One of the great things about the Garrett Crochet extension is that it takes a little bit of the heat off of Rafael Devers’ historically horrific start. Thanks to Statcast, we can clearly see that the culprit is his lack of bat speed. So is that an indication that his shoulders are still hurting? Not according to Alex Cora, who also dismisses the idea that DHing has anything to do with the slump. (Christopher Smith, MassLive)
Unfortunately, Devers’ terrible start highlights just how important he is to the Red Sox as a whole. (Rob Bradford, WEEI)
With Devers struggling so much, you may not have noticed that Trevor Story has also been unable to do anything with the bat so far this season. He’s currently 2-15 with 6 strikeouts. He also says his recently injured shoulder is fine, and that the issue is that he’s chasing too many bad pitches. (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)
At least Kristian Campbell is hitting. Here are some interesting numbers about his hot start, including the fact that his home run off of Jacob Webb is one of the 20 hardest-hit baseballs across the whole sport so far. (Mike Petriello, MLB.com)
But he isn’t only impressing with the bat. Campbell’s speed has also been a huge asset to the Sox so far. (Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic)
When will Campbell be joined by the other two members of the Big Three, Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer? Craig Breslow says they’ll be the ones to dictate their own timeline. (Hayden Bird, Boston.com)
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