Presenting the full list 2017 Roster Recaps, listed with the authors that wrote them. An asterisk denotes a player who has, as of March 13th, dearly departed the Red Sox. We’ll miss them all terribly.

Catchers

• Sandy Leon (Cam Ellis)
• Blake Swihart (Jake Devereaux)
• Christian Vazquez (Brett Cowett)

Infielders

• Xander Bogaerts (Chris Teeter)
• Chase d’Arnaud* (Matt Kory)
• Rafael Devers (Kory)
• Marco Hernandez (Cowett)
• Brock Holt (Devereaux)
• Tzu-Wei Lin (Cowett)
• Deven Marrero (Cowett)
• Mitch Moreland (Cowett)
• Eduardo Nunez (Teeter)
• Dustin Pedroia (Kory)
• Hanley Ramirez (Devereaux)
• Josh Rutledge* (Cowett)
• Pablo Sandoval* (Cowett)
• Sam Travis (Teeter)

Outfielders

• Andrew Benintendi (Ellis)
• Mookie Betts (Kory)
• Jackie Bradley Jr. (Cowett)
• Rajai Davis* (Daniel Poarch)
• Steve Selsky (Ellis)
• Chris Young* (Cowett)

Pitchers

• Fernando Abad* (Ellis)
• Matt Barnes (Cowett)
• Blaine Boyer* (Cowett)
• Roenis Elias (Poarch)
• Doug Fister* (Kory)
• Heath Hembree (Kory)
• Brian Johnson (Teeter)
• Joe Kelly (Ellis)
• Kyle Kendrick* (Poarch)
• Craig Kimbrel (Cowett)
• Austin Maddox (Ellis)
• Kyle Martin (Poarch)
• Drew Pomeranz (Ellis)
• Rick Porcello (Teeter)
• David Price (Ellis)
• Noe Ramirez* (Poarch)
• Addison Reed* (Ellis)
• Eduardo Rodriguez (Cowett)
• Robbie Ross* (Cowett)
• Chris Sale (Cowett)
• Robby Scott (Cowett)
• Carson Smith (Teeter)
• Ben Taylor (Cowett)
• Hector Velazquez (Devereaux)
• Brandon Workman (Ellis)
• Steven Wright (Kory)

Header photo by Winslow Townson — USA TODAY Sports

We all know how this game turned out for the Indians. Two innings later, as Kris Bryant recorded the final out in the bottom of the 10th inning, Davis’ finest moment crumbled into cruel, false hope — a historical footnote, rather than postseason legend. It really was a ridiculous home run, though.

It was the most interesting thing that has happened in Rajai Davis’ MLB career, but the truth is that Rajai Davis just isn’t a very interesting baseball player. He’s made a career out of being not terrible, but also not great. Just useful. That season with the Indians wasn’t the best overall season of Davis’ career — his 3.4 fWAR campaign with Oakland in 2009 dramatically outstrips it — but he smacked a career-high 12 regular season homers across from 43 stolen bases and maintaining generally positive performance in the outfield. His .302 wOBA wasn’t anything to write home about, but his overall package made him a fine, if replaceable, starter.

Davis opened last season in an anonymous Athletics lineup that consisted of Jed Lowrie and some kids. He didn’t hit particularly well, but he made it up by being a negative in the outfield and falling off as a baserunner. After Jackie Bradley Jr. sprained his thumb, the Red Sox traded 18-year-old Rafael Rincones (who wasn’t a top-30 guy in the farm system) for him.  Now, I’m tasked with writing something interesting about the decisively uninteresting Rajai Davis and his decisively uninteresting Red Sox tenure.

With that in mind, here is every single game of Rajai Davis’ legendary Red Sox career. We have been blessed by his presence, and I shall never forget it.

Game 1: Red Sox 6, Indians 13

Rajai Davis: 0-1, K

Rajai Davis’ Red Sox debut came in a time of crisis, down seven runs as Mookie Betts exited the game in the bottom of the seventh inning with a sore knee. His only opportunity to hit would come in the top of the 9th. He struck out looking. You’ll get ‘em next time, champ.

Game 2: Red Sox 3, Orioles 16

Rajai Davis: 1-4

The first start of Rajai Davis’ Red Sox career would come at home against the Orioles. Playing centerfield in relief of the injured Jackie Bradley Jr., Davis batted eighth in the order and was quite a bit more active. Davis singled in the bottom of the fifth off Jeremy Hellickson. The stress of Davis’ presence on first base must have been too much for Hellickson, as he would threw a wild pitch two batters later and allow Davis to take second. Unfortunately, that batter was the fan who pretended to be Brock Holt all of last season, and he would ground out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the seventh, Davis’ tremendous offensive pressure would allow him to take a base yet again — shortstop Tim Beckham, fearful of his raw speed, committed a throwing error to first, leaving Davis safe. Davis would claim second once again on a fielder’s indifference. It’s not like catcher Welington Castillo had a prayer of throwing out Rajai Davis anyways.

The Red Sox would lose by 13.

