The Red Sox camp, as it stands, is coming to an end.
The team will play a couple of exhibits against the roving Blue Jays before opening the season on Friday against the Orioles.
While there have been some highlights at camp, right-hander Nathan Eovaldi made it to spring training 2.0 ready to throw 100 pitches at 100 mph, apparently there have also been disappointments.
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We will focus on three of them while avoiding members of the initial rotation, who did not come with significant expectations anyway.
This list is for players to contribute to in 2020. The Red Sox can only hope to find their way once the games really start to count.
1. Rafael Devers
This is a story of two Devers. The left-handed hitter is pounding the ball, with a 475-foot batting practice home run by retired No. 34 David Ortiz on the right-field front, an example of his prodigious power.
If Devers were a DH, this would not be a problem. However, he must also play on the field, and his production has suffered during games within the squad, where he has made a handful of mistakes at third base.
“Raffy in the last two years, just looking at him, he goes through some streaks that sometimes he won’t play that well and then he will change him and he will work,” manager Ron Roenicke said. “Raffy, one thing about him, works as hard as anyone who’s ever seen the defensive. The first year I saw him in ’18 until last year, a huge improvement. I’d say last year the first month was regular and The last five months of the season I think he played a great defense. I still think he will play a very good defense. “
However, there is an additional problem and it is conditioning. The first indication that Devers was going to have a 2019 break was when he arrived at the noticeably slimmer camp. It was a response, he said, to a couple of DL seasons for a hamstring strain that he attributed to carrying too much weight.
This time Devers appeared a little thicker, although Roenicke played it down.
“I may have won a little bit, but not to the point where I am concerned,” said the manager.
However, if there is a player capable of turning a regular spring into a summer whale, it is Devers.
“It has tremendous power, no question,” said Roenicke. “The first day here at batting practice, when he joined us, the ball comes out of the bat differently. He hits the ball the other way, you think he just missed it and then ends up halfway to the wall So he’s one of those special talents that has a little bit more speed or bat strength or whatever to allow the ball to move further. It’s a huge plus to be able to hit the ball to the other side and still be able to spin balls like him does. It makes it really hard to throw him. “
2. Brandon Workman
When you’re the only pitcher in history to create both a 10-1 season and a 1-10 season, consistency can be difficult to achieve. And so the Red Sox are holding their breath that Workman will sort things out after poor performance within the squad.
A year ago, Workman became the most difficult pitcher to hit in recorded history. His .123 batting average against broke Koji Uehara’s big league record of .130 set in his own unbreakable 2013.
But Workman has consistently surrendered in solid contact against his teammates, including a field homer opposite Michael Chavis in a recent scrimmage. Workman has been a topic of conversation between Roenicke and pitching coach Dave Bush.
“His things are fine,” said Roenicke. “I talked to Bushy about it. We thought his stuff was good. He is just missing the location. He is doing well. The locations are not very good and our hitters are not missing anything.”
Workman will become a free agent in the fall, and perhaps uncertainty is affecting him. However, he has always had excellent makeup, which allowed him to make three key appearances in the 2013 World Series as a rookie, and then return from a two-year absence due to Tommy John surgery and dominate last season.
“Obviously he’s frustrated, so I guess my concern is that I’m fine with his stuff, I think he’s going to find it, but my concern is making sure he knows he’s going to find it,” said Roenicke. “Right now, like you said, he’s competitive, he doesn’t like this. He wants to go through every clean inning and he’s struggling to do it and you can see it on the mound. I think the good thing is to get here and finish it once and get locked up again. In the season “.
3. Alex Verdugo
It’s easy to forget that the centerpiece of the Mookie Betts exchange comes from an even longer layoff than most of his teammates. When the pandemic closed spring training in March, Verdugo was beginning to recover from a stress fracture in the spine that ended his 2019 season in August.
He opened his eyes during batting practice when practice resumed this month at Fenway Park, but that shot has yet to carry over into games, with Verdugo frequently moving to second base.
“I think it’s getting better,” said Roenicke. “He’s still struggling at times, but he’s getting better. He feels better. I see a little better change all the time.”
When Executioner is right, he cuts the ball across all fields, hits both left-handed and right-handed players, and even shows developing power.
“I think just in my conversations with some of the guys with the Dodgers where he came from, they all like him and think he’s a very good player,” said Roenicke. “I know he’s replacing a really tough guy in right field and it’s not fair to put that on him, to carry that kind of load. But I think when this guy gets comfortable and has the right time, we’re going to have a player Really exciting. He’s going to be really good offensively, he runs well, he’ll steal a few bases and he’ll play very well in right field. Everything we’ve heard and things I’ve seen shortly make me believe what we have is a really good player for many years “.
