Boston Red Sox: ALCS or Bust?

Forget simply winning the American League East — 2017’s version of the Boston Red Sox on paper are bound to establish a precedent and lofty expectation un-paralleled by any other AL club on Opening Day, even the defending AL champion Indians.

When Boston acquired former ChiSox ace Chris Sale on December 6, things took a dark twist in the AL East for the likes of the Blue Jays, Yankees and Orioles — three divisional rivals hoping to build on worthwhile 2016 campaigns.

Not since 1946 have the Red Sox won a hundred games in the regular season. While Boston sure would love to have Ted Williams‘ ’46 bat in the lineup to offset the departure of David Ortiz‘s ’16 bat, the BoSox will be a far ways off from being shy of exceptional talent across the diamond this season. 100 wins should be the benchmark for this roster if it’s fully healthy when the calendar turns to April.

Sale will join David Price and last year’s Cy Young winner, Rick Porcello, in the rotation. The final two spots will likely feature some combination of knuckleballer Steven Wright, Eduardo Rodriguez, Drew Pomeranz or possibly Joe Kelly.

Any way you slice it filling out the rotation, Boston’s staff of starters has never looked this daunting to the opposition. 2004’s World Series winning squad, headlined by Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez who went a combined 37-15 that season, might come close, but not really.

After the Blue Jays (15.3), Boston’s starters posted the second highest combined fWAR at 13.9 among AL rotations in 2016. Tack on Sale’s AL leading 5.2 (tying Porcello and Justin Verlander), and you are looking at scary efficiency levels for a rotation whose aging arm will be only 31 years young in Price.

From the bullpen, Craig Kimbrel had a disappointing season. With his track record, age (28) and peripheral numbers from 2016 (14.1 K/9, avg fastball velocity of 97.3 mph), the hard throwing righty can still be considered an elite closer in baseball. Carson Smith has a bright future in MLB as well. He’s expected back sometime in June.

Southpaw Robbie Ross had a strong past season with a 3.25 ERA in 55.1 innings of work, as did Tyler Thornburg for the Brewers, who was acquired via a trade this offseason on the same day Boston landed their biggest fish in Sale.

Thornburg saved 13 games for Milwaukee in 2016 to go along with a solid 2.15 ERA and a K/9 of 12.1. The bottom line is, manager John Farrell has enough depth in the pen to plug and play arms when he needs to. Especially when you factor in that Price, Sale and Porcello finished one, three, and four when it came to innings logged by AL starters last season.

Left field, third base and designated hitter become the only real question marks entering 2017 for position players in the BoSox lineup.

Things we know; Papi is gone. He’ll be tough to replace. Though Hanley Ramirez is surely capable, and he’s expected to slide into that role. Streakier than Ortiz at the dish is Ramirez. However, Boston can now remove or minimize his shaky glove and dwindling defensive skills from the equation, allowing him to focus wholeheartedly on his hitting skills, which should end up being a bonus for the club.

In the second half of 2016, no AL hitter drove in more runs than Ramirez’s 63 and only two guys hit more second half homers than his 22. On the whole, Han-Ram’s .286-30-111 output from last year would be considered a success for any full-time DH.

Mitch Moreland will be an upgrade defensively at first base and is a career .254/.315/.438 hitter who has swatted over 20 home runs in three of his last four years.

Pablo Sandoval is expected to resume playing third base. Last year was a major debacle for the former World Series MVP from 2012. After losing his job to Travis Shaw (now with MIL) in the spring, his most memorable moment came in this singular at-bat. There really was nothing redeeming about his very limited time on the field. Only 30, a now trimmed down Sandoval looks to be re-focused on extending his professional baseball career. If things don’t work out, Brock Holt is one of MLB’s best utility players and thus, a great insurance policy.