They didn't have to. There was a period of time in 06-07 when Papi did have a very thick middle but he had some kind of heart trouble in the 06 season and after that he took responsibility for his body on his own and slimmed down without needing to be prompted by the team.
If history tells us anything, the path to redeption for any bad baseball team is marked with a deep rotation of durable starters, a world class defense in both infield and outfield, a lineup that can generate runs in more than one way, a bullpen that won't steal defeat from the jaws of victory, and a top end catcher to hold the whole package together. These are the conditions by which victory is achieved, anything that does not accomplish these objectives is a waste of resources.
If JD can play 1B, we probably won't sign Pearce, but there still remains a gap.
At NL parks, it's easy: JD plays 1B, but if JD plays 1B in AL parks vs LHPs, who DH's?
We still need a bat better than Swihart, Nunez, Holt or Devers (if Nunez is at 3B some).
Maybe we wait to see if Pedey could DH and play a little 2B, before we make the choice to acquire someone or re-sign Pearce.
Kimmi,
Good thought! But, for what reason?
If it doesn’t happen, I wouldn’t sweat it.
The Sox play what? Nine games in NL parks each year? If JD or one of the outfielders sit for nine games, it won’t be the Kiss of Death for this team. It would be nice to have him play 1b in the World Series. But then from what we saw of Cora this year, he seems to have no problem with a player making his MLB debut at 1b in the World Series...
No, really no.
Honestly, if JD has to be bad at a position I would much prefer him to be comfortably bad. We tried this experiment in reverse with Hanley and it did not end well. JD might be mediocre in the outfield but at least he knows how to be mediocre in the outfield. He's comfortable playing there and knows what to do, even if he doesn't always have the tools to execute. That's good enough for me. I would far, far inconvenience Beni or JBJ a few times a year than risk this experiment for rather little gain.
It's the old adage, better the devil you know. And while offensive competence is always finite, defensive incompetence is effectively potentially infinite. I just don't see any gain to offset the risks here.
If history tells us anything, the path to redeption for any bad baseball team is marked with a deep rotation of durable starters, a world class defense in both infield and outfield, a lineup that can generate runs in more than one way, a bullpen that won't steal defeat from the jaws of victory, and a top end catcher to hold the whole package together. These are the conditions by which victory is achieved, anything that does not accomplish these objectives is a waste of resources.
Well, it's not something you would want to throw JD into out of the blue in the middle of the season. He could be taking grounders during the off season. Let him take reps at 1B throughout spring training and throughout the season. Cora is the master of selling these types of changes to the players, so I'm sure JD would be fully on board.
Just because JD wouldn't be needed to play 1B, that doesn't mean he can't play there periodically throughout the season. He could play there to give Moreland or Pearce a rest, where one of them could be the DH.
I think it makes a lot of sense.