Red Sox young players part of the reason for lost season

By Maureen Mullen / Boston.com

PHOTO: One of the reasons for the Sox' poor performance in 2014 may have been relying too much on young players who still need time to develop, such as Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley, Jr.

A team doesn’t stumble to a disappointing 71-91 record without several reasons for its failure. There was more than enough blame to go around for the Red Sox this season after completing their worst-to-first-to-worst-again turnaround.

A poor offense scored just 634 runs, better than only three other American League teams; slugged .369, better than only the Rays (by two points); hit 123 home runs, better than only three other AL teams; recorded a .684 OPS, better than only the Mariners; and stole just 63 bases, better than only the Orioles.

The pitching staff’s overall 4.01 ERA was better than just four other AL teams, rising to 4.27 after the All-Star break, better than only two others. Starting pitchers’ combined ERA of 4.36 was better than only two other staffs’.

But, it wasn’t just on-field performance that doomed the Sox’ season. Moves that were made – and not made – contributed to the problems. Not bringing back center fielder and lead-off hitter Jacoby Ellsbury, who was given a seven-year, $153 million contract by the Yankees, may have been a sound fiscal decision. But, it left the Sox with a huge hole at the top of the order. Bringing in catcher A.J. Pierzynski -- to replace Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who was allowed to leave in free agency to the Marlins without an attempt by the Sox to keep him – proved to be a bad fit in the lineup and in the clubhouse.

Grady Sizemore, who had not played in more than two years, was brought in. Rookie shortstop Xander Bogaerts was expected to replace Stephen Drew.

Injuries hurt the Sox this season, also. And while injuries for any team are almost inevitable they can also be difficult to plan for. Shane Victorino, who was so integral to the Sox championship run in 2013, was hurt for most of the year, delayed in spring training, limited to 10 games, and then was hurt during the season, appearing in just 30 games. But it was also the Sox’ unrelenting commitment to young players who were not ready that hurt the team – most notably center fielder Jackie Bradley and Bogaerts.

Bradley, whose defense is stellar, hit just .198/.265/.266 with just eight stolen bases in 127 games. He walked just 31 times, compared to 121 strikeouts. He struck out in 29 percent of his plate appearances. More troubling, though, was Bradley’s resistance to coaching.

Bogaerts hit just .240/.297/.362 in 144 games this season, playing 99 games at shortstop and 44 at third base. He committed a team-high 20 errors, 10 at each position, fifth-most in the majors, second in the AL. That advanced plate approach that the team and some writers raved about last season seemed to disappear this season. (Did he really lay off that Max Scherzer slider in the ALCS last year, or was he just frozen by it?) He struck out 138 times with just 39 walks, striking out in 23 percent of his plate appearances. True, he hit much better in September, batting .313/.317/.490, raising his slash line from .224/.293/.335. But, as any baseball person will tell you, you don’t make evaluations in spring training or in September.

Almost all the Sox young players – except Brock Holt, who was barely in the plans in spring training, Mookie Betts, and Christian Vazquez – faltered, regressed, or just couldn’t live up to the tremendous hype heaped upon them. Will Middlebrooks, Brandon Workman, Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster, Anthony Ranaudo all struggled at times when the Sox needed them. Perhaps that is to be expected.

On July 9, against the White Sox at Fenway Park, the Sox had five rookies in their starting lineup for the first time since Aug. 16, 1987. It was the earliest in a season they had had that many rookies in their lineup since 1952. That number doesn’t include De La Rosa, who is no longer a rookie but was called up that day from Triple-A Pawtucket to make that start. The Sox actually won that game, on a walk-off hit in the ninth inning by Holt.

But, incorporating that many young players into a lineup often results in what the Sox saw too many times – 91 times to be exact – this season: a loss. A lineup consisting primarily of veterans with a few rookies inserted can be effective, allowing the young players to get comfortable with experienced players leading the way. But that wasn’t the Sox game plan this season.

Sox president/CEO Larry Lucchino said on WEEI recently that the Sox relied too heavily on young players.

