Boston Red Sox: 3 flaws standing in team’s championship path

With expectations high for the Boston Red Sox moving forward, there are obviously things they need to improve in order to make a deep postseason run.

The Boston Red Sox own the best record in baseball. Their lineup can hurt you top to bottom and they have three Cy Young caliber pitchers at the head of their rotation. Managed by first-year manager Alex Cora, this team has a different feel in years past.

Now, it wouldn’t be Boston media if we didn’t find things to critique, even when things are going as great as they are for this team. With early exits in each of the last two postseasons, there are means for concern for this team.  Here are three potential flaws of this team headed down the stretch.

1 – The Bullpen is weak.

The bullpen is probably the team’s biggest weakness.

Dave Dombrowski didn’t make any moves at the deadline to help his team’s kryptonite. There were plenty of relief arms available at the end of July and the Boston Red Sox couldn’t land a single one.

Of course, you can always move an arm from the rotation to the bullpen. Boston just moved Drew Pomeranz into the bullpen and it wouldn’t be surprising if they move someone else once it gets closer to the Postseason.

Come October, the bullpen ultimately is going to be what determines how long they play.

Since the All-Star break, the bullpen has allowed 6 home runs and the bullpen ERA is 87.36 in 53.1 innings pitched. This is not good. Closer Craig Kimbrel carries a 7.11 ERA in a measly 6.1 innings of work.

Kimbrel is supposed to be a shutdown reliever who we can bring in when we need to end the game. The bullpen is most likely going to be pitching the most important outs of the game come playoff time. The Boston Red Sox relief pitching still has some time to work out the kinks and get ready for what we all hope to be a deep postseason run.