With the departure of Mookie Betts, the Boston Red Sox have jettisoned one of the best homegrown players in team history.
Mookie Betts played an outstanding defensive right field in cavernous Fenway Park, and matched his defensive prowess with a lethal bat. But where does he rank on the Boston Red Sox all-time roster of right fielders?
Chowder and Champions investigates.
Mookie Betts is gone, and we all have to move on. Watching him play for six seasons in the Sox outfield was nothing short of exhilarating. He leaped over fences, slid into the turf, got his uniform dirty, and had some epic at-bats during his Red Sox tenure. He made four consecutive All-Star teams, won four consecutive Gold Gloves, got MVP votes in five of his six campaigns, won in 2018, and got himself a World Series ring in a 119 win season.
The Boston Red Sox have had many fan favorites patrol the Pesky Pole. Here’s a look at seven of the best, ranked.
(Author’s note…ranked players must have played at least five seasons with the Sox)
No. 7: J.D. Drew
J.D. Drew was acquired as a free agent on Valentine’s Day, 2007(thirteen year anniversary is here! Get the champagne ready!).
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Drew had some serious shoes to fill. He was replacing popular fan favorite and resident Dirt Dog Trot Nixon. Drew even chose to wear number seven, Nixon’s number before he signed a free-agent deal with the Indians.
Drew and Nixon were similar players between the white lines, but couldn’t have been more different as far as attitude goes. Whereas Nixon showed passion, emotion, and sacrifice, Drew appeared stoic, detached, and conservative playing right for Boston. His salary, $14M a year for five seasons, didn’t exactly justify his .264 batting average during his Boston Red Sox career.
But Drew did make an All-Star appearance in 2008, and hit one of the most famous Grand Slams in Red Sox history during game 6 of the 2007 ALCS against the Indians. Although not an electric regular-season player, Drew had a phenomenal postseason career with the Sox, hitting .316 in three appearances (2007-2009).
Ultimately, the fact that Drew didn’t crack one smile in five seasons probably contributed to his lukewarm reception from fans.
6. Tony Conigliaro
Most of us know Tony Coniglairo’s tragic story.
Local kid from Revere, Massachusetts debuts for his hometown team as a 19-year-old phenom. Conigliaro hits 24 home runs during his rookie campaign, which is a record for a teenage player. He earns MVP votes two consecutive seasons (1966-1967), belting 32 homers in his sophomore campaign. In 1967, Tony C. is hitting .297 with 20 homers on August 18th when he is hit on the cheekbone by Angels pitcher Jack Hamilton. Conigliaro suffers a broken jaw and severely damages his retina. He misses the post-season in 1967, which probably changed the fortunes of the World Series runner-up Impossible Dream Team. Tony C. missed the entire 1968 season recovering from his injuries but returned with promising numbers clubbing 56 home runs in his 1969-1970 seasons.
Unfortunately, Conigliaro’s eyesight quickly deteriorated during the 1971 campaign, and after a brief stint with the Angels and a few years out of the game, he made a brief comeback with the 1975 Sox squad, hitting .153 in 157 at-bats. Tony Conigliaro retired at age 30, and his career will always be remembered for “what could have been.”
When comparing him to similar major league players by age, Tony C’s age 22 season is best compared to Bryce Harper, Mickey Mantle, Miguel Cabrera, and Hank Aaron among others. Factoring in his youth and talent, Tony Conigliaro would almost assuredly have been enshrined in Cooperstown if not for his injury.
No. 5: Trot Nixon
Okay, this one might garner a bit of controversy.
Was Tony C. a better player than Trot Nixon? Yes. Was J.D. Drew a better player than Trot Nixon?
Statistically speaking, they were pretty similar, although Drew had more pop than Nixon. As mentioned earlier in the slide show, Nixon left it all on the field and played the game with unbridled passion and enthusiasm.
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His hat and uniform were consistently stained with resin, pine tar, tobacco juice, and warning track clay. He was often the first player to jump into a brawl to defend his teammates. He was truly a throwback type of player that blue-collar New England grew to love. But it’s not just his attitude that lifts Nixon into the number five spot. Nixon arguably has the best postseason stats of any right fielder in Boston Red Sox history.
Playing in the Wild Card Era, Trox Nixon appeared in 38 postseason games for the Sox, hitting .272 overall, and posted a .333 average in the 2003 ALCS against the Yankees, and .357 in the 2004 history-making World Series. His greatest moment in the post-season came in game three of the 2003 ALDS against the Oakland A’s.
