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It’s becoming clear what the Open Day roster will look like with several reports Wednesday showing that the Red Sox have agreed to a one-year contract with 34-year-old outfielder Adam Duvall.
Easiest way to explain it?
Year. The Red Sox could have the oldest team in baseball this year.
The average age of the 13 pitchers expected to break the roster, as currently made up, is 31.8. Last year’s oldest pitcher was with the Mets, averaging 31.2 years.
The average age of the Red Sox’s starting lineup, including Duvall, is 29.1, but signing veteran shortstops like Elvis Andrus, 34, and Jose Iglesias, 33, to replace Cristian Arroyo, 27, would drop the average age. may rise. , returning Arroyo to his role as a utility.
If they sign Andrus, the average age of a Sox starting lineup would be 29.9, the third-oldest in the league last year, according to Baseball Reference.
This means that the Red Sox team, which has pushed its minor league system and asked its fan base to persevere for the future, is on the verge of launching one of the oldest big league teams in recent memory. To do.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s actually considered a good thing — the Red Sox want veterans around their young players and want to give them a chance in case they sneak into the postseason. , can be traded to a competing team at the deadline when the sox is most likely to drop out of the competition.
Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom addressed the age gap during an appearance on SiriusXM’s MLB Network radio over the weekend.
“We have a lot of young pitchers coming,” he said. “Behind them are really exciting and interesting people who continue to grow and hopefully integrate into the mix here.”
Bloom said of the idea that older players could take roster spots from younger players, saying, “We don’t want to cut off their opportunities, but the right thing for us is to have the players around them and the clubs. So it’s not as dependent as it was last year and that’s a big part of why we built the bullpen the way we did it takes the heat out of them .”
In doing so, the Red Sox went out and signed 35-year-old closer Kenley Jansen and 36-year-old setup man Chris Martin, one of the slowest pitchers in baseball who needed to adapt to the new pitch clock. . .
The Sox are definitely desperate for a reliable bullpen addition, and no one can blame them for being aggressive about adding two veteran relievers to bolster the late inning.
In the rotation, the Sox acquired 34-year-old James Paxton. They are still overly dependent on his 34-year-old Chris Sale, who cannot stay healthy. And they signed 36-year-old Corey Kluber as their only starting rotation this winter.
It’s unclear if 23-year-old Brayyan Bello can start before the trio, plus Nick Pivetta, 31, and Garrett Whitlock, 26.
Bloom told MLB Network Radio that it would be nice to have “someone to show me the way, someone who’s been there.”
As for the younger pitchers, “If we can get them in the zone, they have a premium and they’re going to be pretty good,” Bloom said. But if you keep[the veterans]on the field, you should be in a pretty good spot between them and the younger players.”
Age is just a number, but it’s worth noting that the Astros, who won the World Series last year, were in the top 10 for average age in both hitting and pitching, while their opponents, the Phillies, are nearly 10% older in both. It was league average.
There has long been a belief in baseball that it takes veterans and young players to succeed, and at least the Red Sox have done just that.
They have built a clear bridge to young talent who may not emerge until 2024 or 2025.
However, chairman Tom Warner seemed upset by the idea of the Red Sox being rebuilt last week, emphasizing to reporters: We have a good core of players and added that, but it’s definitely not a rebuild. “
Werner noted Bloom’s refusal to do so is stepping up the minor league system, and the owners hope to see results this year and next.
“You can’t go through one of these cycles every year,” he said. “Chimes are doing a good job and part of the reason the results are like this is that we’ve beefed up our minor league system and hopefully we’ve got some very good minors who will keep us going. Because there are some league players coming out, every year at a competitive level.”
Until then, the old men will endure. And if Bloom hits with some key offseason additions, perhaps he’s found the perfect mix of old and young.
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