Game 3: Red Sox 1, Orioles 2

Rajai Davis: 1-4, K, CS

After a well-earned night off for his tremendous exertion in the first Baltimore game, Rajai Davis – Mr. Consistency, you could call him – went 1-of-4 against the Orioles once again. He reached on an infield single in the bottom of the fourth inning, but was caught stealing. Hubris defeats even the greatest of us.

Game 4: Red Sox 3, Blue Jays 0

Rajai Davis: 2-4, 2 R, 2 SB

Spoiler-alert: this is Rajai Davis’ greatest game in a Boston uniform — he picked up 22 percent of his total hits with the Red Sox in this game, as well as 66 percent of his stolen bases. Davis singled in the top of the sixth and eighth innings, and each time stole second before coming around to score. He also hit leadoff, because 2017 John Farrell deployed lineups as his own form of abstract art.

Game 5: Red Sox 7, Blue Jays 1

Rajai Davis: 0-4, BB, 3 K

For the sake of Rajai Davis, we won’t discuss this game. We have to respect our living legends.

Game 6: Red Sox 2, Yankees 6

Rajai Davis: 0-3, 2 K

Another bump in the road to baseball immortality for Rajai Davis, who suffered the ignominy of being subbed out for the impostor wearing Brock Holt’s skin after two strikeouts. This was also the game where C.C. Sabathia got mad at the Red Sox for bunting once. Fun times.

Games 7-13:

Rajai Davis: 0-5, 2 K, R

With Jackie Bradley returned from the disabled list, Rajai Davis was relegated to the bench. Over this stretch of time — roughly half of September — Davis primarily appeared as a pinch runner and defensive replacement. He did not record a hit or a stolen base. Scored a run, though!

Game 14: Red Sox 4, Blue Jays 9

Rajai Davis: 1-1, 2B, RBI, R

Woah! Rajai Davis extra base hit! Davis showcased his clutch gene in this game, pinch-hitting in the bottom of the eighth inning down seven runs and helping spark a Sox rally. Davis doubled home Chris Young and blazed in a run of his own off a single from Hanley Ramirez. Those would be the last Red Sox runs of the game, however.

Fun fact: Rajai Davis’ wRC+ for this game was 718. Mike Trout’s career wRC+ is 169. Get bent, Mike.

Game 15: Red Sox 10, Blue Jays 7

Rajai Davis: 2-4, 2B, 2 R, RBI, SB

Rajai Davis’ Power Explosion continued into the following day, as Davis would blast another double against Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada and his formidable 4.98 ERA. This was a showcase of the all-around package we’ve come to expect from Rajai Davis year-in and year-out: two runs, an RBI, a stolen base, and an extra base hit.

Game 16: Red Sox 2, Astros 3

Rajai Davis: 1-3, K, R

Game 17: Red Sox 3, Astros 4

Rajai Davis: 1-4, K

The final three games of Rajai Davis’ storied Red Sox career would happen to come against the Houston Astros. The first two came in the final series of the regular season, and saw Davis pick up a base hit in each. You could say this made him something of an Astro-killer. It might not be true, but you could say it.

Game 18: Red Sox 2, Astros 8

Rajai Davis: 0-0

Shockingly, the Red Sox did not give Davis or his career playoff line of .175/.209/.275 much of an opportunity in October. Davis made his only appearance of the series in the second game in relief of Mookie Betts in right field, when Betts tweaked his wrist in the eighth inning. Davis did not hit a dramatic home run, and in fact, did not even record a plate appearance. Thus ended his Red Sox career. We shall never see his like again.

What Went Right:

The Red Sox brought Rajai Davis in to fill an outfield spot while Jackie Bradley Jr. recovered from a sprained thumb. He may have hit terribly, graded negatively in the field, and only swiped three bases, but he was undeniably very good at existing. So, there’s that.

What Went Wrong:

Rajai Davis did not hit for the cycle even a single time.

What to Expect:

At some point, a team will decide they need somebody to run a whole bunch. Rajai Davis will heroically answer the call.

Photo by Kevin Sousa — USA TODAY Sports

2017? Well, things got worse for the outfielder. Young didn’t suffer any injuries that required a stint on the disabled list, but his performances instead suffered from an odd pattern of usage. He had his high points, of course, but the lowlights were more common, and there was a time where he actually started over Andrew Benintendi. Don’t worry, it was totally justified and wasn’t at all a waste of time for both players. Promise!

What Went Right

Well, his high points certainly were fun.

He put the Red Sox ahead in a 13-inning win in St. Louis. Young’s basically an unsung hero at this point.

Young also had two multi-HR games, which is pretty wild considering he had less than 300 plate appearances. He certainly made them count. The second-oldest outfielder on the team could still barrel it up just as well as the youngest of them, it seems.

What Went Wrong

You see those two highlights up there? Notice how the pitchers he’s facing are both right-handed. Young’s struggles can be attributed to facing more right-handers, and a not-so-spectacular performance against lefties compared to 2016. Last year, Young saw 144 PAs aginst RHP, and this year, it went up to 160. He had a .590 OPS against left-handed pitching as well, so no matter the handedness, Young was having issues. But it certainly doesn’t help when you can’t even be deployed correctly, or when your manager plays his hand too early and the opponent changes pitchers.

