Here comes a more passionate Major League Baseball
Get your bets in now: Adam Duvall, American League MVP.
OK, even though there are probably worse bets than one put on the identification of Duvall the be-all, end-all among AL players this season. He is, after all sitting at a cool plus-10,000, with 22 candidates sitting in front of him on FanDuel's list of MVP possibilities. And, let's be honest, this might simply be a case of Shohei Ohtani vs. the Field, when it's all said and done.
But the folks at 4 Jersey St., and their fans, will take it. This is the kind of conversation they are starved for.
So, what should we make of all this?
A baseball season - especially the portion we are riding through now - is built for overreaction. Take spring training, for example. For the first half of spring training, Duvall was arguably the Red Sox' worst hitter, swinging and missing all over the place. On March 10 - seven games into the Grapefruit League season - he was hitting .071.
But then it clicked, landing Duvall with a .938 OPS by the time the Red Sox broke camp.
Now we are witnessing the carry-over, with the latest punctuation coming in the form a three-hit day (2 doubles, HR) in the Red Sox' 14-5 win over the Tigers.
Nobody in baseball has a better OPS (1.683) than Duvall, who is also hitting .483 with an MLB-best 10 extra-base hits. Needless to say, the Red Sox' No. 5 spot in the batting order is head-and-shoulders better than anybody else.
There is a long way to go, both in the season and even the month of April. Best opening month any Red Sox player has ever had with at least 100 plate appearances came in 2001 when Manny Ramirez totaled a 1.217 OPS. Next-best was Ramirez a year later (1.175), a number equaled by J.D. Marrtinez in 2021 and almost duplicated by both Mookie Betts (1.173) and Xander Bogaerts (1.171) in 2018.
For the player, and the team, this is not the norm. Duvall, after all, hit just .197 with a .565 OPS in last season's initial month. And if the Red Sox, and the rest of baseball, had an inkling this would be what was presented, the 34-year-old would be sitting with something more than a one-year, $7 million contract. (He also would probably be hitting third to start the season.)
But perhaps the Red Sox are hitting the evolution of Duvall at just the right time. Stranger things have happened.
Duvall is getting his pitch and hitting it. He has the second-most hits on 1-0 counts (3), only behind teammate Alex Verdugo, with three of his homers coming on the count. And according to BaseballSavant.com, the righty hitter has chased just one pitch out of the zone all season.
Whatever he's doing, it's working.
“We knew that he could hit a ball hard in the air to the pull side, but he’s been getting in good hitter counts," Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters regarding Duvall. "A 1-0 fastball, he put on a good swing. This is not just a swinger -- a big guy that hits the ball hard. He’s a quality at-bat."
The 2023 search for the next Red Sox star not named Rafael Devers is off to a good start. Who knows what lies ahead, but for the time being Duvall has become a must-see at-bat. That will certainly do for now.