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Well, baseball is actually happening this year. It seemed unlikely at certain points, but testing has gone well enough in summer camp that the regular season is a go, and things are set to get underway for a couple games on Thursday before the entire league gets going on Friday. The Red Sox are among that latter group, with their first game on Friday against the Orioles starting at 7:30 PM ET.
For those of you who have been around these parts for a while, you’ll recognize these superlatives as something we’ve been doing for a few years now. For those of you who are new, it’s really not all that complicated. There are going to be six categories on which every staff member will make a pick as will readers with a poll on the bottom of this page. The categories are: Team MVP, Best Pitcher, Defensive Wizard, Biggest Surprise, Biggest Disappointment, and Unsung Hero. We’ll have votes on two a day before wrapping things up with the results on Friday. All polls will close at midnight on Friday.
We start with the big one: Team MVP. This is always an interesting exercise because there are a number of different ways to interpret the concept of an MVP. That difference in interpretation can certainly be a little annoying during real MVP voting, but I’ve learned to enjoy the differences in how people see the same term. It’s even more interesting this year because the Red Sox lost their best player over the offseason. Even with the absence of Mookie Betts, there are still a number of possibilities here.
I’ll have a bunch of options in the poll below, but if you think someone else should be there, do let me know in the comments.
Poll
Who will be the 2020 Red Sox MVP?
This poll is closed
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1%
Matt Barnes
-
0%
Andrew Benintendi
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48%
Xander Bogaerts
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1%
Jackie Bradley Jr.
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26%
Rafael Devers
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4%
Nathan Eovaldi
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15%
J.D. Martinez
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0%
Eduardo Rodriguez
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2%
Christian Vázquez
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1%
Alex Verdugo
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0%
Brandon Workman