Red Sox Report

       On Wednesday, the Red Sox optioned Vaughn Grissom to minor league camp, seemingly leaving the second base position down to 2. Instead, a potential new option has emerged in the form of top prospect Marcelo Mayer. Mayer made his second base debut as a substitute on Tuesday, before getting the start on Wednesday. The 22 year old has been on fire from the plate this spring, hitting .355 with a 1.025 OPS. In 77 AA games, Mayer hit .307 with an .850 OPS.      Although he has never played second at the professional level, Mayer is confident he can adjust. "Everything is backwards compared to short and third base. But I'm athletic, I think I could figure it out pretty quickly."       Mayer has never played anything other than third base or shortstop. Due to his bigger frame and below-average speed, some evaluators picture him as a long term third basemen. Mayer's quick first step and athleticism should make the transition across the...

      With Rafael Devers recently putting out the fire on the "third base is mine" debacle, a new hole has opened up at second base for the Red Sox. When Alex Bregman signed with the Red Sox, many suspected he would start at second with Devers making a hard claim for the hot corner. But a delayed start and nagging shoulders mean it looks like Devers has ceded the position and agreed to see some time at DH. This leaves the only hole in the lineup at second base.      Last season, Enmanuel Valdez led the team at WAR for second basemen, with a measly -.6 Wins Above Replacement. With Valdez no longer on the roster, the Red Sox have no one rostered who played more than 40 games at the big league level at second base last season. The battle seems to be down to just 3 players, that being Vaughn Grissom, David Hamilton, and Kristian Campbell.     Coming into camp, Campbell was an early favorite to crack the big league roster in some way. MLB.com's #7 Over...

     With Alex Cora confirming Kutter Crawford will begin the year on the injured list and with Brayan Bello's opening day status in doubt, a hole has opened in the Red Sox rotation for the #5 starter job. Crochet, Buehler, Houck, and Giolito will likely operate in spots 1-4, but the Red Sox, facing a heavy early schedule, will need a 5th starter as to not wear out the bullpen early. In my eyes, there are only 3 candidates for the job, Quinn Priester, Richard Fitts, and Cooper Criswell.      Last season, Criswell was brought in as a AAA depth option for the Red Sox, but quickly found himself thrust into the rotation due to a string of injuries early. Criswell impressed for the Red Sox, throwing to a 3.49 ERA in 16 starts. While his FIP of 4.21 indicates some luck, his 6.8 BB% and 51.6 GB% helped him prevent runners from getting on base and stay an effective contact-first pitcher. Criswell has far and away the most experience out of the bunch, as Priester an...

      Brayan Bello came into 2024 as the clear-cut number 1 on a young, unproved starting rotation. After signing a 6 year, 55 million dollar extension, Bello was supposed to be the leader of the staff. This year, MLB.com projects Bello as the number 5 starter, barely edging Kutter Crawford for the last rotation spot. So what happened?     Bello's 2024 was not as different from his 2023 as it may seem. He pitched around the same amount of innings, had a similar ERA around 4.40, and actually struck out one batter per nine more than he did in his "breakout" 2024. The differences come in the contact he allowed. His groundball rate dropped from 56% to 50%, still in the 86th percentile but a noticeable dip. The big change was his linedrive rate increasing from 14% to 21%, back where it was in 2022. But this still doesn't really explain why Bello was so much worse in 2024. The increased linedrive rate actually led to a lower hard-hit rate, by about 5%. His BABIP was a...

Mikey Romero was the Sox 1st round pick in 2022     Coming out of the same high school as Gerrit Cole, Cole Winn, and Garrett Mathews, Mikey Romero was destined for baseball greatness. That's why the Red Sox made Romero their 2022 first round pick, taking him with the 24  overall pick that year. Since then, Romero has been nothing less than disappointing. While hitting on Roman Anthony in the Compensatory round of that draft has made the sting a little less painful, it still hurts to see a first round pick flounder as Romero has.      Since being selected, Romero has only played in 131 professional games. He is yet to play 80 games in a season. A combination of various back injuries has hindered Romero's career so far, but he looked to be finally figuring it out at the end of last year, finishing in AA and staying relatively healthy after dealing with his back injuries early.      There's reasons to be optimistic for Romero to have a turnarou...

        Kristian Campbell's Early Struggles     Kristian Campbell, MLB's Minor League player of the year, came into camp this year with lofty expectations and a starting spot on the MLB roster within reach. So far, he has not lived up to those massive expectations. In todays Spring Training contest against the Orioles, Campbell snapped an 0-13 start, notching his first spring hit in a 1-3 game.      Alex Cora, when discussing the young prospect, showed his confidence in Campbell's ability to turn things around. "I think the good thing is we have a pretty good idea of what he needs. We talked to him, [telling him] you need to swing less."      So far, Campbell has 8 strikeouts in his first 13 at-bats. Cora cited his swing decisions and his 2-strike approach as something for them to work on. Campbell's 19% K-rate across A, AA, and AAA was in line with league averages. His outside zone swing percentage was also well below league a...

     For the second spring in two years, Ceddanne Rafaela is a major talking point of Spring Training. This year, the question was "how can Ceddanne make the leap his sophomore year?" Well, we may have our answer. Ceddanne has came out of the gate hot this spring, with 5 hits in his first 13 at bats, with a homerun, a double, and 5 RBI's. More importantly though, he has 2 walks to 0 strikeouts so far.      The last time Rafaela drew a walk in a major league game was August 9th, in which he drew 2 against Houston. In August and September, he drew 2 walks and struck out 46 times. His K%, BB%, and chase % were all amongst the bottom in the league, with his K% and chase % in the bottom 1st percentile. Rafaela, and the Red Sox, knew that plate discipline and his swing decisions.      To address that, Rafaela made some slight adjustments to his swing and mindset as he prepared for this upcoming season. His new swing features a leg kick and lowered ...

      Despite early injury concerns to starters Brayan Bello, Lucas Giolito, and Kutter Crawford, Alex Cora shut down the idea of starting the year with a six man rotation.     Speaking Friday, Cora said, "[A six man rotation] is a conversation for when everyone is healthy. You cannot protect everyone. We've got some guys in the bullpen that we need to protect too. I think versatility and multi-inning relievers will benefit this team probably better than a six-man rotation."     With Bello reportedly being on track for opening day, the rotation will likely consist of Bello, Tanner Houck, Lucas Giolito, and newcomers Garrett Crochet and Walker Buehler. Kutter Crawford, who led the team in starts and innings pitched last year, is not expected to be ready by opening day as he deals with knee issues. He figures to be inserted into the rotation when healthy.      Cora's remarks on multi-inning relievers also gives us some insight on what look...

Burdi threw 9 innings for the Yankees last year. Brad Penner, USA Today        The Red Sox signed 32 year old veteran reliever Nick Burdi to a minor league contract on Friday. Burdi appeared in 12 games last year, and was impressive when he pitched. The problem is he does not pitch often. Due to a myriad of injuries, Burdi has only appeared in 25 MLB innings in parts of 5 seasons and has already had 2 Tommy John surgeries.     When healthy, Burdi has some great swing and miss stuff (14 K/9) but has really struggled with command, leading to a higher than average walk rate. He has some great raw stuff, his fastball averaged 97.5 MPH last year, with his slider sitting around 88. Fangraphs loves both pitches, as shown by his 114 Stuff+.     Burdi will likely start the year in AAA, where he will need to develop a third quality offering and stay healthy if he wants to contribute at the big league level.