Also, for reasons related to rookie struggles (I assume), Young got starts over Benintendi midway through the season. Sure, some were against tough lefties, but Young ended up facing a fair few right-handed starters as well. As much as you want to give Young some playing time, you need to let your 22-year-old outfielder figure things out for himself. Maybe bench him for a day or two, but don’t predominately use Young over him for a substantial period of time. Benintendi’s track record shows that he’s too good a hitter for him to lose PAs to Chris Young. While Young is a useful bench piece, he’s not a starter anymore. Just let him be a bench guy. He didn’t need to be pressed into service like that.

While he saw a good amount of action in the first half, he didn’t do much once the All-Star break passed. Young wasn’t even on the ALDS roster until Eduardo Nunez’s knee broke down again. That’s how much they went away from him in the second half.

What To Expect

Not anything for the Red Sox, probably. Young’s contract ended once the 2017 season concluded, and the outfielder is now a free agent. The Red Sox could certainly bring him back if they wanted, but it’s not something they’ll focus on until the tail-end of the offseason. Bryce Brentz could step in and do his job if the Red Sox felt like using an in-house option, but they didn’t even bring up Brentz when the rosters expanded last season, so it makes you wonder if they’ll ever use him in the majors again.

Barring a surprise re-signing, 2017 looks like it’ll be Young’s final season in a Red Sox uniform. The man did his job, and that’s all you can really ask for from a player like him.

Photo by Thomas B. Shea — USA TODAY Sports

The struggles against left-handed starters are present for the majority of the guys who makeup the regular lineups:

With the caveat that we are playing with small samples of plate appearances and recognizing that OPS is not the best measure of offensive production, Chris Young, Hanley Ramirez and Xander Bogaerts’ inability to do damage against lefty starters this year is alarming. They are all down at least 300 points from last year and 190 points from their career marks. Xander has been playing hurt and it is killing him at the plate. Likewise, Hanley’s shoulder injury affected him and likely had a knock-on effect on Young’s opportunities. Despite Young’s struggles, the Red Sox seem to be happy to move forward with him as the fourth-outfielder-primary-righty-bench-bat for the playoffs. They could have promoted Bryce Brentz, who has crushed lefties for Triple-A Pawtucket (.279/.380/.577), but elected not to. In Young we trust, I guess.

It is worth mentioning that in 2016 the Red Sox’s offense, which was largely made up of the same guys as this year, also performed considerably worse against left-handed starters than against right-handed starters (.758 v .824). However some of that was a function of rough luck in scheduling, as the lefties they lined up against last year included six top-50 starters (by BP’s WARP): Jose Quintana (twice), Chris Sale, James Paxton, Madison Bumgarner, Danny Duffy, and Dallas Keuchel. They knocked Quintana and Keuchel around, but the point stands. Given my mentioning this fact, you might think the 2017 difficulty against lefties has also been a function of who they have faced, but the difficult-opponent issue has not really been present this year. Only Paxton and Quintana currently qualify as top-50 starters among the lefties they have opposed in 2017. If you only saw bunt-hating C.C. Sabathia’s starts against the Red Sox (1.04 RA9 in 26.0 innings) you might think he was the class of the league, but his 4.8 RA9 in his 105.0 not-against-the-Red-Sox innings shows he is not and makes me even more mad about how he has dominated them this year.

All of this might come across as another pessimistic article about another fatal flaw of this 2017 Red Sox team. While there is a clear difficulty against lefty-starters, the Red Sox have patched together enough of an offense to complement their strong pitching and defense, and be in control of the American League East with strong odds of making the postseason. What’s more is that other than the Yankees, who could throw three left-handed starters in a playoff series (Sabathia, Jamie Garcia, and Jordan Montgomery), none of the other likely playoff teams in the AL feature left-handed heavy rotations. The Cleveland “21 Straight” Windians have an entirely right-handed rotation, and Keuchel is the lone lefty in the Astros’ starting corps. Don’t get me wrong, the Red Sox will be in really tough against either of those rotations in a Division Series, but considering the offense’s performance to date, the lack of lefties could make the task a little easier. And of course, given the track records of the guys on this team, the offense can be much better.

Photo by Bob DeChiara – USA TODAY Sports

It’s fun because it’s silly, because it’s juvenile, and because it’s utterly unnecessary. I love that they’ve spent time figuring this thing out – you do this, and you do this and I’ll do this, no wait let’s try it this way, and on and on – time which has been spent together, working as friends.

Winning baseball is fun. Any team that wins is fun. And this 2017 Red Sox team wins, so by definition they are fun. But this team is more than fun-because-they-win fun. This team is straight up roller-coaster milk-coming-out-your-nose yelling-out-the-moon-roof-of-a-moving-car fun, and the outfield dance is only one reason. Here are many, many others.

