The Red Sox have floated the following trial balloon:
play Mookie Betts at second base in the National League city games where the DH is not allowed. This would allow manager
Alex Cora to play
all of his top players in every game—with
J.D. Martinez,
Andrew Benintendi and the red-hot
Jackie Bradley Jr. joining Betts in the line-up. Otherwise, one of Benny or JBJ would have to sit. Said Cora of the unorthodox option,
"I don't know, man. He already played second in the regular season. There's always a chance, I guess. There's a reason (he's) the right fielder. He feels that he's great at second. I don't know. I never saw it. If you ask him, he'll say, 'I'm great.' If you ask Pedroia, he'll say he sucked. There's a lot that goes into it. We've got some pretty good second basemen, we've got some pretty good outfielders. Like I said, we're in the World Series. That conversation was gonna come up. One thing for sure, J.D. will play. That's clear. We'll see which alignment is better, which lineup is better and we'll make decisions accordingly." This option
clearly carries some risks—but the potential
up-side seems much too tempting to pass up.
We say: go for it!
