On Wednesday, MLB.com Red Sox beat reporter Ian Browne held an Ask Me Anything on Reddit with Red Sox fans at r/redsox. This mailbag features questions and answers from there. The full AMA can be read here. Questions and responses have been lightly edited for clarity. Who do you see as more likely to be called up first: Marcelo Mayer or Roman Anthony? Right now, I’d say Mayer. The Red Sox are deep in the outfield already so I’m not seeing an immediate path for Anthony. Mayer is also a year older. Trevor Story’s current deep slump at the plate bears watching considering how well Mayer is swinging at Worcester. Going into the season I think a lot of people pegged Wilyer Abreu as the odd man out to make room for Anthony. With Abreu being a stud, Ceddanne Rafaela being sneaky good, and Jarren Duran underperforming compared to last year, who do you think takes a backseat for The Roman Empire (Roman Anthony)? Really tough to say at this point. Honestly, it’s a challenging spot for chief baseball officer Craig Breslow to be in, though it’s a problem many teams would like to have. Things have a way of working themselves out. Here are scenarios: Someone will get injured to open a spot; A player will slump mightily to force a move. Or Breslow will have to make a trade to clear a spot. |
Expectations were high for the Red Sox after a productive offseason and with major prospects coming up. What’s your assessment of that? Has the team underperformed or is their season thus far what’s to be expected? I certainly expected this team to make the playoffs and perhaps win the division, and they still can given that nobody is running away from the field. But I agree they’ve underperformed so far. There have been inconsistencies in pretty much every facet of the game. Alex Bregman, Abreu and Aroldis Chapman have been rocks for the club so far. Almost everyone else has had variance to their performance, though Rafael Devers is certainly coming on strong of late. The Red Sox have had an easy strength of schedule so far, compared to other clubs. However, the team has also had very few off-days. I’m wondering if the Red Sox feel they’ve had an easy schedule or a difficult schedule thus far in the season. Are they looking forward to the off-days, or are they not looking forward to playing more difficult teams? There have definitely been some missed opportunities, particularly going 4-3 against the White Sox and 2-5 against Toronto. But I know the jam-up of games early in the season was a concern, as it was something manager Alex Cora mentioned frequently in Spring Training. I think Cora will have an easier time managing workloads once more frequent team off-days come into play. |
I’m curious about Boston’s limited success with scouting, drafting, and developing starting pitching over the years. Jon Lester is really the only elite arm I can think of who's been successful after coming up through the entire process. Is it just a bad luck thing, or do you think the Sox just don't have the right people/process in place to identify and develop top of the rotation pitching talent? The Red Sox have prioritized elite position-player talent over pitchers early in recent Drafts, though I feel like that trend is going to change under Breslow, who has overseen just one Draft so far. Also, the Sox have made some improvements at developing starters, even if they aren’t Cy Young Award types. Brayan Bello, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford and Hunter Dobbins are all pitchers the club has developed in recent years. With the new pitching infrastructure Breslow put into place last year, I wouldn’t be surprised if we start to see more quality pitchers come through the pipeline. This team is better than a .500 team. What's holding them back? Are they going to go on a run? Consistency is holding them back. They need more of it in every area of the game. I think this team will get hot if Duran can go on a prolonged streak, which he really hasn’t done this season. Duran changes the dynamic of the team when he’s in a groove at the plate. |
|
|
MLB MORNING LINEUP PODCAST |
|
|
MARQUEE FRIDAY NIGHT MATCHUP AT FENWAY |
When the Red Sox host the Braves to open a three-game series on Friday night at Fenway Park, the team’s new ace will face the former ace. Garrett Crochet will square off against Chris Sale. Considering they are both lefties with nasty stuff and they were both White Sox aces who were traded to the Red Sox in their primes, this one has a lot of juice to it. It could be an emotional night for Sale, who hasn’t pitched at Fenway since the December 2023 trade that sent him to Atlanta. And according to Elias, it will mark the first time a team has faced the reigning Cy Young Award winners in both leagues in back-to-back games. The Sox faced Tigers lefty Tarik Skubal on Wednesday in Detroit. |
Though Duran is off to a slow start at the plate, Cora has zero plans to move him out of the leadoff spot. “He's going to hit first,” Cora said. “He's our leadoff hitter. Nothing's going to change. This guy, when he's on base, he does his job. It's only 40-something games into the season, right? He's been chasing a lot. We'll keep working with him, and he's going to be fine.” |
|
|
ABREU GROWING INTO MORE POWER |
Right fielder Abreu entered Wednesday’s game in Detroit with 11 homers in 168 plate appearances. In his rookie season last year, he had 15 homers in 447 plate appearances. However, people forget what a strong start Abreu was off to in ’24 before he fell down the dugout steps at the beginning of June and suffered a severely sprained right ankle. “That’s the evolution of the player,” said Cora. “He was having an outstanding season and he got hurt. And when you don't have to your feet, it's hard to hit. And he grinded through it. But he posted, which is very important. And I think this year, he's more agile, he's moving better and he's hitting the ball hard.” |
FORWARDED FROM A FRIEND? SUBSCRIBE NOW |
To subscribe to Red Sox Beat, visit this page and mark "Red Sox Beat" from our newsletter list. Make sure you're following the Red Sox or that they're checked as your favorite team. |
|
|
|
