![]() Cotillo is well-connected to the Boston market, so when he suggests an idea, there is usually support to back it up. ![]() Rumor: Could SF Giants land Boston Red Sox star shortstop in free agency?Ĭhris Cotillo, who is a Red Sox beat writer for MassLive.Com, speculates that the longtime Red Sox shortstop could end up in San Francisco. However, the SF Giants will be in the market for a shortstop this winter and Boston Red Sox star shortstop Xander Bogaerts could be one of the best options available. All statistics courtesy of FanGraphs.When it comes to rumors at this point in the season, there is usually not a lot of substance supporting it. Baseball players are so much more than the value they provide on the field, and it is imperative that we always keep that in mind.įeatured image by Shawn Palmer ( on Twitter). But that couldn’t be further from the truth. But regardless of Boston’s true intentions, it’s refreshing to see a decision that reinforces the humanity and individuality of baseball players.Īs we saw time and time again during the owner-imposed lockout, ownership groups want fans to think that players are interchangeable, and that baseball franchises are more important than the individual people who play for them. Red Sox manager Alex Cora has suggested he doesn’t believe what the defensive metrics say about Bogaerts, so maybe he just genuinely thinks Bogaerts is the better shortstop. In fact, I can’t even say why the Red Sox made this decision. It still seems like the wrong baseball decision to me, and I certainly have no reason to believe the Red Sox are a paragon of virtue, morally speaking. I’m not here to say whether the Red Sox made the “right” decision, be that from a moral standpoint or a baseball one. But from a purely human point of view, keeping Bogaerts at his natural position is the obvious choice. Story isn’t being shoehorned into a new position the way that Bogaerts would have been.įrom a strictly analytical point of view, it makes more sense to play Story at shortstop. Now, of course, Story has the same amount of time to prepare for the role, but that’s what Story signed up for. That would give Bogaerts very little time to prepare for his new role. Not only that, but by the time the Red Sox made the Story signing official, there were less than three weeks to go until Opening Day. He does not deserve to lose his job, and in almost any other line of work, it would be preposterous to even entertain the possibility of replacing him. Heck, he’s well on his way to becoming the greatest shortstop in franchise history.īogaerts has been Boston’s full-time shortstop for eight years, and in that time he has won four Silver Sluggers, been named to three All-Star teams, and helped the Red Sox win a couple of World Series titles. But Bogaerts has been playing shortstop for this organization since he was 16, and he’s done a darn good job of it too. And from that perspective, it’s easy to say that Story should play shortstop because he is a better defender at the position. ![]() We view players through the lens of the runs they score, the balls they hit, and the pitches they throw. When all we talk about is value, it makes players seem more like weapons in a team’s arsenal rather than individual human beings. But when thinking like this is the only way we evaluate baseball decisions, it can start to cloud our judgment. I’m certainly not saying that it’s wrong to do so. So while it may be our “basic intuition” that Story is a more valuable shortstop than Bogaerts, it’s important to think beyond that intuition.Īs baseball fans, baseball writers, or fantasy baseball players we have to think about player value. It’s how someone like me writes about baseball every week.īut to talk about a human being in terms of their value above all else? It’s actually pretty weird when you stop to think about it. It’s how we play fantasy sports and video games. Understanding players’ on-field value helps us decide which free agents our favorite teams should sign, which prospects they should call up, and which reliever they should use in any particular situation. We think about the value players provide on the field so we can formulate opinions about the games we’re watching. And that’s often how we think about baseball players. In other words, Story provides more value at shortstop than Bogaerts. With Story at shortstop, the Red Sox would be better equipped to prevent runs. In order to win games, a teams needs to prevent their opponent from scoring. A professional baseball team’s ultimate goal is to win ballgames. ![]() This decision goes against basic intuition. Yet Red Sox manager Alex Cora has made it very clear: Story will be playing second base and Bogaerts will be playing shortstop. ![]()
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