Red Sox midseason superlatives: MVP, biggest surprise, and more – MASHAHER

Red Sox midseason superlatives: MVP, biggest surprise, and more originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Red Sox wrapped up the first half of their 2024 season with a 9-2 loss to the San Diego Padres on Friday night. With 81 games down and 81 to go, they’re in third place in the American League East with a 43-38 record, 8.5 games behind the first-place Baltimore Orioles.

If the season ended today, the Red Sox would be just one game back of the third AL Wild Card spot. They’re set to enter a pivotal July with the trade deadline looming. It remains to be seen whether first-year chief baseball officer Craig Breslow plans on buying, selling, or standing pat, but it’s clear where manager Alex Cora stands on the issue with his team competing for a playoff berth.

Before the second half begins, it’s time to hand out some midseason superlatives. From team MVP to biggest disappointment, we’ll cover all of the highlights and lowlights from the first 81 games below:

It’s remarkable how far Duran has come since failing to live up to the hype in his first two MLB seasons. Boston’s former top outfield prospect has developed into a true five-tool talent and if he continues at this pace, he won’t just be the Red Sox MVP. He’ll compete for MVP in the American League.

Duran leads all Red Sox position players in fWAR (3.3). He ranks third in that category among American League outfielders and 10th among all position players in MLB

The 27-year-old has played in all 81 games this season, posting a stellar .287/.349/.476 slash line with seven homers, 37 RBI, and 20 stolen bases. He leads the AL in doubles (23) and MLB in triples (10).

Duran has done it all for Boston. In addition to wreaking havoc at the plate and on the basepaths, he has made tremendous strides as an outfielder. He ranks second among all outfielders in defensive runs saved (11) and eighth in outs above average (6).

Last year’s breakout campaign was no fluke. Duran is a star.

Houck is a candidate to start for the American League in this year’s All-Star Game. The right-hander, who turns 28 on Saturday, has been lights out as Boston’s ace this season.

Through 16 starts, Houck has an AL-best 2.18 ERA and MLB-best 2.20 FIP with an 0.97 WHIP, 101 strikeouts, and only 18 walks in 103.1 innings — just 2.2 innings shy of his career-high.

There’s plenty of baseball left to be played, but Houck has to be considered a frontrunner for the AL Cy Young Award. He’s been nothing short of spectacular, and he has set the tone for a Red Sox rotation that has far exceeded expectations this season.

There are a handful of candidates for this one. Justin Slaten, Brennan Bernardino, Greg Weissert, Zack Kelly, and Chris Martin have each been rock-solid. The Red Sox bullpen as a whole has been a bright spot. For this superlative though, we’ll roll with the Red Sox reliever most likely to earn an All-Star nod.

Jansen is enjoying one of his best statistical seasons in recent memory. The 36-year-old has a 2.30 ERA, 2.13 FIP, and 1.06 WHIP with 32 strikeouts and 15 saves in 27 appearances. It hasn’t always been pretty, but Red Sox fans have been able to feel confident with Jansen taking the mound in the ninth.

Most improved: Tanner Houck

Last year, Houck had a 5.01 ERA and 1.37 WHIP in 21 starts (106 innings). This season, he is putting up numbers comparable to Pedro Martinez’s historic 1999 campaign.

Need we say more?

We’ll go with a position player and a pitcher for this one, starting with Yoshida.

The Red Sox signed Yoshida to a five-year, $90 million contract during the 2022 offseason with the hope that he would be a consistent offensive contributor. He wasn’t expected to hit for power, but his bat-to-ball skills were elite during his time in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league.

Yoshida looked the part throughout the first half of the 2023 season, but his production fell off a cliff in the second half as it was believed he struggled to adjust to MLB’s grueling 162-game schedule. Those woes have carried into the 2024 campaign.

Through only 35 games played due to injury, Yoshida is hitting just .244/.321/.341 as Boston’s designated hitter. His -0.4 fWAR is near the bottom of the list for players to don a Red Sox uniform this season, above only Garrett Cooper (-0.6), Bobby Dalbec (-0.7), Pablo Reyes (-0.7), and Vaughn Grissom (-0.9).

