Power Outage in Boston; Where has the Red Sox Offense Gone?

Xander Bogaerts exemplifies the Red Sox tired, lackluster offense this season

More than a month into the 2017 season, the Red Sox are 15-14 and in third place in the AL East, four games behind New York and a half-game behind Baltimore. This is the same team that was the preseason favorite to win the AL Pennant. The good news is that they remain a game above .500.

Yet, the Sox have lost six of their last 10 games and are not trending in the right direction.

The starting rotation has mostly kept Boston competitive and in games. Chris Sale has a 1.38 ERA; Eduardo Rodriguez has a 3.07 ERA; Drew Pomeranz has a 4.00 ERA; and Rick Porcello has a 4.48 ERA, which should get better; right?

Boston this week lost knuckleballer Steven Wright to season-ending knee surgery, which could be a big blow given that he went 13-6 with a 3.33 ERA and was an All-Star last year. The righty got off to a rough start this season, going 1-3 with an 8.25 ERA, but that was likely attributable to his knee injury, which began in spring training.

However, David Price has yet to throw a pitch this season and his presence will surely help to stabilize and improve this rotation.

Boston’s starters have a cumulative 4.18 ERA, which is 14th in the majors and 9th in the American League. No matter how you slice it, they’re middle of the pack, which is more than can be said for the Sox’ offense.

The Red Sox have topped four runs only four times in their last 15 games. Even worse, they have scored three runs or less in 12 of 29 games this season.

Boston is 27th in the majors (out of 30 teams), with just 110 runs scored. Unless your rotation and bullpen are consistently outstanding, it’s very difficult to maintain a winning record in that environment. Yet, the Sox have done it, albeit by just a single game.

The problem is attributable to a total power outage; the Red Sox have totaled just 19 home runs this season. Yankee phenom Aaron Judge has 13 all by himself. This is not the hallmark of a classic Red Sox team, which has been built on slugging for many decades.

Not a single Red Sox player is slugging as high as .500 this year. In fact, Christian Vazquez leads the club with a .467 slugging percentage. Yet, the Boston catcher has just four doubles, 1 triple and no home runs. Yeah, it’s that bad.

Guys who were expected to carry the Sox’ lineup and be run producers just aren’t getting the job done. Consider the following:

- Mookie Betts is slugging .420 with 13 RBI (he was runner up for the MVP last season)
- Pablo Sandoval is slugging .377 with 10 RBI (Sandoval is currently on the DL due to a knee sprain)
- Xander Bogaerts is slugging .370 with 6 RBI
- Dustin Pedroia is slugging .330 with 8 RBI
- Sandy Leon is slugging .286 with 6 RBI
- Jackie Bradley is slugging .263 with 6 RBI

That’s the bulk of the lineup and they’re not getting it done. It’s not enough production to win very many baseball games, making it all the more amazing that the Red Sox still have a winning record at this point.

The best this team and its fans can hope is that as the weather starts heating up, so does the offense. We’ve been hoping that for weeks, however.

Help is not on the way. Minor leaguers Sam Travis or Rafael Devers will not rescue this offense. Beyond, those two, most of the organization’s upper echelon of prospects has been traded away in recent years to obtain players such as Craig Kimbrel and Drew Pomeranz.

The trade deadline is still nearly three months away and ownership is determined to stay under the luxury tax threshold anyway. In other words, some big-time slugger won’t be arriving in Boston this summer to spark the offense. The players on the current roster will have to figure it out themselves. They need to be better and perform to their potential.

It should not be forgotten that the Red Sox had the best offense in baseball last year, leading the majors in runs, hits, doubles, total bases, RBI, batting average, OBP, slugging and OPS. That’s nearly every single statistical category. Yes, the Red Sox' offense was a juggernaut in 2016.

The only notable absence from last year’s roster is David Ortiz and though he was a world-class slugger, he was not the entire offense. It’s as if much of the lineup decided to retire their bats along with Ortiz's.

Hitting is said to be contagious, for better and for worse. If a couple of the above hitters can get going, it could have a broader impact, sparking the whole lineup.

It needs to happen sooner than later. This is the time of the year when teams want to pad their record with wins, before the grind of the 162-game schedule begins to take its toll in the season’s later months, in the form of fatigue and injuries.

One thing is for sure: we haven’t yet seen the best this Red Sox team has to offer. They’re surely better than this.