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By Tony Massarotti, 98.5 The Sports Center
As a longtime baseball wizard told me, beware of veteran players. They grow up right. They become complacent. Especially once they win.
Which brings us to the two players on the Red Sox that deserve your attention now: the young parents, Rafael Devers and Michael Chavis.
Although we can debate the semantics that the Red Sox got out of the way to fill their gap early in the season, we all have to agree that they seem to be coming out of their terrible funk from the start of the season. ;opening. They play better. A lot. And recent performances by Chavis and Devers suggest that the Sox could receive contributions from regions they were struggling with a year ago.
And then there's this: Chavis and Devers still have a lot to prove – and win – which is never a bad thing for a team that has just won a championship.
The Sox, remember, started this season with the idea of defeating Devers in third, which demonstrates both his potential and his need for a left-handed bat in the middle of training. Maybe he will end up there – and maybe not. But if the Sox can rely on him in the long run to be an average stick with Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts (if they can sign the latter), their offense should be in good shape for years to come. .
Last year, the Red Sox ranked ninth among the 15 American Hockey League teams in OPS on third base. This year, they are currently ranked fourth. As an individual, Devers ranks just sixth in qualifying for the third base, which seems lower than it is. As this graph shows, there is a significant drop between the first six and the last six.
As for Chavis, it's obviously early. And for what it's worth, at least two databases (ESPN.com and MLB.com) do not even recognize his contributions to the second base. (They always list totals at the third base, where Chavis played in the miners.) As such, Sox offensive production at second base (based on OPS) ranks last (15).th) in the league, down 13th one year ago.
That said, these rankings are wrong. If the Chavis game sample is limited until now, he (and his 0,970 OPS) would rank first among the second base players of the qualifying league at the moment in OPS's he had enough base to qualify and he figured as a second player a third base player.
Will it last? It's obviously impossible to know. Remember that in minors, Chavis's career has a clear dividing line, shown in red (by us) here on his minor leagues page at baseball-reference.com.
Why the line? In 2018, Chavis was suspended after a positive performance test result. He then returned to the game and had a productive second half of last year, then postponed his play on this season. But toothpaste came out of baseball bins (and all sports) a long time ago when it came to DCs, and rest assured that the Red Sox (if you gave them truth serum) would be suspicious of Chavis & # 39; long-term viability, too.
In the meantime, he strikes – and for both and Power. Devers also started driving the balloon a bit later. And if this is the sign of the future, the offensive of the Red Sox should be in good condition for the next few years.
Now, they just need to start developing some pitching.
You can hear Tony Massarotti on weekdays from 2pm to 6pm. EST on the Felger & Massarotti program. Follow him on Twitter @TonyMassarotti.
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