As for Bello, the second-year starter simply hasn’t been able to live up to his billing as a top pitching prospect in the organization. Widely expected to blossom into Boston’s ace this season, he has a 5.55 ERA and 1.47 WHIP through 14 starts. That won’t cut it.

Yoshida and Bello figuring it out in the second half would be a major development for a Red Sox club fighting tooth and nail for a postseason berth.

Hamilton’s brief big-league stint last season left plenty to be desired, and he was a disaster to begin this year as the replacement for injured shortstop Trevor Story. He was a defensive liability who offered little to no value at the plate.

Then, something clicked.

Hamilton has cleaned it up in the field while producing a .273/.324/.435 slash line, five homers, 15 RBI, and a team-leading 21 stolen bases in 54 games. Alongside Duran, he has made the Red Sox one of the most feared teams in the league on the basepaths with his elite speed.

Is this version of Hamilton a flash in the pan, or is he here to stay? If he keeps this up over the final 81 games, it’ll go a long way toward helping Boston clinch a playoff spot.

Best offseason addition: Tyler O’Neill

O’Neill has been the biggest difference-maker from Craig Breslow’s first offseason as Red Sox chief baseball officer. He’s second on the team in both home runs (16) and OPS (.892). In a left-handed-heavy lineup, the ex-St. Louis Cardinal has given Boston the right-handed pop it desperately needed after losing Justin Turner in free agency.

The injury bug has bitten O’Neill on multiple occasions — he’s played in only 58 out of 81 games — but he’s mostly been a key contributor when healthy. The offseason deal, which sent reliever Nick Robertson and minor league pitcher Victor Santos to St. Louis, looks like a win for Breslow thus far.

Worst offseason addition: Vaughn Grissom

Three weeks after the O’Neill trade, the Red Sox sent veteran left-hander Chris Sale to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for young middle infielder Vaughn Grissom. The deal made sense for both sides. Sale’s injury-ridden time with Boston had run its course, and Grissom had no spot on Atlanta’s roster with Orlando Arcia at shortstop and Ozzie Albies at second base. The Braves needed starting pitching and the Red Sox needed middle infield depth.

Grissom’s debut season in Boston has been a disappointment. The 23-year-old began the year on the injured list and has appeared in only 23 games. When healthy, he’s been a non-factor with a .148/.207/.160 slash line and 19 strikeouts in 81 at-bats.

The good news it Grissom has plenty of time to develop into the player he was expected to become as a top prospect in Atlanta’s system. When we reevaluate the trade a few years from now, it may look like a win for Boston. It just hurts right now with Sale regaining Cy Young form (2.91 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 107 strikeouts in 14 starts) for Atlanta.

Best moment: Jarren Duran walks it off vs. Blue Jays (June 24)

With the 2024 NBA champion Boston Celtics in attendance, the Red Sox completed an epic comeback vs. Toronto with Jarren Duran’s first career walk-off hit.

Boston trailed 6-2 in the eighth inning and stormed back to win 7-6 in front of an electric Fenway Park crowd. The dramatic victory confirmed that this team is well worth your attention if you had them on the back burner — or weren’t paying attention at all — during the Celtics’ championship run.

Worst moment: Trevor Story goes down

On April 5, just eight games into the season, the Red Sox lost Trevor Story for the year due to a shoulder injury suffered on a diving attempt vs. the Los Angeles Angels:

It was a gut punch. Story was finally healthy after missing a chunk of 2022 with a wrist fracture and almost all of 2023 with an elbow issue. Through the first eight games of 2024, he gave Boston’s defense a significant boost with his glove at shortstop. Now, his contract is back to looking like

Losing Story seemed like a terrible omen for the Red Sox’ season, but they’ve overcome his absence with an impressive first half.

Watch the Early Edition segment below for John Tomase, Phil Perry, and Andrew Callahan’s midseason Red Sox superlatives: