Similiar fates
His Red Sox match-up, J.D. Martinez, should also see time in the corners, though mostly on the road. Unfortunately, his defense leaves a lot to be desired, so there won’t be any boon to his WAR by spending time out there. This battle goes to the Yankees on account of Stanton being freakishly athletic for a guy his size. The bats should play similarly, however.
What Does It All Mean, Basil?
For those of you keeping score at home, those WAR totals add up to 43.4 WAR for the Red Sox by Steamer, 56.1 from me. The Yankees have 42.6 by Steamer and 54.0 from me.
Both Steamer and my projections have the Red Sox edging out the Yankees for the division this year. Converting these figures to wins is relatively simple. We add 43, the theoretical replacement level for wins. That brings our totals to:
Boston Red Sox: 99-63
New York Yankees: 97-65
There you have it. The Red Sox will raise a third straight AL East banner, coming up just shy of 100 wins on the year.
And more importantly, with the bounce back years, we can expect from Betts, Bogaerts, Bradley and maybe Hanley, plus some growth from Devers and Benintendi, not to mention the addition of J.D. Martinez, they should be a much better position to compete in October.