Say it Ain’t So: The Red Sox Might Not Be Great This Season

If you’re not reading The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn then, well, you’re not reading anyone of much importance on the Boston sports scene. He might not have the flashiest name in the game and he might not be on TV every day, but he puts out quality work consistently for the Globe.

For example, Finn wrote a piece yesterday questioning just how good this Red Sox team is really going to be:

"“Are we sure they’re good? I mean, barring catastrophe, they will be better. They won 78 games last year. They finished in last place for the second year in a row. They added the ace/elite closer tandem. There are holdovers who should have better seasons, starting with Rick Porcello, who had a 3.53 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 71.1 innings in the second half. Some problems will be fixed.”"

I try to be a level-headed sports fan. But, I admit, my expectations might be a little too high for this team out of the gate. It’s really easy to get excited about adding a starter like David Price and a fireman like Craig Kimbrel. I mean, those are two of the most important jobs on a pitching staff. But Finn brings up some valid points, like age on both ends of the spectrum.

David Ortiz, our home run-hitting savior and Doctor of Clutch, turned 40 almost three months ago. For Ortiz, and his age, he seems to be in great shape (did I just say that?) heading into Spring Training, but we have no idea what to expect. Me, personally? I wrote Ortiz off years ago and he continues to prove me wrong. He continues to work hard, get in better shape and continue to hit. He hit 37 home runs last season, his most since 2006 when he hit 54. He was also chasing 500, which probably helped him boost a few more out toward the end.

So is Ortiz going to continue to crush baseballs in his final season, or will age finally catch up to him? Finn notes that if we get 25 home runs out of a 40-year-old slugger, we should be happy. But this is David Ortiz we’re talking about. David Ortiz. We really, at the end of the day, have no idea what will happen.

More on the older end of the spectrum: Koji Uehara will be 41 years old in April. Fortunately, he’s not the Red Sox’s closer anymore so his workload will be reduced. But it’s still a concern to have one of your key bullpen pieces to be 41 and a question mark. Uehara has been great in his three years in Boston, but his 2016 is a crapshoot. He might throw 60 or 70 innings of great baseball, or he might get hurt early and the High Five Era is over. We don’t know when, but age gets them all at one point or another.

Then we go to the flipside with the youth. Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts and Blake Swihart are all 23 years old (fun fact: Bogaerts is six days older than Betts, who were both born in October) and all three will start and play very important positions for the Red Sox in 2016. We all anticipate they will get better, but we really don’t know for sure. Let’s remember: Bryce Harper was a good player for his first three years in baseball, but didn’t become a superstar until year four.

As good as Betts and Bogaerts were last season, maybe they regress a tad. Maybe next season is their real blowup year. And maybe Swihart is a stud now that it’s his job, but maybe he’s not. Maybe he still strikes out a ton and doesn’t quite figure it out this year. These are all very real possibilities.

Of course, we’re Boston sports fans. We expect the best out of our teams and there is no reason this team isn’t built to go from last to first. Look at last year’s team: They were pretty bad and yet, in the end, they fought and won 78 games. That was better than we anticipated.

Maybe we’ll get more than we anticipate in 2016, too.