The 2018 Boston Red Sox lineup should look like this
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9. C Christian Vazquez
Christian Vazquez should be the full-time starting catcher for the Boston Red Sox in 2018. He made the jump from 57 games in 2016 to 99 in 2017, and he should break 100 in 2018. The defensive mastermind saw his bat come alive last season as well. Vazquez hit a career-best .290 with career highs in home runs (5) and RBI (32). No, those are not shocking numbers, but Vazquez is expected to do almost nothing from the plate. He still can keep improving though, and a 10 home run, 40 RBI season may be on the horizon.
Vazquez is simply the best option though, for his defense alone. He is one of the best in the game, and at just 27, he’s still getting better. In 95 games behind the plate last season, Vazquez had a .991 fielding percentage and he committed just 8 errors. He was 3rd in the AL with a 42% caught-stealing percentage. No one runs on Vazquez, and that will continue in 2018 as he takes more control of the Red Sox great pitching staff.
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So, it looks like this Boston Red Sox lineup should be able to make a long postseason run, and they should be able to take down any NL team for a World Series title. Of course, Boston still needs to make some moves to add J.D. Martinez and Logan Morrison, but the offseason hot stove is truly just beginning to heat up. Dave Dombrowski is willing to spend, and if this is a lineup he can end up with, you know that he will. Boston has a tremendous starting rotation that will keep them in a ton of games, and this power-heavy lineup should be able to grab some early leads. It will be a lot of fun to see what the Boston Red Sox do for this offseason, but I really hope this is the squad that takes the field on March 29th to open the season.