Five Burning Questions Facing Red Sox As Spring Training Begins
The Red Sox finished 78-84 in 2022
The Boston Red Sox are a little over a month before the official start of their clean slate in 2023.
Like many other teams across the league, the Red Sox will take the field on Opening Day with a fresh, new look to their roster. Boston’s chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom hit the drawing board and made an abundance of trades and signings to help bolster the Red Sox’s pitching, hitting and fielding depth.
With 2022 having ended in bottom-of-the-barrel fashion for Boston, the Red Sox will aim to flip the switch and return to contending form once October baseball comes around.
With that being said, here are five looming questions for the Red Sox at the start of spring training:
How will the starting rotation hold up by Game 162?
Last season the Red Sox struggled mightily across the board with starting pitching. The stability reached an all-time low with nearly every starter sidelined for a significant stretch due to injury. With Nathan Eovaldi, Rich Hill and Michael Wacha — three of the more reliable starting arms in 2022 — Boston is left with a major question mark plastered on its rotational staff. Whether it’d be Chris Sale’s return, Brayan Bello’s expectations, or how the Red Sox will choose to utilize Garrett Whitlock, there’s certainly a level of uncertainty in place.
The Red Sox front office addressed their offseason staff losses with the signing of former Cy Young award winner Corey Kluber, who made 31 starts last season with the Tampa Bay Rays. Plus there are the added returns of James Paxton, who missed all of last season, and Tanner Houck, who underwent back surgery. Houck, like Whitlock, revealed he’d prefer to take the mound as a starter during Red Sox Winter Weekend but will be content with wherever Boston needs him.
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In 2022, Red Sox starters combined to go 45-51 with a 4.49 ERA which ranked 22nd among all staff in Major League Baseball.
Will Alex Cora have a go-to catcher in mind by Opening Day?
The Red Sox moved on from Christian Vázquez before last season’s MLB trade deadline. And while the move did well by Vázquez, who won his second World Series ring with the Houston Astros, it has also left Boston with a series of options for the primary catcher role in 2023.
Boston rode with Reese McGuire, who they acquired following Vázquez’s departure, for most of the second half in 2022. McGuire made 32 appearances behind the plate, batting .337 with three home runs and 12 RBIs while recording a .996 fielding percentage in 236 defensive chances. The 27-year-old is a career .256 hitter it’s unknown how the Red Sox perceive his role moving forward.
During the offseason, Boston signed Jorge Alfaro to a minor-league deal in January. Plus they still have 26-year-old Connor Wong from the 2020 Mookie Betts trade. With a trio of options to choose from — with McGuire and Wong having small sample sizes in Boston to refer to — perhaps spring training action will provide a sense of clarity on who Cora will roll with when the regular season starts.
Is the lineup prepared to support Rafael Devers?
While the Red Sox front office made a handful of additions before spring training, none was greater than the much-anticipated extension of star Rafael Devers, who signed a monster contract in January.
As they move quickly put aside questions about Boston’s commitment level to Devers, it also presented another. Devers is undoubtedly the new face of the franchise, tasked with leading the lineup in 2023 and the years ahead. But with that level of responsibility on his shoulders comes an expectation level for the hitters behind him in the lineup, which looks a lot different with several new offensive contributors added during the offseason. No longer will Devers hit alongside Xander Bogaerts or J.D. Martinez, who both served as key contributors during their time in Boston.
Instead, Devers will share the field with the likes of Justin Turner, Adam Duvall and Masataka Yoshida with youngster Triston Casas also inheriting a bigger role in his first full big-league season.
This prompted Red Sox all-time legend David Ortiz to express his personal concerns with Boston’s lineup as well.
“You’re talking about one of the most feared hitters in baseball right now,” Ortiz told WEEI in January. “I have been there before, and if you had no one behind me, they won’t pitch to me. You know that. Now you have to find a way who can consistently protect him so he can continue to see those pitches.”
Will Masataka Yoshida establish himself as an everyday corner outfielder?
Yoshida quickly became Boston’s most interesting signing with many left unaware of what to expect from the former Japanese star who spent the last seven seasons playing in the Nippon Professional Baseball league. And while his league-leading OPS through his last two seasons, coupled with a career-best 80 walks to 41 strikeouts certainly provide a reason for excitement, Yoshida will need to adjust to facing major-league pitching for the first time.
Boston signed Yoshida to a five-year deal worth $90 million in December and had plenty of voices vouching for the 29-year-old.
“I say he’s like the Japanese Juan Soto,” former MLB All-Star and teammate of Yoshida Adam Jones told Will Sammon of The Athletic in November. “He can hit the ball to all fields, all speeds. Like Juan Soto, he hits everything — and walks; and doesn’t swing outside of the zone.”
Aside from hitting, Yoshida will also need to get used to tracking down fly balls through the tricky dimensions of Fenway Park. As evident through many outfielders, playing the Green Monster wall in left field takes time to get used to and can catch even the best defenders off guard if not prepared.
Can Christian Arroyo replicate his late-2022 success?
With Trevor Story on the injured list following his offseason elbow procedure and Bogaerts in San Diego, Arroyo is left with a window of opportunity to have plenty of time on the field as the everyday Red Sox second baseman.
Arroyo provided a sneak peek as to what that would look like, playing a career-best 87 for the Red Sox last season despite having dealt with an elbow injury. The 27-year-old veteran batted a career-high .286 with six homers and 36 RBIs through 280 at-bats with Boston. This also included some impressive monthly splits in which Arroyo hit .458 in July (seven games) and .326 in August (23 games).
His defense was also nothing short of reliable in the infield. Arroyo notched a .993 fielding percentage in 40 games at second base through 152 total defensive chances. With six MLB seasons under his belt, Arroyo is a career .998% defender at the position.
Initially, he was brought over as a utility, platoon man. Yet, 2023 could be Arroyo’s breakout year.
