The Boston Red Sox Friday, March 12, 2021

* The Boston Globe

Eduardo Rodríguez makes his case to be Red Sox Opening Day starter

Julian McWilliams

Eduardo Rodríguez’s maturation first became apparent in 2019 when he registered a 3.81 ERA in 203⅓ innings, striking out 213. With injuries to David Price and Chris Sale, the Sox turned to Rodríguez to lead the rotation. It forced him to move out of the shadows.

Two years have passed and Rodríguez, in a sense, isn’t as deferential as he was in the past. Sale is recovering from Tommy John surgery, and Price is with the Dodgers. In order for the Red Sox to succeed, Rodríguez understands he needs to see himself as the go-to guy.

“I mean, that’s going to be a really big honor [to be the Opening Day starter],” Rodríguez after his start against the Minnesota Twins on Thursday in Fort Myers, Fla. “You see how many guys were Opening Day legends. To have the opportunity to be the Opening Day starter for the Red Sox is something that I would really appreciate.”

Manager Alex Cora hasn’t announced if Rodríguez will the start in the opener against the Orioles on April 1. But after Rodríguez’s showing on Thursday, it’s tough seeing another Sox starter as a better choice.

He went four innings, striking out six, and allowed just a run on four hits, one of which was a homer by Alex Kirilloff in the second inning.

“As you guys know, I’ve been very hard on him, as far as attacking, since 2018,” Cora said. “He’s buying into that concept. That’s the difference between Eddie early on to the one we have now.”

The Eddie the Red Sox have now, is one who knows what he wants to do, what he needs to work on. Missing last season, while not ideal, forced Rodriguez to attack the mental aspect of the game, studying it from afar. He would imagine himself on the mound, how he would attack certain lineups and hitters.

Thursday was a reminder of that mental leap, one that solidifies him not just as the Sox’ ace but a veteran, too. He topped out at just 93 miles per hour, but lighting up the radar gun in a spring game wasn’t something the lefthander tried to do.

“I’m just working on location,” Rodríguez said. “I know that velocity is going to get back by the time we get to the season. I was just working on throwing a pitch right where I wanted. I feel like my confidence is getting better on all my pitches. Like you saw it today. My channel was working perfectly. My fastball command was good.”

Rodríguez also utilized his curveball and slider Thursday with the purpose of bouncing them in the dirt, as well as attempting to locate them on the edges of the plate.

“The way that I [attack hitters],” Rodríguez explained, “is where I think I’m maturing in the big leagues.”

Hot start Marwin González hit just .211 in 199 plate appearances with the Twins last season. Yet he has been impressive this spring with the Red Sox. After his two-homer game against his former team on Thursday, González is hitting 6 for 15 (.400) with seven RBIs.

“He’s a good at-bat from both sides of the plate,” Cora said. “He’s been very consistent throughout his career. And we will play him against lefties and righties whenever we have a chance and whenever we find a matchup that we like, or to protect other guys.”

The Red Sox plan on using González in the infield or left field (though the infield seems more realistic). González role will be more defined as camp progresses, but teammate Kiké Hernández has no problem offering a prediction.

“Marwin is a great player,” Hernández said. “Everybody knows that. I will guarantee you that he’s going to do better this year than he did last year.”

Work to be done Franchy Cordero, Xander Bogaerts, and Danny Santana took part in a simulated game, facing Marcus Walden and Garrett Whitlock. Cordero will need more reps before getting into a game, but Bogaerts and Santana will make their Grapefruit League debut Friday against the Rays as the DH. Bogaerts will start and get two at-bats, and Santana will follow …. Righthander Hirokazu Sawamura will also make his spring debut Friday in what Cora said will be one inning … Red Sox pitchers have flashed some velocity this spring, with Tanner Houck topping out at 98 miles per hour on Wednesday. Cora used 2019 as an example. Sox starters came into camp a bit worn down from the 2018 World Series run, and it showed in their velocity early on. “You had the names and their stuff was OK coming from ’18,” Cora said. “But as far as velocity and stuff, this is a pretty special group.”

Kiké Hernández wants to be the Red Sox’ leadoff hitter, but is he selective enough?

Alex Speier

In many respects, Kiké Hernández resides in the middle of Red Sox hopes of improvement.

Of the dozens of players acquired by the team since the end of the 2019 season, Hernández — who signed a two-year, $14 million deal this winter — is the only one to receive a multiyear contract. Manager Alex Cora has installed him regularly in the leadoff spot through the first half of spring training and speaks glowingly of the role he can play solidifying the team’s defense, whether as a second baseman or an outfielder capable of handling any of the three spots.

A great deal is going to be put on Hernández’s shoulders. Yet that enthusiasm comes with a pair of obvious questions: Why, given his skills, was he relegated to part-time (and often platoon) status with the Dodgers? And is there upside beyond the job he held in Los Angeles as a valued contributor with a limited profile?

Over seven big league seasons spanning a little more than 2,000 plate appearances, Hernández has a solid if unspectacular line — .240 average, .313 OBP, and .425 slugging, with particularly strong numbers against lefties (.263/.345/.474). He’s never had as many as 500 plate appearances in a season, and he’s been prone to streaky performances.

Yet he does feature a combination of strength, athleticism, and baseball intelligence to allow evaluators to imagine greater contributions.

“Pound for pound, he might have the most pop on the team. He’s got incredible power,” said Tigers bench coach George Lombard, who worked with Hernández as the Dodgers’ first base coach. “If [Red Sox hitting coach Tim Hyers] just helps him unlock a couple consistency issues he has with his swing, this guy has the potential to stay in there every day and be an impact player.”

Certainly, Cora thinks Hernández has the potential to do that. The manager has spoken often about his eagerness to “challenge” the 29-year-old — both to be a leader even as he acclimates to a new club and to be the leadoff hitter. This spring, Hernández has tried to demonstrate his readiness for that job, going 6 for 13 with a homer, three doubles, five walks, and two strikeouts in 18 plate appearances.

“I want to hit leadoff,” Hernández said on Thursday after going 1 for 3 and, for the first time this spring, playing center field against the Twins. “I feel like when I hit in the first inning I’m a little more involved in the game, and it also gives me a chance to see the starting pitcher maybe one more time, maybe a third time. I’m just trying to put good ABs together, either try to barrel some balls up or get on base however way I can. I know the guys hitting behind me are really, really good, so my job as a leadoff hitter is to try to get on base and score some runs. Hopefully I can do that and hopefully score 100 runs this year.”

RELATED: Eduardo Rodríguez makes his case to be Red Sox Opening Day starter In order to emerge as a viable option for that spot, Hernández must make his case to stay in the lineup against righthanded pitching. The Sox believe that he did that — albeit in limited opportunities — with the Dodgers.

While Los Angeles put him in the lineup in just 44 percent of starts against righties over the last three years, Hernández actually has similar numbers over those seasons against righties (.235/.304/.438) and lefties (.256/.327/.433). Add the fact that his tendency to pull fly balls could turn a number of outs into extra-base hits and homers at Fenway, and the Sox imagine a player who can hold his own against righties and lefties.

Still, the team hopes to see Hernández tighten his offensive approach. Like all hitters, he sees pronounced disparities in his performance when he swings at pitches in the strike zone (.287 average, .522 slugging since 2018) compared with when he chases offerings outside of it (.117, .181).

That fact makes it more problematic that Hernández has failed to force pitchers to work in the strike zone when ahead in counts. Typically, batters produce huge offensive numbers when ahead in the count. Over the last three seasons, big leaguers have averaged OPS’s of .986 (2020), 1.017 (2019), and .977 (2018) when ahead in the count.

During that time, however, Hernández has posted just an .823 OPS in those situations — sixth worst in the majors among 195 players with at least 300 plate appearances with a count advantage. He’s chased 29.6 percent of pitches out of the strike zone when ahead in the count — nearly identical to his 29.9 percent chase rate when behind in the count. Instead of becoming more selective, he keeps hacking to his detriment.

“One thing we noticed from our information, whenever he was ahead in the count, he was expanding the zone,” said Cora. “He’s not doing that now. It’s still spring training, but you can see, we’re facing better pitching the last week. If he can control that, he’ll be a much better hitter.”

“So far I’ve got five walks. Before it takes me like 100 at-bats to get five walks so I’m doing a pretty good job,” Hernández smirked. “I’ve been working on it, trying to stay in the strike zone, because I know if I go there and start hacking and not seeing too many pitches, getting out of the strike zone, that’s not going to help my cause to be the leadoff hitter on this team.”

Again, it’s spring — when statistics and results often represent optical illusions as pitchers simply work to prepare rather than executing game plans. But for Hernández, those five walks represent a start, a glimpse of how he and the team hope to defy track records and expectations to become better.

Thursday’s Red Sox spring training report: Marwin González (two homers) powers win over Twins

Julian McWilliams

Score: Red Sox 5, Twins 4

Record: 5-5

Breakdown: Red Sox utilityman Marwin González had a day, going 2 for 2 with two home runs. The switch-hitter’s first was a solo shot off Matt Shoemaker from the left side of the plate in the first inning. González then hit a three-run homer in the fifth against lefthander Devin Smeltzer, this time from the right side. Sox starter Eduardo Rodríguez went four strong innings with six strikeouts and no walks. He allowed just one run, on a homer by Alex Kirilloff in the second.

Next: The Sox play the Rays Friday at JetBlue Park beginning at 1:05. Garrett Richards will take the ball for the Sox, while Chris Archer gets the start for Tampa Bay.

* The Boston Herald

A year later, Red Sox’ Chaim Bloom reflects on when COVID-19 halted spring training

Steve Hewitt

Chaim Bloom was in Port Charlotte, Fla., on the night of March 11, 2020, watching his Red Sox play a spring training game against the Rays, when everything became very real.

It was that day — a year ago Thursday — when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, and that night when the Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert tested positive and the NBA promptly suspended its season, setting off the domino effect of the sports world shutting down.

As he watched the game from his seat at Charlotte Sports Park surrounded by a crowd of 4,796, Bloom sensed the inevitable.

“I remember seeing all this while watching our game and thinking to myself that this was probably the last baseball game I was going to see for a while,” Bloom said.

Bloom was in just his fifth month as the Red Sox’ chief baseball officer after spending 13 years with the Rays, and that day had some more meaning because it was the first time he had a chance to say goodbye and say thanks to his former coworkers in person since he left. The crazy nature of his first winter in Boston didn’t allow him to do it earlier, but he got to Port Charlotte early enough before that night’s game to see some people.

But the novel coronavirus was on everyone’s minds, including Bloom’s. As he walked around the stadium that night, there was great uncertainty not only about what was to happen, but how to even interact with other people.

“There was a point that even though we were still playing, every person that I ran into, it wasn’t obvious — should you give them a hug, should you shake their hand, should you fist bump, should you tap your feet, or should you steer clear altogether?” Bloom said. “I remember navigating that through a lot of different conversations. Then the game started and I was on and off the phone on some other things and it wasn’t the second half of the game when all of those things seemed to happen rapid-fire. You could feel the world change and the baseball world change. …

“By the end of the night, it was very clear that the world was changing dramatically and a lot more quickly than I think any of us expected.”

