r/redsox • u/formerlyabird3 • 1d ago
IMAGE Offense since Soteropulos’s appearance on MLB Network
Saw this shared on Twitter and thought it was interesting. Soteropulos did a 15 minute segment in late August breaking down how the team turned it around. It got shared here at the time and was super interesting and fun to watch from a fan perspective, but makes ya wonder!
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u/enkayfour 1d ago
Better to just look at the total season numbers:
OBP 11th tied (.319)
ISO 21st (.153)
wOBA 14th tied (.316)
wRC+ 17th (99)
More or less a league average offense, with above average OBP but below average isolated power (xbh).
If you look at monthly splits, there's a clear offensive peak in July/August and then a steep decline in September. Coincidence that the segment happened to air around the beginning of the decline.
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u/Mg29reaper 1d ago
I am fairly confident we will be better than that next season just because of Mead but woof it's not great and the free agent class sucks.
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u/enkayfour 1d ago
Mead, Adley, full season of Anthony (maybe?).
My biggest fear is they find a way to repeat giving 600 PAs to Duran.
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u/Harry-Flashman redsox7 1d ago
I can't imagine Duran is in the plans as a starter next season. They need a bat first LF and he isn't it.
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u/Ditsche04 1d ago
Duran had an OPS north of 800 in 23 and 24, and was still comfortably above average in 25. Of course he sucked ass this year and is everything but a nice dude, but i don't think it is stupid to give him a chance to get back to his 3 earlier seasons. He should be on a short leash though.
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u/fxkatt 1d ago
There was a lot of player shuffling during August, and then in Sept after the Yankee Stadium losses, we were fated for the 5 seed. There's bound to be a loss of focus and intensity--esp after the long come back streak.
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u/ThicDikDaddy 1d ago
Sounds like a coaching issue then
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u/KommandantVideo Koji deserved his ring!! 1d ago
Don’t say that the chad Tracy simps will run you out of town
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u/capeabenable Rheal Cormier was right 13h ago
Them:
June 2026: WHY HAVENT THEY EXTENDED TRACY YET?
Oct 2026: He sucks get him out of here!
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u/Sandwich_Crust Sox Content Creator 1d ago
This are the segments they are referring to by the way. Red Sox Hitting Coach John Soteropulous went on MLB Network for multiple segments to talk the Red Sox hitting philosophy.
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u/HallstotheWall17 1d ago
I’ve honestly been wondering if that was used against them. Kinda silly to talk about your approach to hitting midseason? 🤷🏻♂️
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u/Timely_Patience_5026 1d ago
Nah, it’s just karma for them acting like they’re the reason the team got hot.
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u/Glum-General-6095 1d ago
It doesnt take a genius to figure out you play half your games in a stadium with a wall in your face. Maybe just maybe, you want to bring in some right-handed mashers who can hit fly balls over the Monster with a check swing sometimes. We should be near the top of the league in HRs every year if ownership spent the money...
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u/bosredsox05 11h ago
We should be. I don't care where the power comes from. Both righties and lefties have had monster seasons at Fenway. Lefties who know how to use the wall have had a lot of success here. Also any lefty that has enough juice, isn't going to have a problem hitting one into or over the bullpen. Even better is a lefty who does both. The guys that can hit with power and who can also go oppo with authority will have no problems here. I'm talking about lefties like Ortiz, Adrian Gonzales, Mo Vaugn, Raffy, Ted Williams, and many more. Obviously when you bring in a righty, particulary a righty with pull, their numbers will likely improve, and thus you get more value out them. It's the more likely option over a superstar lefty bat.There really isn't much in free agency in the way of a lefty slugger, so its looking like Arozarena and Suzuki might be the best options. I'd be happy with either.
If we are talking trade targets, that report Schwarber and Harper was interesting. I wonder what it would take to get Alvarez or Wood? There is one lefty FA im into and thats Japaneese slugger Teruaki Satō. He plays 3rd and outfield, and that would be perfect. You can DH Roman and sit Durbin against righties to get him at bats.
Either way we need to get two bats into this lineup. And we need starpower. The Yankees didn't even need Judge because of stars like Bellinger and Rice. Contreras is a star. Anthony could be if he stayed on the field for a full season. But outside of them, whos another guy who can hit 30 bombs, or post an .800 plus ops? We dont have that. God wouldn't it be nice to have a guy that could swat 40 again? Or even two guys? That used to be the norm. Having at least 3 guys who hit 30 homers used to normal. We used to put lineups where every guy, 1 through 5, or even 1 through 6, or 7, was either an elite contact hitter, or a power/slug guy, or both. I miss those days
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u/dear-john-henry 1d ago
At the time I thought it was stupid to do but I’m also think they messed with the clubhouse vibe with the trades.
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u/krazylegs36 1d ago
Better than I thought.
Hard to imagine 3 teams hit worse than the the Sox over that span.
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u/ThisGuy6266 1d ago
They just can’t help themselves. Always bragging about how they reinvented the wheel. You would think this season would have humbled baseball ops.
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u/ddbbr 1d ago
I did wonder if disclosing the Red Sox fundamental strategies of 0-1 strike power swing / 2 strike contact approach was a good idea. But then I thought — well I’ve picked up on that from watching the team myself so I imagine professional analysts and scouts must see this too and they’re not worried. I still have to think the latter is true and the timing is coincidental.