FanPost

Regardless of 2015, the Red Sox will be fine.



The outlook on our favorite Red Sox blog has been... bleak, to put it kindly. There is reason for that outlook, as the Sox are five games under .500 at the end of May, and both the pitching and the hitting have been inconsistent, to say the least. 2015 may be a lost year for us, in fact as the season goes on that is looking more and more likely. However, the end of 2015 is not the end of the world. The Red Sox will be fine, and they have a bright future ahead of them.

Our Veterans Are Not This Bad

Over the offseason, Ben Cherington added consistently good veterans to bolster our offense and rebuild a rotation that was broken in July of 2015. Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval, and Rick Porcello are all above-average to great players who, for one reason or another are struggling currently. It may have partly to do with the coaching staff, or a change in positions, injury, or plain bad luck, but none of these players are Carl Crawford, they have not simply forgotten how to baseball.

The same can be said for our veterans who are already entrenched. We may not have noticed it because of how terrible the rest of the season has been, but Dustin Pedroia looks like Dustin Pedroia at the plate again. Mike Napoli just had extremely invasive head surgery that maybe he isn't fully recovered from yet, and Clay Buchholz is pitching way below his peripherals. I see no reason to expect anything but improvement from our veterans. We know that they are better than their results have been so far in 2015, we've seen them succeed before, and what we are witnessing in 2015 is nothing more than a blip in the radar, an unfortunate collection of players recovering from injury, or even just running into a cold streak.

Our Youngsters Are Still Young

Xander Bogaerts has improved from last year. I know it doesn't feel that way, but it's true. Mookie Betts has a .259 BABIP, that is not going to continue. Eduardo Rodriguez just put in a performance that belongs at the top of any rotation and he's only 22. Blake Swihart is struggling, but he only had a total of 36 games in AAA before our comedy of injuries forced him into the majors well before he was ready. Blake Swihart is not a busted prospect, he has more time to learn. The same goes for all of our underperforming young players.

Christian Vazquez will come back, Blake Swihart, Xander Bogaerts, and Mookie Betts will improve, and there is more help waiting in AAA than you can shake a Louisville Slugger at. So even if 2015 is not as successful as we had hoped, I would not call 2015 a failure. It is a year to shake off the rust for some, to find their groove for others, and to wait and develop what is to come in 2016. Regardless of 2015, the Red Sox will be fine.