As the World Series shifts to Los Angeles for up to three games played under National League rules, the Boston Red Sox face a conundrum, despite their 2-0 lead over the Dodgers: where to put their best players.
Four of Boston’s most valuable assets play in the outfield. With no designated hitter to fall back on at Dodger Stadium, conventional wisdom suggests that one of them must sit out this weekend, removing a key contributor from the lineup at the worst possible time.
But manager Alex Cora rarely chooses the traditional route toward solving a problem when a more creative option exists. That explains why he recently discussed the possibility of taking a more radical approach: using Mookie Betts, a top MVP candidate and arguably the best defensive outfielder in the majors, at second base.
The idea sounds crazy on the surface, especially considering Betts’s value in right field. Most teams wouldn’t dare attempt such a bold strategy at such a crucial moment, with a championship on the line.
Upon deeper analysis, however, the concept not only makes sense, it reveals a counterintuitive truth about modern baseball: Second base, a position long viewed as the domain of a slick fielder given its place in the middle of the diamond, now resembles Little League right field—the easiest spot to stash a glove you want to hide.
“You stand there and you wait for the ball to be hit in your area and you run and get it and throw it to whatever base,” said Boston second baseman Ian Kinsler, a former Gold Glove winner. “It’s simple, dude.”
Kinsler doesn’t mean to underestimate the intricacies of second base or imply that anybody can excel there. Nobody would argue the position doesn’t come with its share of challenges for inexperienced practitioners, particularly in trying to turn double plays with one’s back turned to the runner sliding in.
Betts actually does have experience there. He rose through the minors as a second baseman, playing 230 games there, plus another 14 for Boston as a rookie in 2014. The Red Sox converted him to a full-time outfielder at that point to accommodate their longtime second baseman, Dustin Pedroia. Betts won the Gold Glove award in the outfield in each of the past two years and will almost certainly win his third this winter.
Even though Betts has played just six total innings at second base over the past four seasons—he went there in an emergency situation on Aug. 3—he still takes infield practice nearly every day. Not because he expects to play second, but because he believes fielding grounders helps him prepare for the speed of bouncing balls in the outfield during games. He does it, he said, “so I don’t get lazy.”
Betts upped the intensity this week, working closely with Pedroia on the pivot around the bag.
“I just told him, ‘Hey man, just catch it and throw it over there,’” Pedroia said. “You’ve got to get outs. Don’t try to do something you can’t do.’”
It seems that teams feel increasingly comfortable trusting people at second base with far less history there than Betts. After trading for third baseman Mike Moustakas in July, the Milwaukee Brewers put Travis Shaw at second, even though he had never played there at any level. He started at second throughout the playoffs and held his own as the Brewers advanced to within one win of the World Series.
The New York Mets auditioned Daniel Murphy around the field in their search to find a home for his prodigious bat. After he failed to distinguish himself at third base, first base or left field, he settled in at second in 2012. He continues to play there today at a serviceable level.
The Dodgers’ Max Muncy didn’t spend an inning at second base in his first four years in the pros, before moving there for occasional duty in 2016. He started two games of the National League Championship Series there.
“Obviously the landscape of who can play second base has changed,” said Mark DeRosa, a MLB Network analyst who played 343 games at second base in a 16-year career that ended in 2013. “You can see different guys playing the position.”
The reason for this stems from significant changes to the game that have led to a broad reassessment of the skills required. Teams have become so sophisticated in how they position their defenders for individual batters that they can compensate for deficiencies in an infielder’s range. When done well, coaches can station a second baseman so precisely that he often won’t have to move more than a couple steps, and the shorter throw to first provides some margin for error.
Teams deploy defensive shifts so frequently nowadays that other fielders, like the third baseman, often wind up receiving the throw on double play chances, lessening the burden on a weak second baseman. Meanwhile, MLB has stronger rules protecting infielders from hard takeout slides than ever before, significantly reducing the likelihood of a second baseman suffering a serious injury around the base.
Somebody as talented as Betts probably doesn’t even need the extra help, anyway.
“I don’t put anything past Mookie,” Kinsler said. “He’s a tremendous athlete.”
Cora won’t reveal all of his plans yet for how he will configure his lineup against the Dodgers in Friday’s Game 3, though he confirmed that J.D. Martinez, Boston’s typical DH, will play. Martinez hit .330 with 43 home runs and 130 RBIs this season, and Cora determined he couldn’t afford to lose his bat. If Betts doesn’t play second, either Jackie Bradley Jr. or Andrew Benintendi would head to the bench, at least at the beginning of the night.
For now, Cora has downplayed the likelihood of Boston starting Betts at second base. Whether he did that genuinely or merely as a tactic to throw the Dodgers off the scent will probably remain unknown until Friday. Whatever the case, Cora certainly hasn’t ruled out playing Betts at second—and more likely than not, Betts wouldn’t miss a beat.
“He’s fine,” Pedroia said. “It’s not like we’d throw him out there and he’d be a liability.”
Write to Jared Diamond at jared.diamond@wsj.com
Bagikan Berita Ini
