Youth Movement? Why Red Sox Need Veterans Entering New Era

The Red Sox have no shortage of young talent in the pipeline, but talent alone isn’t enough to maximize the contending window of a young core.

Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Kyle Teel, Kristian Campbell and plenty of others have been praised for what they’re expected to be when they eventually get to Boston. The Red Sox have a number of guys who have who will be just as important to future success as that large group of prospects if not even more so given their experience.

Brock Holt joined NESN’s “310 To Left” podcast Friday, giving insight into his most successful years in Boston and sharing with Tom Caron and Alex Speier what he believes to be an important piece to winning down the line.

“It’s guys like Dustin (Pedroia) and David (Ortiz) showing you the way,” Holt said. “(Mike) Napoli whenever Mookie Betts was coming up, whenever Xander Bogaerts was coming up, whenever (Rafael) Devers was coming up. It’s important for guys to see how those guys that have been there done it — do it. How does Dustin Pedroia go about his business? That’s how you build a culture… Marcelo Mayer and all these prospects come up, they see Jarren Duran playing in 162 games and grinding and posting every day, it builds that team culture.”

The Red Sox have veteran pieces.

Devers won a World Series in Boston. Duran has played pretty much every day over the last couple seasons. Trevor Story has experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Triston Casas and Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela each have had opportunities to get a larger taste of the bug leagues over the last couple years.

Boston will hope to supplement that experience with an injection of young, talented players as it opens the next contending window for a franchise that has been out of the running for far too long.

You can listen to the latest episode of “310 To Left” on YouTube and Spotify.