The Boston Red Sox have been on a winning spree lately, and they are clawing their way back up the AL East standings. They still have a long way to go, but the good news is there’s a lot of baseball left to play.
Just a few weeks ago, we were ready to pronounce this team dead, but now they look alive and well. They have received contributions up and down the roster, and things are finally beginning to play out as they were expected to when we entered the 2022 season.
Some people on this roster (Trevor Story, Alex Verdugo, Kike Hernandez, etc.) were playing well below their expectations, but now they are finally heating up. But the bottom half of the roster has been playing just as well too. Here are three players who are unexpectedly contributing to Boston’s recent winning stretch.
Boston Red Sox unexpected contributor No. 3: Franchy Cordero
Franchy Cordero didn’t start the season on Boston’s roster, but ever since he was called up on April 29th, he hasn’t showed any signs of wanting to go back to the Worcester Red Sox. Cordero has filled in all over the place on the field, and even better, he’s been hitting when he’s in the lineup too.
Cordero was sort of a forgotten man after he hit only .189 over 48 games for the Sox last season, and he ended up spending most of the season with the WooSox. But he’s shown some promise this season, as he’s hitting .282 with two home runs and 12 runs batted through 25 games.
Franchy has really come as of late, as he has hits in 12 of his last 16 games. It’s important to remember that Cordero isn’t always playing full games when he plays too. Sometimes he starts the game and comes out early, sometimes he comes off the bench midway through the game, and sometimes he’s just a pinch hitter for one at-bat.
Regardless, Cordero has been a huge help off the bench for the Sox lately, and any production Boston can get out of him has to be considered a win.
Boston Red Sox unexpected contributor No. 2: Christian Vazquez
Nobody has ever really expected much from Christian Vazquez throughout his career with the Red Sox. He’s never really been anything other than a league-average catcher, aside from 2019 when he smacked 23 home runs. He’s regressed ever since that season at the plate, and he started 2022 being even worse than he was last season when he hit .258 with just six home runs.
Vazquez entered the month of May with a .220 batting average, and watched it dip as low as .208 early in the month. Just a few weeks later, Vazquez is now batting .302. His counting stats still remain low (he has just two homers and 20 RBI’s) but it seems unlikely Vazquez is ever going to reach the heights of his 2019 campaign ever again.
Want your voice heard? Join the Chowder And Champions team!
Again, the expectation for Vazquez was really for him to come in and just be a steady presence behind the plate. He’s doing that on defense, and now he’s hitting at a more than healthy clip to go along with that. Vazquez has five multi-hit outings over his past eight games after having just three in the previous 28 games.
Now it’s probably unreasonable to expect Vazquez to continue hitting at a .300 clip for the rest of the season, but if he can hover at the .270-.280 range, that’s a victory for Boston. Vazquez has done a great job of keeping the bottom of Boston’s lineup moving as of late, and he’s setting up the top of the lineup with run-scoring opportunities that they are currently taking advantage of. There isn’t much more you can ask for from this gritty veteran catcher.
Boston Red Sox unexpected contributor No. 1: John Schreiber
In a bullpen full of struggling pitchers, John Schreiber has been a standout performer. It’s kind of funny that a guy who didn’t even start the season in the majors, and wasn’t even on the team’s 40-man roster a month ago, has become the team’s most consistent reliever.
After bouncing around the majors and minors for most of his career, Schrieber has finally found a home in Boston’s bullpen for the time being. He has a 1.42 ERA over 12 appearences, and he only recently gave up his first pair of runs in an outing against the Baltimore Orioles. Aside from that, he’s been phenomenal.
It’s not as if Schreiber has been pitching in games that aren’t close either; most of his outings have come between the sixth and eighth innings of games that are still in the balance. Over the course of May, Schreiber has picked up two wins, four holds, and his first MLB save.
Schreiber’s unique submarine style of delivery has thrown off hitters for most of May, and the longer he can keep this up, the better. Boston needs as much bullpen help as they can get, and Schreiber has stepped up from out of nowhere to become one of the team’s most trusted arms late in games. If they can get more guys in the pen to step up like him, the Sox could actually make some noise later on this season.