Bloom’s instincts were right. The next day, March 12, most professional sports leagues across the country and the NCAA followed the NBA’s lead in pausing operations and seasons. MLB initially canceled the remainder of its spring training games and delayed Opening Day by at least two weeks.

The Red Sox had an off day, but they had minor leaguers at their complex in Fort Myers for a simulated game. Once it became apparent that they wouldn’t be able to continue spring training normally, the organization’s top priority became ensuring its hundreds of players and staff members could get home safely.

Bloom admitted it was a chaotic time. But still being new to the Red Sox organization, he admired the way his new teammates responded to a complicated and difficult situation.

“It was chaotic, it was unprecedented, but for better or worse, I had gotten to see in a relatively short time here, how our staff and how the Red Sox family responds to unexpected difficulties and I got to see everyone jump into action and do their jobs,” Bloom said. “Despite the chaos, there were plans that got put together quickly and everybody figured it out. That doesn’t necessarily mean we executed everything perfectly, but people rallied and made it happen, and in relatively short order, I think we had a plan to disperse everybody.”

Ultimately, the season began more than four months later and was shortened to 60 games in a year unlike any ever seen. A year later, after so much tragedy around the world, there’s finally some light at the end of the tunnel. Vaccinations have begun rolling out around the country, and some normalcy has been restored in baseball as spring training games are played, and Opening Day is around the corner, with fans coming back.

Bloom is grateful for that, and understands how fortunate he and the rest of baseball are to be where they are now.

“I’ve thought about this a lot and I think I’ve said it in various contexts, it’s been a really difficult year for everybody, and it’s been difficult for the baseball industry, too,” Bloom said. “Obviously this has been a hugely traumatic event for our industry and it’s caused a lot of damage, but at the same time, I often think about how lucky we are to be able to do what we love. We got to do that last summer. It was different, but we got to do it, and we’re getting to do it again, and it’s not without a lot of hard work and battling a lot of obstacles, but there has been so much tragedy in the world this past year and a lot of people are not as lucky as we all are. …

“In light of that, with the precautions to different things we have to take, the things we have to sacrifice, those to me are small sacrifices to be lucky enough to get to do what we love and get to do it with great people that we care about. That is, in a year where so many people have been either unsafe not by choice, or have been isolated not by choice, to get to be together and do this, is an amazing privilege and I think as difficult as the year has been, I’ve also been very, very aware of just how lucky we are.”

Red Sox Notebook: Marwin González blasts two homers, Xander Bogaerts to make spring debut

Steve Hewitt

The Red Sox signed Marwin González mostly for his defensive versatility, but they’re also hoping he can rediscover his offensive potential this season. And they hope Thursday could be a sign of things to come.

González blasted two home runs, one from each side of the plate, as the Red Sox beat the Twins, 5-4, at Hammond Stadium. They were both crushed, with the first going for 406 feet as he batted left-handed and the second one sailing 372 feet from the right side.

“It’s a good at-bat from both sides of the plate,” manager Alex Cora said. “He’s been very consistent throughout his career and we will play him against lefties and righties whenever we have a chance and whenever we find a matchup that we like and to protect other guys. That’s the beauty of this, he can get a lot of at-bats playing at first, playing at second, giving Xander (Bogaerts) an off day, even Raffy (Devers). …

“He’s been working hard with Timmy (Hyers). It was a tough year for him last year. In ’19, he hit the ball hard. He was top of the league in hard-hit balls so putting him in a good spot physically and let him play. He enjoys playing the game and I’m happy he’s with us.”

González will also have a chance to start in left field if Franchy Cordero isn’t ready for Opening Day, so plenty of at-bats are coming his way. When Cora was his bench coach in Houston in 2017, González had his best offensive season when he batted .303 with 23 homers and 90 RBI. He had a down 2020 as he hit just .211 in a short season, but even his new teammates are already predicting a bounce-back season.

“He definitely won the MVP of the day today,” Kiké Hernández said. “I don’t think there’s going to be a player in baseball with a better day than he had today. Marwin is a great player. Everybody knows that. I think last season, it’s a little hard to dictate on players based on a 60-game season. I would guarantee that he’s going to do better this season than he did last year.”

E-Rod impresses

In his second start of the spring, Eduardo Rodriguez looked good again. In four innings, he struck out six, walked none and gave up one run on four hits, which was a solo homer. His fastball averaged just 92.3 mph, topping out at 93, but it’s still early.

“Right now I’m just working on location,” Rodriguez said. “I know the velocity is gonna get back by the time we get to the season. It’s going to get back. I’m just working right now on throwing the pitch right where I want it, feeling good, getting my shoulder right. I know velocity is going to come back by the time we get to the season.”

Rodriguez likely has two more starts left before the regular season. Cora hasn’t named him the Opening Day starter yet but said “he’s in the mix.”

Bogaerts to DH

After being shut down two weeks ago due to a sore shoulder, Xander Bogaerts will make his spring training debut on Friday against the Rays. Cora said the plan is for him to play as the designated hitter and take two at-bats. Danny Santana, who was signed last week, will also make his debut Friday and take over as DH after Bogaerts. …

The work has begun for Cordero. A month after being traded to the Red Sox as their main return in the Andrew Benintendi deal, the new outfielder was finally cleared to join his new teammates for workouts in Fort Myers on Thursday. He joined Bogaerts and Santana in taking at-bats against Marcus Walden and Garrett Whitlock during a simulated game.

After that, Cordero took more batting practice as he tries to make up for lost time. With three weeks before Opening Day, he has catching up to do in order to be ready. The Red Sox want to get him up to speed with his conditioning before he plays in any spring training games.

“It’s the running part of it that we need to build up and whenever he’s ready to play we’ll throw him out there,” Cora said. …

Hirokazu Sawamura will also make his spring debut on Friday as he pitches one inning.

* The Providence Journal

Fenway Park Pizza Thrower speaks about his slice of fame after Patriots' Day toss in 2007

Eric Rueb

The infamous Fenway Park Pizza Thrower has emerged to talk about his role in the most famous pizza incident in Major League Baseball history.

In a story by MLB.com’s Matt Monagan, Dan Kelly spoke about the 2007 Patriots’ Day incident in a game between the Red Sox and the Los Angeles Angels that made him a viral sensation before such things existed.

“I’ve talking about it for too long,” Kelly told Monagan. “But I’m not done. I’m ready to ‘throw [the pizza] again.”

Kelly went on MLB Network’s "Hot Stove" Thursday and told his side of the story, which exploded on the internet because of the absurdity of one human throwing an entire slice of cheesy, saucy goodness at another human and the reaction from the television broadcast between then-NESN play-by-play man Don Orsillo and color commentator Jerry Remy.

“We had been bickering for a few innings,” said Kelly, who mentioned both he and his victim were with separate groups of friends. “… With the rain delay and people got to the game a little later and had to kill some time, if you know what I mean, and some people go one direction with that and others go in different directions. We tried to calm him down a little bit, tell him it was friendly Fenway.

“The last thing he asked me for was a slice of pizza I was divvying up to all my friends.”

Kelly – who spoke to then-Boston Herald reporter John Tomase in 2007 in the aftermath of the incident – then threw a slice at Jason Sole. According to a 2007 story posted by MLB.com, Fenway security ejected both men from the game.

In the months following, Kelly said he tried to avoid anything that would connect him to his slice of fame; Monagan wrote Kelly avoided calls from Papa Gino’s and Pizza Hut, who tracked him down in what Kelly thinks was an attempt to get him to do ads.

The story is a must-read, the TV clip is a must-watch, and it never hurts to check out the video clip of Orsillo and Remy for the millionth time as the two are barely able to breathe as they break down the funniest thing that's ever happened at Fenway Park.

* MassLive.com

Michael Gettys brings to Boston Red Sox both 30-homer power, athleticism in outfield; ‘Failure has helped me become a better player, hitter’

Christopher Smith

Michael Gettys, a 25-year-old who the Padres drafted in the second round in 2014, bashed 31 homers, 29 doubles and five triples in 128 games for Triple-A El Paso in 2019.

His raw power and athleticism in the outfield makes him the most intriguing player who the Red Sox signed in minor league free agency this past offseason. He chose the Red Sox in large part because of hitting coach Tim Hyers.

“He lives pretty close to me (in Georgia),” Gettys said. “So we got to hit together a lot this offseason. That was a big reason. ... Nobody else was offering something like that.”

Gettys also has a strong arm into addition to his raw power and athleticism. But his strikeout rate has been a concern. He had a 37.2% strikeout percentage at High A during 2017, a 33.8% strikeout percentage at Double A in 2018 and a 30.5% strikeout rate at Triple A in 2019.

“To be honest with you, I think the reason why I’ve struck out in my career is because I’ve kind of athletically just made my way through the minors and what not,” he said. “I didn’t know exactly what was going on (with the swing). Right now, I’m seeing the ball better than ever.”

He has learned more about himself as a hitter the past couple of years. He has more walks (5) than strikeouts (4) in 10 spring training games (19 plate appearances). That sticks out to him.

“That’s a good sign because that’s never happened for me,” Gettys said. “I’ve always struck out a ton and not walked as much. I think that just comes with getting at-bats and working on certain things. I’m just a better hitter overall now. I’m honestly not worried about that (strikeout rate) anymore. I used to be worried about that. But the way I’m seeing the ball, the way I’ve been working, I’m not worried about that anymore.”

Gettys’ home run power easily could make him a fan favorite at Triple-A Worcester. But playing in the major leagues obviously is the goal. He could be in the mix this year if he show he is a more complete, consistent hitter. He still is young. He will be 25 for the entire 2021 season.

“There’s been a couple things just fine-tuning my swing,” he said. “Just getting in a better position to be more consistent with everything that I do at the plate. And I think I’m on my way to doing that. So I’ve been working on that all offseason and still working on that here. I think that’s the only thing: just refining a couple things mechanically and I’ll be there.”

Gettys has asked for help from a lot of different instructors to improve as a hitter.

“I think it has a lot to do with failure,” Gettys said. “When you fail a good bit, you get to learn. Because if you’re just constantly succeeding, you don’t go to anybody. You don’t ask anybody for help. You don’t search inside yourself. You get pushed when you fail. So I think that’s the biggest thing for me: failing some. I’ve struggled with the strikeouts or with whatever it is. I’m always going to try to get better. So I think that’s the big thing is the failure has helped me become a better player, hitter. Learning. It’s definitely taught me a lot because I could either quit, give up or continue to learn.”

Red Sox manager Alex Cora said about Gettys, “Very athletic. Good defender. Offensive-wise, a lot of power. Swing-and-miss, too. I just like the athletes.”

Gettys has a .260/.316/.429/.745 slash line in 671 minor league games. But he batted .305 with a .363 on- base percentage, .442 slugging percentage, .804 OPS, 23 doubles, five triples, 12 homers and 60 RBIs as a 20-year-old in 128 games at Low A and High A during 2016. He had a 23.9% strikeout rate at Low A and 28.3% strikeout rate at High A.

Gettys — who played summer ball with and against Michael Chavis growing up in Georgia — said he felt consistent at the plate in 2016. But then he suffered core and hip injuries and dealt with back issues. Those issues led to some bad habits in his swing.

