But Can He Pitch?
Is the game on TV? Yes! This is one that NESN never misses. Check it out at 1:05 PM. What’s the lineup? What should we watch for? From an on-field perspective, the most interesting thing here is Kristian Campbell in centerfield, by far. But that’s not what today is about. Today is about looking away […]
Good morning! The Red Sox will play an honest-to-god baseball game today, as Spring Training is finally under way. So my question to you today is: what are you watching for in Spring Training? For fans, Spring Training tends to be about two things: the new guys and the rookies. But in the case of […]
It’s pitching preview time, ladies and gentlemen. Over the next several days, I’ll be writing 10,000 words or so about everyone you might see pitching for the Red Sox to start the season. I’ve put the team’s starting options into tiers because that’s how my brain works. Don’t think of them as rankings, but rather buckets […]
As teams reported for spring training, the injury news around the league came in fast and furiously last week. From pitchers who dealt with arm injuries in 2025 and did not have them repaired in the offseason — like Pablo Lopez, Blake Snell, Shane Bieber, and Josh Hader, being eased into the preseason — to […]
There was a long stretch of Red Sox history in which you could roll into spring training and write down the guy who would dominate the DH position in permanent ink. For 14 years from 2003 through 2016, it belonged to David Ortiz. Then, after he retired and the Sox tried Hanley Ramirez there for […]
It’s pitching preview time, ladies and gentlemen. Over the next several days, I’ll be writing 10,000 words or so about everyone you might see pitching for the Red Sox to start the season. I’ve put the team’s starting options into tiers because that’s how my brain works. Don’t think of them as rankings, but rather […]
Good morning! Yesterday was media day in Fort Myers. That’s always been one of the more low-key fun days of spring training, a chance for players to show some personality and for fans to see new faces in the home whites for the first time. But as the first photos from media day started circulating, […]
It’s pitching preview time, ladies and gentlemen. Over the next several days, I’ll be writing 10,000 words or so about everyone you might see pitching for the Red Sox to start the season. We’ll start with the starters, because if we didn’t start with the starters, they wouldn’t be starters, and that doesn’t make any […]
It’s pitching preview time, ladies and gentlemen. Over the next several days, I’ll be writing 10,000 words or so about everyone you might see pitching for the Red Sox to start the season. We’ll start with the starters, because if we didn’t start with the starters, they wouldn’t be starters, and that doesn’t make any […]
With Alex Bregman’s departure over the offseason, Marcelo Mayer almost immediately assumed the position of Boston’s third baseman of the future and the present. But after trading for Caleb Durbin — who played 131 games at third base for the Brewers last year — last week, the Red Sox have become a bit jammed in […]
Masataka Yoshida is unquestionably a productive major league hitter, having posted a career OPS+ of 109. But with $36.5 million still owed to him over the next two years and no place on the Red Sox except as a low-power DH/pinch-hitter, he arguably hurts the roster more than he helps it. The Red Sox cannot […]
Manager Alex Cora announced yesterday that Red Sox utility man Romy Gonzalez is currently shut down from all baseball activities except for playing catch. This announcement came after earlier reports that he initially injured his shoulder in the final series of the 2025 regular season and has been dealing with pain and discomfort all offseason. […]
During this past week’s run of press comments from members of the Red Sox organization at Fenway South (including Sam Kennedy, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about), catcher Carlos Narváez got some glowing reviews. Manager Alex Cora noted that Narv/Narvi/The Narv did a great job exceeding expectations in 2025, per Gabrielle Starr the […]
As players report to Spring Training the Red Sox brass are showing their faces as well. And for some reason they are deciding to speak publicly. While availability to the press is definitely a better than the Where In the World Is John Henry? (Do it Rockapella!) game that has been played the last few […]
Hello and happy holiday Monday, folks. Very nice of the federal government to give Sam Kennedy and Larry Lucchino (RIP) their own dedicated holiday today. Good news for ya: we officially get to see the Red Sox play some baseball this week! Boston’s first game of the spring, their annual tuneup against Northeastern University, will […]
Who is he and where did he come from? The Red Sox, at last, have a young versatile infielder who gets on base at at least a replacement level … and they acquired Caleb Durbin! Kidding, kidding. But, another newcomer in the deal that sent David Hamilton, Shane Drohan and Kyle Harrison to Milwaukee is […]
One of the most fun things about spring training is the annual emergence of one young player who makes the whole camp his own. Two years ago it was Ceddanne Rafaela. Last year it was Marcelo Mayer. This year could it be Kristian Campbell, someone who has already won a player of the month award […]
To David Hamilton, formerly of the Sox,Watching you play often made my insides balk.Your errors were many, your hits were quite few.I’ll admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of you. But since you’ve been traded, I’m distinctly less jaded.Happy for you, that you’ve found a new place,Thrilled for us, with new hope for second base. […]
The last meaningful baseball game Roman Anthony played was back on September 2nd against Cleveland where he suffered a strained oblique that ended his season. The following week, ever untrusting of this ownership, we here at Over The Monster asked if Alex Bregman and Roman Anthony had already played their last game together. Well, today […]
Good morning! One thing the sabermetric revolution has taught us is that batting order doesn’t matter all that much. At least, not in the traditional sense of putting a speedy runner at the the top, someone who can handle the bat and move him over second, and power hitters in the middle. The general consensus […]
In the 18th round of the 2017 MLB draft the New York Yankees drafted a pitcher out of the University of Alabama named Garret Whitlock. He would almost immediately make his professional debut with the Gulf Coast League Yankees. In 2018, Whitlock would appear in three levels for New York: A, A+, and AA. Overall […]
Down a rabbit hole of things that didn’t happen, the Red Sox apparently made several attempts to acquire Zach Neto from the Angels before pivoting and trading with the Brewers for Caleb Durbin. This was confirmed by Sean McAdam earlier this week, and from there, Tyler Milliken was asking the right question. Neto is one […]
The ZiPS projections are out, and they’re not impressed with the thump — or lack thereof — in the Red Sox lineup. If you visit Fangraphs and sort these individual player projections by home runs, you have to go all the way down to a tie for 127th to find the first name in a […]
Good morning! MLB Network’s ongoing project to determine the 10 best players at each position continued yesterday, as they finally made it to the bullpen. And if you’re a Red Sox fan, this is what you want to see: Two Sox relievers on the list, with Aroldis Chapman taking the top spot. Not too shabby. […]
On Friday night, just a few days before the New England Patriots attempt to assume their rightful position as the class of the NFL (narrator: they did not), I was doing what any 28-year-old man does on a Friday night: talking about relief pitching. As I was scrolling Twitter, I ran into a tweet from […]