Boston Red Sox: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season
By Sean Basile
The 2018 champions are at a crossroads, and 2020 could make or break them. How will the Boston Red Sox rebound from a gutting offseason?
The Boston Red Sox blew it up this offseason after a less than stellar 2019 and are, in turn, marching forward in 2020 with a group that is not particularly suited for a 2020 postseason run. Not only were their hands tied when it came to the Mookie Betts trade, but the Red Sox were also on the back end of the Astros cheating scandal this offseason that resulted in their own manager Alex Cora being drug through the mud and ultimately fired for his role in the 2017 Houston Astros championship.
On top of all that, the Sox ushered in a new chain of command at the top of their organization with the firing of Dave Dombrowski before the losses of Cora and Betts even went down. The Red Sox have lost their captains, and their heart and soul is now playing in Los Angeles for the very team they beat in 2018 to win the World Series.
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2020 doesn’t look too promising for the Sox, but the good news is they have an opportunity to start fresh, work in some of their younger guys, and clear some cap space for next season. Will the Boston Red Sox crash and burn in 2020, or will it just be another year like 2019 where they slightly under-perform?
Yes, the most glaring hole in this team is the absence of Mookie Betts, easily a top-five player in this league in his prime and the heart and soul of this Red Sox organization. But what is almost even more troubling is the pitching situation, particularly in the starting rotation.
David Price and Rick Porcello are gone and now Chris Sale is going to need Tommy John surgery with continued elbow problems that stifled his 2019 from game one up in Seattle where he gave up seven earned runs on six hits and three home runs. From there, it was just a constant battle for him to work his way back to peak form and regain the velocity and efficiency on his fastball. But unfortunately, it never really came.
Yes, Sale posted the second-highest strikeout per nine innings rate of his career (13.3), but he also recorded the worst ERA of his career by a mile (4.40), the worst ERA+ of his career (109), while also tying the second-most home runs he’s ever given up in a single season (24), which could’ve even been higher if he stayed up the rest of the year.
The bottom line is something was off about Sale in 2019 and that same energy has carried over into 2020 where we’re not sure if he’ll ever be the same pitcher. And judging by his recent contract extension he signed after the Sox won in 2018, that most certainly doesn’t bode well for the franchise who will be tied down to a pitcher that they’re not sure they’ll ever see again.
The loss of Sale for 2020 leaves the Boston Red Sox with a very short rotation that will need reinforcements from the minor leagues almost immediately.