“When you have an injury, your body overcompensates,” he said. “So your body makes up for something else. I just got into bad habits.

“It was just doing the wrong thing,” Gettys said. “I would crash at the baseball. I would lose my backside. Everything would go at once. That was a big issue I had because my core was injured. For one, it made the ball look faster. I was swinging at bad pitches. It made me have to be perfectly on time to hit the ball. That was a huge thing but I’ve gotten that under control now.”

He always has done a lot of speed work and weight lifting to build strength.

“I’ve always been very strong, but you don’t have to be strong to hit homers,” he said. “If you develop a swing and all the moving parts and everything comes together, then the strength will play. But if you’re strong and your swing is not very good, then it doesn’t matter. There’s so many factors that go into hitting and hitting for power. ... As my swing has gotten better, I’ve hit more homers because I’ve always been strong.”

As @redsoxstats pointed out on Twitter, Gettys also is an above-average center fielder with a strong arm:

“I can run with anyone,” Gettys said. “I can throw with anyone. I just take a lot of pride in being the best I can at everything. And I think naturally, defense — doing athletic moves — that just comes easy to me. So I’ve always taken pride in being the best I can at it. Not being better than anyone else, but being the best I can.”

Boston Red Sox notebook: Marwin Gonzalez (2 homers) ‘won MVP of the day;’ Michael Chavis not an option in outfield; Xander Bogaerts to DH vs. Rays

Christopher Smith

Marwin Gonzalez went 2-for-2 with a three-run homer, solo homer and one stolen base to lead the Red Sox 5-4 over the Twins in Grapefruit League action Thursday.

“He definitely won the MVP of the day today,” Kiké Hernández said. “I don’t think there’s going to be a player in baseball that had a better day than he had today.”

The 31-year-old utility player struggled during the shortened 2020 season, slashing .211/.286/.320/.606 in 53 games (199 plate appearances) for the Twins.

Hernández said it’s difficult to judge any player on a 60-game season sample size.

“I would guarantee he’s going to do better this year than he did last year,” Hernández said. “And also the fact that he can help us on both sides of the ball. Defensively, his versatility. He’s a plus-defender everywhere he plays. He can run the bases just like he did today. He got a great read on a dirt ball and he took off before even the catcher or the infielders knew he was running. And he was able to get the extra 90 feet for us. That’s going to be huge, especially with our lineup. Everybody can do damage. A lot of times I feel like in Fenway, being at first, you’re already in scoring position, but the extra 90 feet is always huge.”

Chavis not an option in the outfield

Michael Chavis said Wednesday he’s unsure if he has a place on the Red Sox’s Opening Day roster. He called it an awkward situation. He also said the Red Sox have not talked with him about playing the outfield.

Chavis appeared in 12 games and made 11 starts in left field during 2020. But Red Sox manager Alex Cora ruled out Chavis playing the outfield as of right now.

“I want him to concentrate in the infield and concentrate on his swing,” Cora said Thursday. “We still believe he’s a good athlete. ... He played left field last year and I saw him do that. As of right now, I don’t see that. He plays a good second base. We know about third base. He’s played first. So we’ll keep him there.”

Who plays left field if Cordero begins season on IL?

Red Sox left fielder Franchy Cordero worked out with the team Thursday for the first time this spring after being cleared to play late Wednesday. Cordero — who was on the COVID-19 related injured list — took at-bats in a simulated game.

Who will play left field for the Red Sox if Cordero begins the season on the IL?

Cora said Hernández and Gonzalez are his top two options. Hunter Renfroe is not expected to play left field. Cora plans to use Renfroe in center field and right field.

Xander Bogaerts to DH on Friday

Xander Bogaerts will make his 2021 spring training debut Friday against the Rays. He is scheduled to DH and take two at-bats. Danny Santana then will replace Bogaerts at DH.

Bogaerts has missed some time this spring because of shoulder soreness. He took at-bats with Cordero and Santana in a simulated game Thursday.

It will be Santana’s first spring training game since signing a minor league deal with Boston.

It will take some time before Santana is ready to play the field. He underwent an ulnar collateral ligament repair and augmentation procedure last September (via MLB.com).

Boston Red Sox’s Kiké Hernández: ‘I want to hit leadoff. Alex (Cora) challenged me to earn that spot’

Christopher Smith

Red Sox’s Kiké Hernández has hit leadoff in all seven Grapefruit League games he has started this spring and wants to continue to hit there.

“I like hitting leadoff. I’m not going to lie to you,” Hernández said. “I want to hit leadoff. Alex (Cora) challenged me to earn that spot. And I feel like when I hit in the first inning, I’m a little bit more involved in the game. And it also gives me a chance to see the starting pitcher maybe a third time.”

Hernandez went 1-for-3 with a run and RBI in Boston’s 5-4 win over the Twins on Thursday. He has gone 6-for-13 (.462) with one homer, three doubles, four runs, four RBIs, five walks and two strikeouts in seven games.

“I’m just trying to put good ABs together,” he said. “Either try to barrel some balls up or get on base however way I can. I know the guys hitting behind me are really, really good. So my job as a leadoff hitter is to try to get on base and score some runs. Hopefully, I can do that. Hopefully, I can score 100 runs this year.”

Cora said before Thursday’s game that Hernández had expanded the zone when he was ahead in the count in previous years.

“When I can stay in the strike zone, I’m a lot better hitter than when I’m just going out there and swinging at whatever pitch is coming,” Hernández said. “That’s something I’m trying to do this spring: from the first pitch of the game, I want to put myself in a 2-0, 3-1 count. I’m not just swinging to swing. I want to get a pitch I can do some damage on. So far I’ve been doing a pretty good job. I’ve been working on it, trying to stay in the strike zone because I know if I start hacking, and not seeing too many pitches, or getting out of the strike zone, I know that’s not going to help my cause to be the leadoff hitter on this team.”

Boston Red Sox’s Eduardo Rodriguez strikes out 6, tops out at 93.3 mph vs. Twins; ‘Velo will be back’ by regular season

Christopher Smith

Eduardo Rodriguez continues to make a strong case to be the Boston Red Sox’s Opening Day starter.

“I can’t answer you that question but obviously he’s in the mix,” manager Alex Cora said.

The Red Sox left-hander allowed just one run in 4 innings to help Boston to a 5-4 win over the Twins on Thursday in Grapefruit League action. He gave up four hits (one solo homer to Alex Kirilloff) and no walks while striking out six.

The lefty has allowed two runs (both on solo homers) in his two spring training starts (6 ⅔ innings) this spring.

“I was working today on location and it was working really great,” Rodriguez said. “Changeup was working perfect. The fastball command was good.”

Rodriguez topped out at 93.3 mph with his two-seamer, per Baseball Savant. He threw six two-seam fastballs, averaging 92.3 mph. He threw 13 four-seam fastballs, averaging 91.8 mph.

Rodriguez averaged 93.0 mph with his four-seam fastball and 92.9 mph with his two-seamer in 2019.

“Right now I’m just working on location,” Rodriguez said. “I know the velocities going to get back by time when we get to the season. I’m just working on throwing the pitch right where I want it. ... I know velocity is going to come back by the time we get to the season. So right now my mind is just working on getting my pitches right, getting my location, getting my shoulder really strong and then there’s a point where the velo will be back.”

Rodriguez threw 48 pitches in his 4 innings. He mixed in 16 changeups, six cutters, four curveballs and three sliders.

“Every time I go out there, I feel like my confidence is getting better with all my pitches,” Rodriguez said. “You see it today. My changeup was working perfect. Right where I wanted. My fastball command was good. I was working on the breaking ball, trying to bounce it, throw it backdoor, throw it front door, throw it any spot. So any time I see my pitches working, my confidence is getting better day by day.”

Cora added, “I’ve been very hard on him as far as attacking the zone since 2018. He’s buying into that concept. And that’s the difference between Eddie early on to the one we have now. He’s a guy that can go deep into the games.”

Hirokazu Sawamura to make Boston Red Sox spring training debut against Rays on Friday

Christopher Smith

Reliever Hirokazu Sawamura will make his Boston Red Sox spring training debut Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays at JetBlue Park.

The game is set for 1:05 p.m. and will not be televised.

The Japanese right-hander signed a two-year, $3-million contract with the Red Sox this past offseason. It includes an option for 2023. Escalators and bonuses could increase the deal to $7.65 million.

Sawamura threw his first live batting practice Tuesday in front of former Red Sox closer Koji Uehara who was working as a media member for NHK Japan. He mixed in his fastball, splitter and slider.

“For a sim game, you can see the fastball,” manager Alex Cora said Tuesday. “It has good spin on it, good velocity. The split should be good. It should play.”

Sawamura said he will need about three or four spring training outings before he is ready for the regular season.

The righty is not being considered for the closer role. Adam Ottavino and Matt Barnes are the two leading candidates for the ninth inning.

The 32-year-old has closer experience though and could be an option later in the year if needed. He closed it in Japan. He had a 2.96 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 75 saves and 790 strikeouts in 352 outings (88 starts) in the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization from 2011-20. He has averaged 8.2 strikeouts and 2.7 walks per nine innings (868 ⅓ innings).

Boston Red Sox’s Franchy Cordero, Xander Bogaerts, Danny Santana to take at-bats in sim game Thursday

Christopher Smith

Red Sox left fielder Franchy Cordero will work out with the team Thursday for the first time this spring after being cleared to play late Wednesday.

He will jump right into it. Cordero — who was on the COVID-19 related injured list — will take at-bats in a simulated game. He likely will only track pitches today.

“We’re going to try to get him as many at-bats as possible,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “The other stuff is the build up. We’ve got to make sure his legs are under him. He’s going to be able to do a few things. But we’ve just got to make sure. We know the history. We have to do it the right way. He hasn’t run in a while. So that is going to take some time right now.”

Cordero, who Boston acquired in the Andrew Benintendi trade, has been limited to just 95 games in the major leagues since debuting for the Padres in 2017 because of several injuries. The left-handed hitter spent time on the IL the past three years with a right wrist sprain (2020), right elbow sprain (2019), tight forearm strain (2018) and left abductor strain (2018).

“Just for him to track pitches right away is good,” Cora said.

Xander Bogaerts and Danny Santana, who the Red Sox recently signed to a minor league deal, also will take at-bats.

Bogaerts (shoulder soreness) has yet to play in a Grapefruit League game. Santana, meanwhile, underwent an ulnar collateral ligament repair and augmentation procedure last September (via MLB.com).

The Red Sox also will hold simulated games Saturday, Monday and Tuesday.

“So there’s plenty of at-bats for him and those guys to catch up,” Cora said.

Garrett Whitlock and Marcus Walden will pitch in the sim game at JetBlue Park on Thursday. The Red Sox, meanwhile, will play across town against the Twins at 1:05 p.m.

* RedSox.com

Gonzalez crushes two HRs vs. former team

Ian Browne

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- With his former team on the other side, Marwin Gonzalez provided notice that his disappointing 2020 season was most likely a mirage in Thursday's 5-4 win over Minnesota.

He also displayed why the Red Sox are so excited to have one of the most versatile players in the game on their team.

When Gonzalez is hitting up to his capabilities, he can have outfielders chasing baseballs until they run out of room.

