Red Sox Video
When Alex Cora sat down in front of the NESN cameras after the Red Sox lost 16-1 to the Rays, he was ready to take ownership of the on-field failures. “It seems like there was a team that was prepared for the other one and the other one wasn’t prepared for them," he said. "That goes from top all the way to the bottom. That wasn’t a good night for us. I’ll take the blame because it seemed like our team wasn’t ready to go." Statements like these have become a bit of a hallmark for Cora. He’s a player’s manager and is willing to fall on the sword for his team. He can handle the negative attention and comments, that’s part of what he was hired to do.
Eventually, though, you have to wonder if it’s working. On paper, this Red Sox team should be the best team in the American League. They shouldn’t be getting almost swept by the likes of the Blue Jays and the lowly White Sox. Sure, you can excuse a bit away because of the frigid conditions at Fenway Park during the series with the Blue Jays, but the offense was listless. That trend continued into the weekend series with the White Sox. We thought that venturing to a warmer climate in Florida might wake up the bats, but after one game, it looks like more of the same. On top of that, the defense has been terrible. The Red Sox lead all of baseball with 20 errors on the season, a problem that the signing of Alex Bregman and the return of Trevor Story were supposed to help fix (though it's worth noting that according to Statcast's fielding run value, Boston grades out just about average defensively). Bregman currently leads the team with four errors. An outfield that some predicted could sweep the American League Gold Glove awards looks like a weakness so far. Jarren Duran has gotten off to slow start both offensively and defensively, and Ceddanne Rafaela is making highlight reel plays but is still a liability on offense. Wilyer Abreu has been one of the few bright spots on both sides of the ball, but he’s currently battling his way back from his first mini slump of the season.
All hope isn’t lost. It’s still early in the season, so it’s not yet time to hit the panic button. Plus, the American League as a whole is underperforming. Most teams are hovering around .500, and as of Tuesday morning, only two teams have nine wins. Unfortunately, those two teams are the Yankees and Blue Jays. There’s still a lot of baseball to be played and the Red Sox should be able to turn it around. If they can’t, though, it’s fair to wonder if coaches like Pete Fatse and, yes, even Jason Varitek will find their seats growing hotter. It’s incredibly rare for coaching changes to happen this early in the season, but should this slide continue, I don’t think it can be ruled out entirely. The Red Sox should be better than this, and honestly, they have to be better than this. If they can't find their footing, then sweeping changes could be coming sooner rather than later.
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