With the Sox facing elimination, Trot Nixon hit a game-winning 2-run homer in the eleventh inning to allow the Boston Red Sox to live another day. They came back from an 0-2 deficit to beat the A’s with three straight victories.
No. 4: Jackie Jensen
Jackie Jensen manned the Fenway outfield from 1954-1959 and had one last stint with the Boston Red Sox in 1961 but is probably one of the lesser-known right fielders on this list, and for good reason: He played for the Red Sox during the dark ages of the team’s history.
From 1947-1966, the Red Sox played in a grand total of zero post-season contests. The highest the Sox ever finished in the standings during Jensen’s tenure was third place (mind you, this was before the wild card OR division play, but still).
However, Jensen put up some monster numbers for the Boston Red Sox. In seven seasons he hit .282, clubbed 170 homers, 733 runs batted in, collected over a thousand hits, and made two All-Star Games. He won the AL Gold Glove in 1959 and is one of only two Red Sox right fielders (Betts) to win an MVP award (1958).
No. 3: Dwight Evans
“DEWEY! DEWEY! DEWEY!” was a common chant in the Fenway stands during the 1980’s.
Mustachioed, rocket-armed Dwight Evans was a fan favorite, and for good reason. Evans proved to be exceptionally consistent at the plate, as almost all of his splits are within ten or so points of his career .272 batting average.
Dewey was also Mr. Clutch for the Boston Red Sox, hitting .290 with 86 home runs and 568 RBIs in high leverage situations. High leverage stats attempt to measure the probability of a team losing if a player did NOT get a big hit. He had an absolute CANNON for an arm and needed one in the vast expanse of Fenway’s right field.
He will best be remembered for his unbelievable catch and throw double play in the 11th inning of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series where he leaped up near the stands, robbed Joe Morgan of a homer, and nabbed Ken Griffey racing back to first.
Some other fond memories of Dewey were his first pitch of the 1986 season homer off of Jack Morris, which set the tone for a memorable summer. I remember one Saturday afternoon watching the Boston Red Sox play the A’s in Oakland, and an A’s player tried to go first to third on a base hit. Evans ranged deep to his left, collected the ball, spun and threw an absolute missile to Wade Boggs who tagged the runner out. The ball never hit the ground.
In his eighteen years as a Boston Red Sox player , Dewey is 6th in overall Wins Above replacement (66.5), behind only Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, and Cy Young. Pretty good company if you ask me.
No. 2: Mookie Betts
We all know what Mookie Betts brought to the Boston Red Sox in his tenure here; yearly MVP type offensive numbers; defensive athleticism; good baserunning; a strong and accurate arm.
Betts is probably the most complete player I have ever seen don the Boston uniform. His infectious smile, humble musings, and bowling prowess have endeared him to fans all over the country.
The Red Sox choosing to deal Mookie Betts has already gone down as one of the most unpopular moves in Boston sports history and has oft been compared to Harry Frazee dealing Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919.
A hundred years later, it seems the Red Sox did not learn their lesson. But a series of lousy contracts dished out by Dave Dombrowski (see: Sale, Chris, and Eovaldi, Nathan) forced the Sox to jettison its best homegrown player since Yaz.
On a positive note, I watched Betts’ press conference from the Dodgers’ spring training facility yesterday, and while Betts said all the right things about moving forward and new opportunities, I couldn’t help notice his tone seemed forced, and it felt like his heart was still in Boston.
Take note John Henry…make this huge mistake right in the offseason when your precious Luxury Tax Number nonsense is reset.
No. 1: Harry Hooper
Where all my Harry Hooper fans at? Nowhere? You’ve never heard of him because he played for the Boston Red Sox literally a hundred years ago?
Let me fill you in!
First of all, Double H did NOT have power numbers. Mookie Betts had more home runs for the Sox on August 16th of last season than Hooper had in his entire BoSox career. But Hoops was a four-time World Series champion with the Sox and was part of the “Million Dollar Outfield” of Tris Speaker and Duffy Lewis.
Harry Hooper had a World Series batting average of .293, and was considered the best leadoff hitter in his day, collecting a .411 on-base percentage in his last season in Boston before switching his sox to white.
Additionally, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971 (which is why he’s No.1 on this list).
Oh yeah, he liked to go duck hunting as well. Went out a month before his death. After baseball, he became a postal worker, a position he held for 20 years. I can see Mookie Betts following a similar career path after signing a 15-year, 400 zillion-dollar contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers or New York Yankees after this season.
(Honorable mention: Troy O’Leary)