The switch-hitter had quite a day on Thursday at Hammond Stadium, smashing a homer from each side of the plate, driving in four runs and stealing a base. His position du jour was second base.

“I mean, he definitely won the MVP of the day today. I don’t think there’s going to be a player in baseball with a better day than he had today,” said fellow Red Sox super-utility player Kiké Hernández. “Marwin is a good player. Everybody knows that.”

At least offensively, Gonzalez wasn’t a good player last season. Everyone also knows that -- particularly the Twins.

In 199 plate appearances, Gonzalez slashed .211/.286/.320 with five homers and 22 RBIs in 2020. It was a steep drop-off from what he was the previous year with the Twins and for many years with Houston.

But 2020 was 2020 -- not just for Gonzalez, but for a lot of baseball players and people in general.

“I think last season, it’s a little hard to dictate on players based on a 60-game season,” said Hernández. “I would guarantee that he’s going to do better this season than he did last year, and also the fact he can help us on both sides of the ball. Defensively, his versatility is a plus. He’s a plus defender everywhere he plays. He can run the bases just like he did today. He got a great read on a dirt ball and he took off before even the catcher or the infielders knew he was running.”

The Red Sox think Gonzalez can be invaluable -- someone who can serve as injury protection for nearly every player in the lineup. Gonzalez will likely play every position on the diamond aside from catcher and center field.

“We always talk about versatility and all that. It’s a good at-bat from both sides of the plate. He’s been very consistent throughout his career, and we will play him against lefties and righties whenever we have a chance and whenever we find a matchup that we like and to protect other guys,” said manager Alex Cora. “That’s the beauty of this. It was a tough year for him last year. In ‘19, he hit the ball hard, harder than ... he was top of the league in hard-hit balls, so putting him in a good spot physically and let him play. He enjoys playing the game and I’m happy he’s with us.”

Gonzalez seems invigorated to be with the Red Sox.

“This has always been a really good team, one of the most iconic teams in the big leagues,” Gonzalez said earlier this spring. “I think every player would love to play here, and then I mean, Alex [Cora] is back here. I know him. And then, about playing time, I’m going to be ready for whenever he needs me. It’s going to be up to him, he’s the one to write the lineup.”

Kiké: ‘I want to hit leadoff’ At the outset of Spring Training, Cora challenged Hernández to win the leadoff job. The right-handed- hitting veteran appears determined to do just that.

Hernández went 1-for-3 on Thursday while scoring one run and driving one in. He is hitting .462 this spring, to go along with a 1.555 OPS.

“I like hitting leadoff, I’m not going to lie to you,” Hernández said. “I want to hit leadoff. Alex challenged me to earn that spot and I feel like when I hit in the first inning, I’m a little more involved in the game and it also gives me a chance to see the starting pitcher maybe one more time, maybe a third time. And I’m just trying to put good ABs together, either try to barrel some balls up or get on base whatever way I can.”

Cora thinks that Hernández can do more damage than he’s done in the past simply by being more disciplined, particularly when he’s ahead in the count.

“Yeah, without a doubt, when I can stay in the strike zone, I am a lot better than when I’m just going out there and swinging at whatever pitch is coming,” Hernández said. “That’s something that I’m trying to do this spring is from the first pitch of the game, I want to put myself in a 3-1, 2-0 count. I’m not just swinging to swing. I want to get a pitch that I can do some damage on.

“So far, I’ve been doing a pretty good job. I’ve been working on it, trying to stay in the strike zone, because I know if I go there and start hacking and not seeing too many pitches, getting out of the strike zone, that’s not going to help my cause to be the leadoff hitter on this team. So far I’ve got five walks. Before it took me like 100 at-bats to get five walks, so I’m doing a pretty good job this time.”

Efficient Eddie Two years ago, when Eduardo Rodriguez ran through his pitch count too early during a Spring Training start against the Mets, Cora criticized him, both in the media and to his face.

The improvement in Rodriguez from then to now is striking to Cora.

In Thursday’s start against the Twins, Rodriguez worked through Minnesota's lineup, throwing 48 pitches over four strong innings. He scattered four hits and one run while walking none and striking out six.

“As you guys know, I’ve been very hard on him [in the past] as far as attacking the zone, since 2018,” Cora said. “He’s buying into that concept and that’s the difference between Eddie early on to the one we have now. He’s a guy that can go deep into the games.”

Rodriguez’s efficiency and command have been impressive so far in camp for someone who didn’t pitch all of last season due to myocarditis.

“I had a regular offseason,” Rodriguez said. “Because I had a regular offseason, I think that’s why my pitches are getting back where I was. Throughout my bullpens and every time I’ve played catch, I’ve been working on it day by day. That’s why I think my pitches are back there getting in place.”

Big day on Friday There will be a a lot of storylines for the Red Sox in Friday’s home game against the Rays.

Xander Bogaerts, the team leader and longest-tenured player, will make his Grapefruit League debut when he starts at designated hitter. Bogaerts has been slowed by right arm soreness that he suffered while ramping up too quickly with his throwing program over the winter.

Japanese righty Hirokazu Sawamura -- who has been impressive in side sessions, live batting practice and sim games -- will be making his first MLB appearance when he pitches an inning in relief on Friday.

Free-agent acquisition Garrett Richards, who was signed to a one-year $10-million deal, has struggled in his first two starts for the Red Sox. He will try to rebound on Friday against Tampa Bay.

First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET. Listen to the action live on MLB Audio.

Cordero plays catch-up on first day of camp

Ian Browne

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- There was a large presence in Red Sox camp on Thursday, and it came in the form of newly acquired outfielder Franchy Cordero, who was at last able to participate in a workout after clearing all of his COVID-19 protocols.

Cordero was placed on the COVID-19 injured list at the start of camp and missed the first 2 1/2 weeks of workouts.

Now in a three-week race to get ready for Opening Day, the slugger didn’t waste any time on Thursday morning.

Cordero started the morning taking several at-bats on the main diamond at JetBlue Park in a sim game, going the other way perfectly on one swing and hitting one off the replica Green Monster in left field.

Cordero then went to the back fields for some throwing and more BP, where he launched several over the chain-link fence.

Acquired in a trade with the Royals for Andrew Benintendi on Feb. 10, Cordero is expected to be Boston’s primary left fielder against right-handers.

“We've got to try to get him as many at-bat as possible. The other stuff is the buildup. We've got to make sure his legs are under him,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “We've just got to make sure. We know the history, so we have to do it the right way. He hasn't run in a while, so that's going to take some time.”

Cordero was joined in the sim game by two other players trying to make up for lost time in shortstop Xander Bogaerts and non-roster invite Danny Santana, who was signed to a Minor League deal on Sunday.

Bogaerts has been slowed by a sore right shoulder and Santana is coming off extensive surgery on his right elbow.

“We've got sim games, one today, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday,” said Cora. “There's plenty of at-bats for him and those guys for them to catch up.”

The key with Cordero will be for him to stay healthy. Everyone knows about his raw power and his tools, but his injuries have turned into just as big a part of his story.

Though he has three years of Major League service time, Cordero has played only 95 games while getting 315 plate appearances.

There’s no timetable yet for when he will play in his first Grapefruit League game.

* WEEI.com

The winding road that led Hirokazu Sawamura to the Red Sox

Rob Bradford

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- "O say can you see ..."

They are just a few words uttered in the midst of trying to explain exactly why and how Hirokazu Sawamura got this place and to this point. At 31 years old, after a baseball career that had seen the highest of highs and more recently the lowest of lows, the pitcher is wearing a Boston Red Sox uniform.

"It's still a work in progress," Sawamura adds with a smile through translator Yutaro Yamaguch when explaining his quest to memorize the Anthem. "When you’re in Rome, do as the Romans do. If I sing the National Anthem without knowing the words or the meaning behind it, it’s not going to be helpful for me. So I just wanted to learn the meaning of the National Anthem, knowing it was going to help me."

The song. The comeback. The first impression. The opportunity.

Starting with his appearance at JetBlue Park Friday, all of the work -- including going out of his way to learn his new country's signature song -- will be put on display. Sawamura will be proving himself 10 years after first breaking on to the professional baseball scene.

But the path taken to this point really started about six months ago. That's when Sawamura -- a former Rookie of the Year who owned 48 wins, 75 saves and a career 2.77 ERA in Japan -- hit rock bottom.

After all those years serving as a staple in the Yomiuri Giants' rotation and bullpen, Sawamura found himself not only in the lower levels, but in reality the lowest level. Midway through the 2020 season, he had been sent where veterans' careers go to die, the second tier of the NPB's minor leagues.

"I thought my baseball career was going to end like that, staying in the minor leagues," he said. "I felt like I was on the downside of my career and that was how it was going end. I felt that, but I didn’t want to accept that fact."

"Some veteran players go to the minor leagues they will be slacking and not do anything. But I accepted the fact I go to the lowest point and accept where I was at. Since I started having that mentality, that’s when I started going back up."

This certainly wasn't the story Sawamura had envisioned when carrying around that binder baseball-playing icons as a 10-year-old, with the images of former Red Sox' Daisuke Matsuzaka and Koji Uehara right on top for daily reminders.

Sawamura never believed he could come close to the status of either pitcher, but just the idea that he could play at the same level was what drove him.

"They aren’t somebody I can relate to," he said. "They are legendary. I look up to. It’s beyond trying to be like them."

But there was always that dream, the one that included going to the United States at some point to go the route of his heroes. That, however, was becoming less of a reality as August turned into September thanks to his new lot in life as a minor-leaguer.

But then, for whatever reason, the story got back on the rails.

Sawamura was traded from the Giants to the Chiba Lotte Marines. He had his new path. The new environment -- coupled with such adjustments as moving over the pitching rubber and utilizing his split- finger fastball more -- resulted in eye-popping results. In his final 22 games of the season, the righty struck out 29 batters in 21 innings while totaling a 1.71 ERA.

Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, he had firmly implanted himself on the radar of the team his baseball gods had played for -- the Red Sox.

"When he was brought to our attention by our scouts in Asia I was able to see video of him and it was kind of a double-take," said Red Sox vice-president of pro scouting Gus Quattlebaum. "It was impressive at first glance what he was doing with Chiba. We were lucky to get quality video and pitch data, and the pitch data screamed out legitimate stuff. But then we had to figure out what happened. We had to get at what were the changes. The guy was demoted to the minor leagues. But then there was a little ring in the back of our heads: Who else was demoted in the minor leagues there? Brasier. So not necessarily the end of the world, where in the past we may have dismissed him."

"Brasier" was, of course, current Red Sox reliever Ryan Brasier, who also managed to salvage his career after living life in the NPB's minor leagues. The Sox had gone through once before, so they certainly open to giving it another whirl.

Scout Dana LeVangie poured over every pitch Sawamura threw as a member of Chiba, while the rest of the Red Sox organization tapped into every contact they had in the Asian baseball-playing community to find out more about the guy, and what had led to his 2020 roller-coaster.

Finally, on Jan. 4, a call was placed to Sawamura's representatives to express the Red Sox' interest. Two days later plans were put in place for a Zoom call. And on Jan. 12, in a one-hour virtual meeting starting at 7 p.m. Eastern, the courting truly began -- from both the player and the team.