“Going back to last offseason,” said general manager Ben Cherington, “I think we felt like as we looked towards 2014, 2015, and beyond, trying to build a team that could sustain a level of success. We felt at some point we were going to have to integrate some young position players and then at some point we were going to have to integrate some young pitching. We didn’t want to do, we really didn’t want to do both at once if we could avoid it. And so we felt just given where people were in their development, that there was a better chance to integrate some young position players in 2014, knowing that inevitably there was going to be some transition on the pitching side after that at some point.

“So looking back on it, what we tried to do is build a team that would allow for that and where the young players were protected enough so we could still be competitive and winning and then get into a season and be able to make adjustments if we had to. That was our plan. I think it’s certainly fair to say we didn’t execute the plan as well as we should have. So that’s what I look back on and ask myself is there a better way I and we could have executed the plan?

“I think clearly the answer is yes because the results are the results. So, we need to execute better and that leads to better performance. And I take responsibility ultimately for the performance. We’re not going to, we can’t shy away from the idea of committing to young players when they prove that they should be committed to because that still may be the best way we can sustain a level of success over a long period of time.

But, will the struggles those young players experienced this season cause the Sox to take a step back and look at their development and progression process in a new light?

“When the results are the results, we can all learn something from that,” Cherington said. “We have to take something from it and ask ourselves if we should [be] learning from it. Whether it’s in the question about how much time is being spent in the minor leagues or a certain level or is there something in the transition that we can do better, differently. Or a combination of things.

“We haven’t come with a silver bullet to say we’re going to do this next year and this will fix the problem. We still believe in our young players but, yeah, we have to learn something from what’s happened. We did have some guys who really, through their performance and I suppose because there was some opportunity, kind of forced their way into the picture faster than has been the case in the past. That doesn’t mean, whatever the results were, doesn’t mean all those guys aren’t going to be really good major league players even as soon as next year for a winning team. We have to ask ourselves why it didn’t go as well as we wanted.”

Bradley, one of the Sox most heralded young players in recent years, is one of those players about whom specific questions can be asked. The Sox first-round (40th overall) pick in 2011, he appeared in just 80 AAA games before this season. Even more unorthodox, he made his major league debut on April 1, 2013 – before he made his AAA debut, based on his showing in spring training that season. (Remember that caveat about not evaluating in spring training?) In 37 major league games in 2013, he hit just .189/.280/.337.

He was on the Sox Opening Day roster this year for the second straight season. But, it was more by default this year than by merit. At the end of spring training this year, Bradley was optioned back to Triple-A. But when Victorino was hurt in the last spring game, Bradley was added to the roster on Opening Day, the starting right fielder. Despite his season-long offensive struggles, he was kept in the majors until Aug. 18. He was recalled on Sept. 5, even though the PawSox were still in the playoffs and even though Bradley was not in the Red Sox starting lineup until Sept. 7.

He appeared in 113 games in center field this season, 12 in right, and one in left. While his center field defense was superb, in right field he looked uncertain at times. Now the Sox have to wonder if he has played himself into a one-dimensional, one-position player?

“As far as Jackie is concerned, it was obviously a tough year offensively,” Cherington said. “He's got a track record of hitting as an amateur and through the minor leagues. Obviously, his defense is elite. He's got to find himself as a hitter and that can happen. Sometimes it happens quickly. Sometimes it takes some time. He does too many things well that he’s not going to figure out at some point and be a very good major league player.”

Many organizations will hype their young players. The Sox are no different. But maybe they need to look at their own evaluations.

“I think there are guys who didn’t perform the way we thought they could,” Cherington said. “That doesn’t mean they won’t in the future. I guess it’s a question that’s hard to answer right now because with young players you don’t know. We believe that we have a lot of young players that will be good major leaguers and we need to make sure the ones we’re putting on the team are capable of helping us win games and not burdening them more than we should.

“I understand why there was so much focus on young players this year. But the results are in all of us. They’re not specific to young players. If I performed better, if we all performed better, maybe young players wouldn’t have come into so much focus. We want to win; we want to win quickly. We know in order to win consistently year after year after year, young players are going to have to be a part of that. We have to find a better way to build teams that allow young players to integrate successfully and get it right when we make those judgments. You can look at every piece of that and it’s fair to say we need to do a better job of that.’”

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2014/10/red_sox_young_players_part_of_the_reason_for_lost.html