The Red Sox have continued their torrid start to the 2016 season. Jackie Bradley Jr.’s hitting streak has come to an end, but Xander Bogaerts’ lives on. Knuckleballer Steven Wright is becoming an even bigger feel good story whilst his higher paid counterparts continue to work out the kinks. They’ve taken two of the last three from their closest AL East competition, Baltimore. But within all of this, there is one man that is emerging to become the figurehead of this potentially spectacular season. That man’s name is Mookie Betts.
It seems that every sentence concerning Mookie Betts these days starts with “the first man in history to”. He’s turned Camden Yards into his own personal launching pad over the past two days. Five home runs in seven at-bats is a substantial return from a cleanup hitter. Boston’s right fielder isn’t a middle of the order hitter though. He’s on this historic tear from the leadoff spot.
Betts wasn’t exactly unheralded coming up through the Red Sox farm system. However, his ascent to superstardom has been a pleasant surprise. His shift from the middle infield to the corner outfield was supposed to be a constant work in progress. He’s handled the transition better than anybody could have expected. He was touted as an average hitter, the statistic not the derisory adjective, but he’s shown quite the penchant for pop in the Bigs.
On a team loaded with young talent all over the diamond, you need that one player to emerge as a leader. With David Ortiz’s retirement just months away, Mookie Betts is receiving the torch from Big Papi as that very man. He sets the tone with leadoff home runs, as he’s done the past two days, and is ever so clutch as well. His first inning and ninth inning batting averages are an identical .313 as of now.
Betts finished 19th in the American League MVP voting a season ago. You can reasonably expect him to finish much higher this season. He’s nearly passed his career best 18 home runs from a year ago in a little over a third of the games played. He, along with Xander Bogaerts, is on pace to make Boston the first team in MLB history to have two players under 23 post 7.0 WAR at season’s end. He’s hit home runs in the first two innings in consecutive games, yet another MLB first.
He’s hitting .650(!) in the second inning of games, yet another statement about not only Betts’ performance, but Boston’s offensive potency as a whole. They are spraying the ball to all fields, another thing Mookie has done with his recent homers. There is a sense of comfortableness in Betts’ approach right now that has been more of a forest fire than a spark for the club.
While Betts and company have continued to shred opposing pitching, their own pitching has seen their fair share of beatings. That is why I posited that the Red Sox should cash in on some of their white hot bats to add some arm ammunition. Until that hypothetical becomes reality, the Red Sox are going to continue attempting, and succeeding more often than not, at bludgeoning their opponents into submission. They have the league’s leading hitter. They have a retiring team and sport legend. They have versatility in nearly every part of the field and lineup. But if you are a betting man trying to forecast the fortunes of the 2016 Red Sox, you needn’t look further than the man at the top of that lineup card every single day. You can confidently bet on Mookie Betts.