Count Jon Morosi among the Boston Red Sox’s doubters.
The MLB network and FOX Sports analyst predicted Thursday on Sirius XM MLB Network Radio the Red Sox will finish in fourth place in the AL East, behind the Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees. Morosi believes the Red Sox’s squad is weaker than in recent years due the trade of Mookie Betts and David Price to the Los Angeles Dodgers and the uncertainty around the rotation that deal and Chris Sale’s lingering elbow injury have caused.
“Now with Sale out for the foreseeable future and no Mookie and no Price, Steve, if I had to pick today, I’ve got the Red Sox fourth in the American League East,” Morosi said. “The Toronto Blue Jays with what I believe is going to be a much more stable rotation than the Red Sox have. They’ve got some young energy. I expect continued growth from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., I think Bo Bichette last year was probably more impressive than Vladdy was. So I’ve got Toronto ahead of Boston right now.
“And part of the reason, too, is, as we talk about competition for the bottom two spots in the Red Sox rotation, the higher level of the rotation is not necessarily secure either. Eduardo Rodriguez coming off a career year by any stretch … there’s always a challenge in repeating that first big breakout year, but the Red Sox can hope he has figured things out and is going to be around that level in 2020. Nathan Eovaldi coming back from a season in which he threw 67 2/3 innings with a 5.99 ERA. Martin Perez really faded in the second half, a 5.12 ERA. And Eovaldi and Perez right now, by any objective measure, are locked into the rotation. Those are your more certain pieces of the rotation.
“So I don’t know where they’re going to go to get that reassurance of an order in their rotation, I am skeptical of their chances to contend, and as I said, with the latest Chris Sale news, I’ve got the Red Sox fourth in the AL East.”
Who is the third best team in the American League East? @jonmorosi likes the Toronto @BlueJays#BlueJays pic.twitter.com/LdWxPsff2n
— MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (@MLBNetworkRadio) March 5, 2020
Morosi’s Red Sox prediction is one of the more ominous we’ve come across in recent weeks. Perhaps it comes down to timing, as Morosi delivered it just days after Sale underwent an MRI after feeling pain in his pitching elbow, but hours before the Red Sox announced their ace had suffered a flexor strain and likely wouldn’t need surgery.
Nevertheless, Morosi, one of MLB’s leading insiders, has given the Red Sox some bulletin-board material they can use as motivation to silence skeptics in the coming months.
