Massarotti: 5 Red Sox Worth Watching This Weekend
BOSTON (CBS) - The Red Sox were due for this, sooner or later, because nobody hits for 162. And so as the Red Sox arrive in Minnesota for Friday night's opener of a three-game weekend series against the dreadful Minnesota Twins, here are five people worth watching, in no particular order:
1. Christian Vazquez
Remember when Vazquez replaced Blake Swihart and immediately felt like an elixir behind the plate? Well the drug has apparently worn off. For the year, Red Sox pitchers have a 4.58 ERA with Vazquez, who is now assuming the large majority of games with both Ryan Hanigan (neck) and Blake Swihart (ankle) dealing with injuries. Swihart was obviously playing left field at the time of his injury, but the point is that the Red Sox are already four deep on the depth chart with the recent arrival of backup Sandy Leon.
At the moment, the Sox rank near the bottom of the American League in offensive production at catcher, which is fine. But Vazquez is batting .217 overall and a woeful .179 in his last 18 games, all while his effect on the pitchers staff seems to have faded. So now what?
2. Hanley Ramirez
Let's be fair: overall, the first base experiment has worked. Save for Ramirez' inability to scoop a Travis Shaw throw in Toronto – and it was a big throw – Ramirez has been completely acceptable as a major league first baseman. The Red Sox haven't had nearly the defensive issues there that we thought they might.
The problem? The offense is now nonexistent.
As Alex Speier of the Boston Globe recently noted, the Red Sox rank near the bottom of the major league in productivity at first base. Ramirez was signed exclusively for his bat – at an annual average of $22 million, remember – and he has hit .171 with a mind-numbing .186 slugging percentage in his last 19 games. Maybe he's about to come out of it, but it's time to wonder whether Hanley can play defense and hit at the same time.
3. Travis Shaw
We told you then and we'll tell you now: the left-handed-hitting Shaw and Jackie Bradley were the keys to the Red Sox' lineup earlier in the season and they're the keys now. When both are locked in, opposing right-handers face a gauntlet of bats in the Boston lineup. When neither is, only David Ortiz is a daunting presence from the left side.
Since May 17 – the same day Ramirez started to go cold – Shaw is batting .177 with a .508 OPS and 26 strikeouts (against 14 hits) in 83 plate appearances. Interestingly, his slash line in 58 games this season (.275/.337/.473/.810) is almost identical to where it was a year ago in 65 total games (.270/.327/.487/.813). Water inevitably finds its level, and maybe Shaw has found his.
4. Jackie Bradley Jr.
Following a sizzling 29 game-hitting streak that brought his average to an absurd .350, Bradley was bound to cool. And he has. In the last 10 games, he's gone 6-for-37 – a .162 average – with a .620 OPS. His overall numbers are still quite good, and Bradley has more walks (seven) than strikeouts (six) during his recent slide, which is a good sign.
So here's the question: can Bradley minimize this slump? How long will it last? For Bradley to show true growth as a player, his dips need to be shorter than the 25-game stretch he had to finish last season, when he batted .138 with 27 strikeouts. Every player goes cold for 10 days to two weeks. But the truly inconsistent ones are as schizophrenic as Bradley was late last season.
5. John Farrell
Well, the topic was bound to come up again at some point. Wasn't it? Close, frustrating losses lead to inevitable second-guessing of the manager, which is standard. In the case of Farrell, they lead to inevitable questions about his job security because the Red Sox didn't sign Torey Lovullo to that extension for nothing.
On May 25, the Red Sox were 29-17, 12 games above .500. They have since gone 5-8 during a more difficult stretch of scheduling that has included Toronto (twice), Baltimore and San Francisco. The good news, in theory, is that the schedule lightens this weekend with Minnesota. But after that, the Sox face Baltimore, Seattle, the Chicago White Sox and Texas, all of whom have designs on the postseason.
If Boston's struggles continues, will Farrell be back on the hot seat?
