It's February 9th. The equipment truck is already unloaded in Fort Myers. And, your 2018 Boston Red Sox
still have that troublesome little hole in the middle of their line-up. You know, the one that used to be more than adequately filled by the occupant of uniform #34? And what has
Dave Dombrowski done about that gaping hole?
Zip, Zero, Nada. But, hey, the party line on Yawkey Way goes something like this: "
You know, we won 93 games and a Division title with this roster last season." If they don't sign
J.D. Martinez, expect everyone from
John Henry to your friendly Fenway popcorn vendor to be spouting it incessantly. Of course, the problem with this line of reasoning is that pretty much everybody else in the American League has significantly
upgraded.
The Evil Ones got 'you-know-who' to go with the other 'you-know-who'. The Astros added
Gerrit Cole to a World Champion staff. The Angels (a
real threat to Boston's
Wild Card aspirations) added:
Shohei Ohtani,
Ian Kinsler,
Zack Cozart and
Jim Johnson. Oh, and they have a couple of guys named
Mike Trout and
Albert Pujols still on their roster. But, old
Double D is perfectly content with riding into the new season on last year's wheels.
