Was anyone really saying at the midpoint, when the Sox were among the best teams in baseball, that this team wasn’t good enough to contend? I don’t really recall that being the consensus at all. There was a lot of excitement about getting Sale and Houck back, and then Schwarber, but the idea that this team was never good enough seems to be something we said in April and August but not really in between. Even now, I don’t really get it. This team is capable of contending - they’ve done it all year, and capable of winning if it makes it to the playoffs.
I agree. I think while it keeps being mentioned in passing it’s worth reflecting upon the fact that Red Sox won their season long series against the Yankees, Blue Jays, and Mariners. I understand the Sox aren’t playing as well now as they did before, but that’s good evidence that they are “capable” of winning, and hand waiving that away as “that was then, this is now” doesn’t feel like a satisfying answer given that on paper we’ve replaced a lot of dead weight with more productive players.
If this is your definition of MLB every day players the Yankees must have like 2.
Responding late to agree with you. it’s just strange. Xander and Devers are not just “everyday” players. They’re All Stars, two of the best players in MLB -- in fact, they're both ~5 WAR players, top 21 in the league Using them as a baseline does not seem reasonable. The idea that Kiké Hernandez — who has played Gold Glove defense in CF, has a solid OPS+ of 108 at the plate, and has been a 4 WAR player in 2021 — isn’t an “everyday player” I think is a misunderstanding of who actually plays on MLB teams.
And since you brought up the Yankees, they only have 3 position players with a WAR of 2 or more this season (Judge, Stanton, Lemahieu) while the Sox have 5 (Xander, Devers, JD, Hernandez, Verdugo).
I’m less worried because I don’t think his construction was based on a plan to compete this year. I think the fact that the team is competing surprised the hell out of him.
I’m totally with you on a lot of what you say here, I’m just not sure about this line. Our lineup was potentially too strong to assume they had “no chance” to compete, and Chaim invested a little in the pitching in ways that indicated he thought they might contend (Perez, Richards, Ottavino).
I would guess Chaim thought they had a chance to grab a Wild Card spot and wanted to give them until July to see 1) how the team performed, 2) how Sale recovered, and 3) whether there would be trade deadline fits that could help the team win in the playoffs, all while restocking the farm system and seeing what they had in young assets like Houck, Dalbec, Whitlock, Duran, etc.
This season is something like a best case scenario from that point of view.