COMMENT
It’s a smart weekend for the Red Sox. Of course, this is a relative era in their history where authentic emotions can be evoked in the midst of plays that don’t matter. When an injury, the annual killer of spring education vibes, has already hit hard.
Lucas Giolito is expected to get a second opinion Monday on his right elbow, which reportedly suffered a partial ACL tear last week. The smart news would be, what? A few months off?Getting through this, a season of recovery despite the constant worry that surgery will eventually be needed anyway?
I’m not a doctor, but it turns out it’s a bad prescription. It’s better than a positive reality.
The guy in Red Sox history who made his presence in the Dominican Republic series possible. That made things so important.
Red Sox baseball, in particular, given that two of the country’s five Hall of Famers — Pedro Martinez and David Ortiz — are iconic here and there, Adrian Beltre’s Hall of Fame adventure began in earnest in Boston, and even Juan Marichal made a late appearance on Red. (Before you ask, Vlad Guerrero is the fifth. )
When MLB held exhibitions on the island in 2000, the Red Sox were ejected. Pedro and his brother Ramon pitched scoreless innings and Carl Everett homered off a lighthouse.
Fun fact: The two-game moment with Houston that spring he won with a two-run homer through a little-known minor league infielder, a month shy of his MLB debut and about a decade shy of his position in Red Sox history. Jules Lugo .
The joy of it all showed on TV screens this weekend, in the form of honks and satisfied faces. The Red Sox players enjoyed it. The Rays players enjoyed it. All of us who have spent months listening to this out-of-season dirge have enjoyed it.
Brayan Bello never will. No one has read Alex Speier’s in-depth look at Bello’s path to the Red Sox and the six-year extension that the thousands of people chasing the dream he never got here came close.
“I don’t compare them, and I haven’t noticed Pedro pitch much, but I feel like they gave him that herbal style, that herbal presence on the mound that can’t be compared to anybody else,” said Rafael Devers, the former Reds player. The Samana Sox star spoke to reporters about his teammate. “It’s herbaceous. . . The way he walks, the way he throws.
What percentage of the hopes that those Sox can be plucked from the existing dross, illuminating a region that knows the times better than few, rest on two players from a Caribbean resort 1,600 miles from Boston?
There’s no guarantee they’ll be able to do that, the increasingly comfortable face of the place and the home starter with a full season under his belt. But there’s a much greater chance they’ll just do it than, say, Giolito, whose contract, with a $19 million player option in 2025 and an upcoming club option in 2026, meant he probably would have left after a year if he still had an arm effect.
Or, actually, Scott Boras’s big clients who waited until mid-March and now seem to need short-term deals that will mean a firm break next winter.
Could they be bad moves? Not completely. Not when the limited number of baseball seasons in our lifetimes will have passed with this one as one of them. Like a healthy Giolito would have done, they allow a mediocre team to fish October and shoot an Arizona.
The real question is deeper. It’s the oldest of all franchises in the desert, waiting for customers to keep it for whatever reason: Who do we see being part of this next big team?
Masataka Yoshida is signed until 2027 and Tanner Houck is under the helm of the team until then. Trevor Story and Garrett Whitlock, 2028, with Triston Casas as a free agent after this year. (For now. ) Bello, until 2030. Devers, 2033.
We know that change in baseball can be fast, especially in this modern era of the playoffs. From a broader perspective, the New England Golden Championship generation emerged from abundant depths. (Remember the backside of the 2006-07 Dave Lewis Bruins?Another latest-headed team in their league, which included David Krejci, Patrice Bergeron, Tim Thomas and new captain Zdeno Chara, were all part of it. )
The road rarely goes as planned: Samana’s third big Red Sox won a championship, though Hanley Ramirez did it in exchange for Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett. Possibly it wouldn’t be quick either, as those who don’t forget what happened say. After the last time the Red Sox won a championship in 2018, I’d rather not think about it.
Giolito is already injured. Vaughn Grissom too, as well as Chris Martin, the wonder of the 2023 bullpen. We’ve seen back-to-back groups win 78 games and we’re familiar with this drill. There are needles in the haystack of 162 sets. There is hope there, too. . But it will take a lot of hay for that.
Better to savor things like this weekend. This will make the long run even more enjoyable.