After winning 108 regular season games on their way to another 11 wins in the 2018 postseason, Alex Cora’s roster looks very much like the one he had for most of last season. In fact, the Opening Day roster includes only one player – Colten Brewer – who did not play for Boston last season. Spring training was, like last year, relatively quiet, and the Red Sox finished with 12 wins versus 17 losses and a tie. Perhaps the biggest news out of Fort Myers was a contract extension Boston gave to pitcher Chris Sale; the five-year, $145M payout ensures that he will stay with the team through 2024, unless he chooses to opt out after the 2022 season.

With the roster now final, let’s see who will be with the team in Seattle tonight when they start the season against the Mariners at T-Mobile Field (formally Safeco Field).

The Backstop

To almost no one’s surprise, the Red Sox chose not to go with three catchers to begin the season, and the odd man out was Sandy Leon, whom Boston placed on waivers Sunday. He cleared waivers Tuesday and he has until today to decide whether to accept an assignment in Triple-A Pawtucket or become a free agent. Thus, it will be Christian Vazquez and Blake Swihart to begin the season. Vazquez remains the number one catcher on the depth chart, while Swihart offers utility options at nearly every position in the field.

The Infield

Dustin Pedroia, who missed all but three games last season, had hoped to make the Opening Day roster but will need extra time to rehab his surgically-repaired knee; this will be the second straight season he starts on the injured list (IL) (this term replaces the previously-used disabled list moniker). Eduardo Nunez and Brock Holt will split time at second until he returns.

The star of the infield is undoubtedly Xander Bogaerts, who finished last season with a career-best .833 OPS and a 135 OPS+. Another player whose star continues to rise is Rafael Devers, who played his first full season in 2018 and is still only 22 years old. With Steve Pearce on the mend due to an injury late in spring training, Mitch Moreland and Sam Travis will split time at first base, with Moreland facing all right-handed pitching; Travis will like head back to Pawtucket once the World Series MVP is ready to return.

The Outfield

On a team filled with talent – MLB.com picked Boston’s lineup as the best in baseball entering the season – the one player who sticks out above everyone else is 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts. His WAR of 10.9 last season tied Ted Williams for the second-best single season mark in team history among position players, bested only by Carl Yastrzemski’s remarkable 1967 season.

Boston also features arguably the best outfield talent in baseball, split between Betts, AL batting champion J.D. Martinez, left fielder Andrew Benintendi, and center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr.; Martinez will most often get the start as the team’s DH as was the case in 2018.

The Starting Rotation

Boston’s rotation, picked as the fourth best by MLB.com, includes the aforementioned Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello, Nathan Eovaldi, and Eduardo Rodriguez. Dogged by his inability to win games in October, Price’s postseason run in 2018, including a victory in the deciding game of the World Series, quieted the critics and nearly earned him World Series MVP honors. Price’s first start will not be until Monday against Oakland to give him more time to recover from norovirus, which slowed him during spring training and limited him to only a handful of innings.

The Relief Corp

The bullpen appears to be the only question mark for the Red Sox entering the season. Two notable subtractions – closer Craig Kimbrel, who remains unsigned as the season begins, and Joe Kelly, who went to the Los Angeles Dodgers via free agency – have been left unresolved in the minds of many baseball analysts. Cora has stated that, to begin, Matt Barnes and Ryan Brasier will split duties as the go-to pitcher in the ninth. Rounding out the bullpen will be Brewer, Heath Hembree, Tyler Thornburg, Brian Johnson, Brandon Workman, and Hector Velazquez.

The home run also proved to be number 504 in Big Papi’s career, which ties him with Eddie Murray for 26th all-time in MLB history. After Murray, his next target on the all-time list would be Gary Sheffield (509), followed by Mel Ott (511), Ernie Banks (512) and Eddie Matthews (also 512). He now also has 446 home runs with the Red Sox, which puts him six behind Carl Yastrzemski for second place (452) and well behind Ted Williams with 521, whom he has a chance to catch only in the career total category.