"I wasn’t thinking about the Red Sox showing interest, but when I heard it I was like, ‘Oh my God, the team that Koji and Daisuke played for!’ I was shocked in a way," Sawamura said.

"I think our Zoom call went a long way," Quattlebaum remembered.

The virtual meeting included Red Sox manager Alex Cora, pitching coach Dave Bush, Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom, and trainer Masai Takahashi, among others.

Having experienced an offseason of these sort of Zoom-driven recruiting forays -- including involving some free agents coming from Asia -- the Red Sox had the process pretty well pegged.

Cora, who had broken off from his vacation to participate, elaborated on both his vision for the Red Sox' future, while explaining both his and his team's somewhat uncomfortable last year. Bush helped break down what he had seen in Sawamura and how that potential could translate in the major leagues. And there was the reminder regarding how unique this landing spot would be.

No other team in the big leagues had a trainer, strength coach and masseuse on its major league staff who were all from Japan. ("We're idiots if we didn't sell that," joked Quattlebaum.)

And if there was any question that Boston was a perfect spot for Sawamura to call home, he was offered the reminder that Matsuzaka liked the area so much he and his family still lived there.

"It just came out that this guy is not afraid," Quattlebaum said. "He’s accountable. We asked him to touch on the differences and what happened with the trade and he took for accountability in how he struggled with the Giants and how he rediscovered himself when he was with Chiba. We came away thinking this guy is confident himself. He tried to say, ‘Hello,’ on the call and that showed guts. I was also impressed with he was throwing with a MLB ball. It was just a good chemistry. Even with the language barrier, it was great."

But through it all, there was one question and answer that was going to define Sawamura's interest.

"I wanted to ask them how they were going to use me to get back from last-place in the AL East," the pitcher said.

"The first thing I really told them was that I wanted to play in America. And then I asked them if they were trying to win the World Series or if they rebuilding. If their answer was that they were in the process of rebuilding that wasn’t something I was looking for. I was looking for a team that was trying to win the World Series."

The Red Sox said what Sawamura wanted to hear, and visa versa.

"Masai said after the meeting, ‘Gus, I think this guy could fit in well with us.’ He saw the same thing we saw, but in the native tongue," Quattlebum recalled.

Uehara would call to help the recruitment process, offering as a separator against suitors such as the Blue Jays and Dodgers. And there were some final hurdles to jump through -- such as convincing Sawamura the acquisition of reliever Adam Ottavino hadn't changed their view of his role.

But after that Zoom call, it seemed inevitable from both sides that the pitcher had found his American landing spot. That was punctuated via a two-year, $3 million contract with Boston.

It's different, no doubt about it. And there is still plenty of work to be done, including with those final few phrases of the National Anthem. But for Sawamura, the changes have been welcomed.

Here in America they really focus on your strength instead of your weaknesses. But in Japan, unlike America, they really focus on your weakness and you try and work on your weaknesses and make them your strength. But here they don’t care about your weaknesses. They focus on the strength and make the strength more of a strength and build up your confidence. The coaches in Japan would always say, ‘Don’t walk the guy.’ That was something that would bother me. I had a meeting with the pitching coach here and he said it was OK to walk a guy, but just try and minimize the damage.

"It was something I was looking for."

Now comes the second act of a story the player and the team never saw coming.

Fenway pizza thrower shares full story behind iconic MLB moment

Jordan Cohn

Yankees fans threw beer and popcorn at Astros fans during a 2019 game. Blue Jays fans threw trash on the field in the 2015 ALDS. Eagles fans threw snowballs at Santa Claus. And Red Sox fans throw pizzas at other fans.

Scratch that... a single Red Sox fan threw pizza at another fan, and it's probably one of the funniest moments in the long history of MLB action at Fenway Park.

And after over 13 years since the infamous Patriots' Day pizza throw, the perpetrator — one Dan Kelly — has decided to come clean with the full story of what went down.

"It was a long time ago on a rainy Patriots' Day," Kelly began, sharing his recollection with Matt Monagan of MLB.com. "And I've always done Patriots' Day Red Sox, you know. Everybody shows up early, gets breakfast ... so we always show up the same time with a big group of people; it's myself, my wife and a big group of friends. We get breakfast and mimosas and get ready for a fun day of baseball. But there was a huge rain delay, so, you know what that means: [more mimosas]. Some of us can handle it, some of us can't. I'd like to count myself among those that can -- besides one brief moment."

Jason Sole, a fellow Red Sox fan, was allegedly poking some fun at Kelly for ordering an entire pizza pie — which was newly being sold at the ballpark — and bringing it back down to his seats. He had, according to Kelly, also been noisy and disruptive prior to the pizza order.

"It was pretty apparent to the entire section that he was causing a scene," Kelly said. "I'm like, 'Hey it's friendly Fenway, c'mon, work it out, you guys are having a great time.' He didn't enjoy that and he was kinda jawing back and forth with us."

Back in 2007, following the incident, Kelly said that he finally "decided to give him his slice" when a foul ball came in their direction, though the 2021 telling of the story provided some extra ammunition as to why Kelly would have reacted the way he did.

"He sees me hand my wife a slice and he says, 'Your wife's got better taste in pizza than in men,'" Kelly said.

Ouch. What ensued on that foul pop was one of the funniest broadcasting moments from Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy, meticulously analyzing what had occurred on the pizza throw. We have to commend Kelly for his accuracy, and it seems as though, if revenge on Sole was his goal, he succeeded.

"I've never caught a foul ball in my life," Sole told John Thomase after the game. "It's been my dream to catch one. That's the closest I've ever come. The pizza just thwarted it."

And at first, he seemed to react with anger, though that didn't last too long.

"Yeah he was pissed off. I would be, too," Kelly said. "If you see the video, he's kinda egging me on to fight him. ... His girlfriend's trying to calm him down and his friend's laughing. But at the same token, he was kinda laughing too at the end. It calmed down pretty quickly."

But Sole's reaction wasn't the only impact of the throw. For days and months afterward, Kelly says that he tried to hide any evidence that could connect him to the throw — including friends calling into WEEI to tease that they knew the culprit's identity — out of embarrassment, though he no longer feels this way.

* NBC Sports Boston

E-Rod leaving no doubt he's new Red Sox ace

John Tomase

The radar gun may have only said 92 or 93 mph, but the results said something much more important -- Eduardo Rodriguez is right on track.

With Chris Sale sidelined and Nathan Eovaldi maddeningly inconsistent, E-Rod is clearly the ace of the Red Sox staff. But coming off one of the most serious bouts of COVID that any athlete in any sport has faced, Rodriguez arrived in Fort Myers needing to prove he had beaten the myocarditis that left him unable to work out for months.

He continued making that case in a 1-win over the Twins on Thursday, tossing four innings of one-run ball, walking none and striking out six. Save for a solo homer by Alex Kirilloff in the second, Rodriguez was barely threatened. Perhaps most impressively, the pitcher once known for his infuriating propensity to nibble threw 33 of his 48 pitches for strikes.

"As you guys know, I've been very hard on him as far as attacking the zone since 2018," manager Alex Cora said. "He's buying into that concept and that's the difference between Eddie early on to the one we have now. This is a guy that can go deep into games. As far as workload, every five days, we trust this guy. He's a strong guy and easy delivery so it was good to see him perform this way but it wasn't surprising."

Rodriguez remains on track to start the opener in three weeks vs. the Orioles, even if nothing has been officially announced. Two years removed from a breakout 19-win season and sixth-place finish in the Cy Young race, Rodriguez sees no reason why he can't pick up where he left off.

"I had a regular offseason," Rodriguez said with some measure of relief. "Because I had a regular offseason, I think that's why my pitches are getting back where I was. Throughout my bullpens and every time I've played catch, I've been working on it day by day. That's why I think they're back there getting in place."

If there was a minor concern, it was his velocity. In a camp that has seen Eovaldi touch 99 mph and even Tanner Houck hit 98, Rodriguez remains a tick below the 94-95 that combines with his changeup to make him so effective.

"I mean, right now I'm just working on location," Rodriguez said. "I know the velocity is going to get back by the time we get to the season. It's going to get back. I'm just working right now on throwing the pitch right where I want it, feeling good, getting my shoulder right."

Two starts into the Grapefruit League season, Rodriguez is 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA and eight strikeouts in 6.2 innings. He has yet to walk anyone.

The next K-Rod? Rodriguez's K/9 in Spring Training 11.6

Add it all up, and he has the look of an Opening Day starter, which is quite a change from last summer, when he could barely cross the living room without being winded.

"I mean, that's going to be a really big honor for me, because you see how many guys have been the Opening Day starter," he said. "To have the opportunity to be Opening Day starter for the Red Sox is something I can really appreciate. Even if they don't want me to be, I'll stay as a second starter, third starter, whatever position.

"Like I always tell you guys, whatever position they give me, they give me the ball, and I'll go out there every five days."

Chavis admits his future with the Sox is murky at best

John Tomase

Michael Chavis faces an uphill climb to make the Red Sox roster, and not only does he know it, he's at peace with it.

"I'm not even sure if I have a place on the team," Chavis admitted Wednesday. "That's what I'm trying to earn. I'm not ashamed to say that, I'm not worried about it."

The 25-year-old slugger appears boxed out at every position after the Red Sox placed a premium on versatility this winter. Chavis has spent the bulk of his career at first and second base, positions manned by Enrique Hernandez and Bobby Dalbec, respectively. Both are right-handed hitters, like Chavis, which means he's not a good platoon partner for either of them. Meanwhile, switch hitters Marwin Gonzalez and Danny Santana play those positions, too.

Tomase: A lot has happened since we last heard a word from John Henry Chavis has played 12 games in left field in an effort to expand his versatility, but he hasn't taken a single rep there so far this spring, and manager Alex Cora said on Thursday that he has no plans to play Chavis in the outfield, preferring he instead focus on the infield and his swing.

So what is Chavis to do? Not sweat it, for one. He noted that he tried playing general manager as a Single- A prospect and ended up playing himself into a hellacious slump. Because he has options, he's almost certainly ticketed for Triple-A Worcester to start the season, but that hasn't stopped him from putting his best foot forward in camp.

He arrived noticeably slimmer and faster, and through six games he's hitting .429 with a pair of homers (including a walk-off) and a 1.429 OPS.

"It's obviously a little bit of an awkward situation, but I'm huge on mental skills," Chavis said. "Everybody knows that. I'm able to rest my cap knowing that I did what I needed to do to prepare for this. I worked really hard this offseason. I truly did everything I could to prepare for this."

Because manager Alex Cora explained in the offseason that he planned on emphasizing speed and athleticism, Chavis spent his winter in Georgia working primarily on his speed and athleticism. He beat out an infield single on Sunday, which he considered rewarding, and isn't ashamed to say he's proud of the improvements he has made athletically.

"It's kind of weird," Chavis said. "A lot of times people will work hard at something and they're hesitant to admit the fact that they worked hard, and it's something that I'm proud of. I worked really hard and I did what I needed to do to prepare for this season. I'm comfortable knowing and saying that."

After hitting just .212 and continuing to struggle against high fastballs last year, he understands that he may be on the outside looking in when the opening day roster is set.