1. Anytime anyone tries to hit a ball past Dustin Pedroia.
2. Chili Davis. On one end of the cool cat scale you have former Yankees catcher Brian McCann, who probably dresses like an old timey school marm and hits puppies with sticks for fun. On the other end of the cool cat scale you have Chili Davis, who plays jazz trumpet in clubs until 4am and will chat you up long after that. Does he really play jazz trumpet in clubs after games? Who knows, but metaphorically speaking absolutely.
3. Hanley. The Red Sox drafted him and then they dealt him away. That happens. Baseball is a business. But through all that, through two other organizations and a literal decade of time, dude still felt an attachment to Boston and wanted to come back. I’ll never forget that. Also he’s a total goofball whose helmet needs to be crazy-glued to his hair. We should get a Kickstarter rolling for that.
4. Hanley’s homers. GOOD GOD Y’ALL, those things GO. When he gets a hold of one it’s a sight to see. I tell ya, A SIGHT TO SEE!
5. You know what’s fun? Stuff that is exciting! And you know what’s exciting? Any time the Red Sox get a base runner! Will he steal? Maybe! Will he be thrown out at home by 30 feet? Maybe! Exciting! Fun!
6. Andrew Benintendi’s hair.
7. Andrew Benintendi’s swing.
8. Andrew Benintendi.
9. You know how when Mookie stands in the batter’s box and glares back at the pitcher his lip does this little curl thing, kinda like Elvis Presley used to do? I love that.
10. Craig Kimbrel is striking out more than half the batters he’s faced this season. He’s at 51.8 percent right now! Exclamation point! Vomit! YELLING! Fifty-one point eight perWHAT! AHHHHHHH! That’s a lot is what I’m saying.
11. So this kid who is 20 years old was playing for Salem, Virginia in the Carolina League last season and now he’s the starting third baseman for the Red Sox and he’s always smiling like that time he smiled after he turned around a 103 mph fastball from Aroldis Chapman and tied the game in ninth inning. That was a smile!
12. Joe Kelly’s velocity readings are fun!
13. Joe Kelly’s great stuff is funny because it’s not real, which is fun!
14. You know how the Yankees aren’t doing great and are always mad and they are paying Aroldis Chapman a lot of money to be awful? That’s not directly related to the Red Sox but it sure is fun anyway!
15. The standings! You should look at them sometime. They are great fun.
16. Mookie sometimes fools fielders and thieves bases from them.
17. Jackie’s defense. Have you ever seen him miss a ball? Like, ever?
18. Sandy Leon and his occasional magic. You never see it coming and then POW! Right in the kisser!
19. Brandon Workman last pitched in the majors in 2014. You know who started the most games for that team? Jon Lester, John Lackey, Clay Buchholz, Jake Peavy, Rubby De La Rosa, and Workman. That’s a long time ago! Then Workman got hurt and rehabbed and then he got hurt again and rehabbed and his rehab didn’t take and he had to start and stop and start and stop and start and stop again. Poor guy as recently as this season was throwing 87 in the minors and getting lit up. Now he’s back in the mid-90s and looking like a worthwhile piece of a major league bullpen. That’s persistence. That’s perseverance. That’s impressive. Also, remember that time he batted in the World Series? Less fun, that.
20. Addison Reed will probably help eventually!
21. Eduardo Nunez: How bad must the Giants have been that they couldn’t win with this guy?
22. Remember that time Doug Fister looked like Chris Sale? That was fun! (We’ll ignore the time Chris Sale looked like Doug Fister.)
23. Robby Scott might not be your favorite Red Sox, but he’s one of mine. Remember Daniel Nava? Scott is the reliever version of Nava. Like Nava, Scott went undrafted and started his career in pro ball only Scott played for the Yuma Scorpions of the independent league where he was teammates with Jose and Ozzie Canseco. It’s like wanting to be a baseball player and the only job available was with the circus. He almost quit baseball to become a teacher, which considering his circumstances, made perfect sense. But now he’s in a major league bullpen!
24. Fenway Park. I don’t care that the seats are small and everything costs a fortune. Okay, I care, but the point is that’s the place Ruth played, where Williams and Yaz and Ortiz all made their names. It’s worth it, it’s worth every bit of it. Fenway is on the top of any list of major league ballparks because it’s living history, but also because it’s damn beautiful right now. Really, it’s at the top of any list of pro sports stadiums that you have to visit. It’s the best.
25. Fernando Abad has been okay!
26. Rick Porcello’s immaculate inning. Remember that?! That was crazy!
27. Rafael Devers’ triple play. Remember that?!? That was crazy!
28. Unexpected stuff is lots of fun, when it’s good, and Porcello’s 2016 was exactly that. Drew Pomeranz has taken up where Rick Porcello’s 2016 season left off. Pomeranz has been as valuable as Jose Quintana and Jake Arrieta by BP’s metrics, and as valuable as Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander by Baseball Reference. Pomeranz has been what the Red Sox thought they were getting when they signed David Price. He’s been that good.
29. Chris Young’s weird short-armed swing is so weird. How does he hit the ball? I don’t know!
30. Chris Sale has over 253 strikeouts which coincidentally is the same number of times I would strike out against Chris Sale were I to bat against him 253 times.
31. Heath Hembree’s hair. It’s like he saw the movie Coming To America where Eddie Murphy’s character wears soul glow hair goop and thought, yeah, that’s what I want.
32. Have you seen those embarrassing high school pictures the relievers (probably Joe Kelly) have hung in the bullpen? They’re hilarious!