How to determine the franchise record for Opening Day home runs depends on how you define the criteria. In terms of home run totals, use of the Play Index at Baseball-Reference.com (purchase a subscription if you don’t already have one) reveals the following:

Yaztrzemski and Evans are tied at the top for home runs hit on five separate Opening Days, but Yaz bests Dewey by one in the total home run department thanks to two home runs hit in the opener in 1968 versus the Detroit Tigers. Likewise, Pedroia is currently tied with three others players (Williams, Rice, and Ortiz) with home runs in three individual openers, but he has four total courtesy of the two he hit in last year’s opener in Philadelphia versus the Phillies.

Other players who have hit home runs for the Red Sox on different Opening Days include Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon, Tim Naehring, Jackie Jensen, Bobby Doerr, and Tony Conigliaro.

For the curious, the major league record in terms of home run totals across multiple Opening Day contests is eight, held by Frank Robinson (eight individual games), Ken Griffey Jr. (seven games), and Adam Dunn (six games).

Big Papi is far and away the leader in most offensive categories as a designated hitter: most plate appearances (7188), most hits (1779), most doubles (450), most home runs (385), and most RBI (1256). Counting only players with at least 2000 plate appearances as a DH, his OPS of .941 ranks second to Edgar Martinez (.959).

Not surprisingly, Ortiz is far and above the leader in franchise history.

To date, only one person has received this honor who has not met these criteria; Johnny Pesky, whose number 6 was retired in 2008, was recognized for more than 60 years of nearly uninterrupted time with the franchise as a player, a manager, coach, and instructor.

There is also one player who meets these criteria but whose number is absent from the façade in right field: former third baseman Wade Boggs.

Boggs so impressed the Red Sox organization during his rookie season in 1982 that they shipped third baseman Carney Lansford, who had won the American League batting title in 1981, to the Athletics after the season. He then proceeded to win batting titles in four of the next five seasons, amassing a team-record 240 hits in 1985. That year also marked the first of twelve consecutive All-Star selections for the Red Sox third baseman.

In franchise history, Boggs is third in career wins against replacement (WAR) behind only Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski and ninth in defensive WAR. His batting average is second behind Williams, his on-base percentage is third, and his OBP is ninth. More than two-thirds of his career 3,010 hits came with Boston. His average OPS+ with the Sox was 142, sixth in franchise history, and only once in 11 seasons with Boston (his last) was his OPS+ below 100.

Boggs went on to play another seven seasons, split between the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. After calling it a career after the 1999 season, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2005 on his first ballot with 91.9% of all eligible voters selecting him for induction.

So why has one of the most prolific players in franchise not received the honor that only seven other players in team history have received? The team did honor Boggs in 2004 with induction into the Red Sox Hall of Fame and, for a time, no player wore his number 26 between 2005 and 2011. He has also made appearances for the team as recently as when the Red Sox invited all living former members of the team to take the field in honor of Fenway Park’s 100th anniversary in 2012.

According to Boggs, the team has told him explicitly that because he did not finish his career in Boston, he is ineligible. It is true that, at one point, the Red Sox also required a player to finish his career with the Red Sox for his number to be considered for retirement, but that rule was relaxed once Carlton Fisk, who finished his career with the White Sox, was elected to the Hall in 2000.

Some would believe that the Red Sox and Boggs did not part on good terms and that the relationship was further soured when he choose to accept a contract offer from the Yankees, a division rival. Others, including former teammates, would argue that he was more concerned with his personal statistics and less so with the success of the team, though he vehemently denies these allegations. In addition, his extramarital affair with Margo Adams and the resulting palimony suit  brought a lot of negative attention to him and the Red Sox.

All that said, there is no denying that Boggs is one of the best players ever to wear a Red Sox uniform and, had he spent his last seven seasons in Boston and put up the same numbers, his number would have unquestionably been retired the same year that he was inducted into Cooperstown. It’s time to let bygones be bygones; Red Sox ownership, one that has done so much to mend fences with former players, should make it their mission this year, as the Red Sox bask in the afterglow of a world championship, to give Boggs the one final honor he deserves that is long overdue.

