The beginning of the spring training season is usually seen as a time of promise, hope and excitement. As a Yankee fan, though, there is this tinge of worry this particular preseason. Not only are the Yankees battling a tumultuous offseason, where we let Juan Soto get away, pissed off Marcus Stroman, couldn't trade for Nolan Arenado and extended Aaron Boone, and looking at a season with Giancarlo Stanton, Luis Gil and Scott Effross missing loads of time...but, uh...the Red Sox are looking good.
Last year, the Red Sox had a team that was good enough to beat us when we weren't looking but not good enough to make the playoffs. Clearly the Alex Cora formula works, and there are so many young pieces that are helping this team return to prominence, but they just weren't good enough. So the team responded by signing Walker Buehler, Alex Bregman and Aroldis Chapman, trading for Garrett Crochet, and ensuring that both Lucas Giolito and Liam Hendriks would be healthy for the start of the season. In case you thought the AL East was too competitive last year, here we go again.
I say this like the Yankees didn't retool themselves. They signed Max Fried and Paul Goldschmidt and traded for Cody Bellinger and Devin Williams. They did stuff too. But what they've done is they've taken the money they would have spent on Juan Soto and spent it on two older hitters and a pitcher who's great when he's healthy but has missed time in the last few seasons. They're trying to get back to where they were last year. The Sox are headed forward. Everything they've done in the past few months has been a forward step, because they want the division again.
Now, as much as Fried could be a liability for the Yanks, Garrett Crochet could be one. You all remember what he did from 2022 to 2023, right? Sat on the bench rehabbing. Like Luis Gil, he was great in 2021, injured for two years, and then incredible last year. Such is the nature of hard throwing pitchers these days. Gil might be missing some time if that MRI comes back dirty. Crochet is similarly playing with fire. When he's healthy he's incredible, but last year the White Sox started limiting his innings just to keep him healthy. Strategically, it may have been to ensure that if they did trade him, which was likely, they wouldn't damage him by overcooking him on a lost season.
This explains why Crochet has been excellent so far in Spring Training play for Boston, and why the Sox aren't especially worried about keeping him at the head of the rotation. They're also very flexible right now, and while the plan is to go with Crochet-Bello-Giolito-Buehler-Houck for Opening Day, if Giolito and Crochet [and Buehler now that you mention it] are giving them pause they could always stagnate their starts and go with Kutter Crawford and Richard Fitts [and in this rotation he sure will] in a pinch. This is a very smart response to pitchers getting injured too easily, just pack the rotation with too many good options and if they all get hurt you still have depth. The Reds should pick up on this unless they really want to start Carson Spiers every year.
I should also mention that, like the Yankees, the Sox are dealing with a smidge of controversy themselves this year, with Rafael Devers taking umbrage with Boston getting another All-Star third baseman. The ideal world is Bregman playing 2nd, but how successful will that be? Remember, Trevor Story moving to second made him even more susceptible to injury. It's gonna take placating Bregman and Devers at the same time, which can be difficult individually. Hopefully this works in a way that Devers, still one of the best Red Sox around, can remain a part of this team going forward, because losing him would be a mistake. The Yanks bobbled Soto, the Jays are bobbling Vlad, but this could be just as bad.
So I'm going into 2025 expecting the Red Sox to be competitive, and to have some very high upsides. It'd be wonderful if the Yankees, even without Soto, found a way to be even better.
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