This is only a partial list. There’s also Brian Johnson’s complete game five-hitter against the Mariners in May, Tzu-Wei Lin getting three hits in a 15-1 win over the Blue Jays, and of course, that time Deven Marrero hit two homers in the same game off Jose Quintana. It really does go on and on with this team. They are a ton of fun, and that will be true whether they go out meekly in the first round, or win the World Series. Even after a spanking from Cleveland, I look forward to the next Red Sox game. Fun times are good.

Photo by Ken Blaze – USA TODAY Sports

Best Game

There have been quite a few gems in the first half, so picking one was predictably difficult. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that watching exciting highlights is easy.

With that said, the winner, as is the case with most things, is Mookie Betts. On July 1st, Betts went 4-6 with two homers and eight RBIs. It was the second time in less than a calendar year that Betts had 8 RBI in a game, which is absurd.

If you wanted to give the award to Andrew Benintendi for his five-hit, two-homer, six-RBI game in Texas that was capped off with a highlight-reel catch in left, I wouldn’t stop you. But we’re an analytics-focused site, and 8 > 6 (by 2!) so Markus gets the award. Way to go Markus.

Runner-up: Andrew Benintendi vs. Texas

Worst Game

One of Pablo Sandoval’s probably. (ed. note: this is extremely likely.)

Best Pitching Performance 

Chris Sale, 4/20 (nice) vs. Toronto: 8 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 13 K, BB

Sale’s been as advertised, posting a 2.08 FIP over 18 starts so far. The following is a list of statistics that he’s posting career bests in this year:

H/9 – 6.6
BB/9 – 1.6
WHIP – 0.90
cFIP – 59

He’s also on pace to break 7 WARP for the first time in his career. He started the All-Star game for the AL, and barring some sort of disaster (please god no) he’s in line to win his first Cy Young. He’s only gone less than six innings once all year and has hit double-digit strikeouts in 10 of his 18 starts. Ironically enough, he registered a no-decision in that April 20th gem, so here’s the space to get angry about wins and losses again. It’s been a blast to watch Sale pitch every five days this year. Hopefully Joe Kelly gave him one of those ‘He’s the Ace’ shirts.

Runner-up: Drew Pomeranz

Worst Pitching Performance

Kyle Kendrick, 5/10 vs. MIL: 4.1 IP, 10 H, 6 ER, 2 K, BB

The Kyle Kendrick Spot Start Campaign came to a swift and painful end that night in Milwaukee, as Kendrick hasn’t been seen since. With Doug Fister being fine I guess and Eduardo Rodriguez ready to come back after the break, we’ve probably seen the last of Kendrick in a Red Sox uniform.

Runner-up: Rick Porcello.

Most Surprising Hitter 

Tzu-Wei Lin (!!)

This is admittedly what being a prisoner of the moment looks like, but sometimes being a prisoner of the moment is fun. In 15 games since being called up, Lin has hit .333/.435/.436 with a bunch of singles and two triples. While he’s never hit much in his time spent in the Red Sox system, he did look competent last year, hitting .302/.379/.419 over 48 games in Double-A Portland. His return to Earth is coming soon, but he’s been a fun story at 3rd base for the last two weeks, which is more than any other third baseman on the roster can claim.

Runner-up: Mitch Moreland and his broken toe.

Most Disappointing Hitter 

Chris Young.

For being a lefty-crusher, he sure isn’t crushing very many lefties. He’s hitting .245 against them this season, a 20-point decrease from his career average (.266). His 2017 wRC+ against lefties is 72. Seventy-two. He’s yet to take one deep, and has a .038 ISO against them this year. He hasn’t even been unlucky against them, either. Just kind of bad. He’s been especially bad at home against them, hitting .095 over 23 plate appearances. Luckily, the Red Sox outfield doesn’t necessarily need him to hit in order to keep winning, but after a great 2016, it’s been a bummer to see Young struggle.

Runner-up: The team’s power as a whole.

Best Home Run

Retire his number now.

Photo by Jasen Vinlove – USA TODAY Sports

One thing this offense excels in is making contact. They are third in the majors in contact percentage, just slightly behind the leading Houston Astros. That is, without a doubt, a good thing. They don’t swing and miss, they put the ball in play, and force the other team to get them out. That’s a sound strategy, and ups the chance that your opponent will make a mistake in your favor. Where the Red Sox differ from the Astros in this regard is how much power they’re getting out of that contact. While the Astros lead the majors with a .201 Isolated Power, the Red Sox are a distant 26th place with a .149 ISO. Our very own Matt Kory wrote about the disappearance of the long ball on this webpage over two months ago, and while he did say the offense would be different, I don’t think he expected it to still lack power six weeks later.

