Boston Red Sox: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season

The Pitching Staff

Eduardo Rodriguez and Nathan Eovaldi sit atop the Boston Red Sox rotation as of now, but neither has a particularly reliable health record. Rodriguez was great last year and turned out to be the Sox’s best pitcher, but at that, he still tallied an ERA just under four.

Maybe Rodriguez can improve on that if he can once again remain healthy and rack up 30+ starts like he did a year ago. Maybe he reverts back to the middle of the pack now that the limelight is on him as the Red Sox’s number one.

Eovaldi has number one stuff, but his health is a big question mark. That points to the bottom half of this rotation probably going to have to be picking up the slack. If E-Rod and Eovaldi can stay healthy, I think they can both have nice years, but who is going to fill the 3-5 spots in the rotation?

Martin Perez had a great camp and first half for Minnesota last year but tailed off as the season went on. Brian Johnson has found himself to be a swing guy these last several years for the Sox as a sixth starter type that can fill in and spot-start when guys get injured. But how will he fare if he’s locked into the rotation for the entirety of the season? Will his numbers even be good enough to keep him up?

The rest of the starts will have to go to younger guys and I would look at Ryan Weber to lead that group. After him, I think we could also see a fair amount of Tanner Houck, Mike Shawaryn, Kyle Hart, and maybe even Daniel McGrath making their share of starts for the club.

Another route the Sox can go is moving to Collin McHugh, who they just picked up when they DFA’d Hector Velazquez, as their fourth of fifth starter to get another veteran arm in there. McHugh has spent the majority of these past few seasons as a bullpen long relief option for the Astros, but this could be his shot to get back into a starting role.

None of these options appear to be too fantastic, but at the same time, the Boston Red Sox are in a spot right now where they’re going to have to get some quality innings out of some of their younger guys. So, 2020 will probably be an experimental year for them.

The biggest weakness of the Red Sox in 2019 was their bullpen, and even though they bring back pretty much the same crew of arms, I actually think this will be the strength of their pitching staff in 2020, though still not good enough to carry them to a decent record.

Reliability was a big issue for the Sox last season as the Red Sox bullpen lead the league in blown saves (31), but I think in 2020 we’re going to see Darwinzon Hernandez and Josh Taylor both step up as power lefties in their second full season as locked in commodities of this bullpen.

It’s also worth noting how good Brandon Workman was last year with a 10-1 record, 1.88 ERA, and 16 saves as the Sox’s best reliever. We saw an uptick in his fastball velocity from 91.6 in 2018 to 93.2 last season as well as a huge leap to a 13.06 K/9 rate all on the back of his higher usage of a power curveball off of the fastball.

Workman is currently one of the best relievers in baseball and I think we’ll be seeing another very good season out of him where he could potentially be moved to a playoff contender mid-season. Overall, I think the Sox’s bullpen will be better than last year though very overworked.

The Red Sox

But the overall strength of this team will be on the offensive side. Though they go into 2020 without their best player and the league leader in runs scored the past two seasons, this is still an offense predicated on contact hitting and a strong top of the order. They switch out a sure thing in Betts for Alex Verdugo who has some injury concerns, but the top of the Boston Red Sox order is still one of the strongest in baseball even as they sit in peril.

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Xander Bogaerts was an under-the-radar MVP candidate last year and Rafael Devers turned in one of the best second halves in all of baseball after getting snubbed for the All-Star Game. On top of that, they still have JD Martinez locked down in the middle of the lineup and if Andrew Benintendi can cut down the strikeouts this season, one through four in the order will be virtually unstoppable.

On top of that, they still have Christian Vazquez coming off a career year with 23 long balls. They retain Mitch Moreland at the first base position. And they hold on to Jackie Bradley Jr. for the time being as one of the best center fielders in the game, not to mention bringing on Kevin Pillar to fill in for Verdugo in right field to open the season.

Dustin Pedroia is still a big question mark, but they brought in Jose Peraza who can play both infield and outfield, and Michael Chavis will be getting even more playing time this year with his exciting mix of power.

The question will be how they will fill in their bench. They have two catchers in Jonathan Lucroy and Kevin Plawecki to choose from to backup Vazquez, and they also have a mix of minor league guys that can see elevated roles with the departure of Mookie Betts still wafting through the air.

Look for Rusney Castillo to see a lot of playing time this year, especially in the beginning of the season with Alex Verdugo out. Look for Tzu-Wei Lin to get a lot of time as a utility gem with Pedroia highly questionable to play this year.

We may also be seeing a fair amount of Bobby Dalbec, Josh Ockimey, and Jonathan Arauz permeating the infield at various times throughout the season. This year’s Red Sox team will feature a strong lineup of veteran hitters as well as a good mix of some highly-touted prospects.

I don’t believe the Boston Red Sox will be in prime form this season, but they still have a bunch of good pieces to be happy about moving forward. Throughout the years, whenever the Red Sox are bad, they tend to be bottom of the barrel bad, borderline horrific. Very rarely do we see them be “okay” like they were last year.

That’s why I thought they’d finish this season 69-93 towards the bottom of the American League and fourth in the AL East though I’m wary of them potentially finishing dead last in the East. As it sits now, we still have no idea how many games will actually be played because of the ever-developing Coronavirus, but regardless of record, I still have the Sox finishing in fourth in the division.

Their pitching, which was a major issue for them last year, will once again come back to haunt them. And the Mookie Betts loss will deprive them of a big chunk of their regular offensive prowess.