Following Will Middlebrooks‘ offensive barrage in today’s 13-0 win over the Blue Jays, in which the young Red Sox third baseman hit three home runs and a double, there are now six players in Boston team history since 1916 with at least 14 TB in one game.

Player             Date        Opp  Rslt     PA  AB  H  2B  3B  HR  TB
Fred Lynn          1975-06-18  DET  W,15-1   6   6   5  0   1   3   16
Dustin Pedroia     2010-06-24  COL  W,13-11  6   5   5  1   0   3   15
John Valentin      1995-06-02  SEA  W,6-5    5   5   5  1   0   3   15
Will Middlebrooks  2013-04-07  TOR  W,13-0   5   5   4  1   0   3   14
Carl Yastrzemski   1965-05-14  DET  L,8-12   6   5   5  1   1   2   14
Norm Zauchin       1955-05-27  WSH  W,16-0   5   5   4  1   0   3   14

Lynn and Zauchin both finished with 10 RBI, while Valentin finished with just three (three solo home runs); Middlebrooks finished the afternoon with four RBI after two solo shots and a two-run blast, while Pedroia and Yaz each collected five RBI. The latter two players also each recorded a walk to add to their line, though walks do not count as the statistic only represents bases reached by a hit.

Yaz is the only player on the list to hit less than three home runs; his total was made possible as he hit for the cycle (single, double, triple, and home run in one game) while adding a second home run to his totals.  Unfortunately, he is the only player on the list whose Red Sox team lost that day.

Lynn’s record-setting day include two three-run home runs, a two-run shot, and a two-run triple to go with a single.  It was part of a big summer for the young center fielder as he would win both American League Rookie of the Year honors and the Most Valuable Player Award.

Zauchin, who had his one big year in the sun as the starting Red Sox third baseman in 1955, hit a two-run home run, a three-run home run, and a grand slam to go with an RBI double.  He finished third in the American League Rookie of the Year vote that season, but played in just 96 games over his next two seasons before being traded to the Washington Senators with minor leaguer Albie Pearson in exchange for future Red Sox All-Star second baseman Pete Runnels.

As a team, the Red Sox have finished under .500 only 38 times in 112 seasons.  The worst team ever in terms of both winning percentage and number of defeats was the forgettable 1932 squad, led by former Boston outfielder Shano Collins for the first 55 contests before getting fired and replaced by former utility infielder Marty McManus.  The team finished a dismal 43-111 and dead last in the eight-team American League, 7.5 games behind the seventh place Chicago White Sox and 64 games behind the first place New York Yankees, who finished 107-47, a near-mirror record compared with Boston.

The Sox were actually in the midst of a 15-year stretch between 1919 and 1933 in which they finished under .500 every season.  Eight times, the team finished under the .400 mark, including six straight seasons between 1925 and 1930.  Another particularly bad stretch of seasons happened between 1959 and 1966, when the team went eight straight years under .500, including an abyssmal 62-100 in 1965 with a team that include manager Billy Herman and outfielder Carl Yastrzemski.

Speaking of 100-loss seasons, seven teams in franchise history have earned this mark of shame, including the 1932 and 1965 teams.  Also in the mix are teams from 1926 (46-107), 1925 (47-105), 1906 (49-105), 1927 (51-103), and 1930 (52-102).  12 teams in franchise history have finished last in the league or division.  Surprising, this does not include the 1965 team, which finished three games ahead of the Kansas City Athletics for ninth place in a ten-team league.

It should also be noted that the last time the Red Sox suffered back-to-back losing seasons was a stretch of three sub-.500 seasons between 1992 and 1994.  All three teams were managed by Hobson and the best finish was an 80-82 mark in 1993.  Surprisingly, a three-year stretch between 1906 and 1908 in the only other time, beyond the aforementioned streaks of bad luck, that the franchise team suffered back-to-back losing seasons.  Of note, the 1907 team, which finished 59-90, was managed by four different people that season, including player-manager Cy Young.