The hitters aren’t going to run into one because that’s not really what they do in the post-Papi era. This offense is tailored to deliver death by paper cuts.

This leaves the offense susceptible to stretches of ineptitude, where the bounces don’t go your way, or when you can’t string hits together despite putting the ball in play. The hitters aren’t going to run into one because that’s not really what they do in the post-Papi era. This offense is tailored to deliver death by paper cuts, not crush baseballs 400 feet every other inning. While the Red Sox are in the top five in Fangraphs’ Hard Hit Percentage, they are also top five in infield fly ball percentage, which are basically pop-ups. Combine that with the 29th-ranked HR/FB rate, and you’re looking at a lot of weak contact in the air. The Red Sox can smoke a ton of liners and grounders, but they’ve been putrid when they’ve gotten under the ball whatsoever.

So let’s look at the sources of power for the Red Sox. Mitch Moreland’s been a pleasant surprise, and he’s still crushing homers despite a broken toe. Jackie Bradley Jr. is riding one of his patented hot streaks, so his ISO has risen to .211, just a point below Moreland. You’ve got the excellently consistent Mookie Betts sitting on a .203 ISO, and then…there’s a near-40-point gap to Hanley Ramirez’s .165. If that doesn’t seem bad enough, Dustin Pedroia has a .073 ISO. Yeesh.

Ramirez in particular has been an issue. I wrote about him last week, and revealed that he’s been awful against lefties, sliders, and anything up in the zone. I thought he was relatively healthy, but the shoulder is apparently still bothering him at times, and now his knee has been battered so badly that he’s had to sit out several games. Not a lot of driving force for Han-Ram.

Due to Hanley being a quasi-permanent DH for three months, I’m proposing a plan to 1. give the Red Sox some chance at finding power in their lineup, 2. make them healthier in general, and 3. give some of the young guys a chance to stick.

1. Place Hanley Ramirez on the 10-day DL.

Ramirez has a .265 TAv right now, cannot play the field, and is dealing with a sore knee. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had foot issues as well, considering all the foul balls he ends up drilling into his cleats. No matter the malady, he needs some time off. Three months of shoulder soreness is worrying, especially if it’s bad enough that playing first base is not at all an option. This all seems very 2015-like, where he crumpled his shoulder like a soda can early on in the season, came back a few days later, and was never the same. The Red Sox need to give him time off. He’s not hitting well, he’s clearly still hurt, and trotting him out there further exacerbates any problem he currently has.

2. Utilize a rotation with the DH spot.

Chris Teeter wrote about the Red Sox losing the platoon advantage a couple days ago, and with Ramirez out of the way, the DH spot becomes more flexible for per-game strategy. Chris Young is starting to see more time against lefties with Andrew Benintendi still struggling against them, and Sam Travis has been somewhat underused. You could even put Moreland here, and take some stress off the guy with the broken toe. Ramirez being on the DL lets the Red Sox be more flexible with lineup construction.

3. Call up Rafael Devers, even if it’s only for a couple weeks.

This is probably the hottest take here, so here goes: I think Devers could, right now, hit better than Ramirez’s currently slash of .241/.341/.406., and even if he doesn’t walk as much, he could make up for it with his power (insert fire emojis here). I don’t think it would hinder his development much – if at all – by giving him a cup of coffee for a couple weeks of games, while the Red Sox let Pablo Sandoval and Jhonny Peralta duke it out for the hot corner in Pawtucket. With the DH slot rotating, he wouldn’t even need to play third base all the time to get some plate appearances. Could his call-up be as uninspiring as Yoan Moncada’s last year? Possibly. But it’s worth a shot for a team starved for power, and costs them little to nothing to do so.

The Red Sox desperately need some sort of pop, and with how this team is built, it’s hard to go outside the organization to find it. The offense can put the bat on the ball with the best of them, but when it comes to putting power behind those hits, the Red Sox are no dynamos. The team isn’t in dire straits when it comes to winning games, but a lineup lacking power will keep this team struggling more often than you’d expect.

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The clearest example, to me anyway, of an injury limiting the Red Sox’s roster flexibility is Hanley Ramirez’s bum shoulder. The injury is preventing him from playing first base, and it is sapping his power: he has a career low isolated power of .167, which is another one of the many reasons the offense is underperforming. But let’s focus on the defensive aspect of the injury. Hanley’s inability to handle innings on defense has a knock-on effect that limits the team from consistently gaining a platoon advantage. If Hanley plays first base on days the Red Sox are opposing a left-handed pitcher, then Mitch Moreland can have a day-off (as he does not typically fare well against lefties), and lefty-masher Chris Young can slide into the designated hitter spot or even play outfield, thereby giving one of the young Bs a day at DH, and a pseudo-day-off. Taken together, that all sounds great: get an opposite handed batter into the lineup without losing too much on defense, and get guys a bit of rest. But Hanley can’t do it. So Moreland plays first everyday (he has played in 70 out of the Red Sox’s 75 games), regardless of the handedness of the opponent, and Young ends up with sporadic playing time that doesn’t necessarily align with his strength. Consider that the reduced flexibility I just described is just the outcome of Hanley’s issue. Factor in the losses of versatile, multi-position players like Brock Holt and Marco Hernandez and the roster becomes even more rigid.