"In regards to my position, I'm not sure if I have one," he said. "I'm not sure where I fit in, but as uncomfortable as that is and as awkward as that is, it's weird but I don't feel uncomfortable, because like I said, I worked my butt off this offseason. I did what I needed to do to prepare for this, so if I don't earn a spot, I did what I needed to do and I can sleep knowing that."

* BostonSportsJournal.com

In Kiké Hernández, Red Sox finally have someone who embraces leadoff responsibilities

Sean McAdam

Last season, it seemed like the being the leadoff hitter was a job the Red Sox couldn’t give away.

Andrew Benintendi, who had tried it unsuccessfully the year before, forcing the Sox to give up on the experiment after two months, was given another chance at role and stumbled badly again. He was relieved to be removed from the task.

Alex Verdugo took to the job better, but showed no particular affection for the assignment. He was asked to do it, and he did it. But all along, the Verdugo gave the impression that he would have preferred hitting almost anywhere else.

This spring, finally, the Red Sox have somebody who embraces the role. Kiké Hernández, Alex Cora’s choice to his first atop the Boston batting order, is unabashedly a fan.

“I like hitting leadoff. I’m not going to lie to you,” said Hernandez. “I want to hit leadoff. Alex challenged me to earn that spot and I feel like when I hit in the first inning, I’m a little bit more involved in the game and it also gives me a chance to maybe see the starting pitcher maybe one more time, maybe a third time. I’m just trying to put some good (at-bats) together and maybe barrel some balls up or get on base, whatever way I can.

“I know the guys hitting behind me are really, really good. So my job as a leadoff hitter is to try to get on base and hopefully score some runs. Hopefully I can do that and maybe score 100 runs this year.”

By traditional measures, Hernandez doesn’t profile as a prototypical leadoff man. His career on-base percentage is an unremarkable .313, and in seven seasons in the majors, he has a grand total of 12 stolen bases.

Then again, like so much associated with the game, expectations are changing for the leadoff position. Where once is what the domain of patient hitters who could steal, that’s no longer the case. Now, teams seek dynamic offensive performers who, yes, can reach base, but also do damage and help set the tone for the rest of the lineup.

“I think the game dictates which type of hitter you need to be in certain situations,” said Hernandez. “When we’re on the road, it’s up to me to decide whether I want to be aggressive or whether I want to see some pitches. It also depends on who’s on the mound and how he’s been pitching. Then, at home, it depends on how the top of the first goes and whether (our) pitcher had to work 15-20-plus pitches, your job as a leadoff hitter is to try to see as many pitches as you can, try to make their pitcher work so your pitcher can get a little breather in the dugout.”

It’s not as if Hernandez is completely foreign to the idea. He led off a total of 89 games with the Dodgers, though about a third of those came during the game, thanks to double-switches that are far more prevalent in the National League. Most of his time with the Dodgers, Hernandez was lodged in the lower third of the order, and he sometimes sat against righties.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, view him as pretty much an everyday player — regardless of whether he’s positioned in the infield or outfield — and for that, Hernandez is most grateful.

“I just want to be in the lineup every day,” he said.

Oddly, as Cora has pointed out, Hernandez tends to chase pitches out of the zone when he’s ahead in the count. That uber-aggressiveness will have to be curtailed some if Hernandez is to succeed in the role, though Cora is supportive of hitters “hunting fastballs” early in the count in an attempt to do damage.

“When I can stay in the strike zone,” explained Hernandez, “I’m a lot better hitter than when I’m just going out there and swinging at whatever pitch is coming. That’s something I’m trying to do this spring: from the first pitch of the game, I’m trying to put myself in a 2-0, 3-1 count and not just swing to swing. I want to get a pitch that I can do some damage with and so far I’ve been doing a pretty good job.

“I’ve been working on it, trying to stay in the strike zone, because I know that if I go out there and start hacking and not seeing too many pitches or getting out of the zone, I know that’s not going to help my cause to be the leadoff hitter on this team.”

Hernandez half-jokingly credited himself with accumulating five walks this spring, noting “before, it would take me 100 hundred at-bats” to reach that number.

Another consequence of having Hernandez hit first is that it helps with balance. With the righthanded- hitting Hernandez at the top, Cora can sprinkle in his few lefties (Rafael Devers, Verdugo) into slots that are more conducive to run production.

It’s easy to imagine, say, Devers hitting second, followed by righthanded Xander Bogaerts third and Devers fifth, behind J.D. Martinez. Or, he could have Verudgo hit second to provide more athleticism at the top while Devers serves as protection for Martinez in the fifth slot.

Either way, for a change, the Red Sox have someone who welcomes the assignment, rather than take to it half-heartedly and without conviction.

Red Sox Notebook: ERod shines in second outing; Gonzalez homers from each side of plate

Sean McAdam

In his second start of the spring, Eduardo Rodriguez was both efficient and dominant, limiting the Minnesota Twins to a single run on four hits over four innings with six strikeouts.

Rodriguez yielded a solo homer to Twins’ phenom Alex Kirilloff in the first inning but that was the only damage done against him over 48 pitches, 33 of which were thrown for strikes.

He also didn’t allow a walk.

“I was working today on location,” said Rodriguez after the Red Sox beat the Twins, 5-4, “and it was working really great. Changeup command was perfect, fastball command was good. The curveball (Kirilloff hit) was a good pitch, I tried to throw it for a strike and he put a good swing on it and hit it out of the ballpark. But everything I threw today was working.”

Rodriguez credited having “a regular off-season” following his COVID-19 and myocarditis battles for the quality and location he’s shown.

“My pitches are getting back to where they (were),” he said.

“It was good to see him perform this way, but it wasn’t surprising,” said Alex Cora.

Rodriguez’s fastball was 92-93 mph, a bit off from the 95 mph or so that he usually registers. But he’s not the least bit worried.

“Right now, I’m just working on location,” he said. “I know the velocity is going to get back. (The closer we) get to the season, it’s going to get back. Right now, my mind is just on getting my pitches back, working on location and getting my shoulder really strong. Then, there will be a point where my (velocity) will back.” ______

As good as Rodriguez was, the real star of the day was Marwin Gonzalez, who hit two homers — one from each side of the plate. The last time a Red Sox player did that was 11 years ago when Victor Martinez did it against the Yankees in a regular season game.

Gonzalez hit the first one lefthanded, with the bases empty, in the first inning. He hit another in the fifth, from the right side of the plate, with two baserunners on. ______

Franchy Cordero, finally cleared to work out with the team after a lengthy stay on the COVID-19 related IL, took some swings in a simulated game.

The Sox will soon have to clear a spot on the 40-man roster to get Cordero back to active duty. It will take some time for him to see game action, as he hasn’t been very physically active since arriving in camp last week.

“We’re going to try to get him as many at-bats as possible,” said Cora. “The other stuff is buildup. We’ve got to make sure his legs are under him. We’ve just got to make sure. We know the history, so we have to do it the right way. He hasn’t run in a while, so that’s going to take some time.”

With Cordero doubtful for the start of the season, Cora said left field would be handled by Gonzalez, Kiké Hernández and J.D. Martinez. He added that he wanted Michael Chavis to focus on the infield only. ______

Hirokazu Sawamura will make his Grapefruit League debut with a scheduled inning Friday against Tampa Bay….Matt Barnes hit 98 mph with his fastball, fanning two of the four hitters he faced…Christian Arroyo, getting the start at shortstop, had two hits…Xander Bogaerts and Danny Santana are expected to make their Grapefruit League debuts Friday, sharing DH at-bats…Less than half of the 30 MLB teams are planning on having scouts in-person at games this spring and into the regular season — partly due to COVID-19 worries, partly because of a general industry-wide trend of cutbacks in the scouting area. But the Red Sox will be one of the teams sending scouts to games. “Safety first, but our scouts are out there now,” said Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, “and I would expect that to continue throughout the summer.”

* The Athletic

Who is actually going to close for the Red Sox?

Jen McCaffrey

The Red Sox season begins in just under three weeks, and while plenty has become clearer about the rotation, the team’s versatility, the defensive alignments and the lineup, the bullpen has fallen under a cloud of ambiguity.

Manager Alex Cora has said he wants a set closer. He has conceded the matchup-based, high-leverage spots he entrusted to Matt Barnes on a nightly basis in 2019 weren’t the best idea. Cora doesn’t want to thrust Hirokazu Sawamura, who has the most closing experience on the team, into the role right away; instead, he wants him to adjust to the majors and new batters he’s never faced after coming over from Nippon Professional Baseball. Barnes said he’d like to be the closer. Adam Ottavino said he’ll fill any role.

It’s been a jigsaw puzzle of a spring, piecing together all of these elements of a bullpen-in-progress.

If Barnes is the top choice to close, why not just say it? He’s the longest-tenured pitcher on the Red Sox staff and entering his final year before free agency. Perhaps Cora wants to consider Ottavino but doesn’t want Barnes to lose confidence. Maybe he’s considering sliding Sawamura into the role shortly after the season starts and doesn’t want it to appear that Barnes or Ottavino “lost” the closer’s role if either of them starts there.

Or maybe it’s more about watching the pitchers this spring and seeing which of them seems best suited for the role after a few games on the mound. It’s always dangerous to read too much into spring performances, but without having any more information we’re left to guess.

As Cora has tiptoed around the closer subject, it has almost become an elephant in the Zoom room.

“At the end of the day, you get hired to make tough decisions, and are the players going to agree all the time? No,” Cora said. “But I’ll make the decision that’s the best for the benefit of the team. It doesn’t mean that whoever we decide is going to be the set-up guy can’t do the closing thing, but we do believe it’s the right decision.

“We’re going to put everything on the table. And there’s going to be a lot of people that are going to have an opinion about it, and we’ll make a decision as a group.”

Barnes made his spring debut Sunday, pitching one scoreless inning with two strikeouts and reaching the upper 90s with his fastball. He followed that up Thursday with another 1.1 innings and two strikeouts.

Ottavino debuted Wednesday, displaying his nasty slider and striking out two while allowing a double.

Sawamura threw in a simulated game earlier this week and expects to get into a game in the coming days.

Cora has dropped hints here and there about different roles but largely seems to want to keep his options open for now.

“Like I said, we’re not going to name a closer until later on, but one thing for sure: We’re going to give Ottavino the ball, clean innings, and he’s going to face lefties and righties,” Cora said before Ottavino’s outing Wednesday. “We trust him.”

And after Barnes declared he would like to be the closer, Cora embraced the challenge.

“I’m actually happy that he said that,” Cora said. “Nothing against Barnesy; in ’19 he said all the right things, except that he wanted to be the closer. I’m glad he stepped up and said that. There’s nothing wrong with that. Your goals should be to be the best at your position, right? Like I said, we’ll go through spring training, we’ll make a decision, and everybody will be OK.”

Part of the decision might come down to how the rest of the bullpen shapes up for the Red Sox and who’s available by the time camp breaks. Ryan Brasier has yet to pitch in a game because he arrived at camp late for personal reasons. Sawamura said he needs only three or four outings to be ready for the season. Josh Taylor pitched in his first game this week, and Darwinzon Hernández appeared in a simulated game Wednesday. Rule 5 draftee Garrett Whitlock has appeared in two games, allowing a run on five hits and five strikeouts. He needs to make the club or be returned to the Yankees. Matt Andriese figures to be the long man and extra starter stashed in the bullpen.