Yawkey’s first order of business after purchasing the club was to renovate the rapidly aging Fenway Park. He spent another $1.5 million on a near-total reconstruction, employing thousands of laborers who had been affected by the Great Depression; his efforts had the park turned into a palace when the gates opened in April of 1934.

Trying to build contenders, Yawkey would pull out his wallet on several occasions to pay big money for talent, sometimes wisely but more often foolishly; he mistakenly believed that his inheritance would solve any problem and often threw unheard-of amounts of money at players who were either unproven or past their prime. He also strongly resisted integration in baseball; as a result, Boston became the last club to field a black player, twelve years after Jackie Robinson’s rookie season, and continued to be dogged by charges of unspoken racial policies even after Yawkey’s death in 1976. As a result of his short-sightedness, only three times during his tenure as owner did the Sox win a pennant.

Even still, he managed to bring Hall-of-Fame talent into the fold over the years in the form of Joe Cronin, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Bobby Doerr, Ted Williams, and Carl Yastrzemski. Yawkey also did his part for the local community; over the years, he funneled much of his time and money into groups like the Jimmy Fund, which continues to raise money for sick children through its affiliation with the Red Sox.

A sportsman in the truest sense of the word and regarded highly by his peers, Yawkey was later the first person elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame who had never served as a player, a manager, or a general manager.

Known early in his Red Sox career for the dramatic, Ortiz has hit 10 walk-off home runs; all but one have come with the Red Sox, though the latest on 26 August 2009 against Chicago White Sox reliever Tony Pena (no relation to former catcher Tony Pena or his son, Tony).  Three of those came in 2006, which was the same season that he set the single-season franchise record for home runs with 54.  In total at Fenway Park, he has left the yard 164 times, all but one time with the Red Sox.

Most of his home runs have come as a DH; 46 have come with him playing first base.  Two home runs have come as a pinch-hitter; his only one with Boston happened 29 May 2011 against Tigers reliever Jose Valverde.

In total, his home runs have plated 627 runners; about one-third of his home runs have come with runners on base.  Ortiz has 11 grand slams in his career, all but one with Boston; his latest came 20 June 2012 off Miami Marlins pitcher Chris Hatcher.  42 of his home runs have come with two runners on base; 110 have been hit with one runner on base.

The pitcher who has surrendered the most home runs to Big Papi is current Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay, who has given up six; all came while Halladay was with the Toronto Blue Jays.  Current Toronto pitcher Jamie Moyer is second with five; seven other pitchers have allowed four.  In his career, the left-handed Ortiz has shown more success against right-handed pitchers, with only 89 home runs coming off southpaws.

Of the 58 Ortiz hit with the Minnesota Twins, with whom he played between 1997 and 2002, four were against Boston pitchers.  The last came against former teammate Pedro Martinez, who served up an offering to Big Papi on 16 August 2002.  Ortiz also hit one against the Red Sox off Pedro’s brother Ramon Martinez on 07 September 2000, which proved to be the one grand slam he would hit with the Twins.

Not surprisingly, most of his home runs have come against American League East Division opponents; Toronto has been victimized 46 times.  Outside Boston’s division, the Texas Rangers lead opponents with 27 home runs surrendered to Ortiz.  The National League franchise with the highest total is the Miami Marlins, who have allowed eight.

Source: David Ortiz Career Home Runs – Baseball-Reference.com

Efforts by the Baseball Writers Association of America eventually led to the creation of the MVP award as it is recognized today, decided by 28 seasoned sportswriters using a positional voting system where each voter ranks his or her top ten players. Jimmie Foxx was the first Boston player recognized by the baseball writers who gave him the honor in 1938, though for him it was his third award after having been recognized twice before with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1932 and 1933. Ted Williams remains the only Red Sox player to have been named twice (1946 and 1949). Other winners have included Jackie Jensen (1958), Carl Yastrzemski (1967), Fred Lynn (1975), Jim Rice (1978), and Roger Clemens (1986). Clemens remains the only Boston pitcher to earn the distinction, though since 1967 only seven pitchers have been so honored.