Missing out on platoon advantage situations is a negative aspect of roster rigidity. Over and over again we hear about the advantage batters have when confronting opposite-handed pitchers. Maximizing these opportunities through day-to-day lineup adjustments, like those I described above, and late game pinch hitting decisions can boost an offense. Unfortunately, to date, the Red Sox have not been able to do so. According to the data available on Baseball Reference’s Play Index Splits Finder, through Saturday’s game, only 47.1 percent of the Red Sox’s offensive plate appearances have been with the platoon advantage. That percentage, almost half, might not sound so bad, but it is the fifth lowest percentage in baseball and a long way behind the Cleveland Flying Franconas’ league-leading mark of 71.85 percent; life is nice when you have three switch-hitters in your everyday lineup. Converting all 43 of Mitch Moreland’s plate appearances against lefties to Chris Young doesn’t shoot the Red Sox to the top of charts on this measure, but it moves them up a few spots and, most importantly, would likely have increased the production they got in those plate appearances.

You’re not going to platoon Mookie Betts. That would be absurd. He hits everybody well. But Chris Young hits lefties much better than Mitch Moreland. Brock Holt will hit a fireballing right-handed reliever better than Christian Vazquez.

The platoon advantage is not everything. Many poor offenses have had a large percentage of their plate appearances set up in their favor by handedness, and many of the strong offenses have often faced a disadvantage by handedness. At the team level, the correlation between percentage-of-plate-appearances-with-the-platoon-advantage and TAv is basically zero (r² = .001). After all, good players and teams can (and likely will) perform well, regardless of the advantage. It is when a team can reliably exchange a situation that presents as a disadvantage for one that is advantageous (or at least better) that the benefit can show up. You’re not going to platoon Mookie Betts. That would be absurd. He hits everybody well. But Chris Young hits lefties much better than Mitch Moreland. Brock Holt (or even Marco Hernandez) will hit a fireballing right-handed reliever better than Christian Vazquez. These are the situations that could be exploited by the Red Sox, but the lack of lineup flexibility presented by their injuries prevents it from happening.

It is worth noting that the Red Sox’s low percentage of plate appearances with the platoon advantage is not only present with the offense. On the pitching side, teams ideally get as many same-handed matchups as they can, but a rotation of Rick Porcello and a series of lefties (Chris Sale, David Price, Drew Pomeranz, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brian Johnson) limits the extent to which that is possible. Accordingly, the Red Sox’s pitchers have only had the platoon advantage in 41.09 percent of their matchups, which is the second lowest mark in baseball, ahead of only the Kansas City Royals. Terry Francona and his boys are on top here as well, with 53.83 percent of their matchups being same-handed affairs. The Red Sox are a top-10 team by runs allowed, so all these disadvantaged plate appearances are not killing them – at the team level, the correlation between percentage-of-plate-appearances-with-the-platoon-advantage and RA is a little stronger than the comparison for the offensive numbers, but not much better (r² = .088).

Combine the offense and the defense and the Red Sox have had the platoon advantage the second least often in baseball:

In the end, it is really difficult to know what to take away from this fact. On the one hand, the lack of lineup flexibility and predominantly-left-handed rotation have put the Red Sox in less advantageous situations more than almost any other team in the game. But, on the other hand, they are in (or very near) first place, have strong pitching and defense, and the expectation is that the offense, even as currently constituted, can be much better. It would certainly be a lot of fun to watch a Red Sox team that mixes-and-matches, and uses all of its parts in order to give players the best chance to succeed as often as possible. Given the way things are looking health-wise, it seems as though, for this year, the Red Sox are going to keep plowing toward the finish line with the more straight-forward, everyday-nine approach.

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Let’s start by stating the obvious: he’s probably going to be good. He might even be great. He’s widely considered the best prospect in baseball, and while that certainly doesn’t guarantee success, he’s lived up to the billing thus far. Here’s him doing a good baseball thing that would make him seem like a good baseball player.

Benintendi did just well enough in his brief stint last year to move his narrative from guarded optimism to (strangely) overwhelming confidence. That’s not to say that enthusiastic confidence is a bad thing – it’s part of what makes him so exciting as a prospect – but it is dangerous. He has only played 34 games in the majors, and yes, the numbers he put up in the minors suggests he’s a safe bet. It’s still betting though, and while an underwhelming season would be surprising, it also wouldn’t be unheard of. So let’s kill the mood by trying to identify some things to be concerned about. Bet you’re glad you clicked on this link!

Injury

The Trop giveth and The Trop taketh away. Remember this?

