Chris Young: The Red Sox’ blame game: Outfielders edition | Sports

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Yes, the Boston Red Sox have won the World Series four times this century, which is more than any other team has, but now Boston seems headed for its fourth last-place finish in the AL East since 2012, and its fifth if you count the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

During that period, it also has made five postseason appearances and won two World Series, so Red Sox fans have lately come to expect feast or famine, with a new GM every three or four years and annual controversies about who to keep and who to let go.

After reaching Game 6 of the ALCS last season, this years Red Sox edition is indeed in cellar-dwelling mode again, with a record of 69-73 and a position five-and-a-half games behind the surprising Baltimore Orioles, the teams opponent last weekend, so last place seems pretty much assured.

In the coming weeks, well look at whos to blame for this unexpected fall from grace from near-World Series to top-10 2023 draft pick in just a year.

Today well look at the teams rotating crop of outfielders.

Just four years ago, the teams last championship season, Boston primarily utilized just four outfielders: left fielder Andrew Benintendi (.290, 16 HRs, 87 RBI), center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. (.234, 13 HRs, 59 RBI), and league MVP Mookie Betts (.346, 32 HRs, 80 RBI), along with his DH, JD Martinez, who played in the outfield 57 times that season.

Just four years later, the three primary outfielders are all gone, with Benintendi in the Bronx, Betts in LA and Bradley in Toronto after being dumped in early August by Boston. Meanwhile, Martinez seems like he is going through the motions en route to his free-agency offseason at age 35, and has not played a single game in the outfield for the Red Sox this season after playing out there 36 times last year.

Boston actually had a nice and stable trio of outfielders last season with Alex Verdugo (a product of the Betts trade), Kik Hernndez, and Hunter Renfroe, but for whatever reason, Red Sox management couldnt leave well enough alone and traded the 31-homer -slugging Renfroe to Milwaukee for Bradley Jr., and with Hernndez hurt a good part of this season, the team has paraded nine different players into the outfield this season, including three Jarren Duran, Franchy Cordero, and Christian Arroyo who really aren’t full- time outfielders, and their inexperience undoubtedly cost the Red Sox games this season.

Verdugos been solid in left field, playing 129 games overall and 102 in left through last week, and at .284 is hitting right around his career average over his six-year MLB stint, and mid-season call-up Rob Refsnyder has surprised the team with his .304 average (his career number is .239). Trade-deadline acquisition Tommy Pham (.274) has also been a great addition, but imagine what this Boston team would have looked like if he had been playing for it all season long instead of wasting his talents in Cincinnati after Red Sox de facto GM Chaim Bloom decided not to sign the free agent over the winter.

But the other four outfielders who saw regular action this season have been huge disappointments offensively this season. Duran (55 games before mercifully being sent back to Worcester) hit just .220 with 63 strikeouts in 200 ABs, Hernndez (65 games) also hit just .220 but has already been mystifying rewarded with a $10M extension for 2023, and Bradley, predictably, hit just .210 for the team before being cut loose, but he did play 92 games for Boston when he really should have been out there in a platoon, facing righties only.

Cordero, acquired in the Benintendi trade, hit just .219 for Boston but played 39 games in the outfield even though his primary position was at first base. Benintendi, for what its worth, is hitting .304 and is still only 28 (and was only 25 when Boston gave up on him).

And while the aforementioned Martinez did not play in the outfield this season, he is worth mentioning because in the former outfielders first four seasons with the Red Sox, he was a career .339 hitter with runners in scoring position with a 1.022 OPS. Entering last Wednesday, the slumping Martinez had just a .235 average and a .686 OPS with runners in scoring position, as evidenced in last Wednesdays frustrating 1-0 loss to Tampa Bay when he came up with runners on second and third with one out , took two quick strikes, then popped weakly to right, stranding the runners and paving the way for the sweep-concluding loss in St. Pete.

In the coming weeks: the Red Sox infield and pitching staff and their contributions to this disturbing last-place season in Boston.

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