Of course, due to the subjective native of the MVP vote, Red Sox players have found themselves the focus of controversial outcomes, more often as the odd man out. Though Williams was honored twice in his illustrious career, there were also four instances in which he finished second in the voting where he might have been considered the more deserving candidate. In 1941, he batted .406, the last player to hit .400 or better in the regular season, but lost to New York Yankees outfielder Joe DiMaggio, who has amassed a 56-game hit streak that same year. The next year, he finished second again, this time to Yankees second baseman Joe Gordon, despite having won the batting Triple Crown with more hits in fewer at-bats, twice the number of home runs, and an OPS almost 250 point higher. In 1947, Williams again won the batting Triple Crown, the only player other than Roger Hornsby to win that recognition twice, yet he again lost to DiMaggio by a single point in the vote, again with far better numbers across the board. Finally, in 1957, he won the batting title with an impressive .388 average and hit 38 home runs while setting a modern-day record of reaching base in 16 consecutive at-bats, all at the age of 39, yet finished second once more to another legendary Yankees outfielder, Mickey Mantle.

Other Boston players who fell just shy in the voting include Pedro Martinez, who had one of the best seasons ever by a pitcher in modern baseball history and won the pitching Triple Crown and the Cy Young award. Yet, despite having more first-place votes, he lost to catcher Ivan Rodriguez from the Texas Rangers by a narrow 13-point margin in the vote. It was later discovered that two sportswriters, which included George King from the New York Post, had omitted Martinez from their ballots with the argument that the contributions made by pitchers were not significant enough to earn MVP consideration, though King had included two pitchers on his ballot the previous season. David Ortiz also fell just short of the honor in 2005 as he finished behind Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez in the vote. Though both players finished the season with impressive numbers, the argument was made that Ortiz, as a designated hitter, did not contribute as much to his team’s success as Rodriguez, so much that two sportswriters left Ortiz off their ballots.

On the flipside, Vaughn finished a mere eight points ahead of Cleveland slugger Albert Belle in the 1995 vote, despite Belle having far more impressive numbers on offense, including a higher number of home runs, runs scored, RBI, slugging percentage, and total bases; he had also become the first player in major league history to hit 50 doubles and 50 home runs in the same season that same year. Vaughn, however, had a far better relationship with fans and the media, whereas Belle routinely refused to grant interviews to reporters and had engaged in several controversial incidents with fans both at and away from the park. Ted Williams was also well-known for his sour relationship with the media, whom he mockingly referred to as the “kinights of the keyboard,” and, like Belle, may have been the reason in part for losing several close MVP ballots.

[1] Deane, Bill, Thron, John, and Palmer, Pete. Total Baseball. HarpersCollins Publishers, New York, 1993.

Proponents had lobbied for Rice based on the fact that, between 1975 and 1986, Rice was one of the most feared hitters in the American League as he averaged .304 with 29 home runs and 106 RBI each season. He also finished in the top five of the MVP vote six times during that stretch, winning his only award in 1978 when he stroked 46 home runs, led the league with 139 RBI, and batted .315, just twenty points behind league-leader Rod Carew. He also collected an amazing 406 total bases that season, the first to have 400 or more total bases in a single season since Hank Aaron in 1959 and a feat that’s been matched since only six times.

Drafted and signed by Boston in 1971, he earned Triple Crown, Rookie of the Year, and MVP honors as a member of the AAA Pawtucket Red Sox in 1974. The following season, Rice broke into the majors and, along with fellow rookie sensation and “Gold Dust Twin” Fred Lynn, helped Boston return the World Series for the first time in eight years (unfortunately, a wrist injury due to an errant pitch in September forced Rice to miss the remainder of the season as well as the 1975 Fall Classic between the Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds). Eleven years later, appearing for the only time in the playoffs, Rice hit a 3-run home run in the seventh game of the ALCS to help Boston win the AL pennant, then batted .333 and scored the lone run in a 1-0 Game 1 victory for Boston against New York in the World Series. He was also an eight-time All-Star and a Silver Slugger award winner in 1983 and 1984.