Cora has said he’ll go with 14 pitchers and 12 position players to open the season. With Eduardo Rodríguez, Nathan Eovaldi, Garrett Richards, Martín Pérez and Nick Pivetta in the rotation, that leaves nine spots for the bullpen. Barnes, Ottavino, Sawamura, Hernández, Taylor, Whitlock, Brasier and Andriese seem to be the most logical choices, with the ninth spot up for grabs. Colten Brewer and Austin Brice appear to be the front-runners for that last spot.

The Red Sox want to keep Tanner Houck stretched out as a starter, and Cora noted he will not be in the bullpen mix. That seems to indicate Houck will start the year at the alternate site or Triple-A Worcester, barring a rash of big-league rotation injuries.

Neither Barnes nor Ottavino has significant closing experience, with 15 and 19 saves, respectively. But that doesn’t seem to matter to Cora.

“Barnesy hasn’t had that much (closing) experience either, but it has to start at one point, right?” Cora said. “That’s how the great closers started, right? They were relievers, then set-up guys, then they became closers. We’re very comfortable with both of them. It’s not about a bad choice or good choice. It’s just a matter of structure and what we see around them, too. It’s going to mean a lot. Their stuff is different. One is a curveball. The other one is a slider. One is a four-seamer, the other one is a sinker/cutter. We’ll talk about it, but I’m comfortable with whoever in the ninth. It’s just a matter, like I said, with what’s around and what we see. We’ll make a decision.”

Letters From Spring: The Red Sox now want to be like other teams. But why?

Joe Posnanski

For the next 30 or so days — weekends off so my family doesn’t leave me — we’re going to try to take a little baseball tour. Thirty teams. Thirty days. Thirty reports. In these hopefully dwindling days of COVID- 19, I’m not going to actually go to the spring training sites. This will be a tour of the mind, a love letter to baseball’s history and future. We’re going to count these essays down from 30 to 1, worst team to best as I see it going into 2021. Coming in at No. 15 is the Boston Red Sox.

The Boston Red Sox Established: 1901 (as Boston Americans).

Nickname quality (scale of 1-10): N/A.

The Red Sox name is one of those that is so ubiquitous, it defies a rating. On its own, the name is terrible. It has no connection to Boston. It has no deeper meaning. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. And, hey, they’re named for laundry. I mean, there is nothing inspiring about that.

But you couldn’t imagine them being called anything else.

The name was sprung in 1908 — as the story goes, the team had worn red for the first six seasons of its existence but decided to go with white as its primary color in 1907, perhaps because of some belief that red-dyed stockings might infect cuts sustained on the playing field. At the end of 1907, however, president John I. Taylor announced the team would go back to the red socks and become known as the Boston Red Sox, which is what everybody called the first professional Boston team back in the 1870s.

“In the early ’70s,” the Boston Globe reported on Christmas Day 1907, “the Chicago White Stockings and the Boston Red Stockings held the front rank as the great baseball teams, and the old-time fans will welcome the Boston Red Sox as sincere followers of the old Red Stockings who could win pennants like breaking matches.”

One final Boston nickname thought: There has long been a theory the team was once called the Boston Pilgrims, but SABR’s Bill Nowlin looked closely and found the Boston Pilgrims never existed. It’s a shame, really. The Boston Pilgrims is a great name.

Uniform quality (scale of 1-10): 9.4.

Classic. Solid. Familiar. As Mike Schur points out, the RED and SOX on opposite sides of the buttons give the uniform a glorious balance that no other team can quite match.

Stadium ranking out of 30: Tied for fourth.

Yes, I’m hedging a little bit — I adore Fenway Park. The Green Monster. The way colors pop inside. The history. It is one of those increasingly rare places in American sports where you just feel as if you have stepped into another time. I couldn’t love it more.

But I’m not being honest if I don’t point out that Fenway also has a little bit of the Washington Road syndrome. What’s that? Well, if you are even a casual golf fan, you know how gorgeous Augusta National is for the Masters. You see Rae’s Creek and you see the azaleas and you see all that green and you think this is the most beautiful place in the world. And maybe it is. But there’s a reason you never see a blimp shot over Augusta National and that’s because the club is on Washington Road, which is every awful strip mall, fast-food, tire center, Hooters restaurant street you’ve ever seen.

So it goes at Fenway, where the bowels of the stadium, the concourses … well, it’s an old stadium, and it shows its age. Anyway, it is one of the five best in baseball for sure. You’ll see soon which one I have it tied with.

All-time pitching rotation: Sixth best (Roger Clemens; Cy Young; Pedro Martínez; Lefty Grove; Luis Tiant).

Random player from history: Jody Reed.

We don’t often think about how much stadiums affect the statistics we care about. Yes, these days we have all of the context-adjusted stats like OPS+ and ERA+ that allow us to take into consideration the various quirks of different stadiums, but even with that I still think there’s a lot of stuff we just don’t consider. For example, did you know no Oakland player has ever won a batting title? That place is such a pitchers’ park with so much foul ground, it’s so hard for a player to do it.*

*In 1989, Carney Lansford came super close — he lost the batting title by just three points to Kirby Puckett. That year he hit .360 on the road and .309 at home.

In 1990, Jody Reed led the American League in doubles. He is one of 16 different Red Sox players to lead the league in doubles through the years. Well, there you go — if you put a gigantic wall 310 feet away from home plate, people are going to whack fly balls and line drives off of it. Of the 45 doubles Reed hit in 1990, 26 were at home. A year later he hit 42 doubles, 27 of them at home. He never hit more than 21 doubles after leaving Boston.

Random player from history (Mike Schur’s choice): Rico Brogna.

Here’s Mike:

Brogna has the best random player story of anybody. He is from Massachusetts, and he went to Watertown High School, like 30 minutes away from where I grew up (in West Hartford, Conn.). He wanted to play for the Red Sox his whole life, and he finally got the chance at the end of his career when the Red Sox picked him up on waivers in 2000. He was 30 years old and basically at the end.

On Aug. 14, the Red Sox were playing Tampa Bay, and Pedro Martínez was on the mound — this was prime Pedro, maybe the best pitcher ever, pitching at his very best. Nobody hit him; he came into the game with a 1.46 ERA. But in the third inning, the Rays got to Martínez. Ozzie Guillen and Gerald Williams hit back-to-back line-drive singles, which was basically impossible. And then, even more impossible, Miguel Cairo, who had eight home runs in his big-league career, launched a fly ball over the Green Monster to give Tampa Bay a three-run lead.

It was Cairo’s only home run of the season.

It was a misty night in Boston; The Globe would call it an “Edgar Allan Poe kind of night, eerie and awash in intrigue.” Pedro left the game after the fourth inning with a shoulder problem. The Red Sox tied the game in the sixth in the most ridiculous rally that included three Rays errors, two sacrifice flies, a bunt and a Brian Daubach double. The game stayed tied into the ninth when Darren Lewis got hit by a pitch. He stole second and went to third on a long fly ball.

With two outs, Carl Everett came to the plate. The Rays intentionally walked him.

That brought up Nomar Garciaparra. The Rays intentionally walked him too to load the bases.

They did all of this craziness so they could face … Rico Brogna. He had entered the game as a pinch runner and the Red Sox didn’t really have anyone left on the bench. As Brogna walked to the plate, he would say his legs were shaking. It was exactly the moment he had been dreaming about since he was a boy — bases loaded, two outs, bottom of the ninth, Fenway Park.

The Rays pitcher was Billy Taylor, a 38-year-old reliever trying to get a few more pitches in the big leagues. With the count 2-2, Brogna guessed breaking ball. Taylor threw him a breaking ball. Brogna turned on it and crushed it deep over the right-field wall and into the Rays’ bullpen.

Baseball doesn’t get any better than that.

“It’s more than a dream come true,” Brogna said that day.

Seriously, Joe, how are you going to pick Jody Reed for your random player when that story exists?

Major-league club summation: The Red Sox lineup looks like it will score runs. But who is going to pitch?

Minor-league system summation (from Keith Law): “The system is back on the upswing after some good player development work and what look to be productive trades.”

Top prospect: Jeter Downs.

Reason to watch in 2021: The Red Sox have plenty of good players, including Alex Verdugo, who might be ready to break through into stardom.

Wait, he plays on this team? Adam Ottavino.

Best hopes for 2021: FanGraphs projects the Red Sox to win 85 games in 2021. That might be more optimistic than some other team projections — it’s more optimistic than I am about them, if I’m being honest — but if Chris Sale and Eduardo Rodríguez return and are familiar versions of their old selves, this team could have some surprises in them.

OK, so I will admit I can’t get the tweet out of my mind. I’m sure I’m making too much of it. The truest rule of Twitter is if you stay with it long enough, you will tweet out things you regret, things you thought meant one thing but actually mean something else, things that use one wrong word that changes the whole meaning, things that reveal a part of yourself that perhaps would have been better hidden. We are not especially graceful in forgiving Twitter trespasses … nor will others be quick to forgive our Twitter trespasses.

Still, I can’t get that particular Red Sox tweet out of my head. The text of the tweet was five letters, “iykyk,” which I am told stands for “If you know, you know.” I’d prefer that it stood for “If you’re Keanu, you know,” or “If you’re Kowalski, you kill” or “Indigo Yeast Karate Yawn Kiss,” all of which are super fun words.

But it wasn’t the letters that set people off. It was, instead, the image of a keyboard with a giant blue button that says RESET. And there was a finger pressing the button.

I don’t know memes, but apparently this was a play on a pretty famous one where the blue button says UPGRADE. The social media folks had changed it to say RESET to celebrate the fact the team had managed to reset the luxury tax, which basically means they would not have to pay a fairly onerous competitive balance tax going forward. This was really good news for owner John Henry, who is worth billions. It was not as good of news for Red Sox fans still aching over the team’s decision to trade Mookie Betts rather than try to sign him.

Anyway, the Red Sox social team immediately knew they had screwed up in a big way — see the first rule of Twitter — and they quickly deleted the tweet and sent out another that said: “You ever miss with a tweet? Same.”

And I honestly do not mean to bring up this bad memory; I imagine this person or team was just trying to point to better days ahead for the Red Sox and hit an off-key note. It happens and it should not be a big deal.

But … I can’t get the tweet out of my head, not because of the tweet itself but because of this question I have: What can we, as fans, expect from our baseball teams?

It seems to me the basic agreement comes down to 10 simple words: You should care as much about winning as I do. It feels to me that just about every quarrel between fans and the team comes down to this proposition. If you cared as much as I do, you would fire the coach. If you cared, you would spend more money. If you cared, you would figure out how to fix the bullpen. If you cared, you would trade for this player who could turn everything around. Sometimes lack of caring is chalked up to incompetence, but more often than not, the complaint I hear from fans is that they’re not trying as hard as they should be.

