 7 a game.  We averaged about 4.54 runs/gm, 4th best in the AL, last season.  We gave up 4.85 runs/gm, 14th in the AL.  We have big questions in the starting rotation.

Red Sox just announced that Story might miss most of the 2023 season after elbow surgery. Now they need to fill both middle infielders spots.

That’s less power in the lineup too.

Starting pitching is a big question mark. Last year the bullpen really let the team down. Hopefully that’s improved. Even with an anemic offense they still scored runs. The relief pitching and outfield defensive gave that all back and more.

Great. The Story contract is looking worse and worse, like the Sale contract.

And I'm not high on the lineup at all. McGuire and Arroyo are lightweights offensively, Casas is unproven, Kiké's injured a lot, Verdugo probably maxes out at 20 homers (at best), Turner's old, whoever replaces Story is likely to be a lightweight. I mean, the lineup is basically Devers + spare parts.

The rotation has big issues, too.

I can't imagine the Sox will finish the season any better than .500.

To modify a great REM song...It's the end of the world as we know it (and I don't feel fine)

As a Sox fan, I don't feel fine either!

[johnnygreen]

A few days ago, I was joking about how bad the Red Sox medical staff is at their medical examinations/physicals. I was always under the impression that Boston had some of the best doctors in the world. Could part of the issue be the doctors their using, are comingling being a Red Sox fan and wanting a big name in a Red Sox uniform, and performing an unbiased physical?

Maybe the Red Sox best offseason free agent pickup, might not be a player or coach, but rather a team doctor.

[Phantom255x]

Even with Devers re-signed, this really has been an extremely embarrassing offseason for the Red Sox. Like I'm glad Devers is with us long term, but to be fair we had him last season too and still finished last place, and lets be real we barely did anything to improve the team. We also lost a ton of guys (Bogaerts, JD, Eovaldi, etc.) and now Story might end up missing most of 2023 too

I'm definitely not going to a game at Fenway this season.

[Vermont Green]

I seem to recall vague references to a bad elbow with Story back when we signed him.  Probably part of why he was lower cost than some of the other bigger names.  I could look at this two ways.  The optimistic one would be that the reason he had a down year last season was because of his elbow and if they fix that, maybe he will come back mid-season and hit better.  The other side of this is the risk that this becomes chronic and he plays essentially hurt for the rest of his time with Boston.

In either case though, without him, our line up gets even softer.  Right now, it looks like we have an improved bull pen (probably upper end of the league), a soft line up (but probably middle of the pack for runs scored), and a very questionable starting pitching rotation (potentially near the bottom of the league).

It looks to me as though there will be at least two "prospects" in the regular pitching rotation (Bello and Winckowski maybe?), Casas at 1B, and probably a prospect at SS (to start the season anyway).  Wong I guess also is a prospect who will be playing regularly as the second catcher.

[Roy H.]

Regarding Casas, I've seen various reports that there are ongoing discussions between the Sox and Marlins on a Casas-for-pitching trade.