That’s without a doubt the most misleading knee sprain I’ve ever seen. I was absolutely convinced that he shredded every ligament in his left leg. I mean, he got the two-man carry off the field. He came back like three weeks later and crushed a homer in the ALDS, which was the only fun moment during that entire series.

He doesn’t come with an injury history, although it’s not like he’s played enough to make one in the first place. He had a procedure done on his foot in college, which is listed in this article as one of the primary contributors to his slow start during his freshman year. There’s no reason to think he’s going to struggle with injuries throughout his career, although all the Grady Sizemore comparisons aren’t helping anyone.

Hitting lefties

He’s not great at it! He went 5-33 (.179) against lefties during his run in Boston last year which is obviously not enough at-bats to make any definitive claims. His minor league numbers are tricky, as he doesn’t really have many at-bats against lefties to his name. But in case you were wondering, Benintendi hit lefties poorly (.214/.353/.429) over 14 at-bats in Single-A Greenville, but was much better against them the following season in Double-A Portland, hitting .326/.412/.488 over 43 at-bats.

Whatever, hitting lefties is Chris Young’s job.

Arm strength 

This is what everyone falls back on when they’re writing up their scouting reports on Benintendi. When your arm is getting compared to Johnny Damon’s, maybe hit the curls a little harder. (To be fair, it sort of looks like he did.) Benintendi actually projects as an average to above-average defender, but yes, the arm strength could use some work. He’s accurate and has a quick release, both of which mitigate the arm strength issues, but they pale in comparison to the boon that he’ll get by playing half his games in Fenway’s left field. The Red Sox have cannons in center and right, both of which are far more necessary positions to have a little extra zip.

If the biggest problem with Benintendi’s season is that his arm strength ends up being underwhelming, he’ll have had a great season.

A little exposition: he’s a 27-year-old career minor leaguer who’s been getting some at-bats with the Red Sox this spring. He hits and throws righty and plays in the outfield, for now. The difference between Selsky and 95 percent of the other players who don’t get to have their last names on the back of their #87 jersey is that in Selsky, the team seems to think they’ve legitimately found a useful major league contributor.

Nice! I’m soldsky. What does he do well?

To get a sense of what Selsky brings to the team, you have to take a look at his minor league numbers, as he’s only had 54 plate appearances at the major league level. As you can probably guess, that will get touched upon later, so let’s just look at his minor league numbers and make some questionable jumps in logic!

Selsky has shown flashes of being able to hit in the minors. He slashed .348/.420/.618 in 69 games (nice) for the Reds’ Single-A team in 2012 and then followed that up by hitting  .297/.388/.497 over 97 games the following year. He also flexed some power, hitting 28 home runs over that two-year span. He’s had up and down years since then, but is coming off a 2016 season where he hit .280/.363/.459 over 85 games for the Reds’ Triple-A team. So, the ability’s there. Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal wrote about Selsky’s path to the team that touched on how the team views Selsky’s potential role.

Obviously, it’s telling that the team is giving him reps at third. There’s hardly any point in showing that level of commitment to a player of Selsky’s caliber unless the team sees something in him. As the Red Sox roster stands, there’s no real position that Selsky could make a realistic run at, even as a backup. The depth is intriguing though, and the team seems to think they have a versatile bench bat.

This is wonderful news! What a convenient story. What’s the catch? 

Where to begin?

– He’s had 54 major league plate appearances since getting drafted six years ago. Fifty-four. If he was a sure bet to even reach his relatively low ceiling, you’d think he’d be closer to reaching it by now.

– Sure, he’s had some good years. But he also hit .181/.281/.205 over 32 games at Double-A in 2013 and .240/.259/.339 over 55 games in Triple-A in 2014. He’s had some clunkers.

– He strikes out a LOT. Like, a lotttttttttt. His career K% hovers around 20 percent, and over 54 games with the Reds, that number shot up to 40 percent. I don’t care about your small sample size caveats; that’s so many strikeouts. You might even say it’s a lot with extra Ts.

– For being someone who supposedly brings some power potential, he doesn’t have that much power. After hitting 15 homers in 2012 and 13 in 2013, Selsky hasn’t reached double-digit home run totals since. In fact, outside of 2016, when he had nine homers (which is actually good news for Red Sox fans but we’re already past the good news part of this article), he hasn’t had more than two in a season since 2013.

– Even his major league numbers are misleading. .314/.340/.471 over 24 games is just enough time to be optimistically intrigued, but those numbers were never going to last. Over that time period, besides striking out 40 percent of the time, he also has an absurd .519 BABIP. He also only posted a 3.7 percent BB%. To recap: he was striking out half the time, never walking, and was abnormally lucky.

There’s probably not a lot there. He’s blocked by Chris Young, Brock Holt, Marco Hernandez apparently(!?), and Josh Rutledge on the bench. The end of the bench (coughjosh’sspotcough) could conceivably be a place where a strong spring could land him but, it doesn’t seem likely.

And that’s Steve Selsky. They can’t all be about Mookie Betts.

Photo by Reinhold Matay – USA TODAY Sports