In this argument, the Red Sox have a special place in baseball. You might accept the Brewers or Royals or Reds or Athletics or any number of other teams face particular challenges that might prevent them from going all in to win every single year. Many fans of those teams have come to see baseball as a game of movements, like in a symphony, and sometimes those teams must go into building mode, sometimes those teams are in opportunity mode, sometimes those teams are in win-now-because-time-is-running-out mode and, yes, sometimes those teams are in going-out-of-business-sale mode in which they just give up on whatever plan had failed and start over.

Whether all that’s true or not — it’s possible that even these smaller-market teams play up their limitations for effect — it’s definitely true these rules do not apply and cannot apply to the Boston Red Sox. The Sox are too rich, too popular, too big to play it small. They have to go for it every single year. That just comes with being the Boston Red Sox.

And yet, what that tweet suggested — especially in the context of various other things the team had done — is that the Red Sox would like to change the rules now. They don’t want to go for it every year. They don’t want to pay the luxury tax, don’t want to spend big for free agents, don’t even want to go to the mat to bring back their most iconic player in a half-century, Mookie Betts. No, they want to be like other teams. They hired Chaim Bloom to run things after he had so much success doing small-ball things in Tampa Bay. Bloom really is a brilliant guy but he’s spent his whole career running uphill; it’s what he knows. The team promptly had him slash payroll. They broke apart the team that had won 108 games and the World Series just three seasons ago. They dispatched Mookie.

This cannot be said loudly enough: THEY DISPATCHED MOOKIE.

And what are Red Sox fans supposed to do now? Abandon the team? Not an option. Complain to talk radio and in comments below stories? Not fulfilling. Justify it? Yes, I do hear quite a bit of that — stuff like, “Mookie didn’t want to play in Boston,” which, you know, maybe he did, maybe he didn’t (I’ve actually heard both views from baseball insiders), but the Red Sox didn’t seem to try hard enough to find out.

All the while, Henry’s value keeps skyrocketing. His group bought the Red Sox for $700 million. Forbes last year valued them at $3.3 billion. We often get confused by the difference between a million and a billion, so here’s one way to think of it: A billion is way more.

The Red Sox go into this year with some good players and a chance of being better than last year’s fiasco — as I said above, FanGraphs projects them to win 85 games — but you get no sense at all the team actually wants to be good this year. They certainly didn’t do anything this offseason that suggested urgency. Instead, the impression they give off is that they would like to just slowly build back up … and have the fans trust that it just has to be this way.

Maybe it does. I was just having a discussion (or argument, I can’t tell) with a baseball executive who insists the Red Sox really had no choice here. Yes, he says, they could have worked harder to re-sign Mookie, but because the organization was drained of talent and because they made a few bad financial decisions, they were going to run into a wall anyway. His argument is that though my notions of the Red Sox owing it to themselves and their fans to try to win every year might sound good and romantic, they don’t match up with the realities of baseball today.

I responded by calling him a big poo-poo head, which I thought was a pretty decent comeback.

No, what I said was that what he’s saying might be right but it also might be wrong. The Red Sox have had a lot of injuries and a few down seasons, but there’s still a lot of talent. If Betts was on this team, FanGraphs would probably have them projected to win … what … 87 games? If they had been active in trying to get a starting pitcher or two this offseason, well, who knows? My point is: Baseball is better when everybody is trying to win every year. The game keeps getting further and further away from that place.

If we can’t count on the Boston Red Sox doing whatever they can to win, then why are we even here?

Red Sox on right path? Could Cubs trade Javier Báez? Jim Bowden’s MLB mailbag

Jim Bowden

Part 1 of our trade-focused mailbag ran earlier this week. Let’s play two.

(Note: Submitted questions have been edited for clarity and length.)

Are the Red Sox on the right path under chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom? — Cary P.

Only time will tell. He’s certainly rebooting and building for the future. The major-league team might have more platoons than Red Sox Nation has ever seen. The outfield has undergone a huge downgrade since he arrived in October 2019, but the Red Sox have top prospect Jarren Duran on the way in their system. The left side of the infield remains elite with Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers, but Bloom inherited both. The right side of the infield will include power-hitting prospect Bobby Dalbec, but he’ll share time at first base with veteran Marwin González, who is signed to a one-year deal. The long-term answer at first is Triston Casas, their top prospect. Second base will be handled by Enrique Hernández, who will play all over the field. The future at second is prospect Jeter Downs, whom Bloom acquired in the Mookie Betts trade, but he’s not major-league ready. Short term, this is a below-average lineup; long term, the prospects are coming to make it championship-level in two to three years.

The pitching is what bothers me. I don’t like the rotation Bloom has built. He inherited Chris Sale, Eduardo Rodríguez and Nathan Eovaldi. However, his additions such as Martín Pérez, Garrett Richards and Nick Pivetta are questionable at best. Boston does have young righty Tanner Houck, whom I like as a back-of- the-rotation starter.

Bottom line: The best moves Bloom has made were bringing back Alex Cora to manage and reducing the major-league payroll in the present and future. However, I think the Red Sox are a fourth-place team in the American League East this year. To judge Bloom and his moves, we need to wait until 2023.

If the Cubs wanted to trade Javier Báez, to whom would they trade him, and what might they get in return? — Shawn E.

I keep hearing their preference is to sign Báez to a contract extension. The trade market is not strong for him because he’s on his free-agent walk year and he’s coming off a dismal, albeit truncated, platform season. That said, if the Cubs can’t extend Báez by the trade deadline, I won’t be surprised if they trade him for prospects — even if they are lower-level prospects, like the return in the Yu Darvish deal. If Báez has a strong first half of the season, his trade value will increase. He can play above-average second base, shortstop and third base, so most contending teams would have some interest in him, at least at one of those positions. However, Corey Seager, Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa and Trevor Story are also on their walk years, which means Báez, if he’s not extended, won’t be the only impending free-agent shortstop who could be traded.

The Cardinals seem to have a big hole, maybe two, in their rotation. Given spending constraints, what would you do, if anything, to plug that gap? — John B.

The Cardinals don’t share your view of their rotation. In fact, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak thinks their biggest questions are: Who’s going to start the season in the rotation, and who will start in the bullpen? The Cardinals’ rotation depth includes Jack Flaherty, Adam Wainwright, Kwang Hyun Kim, Carlos Martínez, John Gant, Daniel Ponce de Leon, Jake Woodford and Johan Oviedo. The first four (Flaherty, Wainwright, Kim, Martínez) will be in the Opening Day rotation, and the battle for the fifth spot will come down to the wire. Injuries have taken Dakota Hudson and Miles Mikolas out of the equation. I don’t see the Cardinals making a big move before Opening Day.

Compared with what the Padres gave up to acquire Blake Snell and Darvish, what type of a package would the Twins have needed to put together to get either or both? — Jarren D.

That’s a difficult question because I don’t have the answer and, in the case of Snell, Rays general manager Erik Neander won’t divulge it to me. With Snell, the Twins didn’t have the top pitching prospect the Padres had in Luis Patiño, and that’s what the Rays wanted. The Minnesota equivalent would have been outfielder Alex Kirilloff, but Tampa Bay didn’t want an outfielder back. The Twins’ best pitching prospect is Jordan Balazovic, and he rates below Patiño. Darvish is the one they probably could have landed, but the Twins weren’t going to match the four high-upside prospects the Padres offered the Cubs.

Were there ever any serious offers in the offseason for aces like Sonny Gray, Luis Castillo or German Márquez? Or was that all just smoke and mirrors? — Aaron B.

The Reds received calls from several teams on both Gray and Castillo, and they listened to offers and made counterproposals. The asking prices were usually major-league-ready, non-arbitration-eligible players with great upside. They never got close to a deal.

The Rockies received calls on Márquez, but their front office was not motivated to move him.

Do you think a potential labor stoppage in 2022 will affect the way teams trade this year? — James C.

First of all, I don’t think there will be a work stoppage because both sides know how much it would damage the game. And I don’t think teams will change the way they trade players because of the potential for one, either. However, because of the pandemic and lower revenues, I do think player contracts will be deferred or backloaded more than ever before.

I’m OK with the Angels holding on to Brandon Marsh and Jo Adell to play center field and right field for five-plus years, starting next year (or sooner), when Justin Upton moves to DH or the golf course. … But would you package one (which one?) and fill the other open outfield slot via free agency? — Russ A.

A future outfield of Mike Trout, Jo Adell and Brandon Marsh works for me, and that’s what I’m expecting in 2022. In the meantime, the only way I would trade Adell or Marsh is if I could get a No. 1 starter in return. The Angels were willing to trade one of the outfielders to get Snell, but the Rays chose a Padres package centered on Patiño instead. We all understand why.

If the Yankees look pretty good at the deadline and think it could be their year, but they need one more piece, do you think GM Brian Cashman sells the farm for Luis Castillo? — Matt W.

I’ve never seen Cashman “sell the farm,” so I don’t think that’s going to happen. I do think he’ll make a strong offer to land Castillo if he can. However, in past conversations between the teams, the Reds were interested only if they could get Yankees shortstop Gleyber Torres back in the trade, and that’s not happening.

Assuming the Giants are out of the wild-card race at the trade deadline, will they sell any of the veterans who are worth anything (Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, even Alex Wood), or try to re-sign any of them? — Evan S.

The Giants will move veteran players for legitimate prospects if anyone comes calling. The phones have been relatively quiet for them over the past couple of seasons, but that could change with so many of their contracts expiring after this season. That said, I wouldn’t hold your breath.

I would love to hear how deals with players to be named later actually work in practice. How do the teams guarantee they’ll agree on the players down the road? — David H.

At the time of the trade, a team gives a list of players to the other team that both sides agree on, and the team getting the player to be named later has an agreed-upon timetable for when it will let the other side know which player it is taking. The teams also agree on financial compensation that will occur if the team that’s receiving the PTBNL decides it would rather have cash than one of the players on the list.

In your time as a GM, what’s a trade you had the opportunity to make but passed on that you regret the most. — Josiah S.

With the Reds, I was close to an agreement, pending president and ownership approval, to trade third baseman Brandon Larson to the Phillies for third baseman Scott Rolen. The deal fell through because it was nixed by our side for financial reasons. I was devastated.

* The USA Today

Curt Schilling's 2004 bloody sock (not that one) up for auction

Chris Bumbaca

Beginning March 17, collectors can bid on Curt Schilling's bloody sock — no, not that one.

This stained stocking is the one Schilling slipped onto his right foot before Game 2 of the 2004 World Series; the more lasting "bloody sock" image of Schilling occurred earlier in the playoffs, during Game 6 of the ALCS against the New York Yankees.

The three-time World Series champion pitched six innings while giving up one unearned run as the Red Sox went up 2-0 over the St. Louis Cardinals on the way to winning their first championship in 86 years.

Schilling asked to be removed from the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot in January after failing to eclipse the 75% threshold for induction all nine years he was eligible. He came in at 71% (16 votes shy) in 2021 voting.

In 2016, ESPN fired Schilling from his on-air analyst role for sharing insensitive social media posts, a trend the six-time All-Star has continued in recent years and included support for Jan. 6 rioters at the U.S. Capitol Building.

The bloody sock worn by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling in Game 2 of the 2004 World Series. The bidding for Schilling's sock, through SCPA Auctions, runs through April 3. The same sock had previously gone for sale in 2013 and sold for $92,613.