FORT MYERS, Fla. – Baserunning wasn't exactly the Red Sox forte in 2017. There was a constant need to scrape away for every run possible with no major home run threat in the lineup, with Mookie Betts being the closest thing with 24 homers and 102 RBI.
With J.D. Martinez on board and the potential bounce back of Betts and Hanley Ramirez, possibly more home runs from Andrew Benintendi after hitting 20 in his first full season, along with Rafael Devers, the Red Sox shouldn't have to press the issue on the base paths.
But Alex Cora has every intention of being aggressive on the base paths in 2018.
Though his plan is similar to strategy in the game of chess as opposed to an act of desperation.
"I expect the team to exploit certain things in the defense," Cora said. "With the way defense is being played now, moving guys around, having guys that usually don't that [given] position, but because they can hit they feel they can play that position, well we can take advantage of certain things. I'm not saying we're just going to go out there and be the "Go-Go" White Sox, but it's a team throughout the years and what I remember from when I played here, we've been very successful at stealing bases.
"Scouting-wise, the organization does a great job picking up stuff from pitchers and catchers and [their] tendencies. And we're going to take advantage of it. We play in a different ballpark and it's not 100 percent that you hit an extra base hit at our place and you score from first. So we have to make sure we take advantage of 90 feet and that's what we're trying to be."
In the course of conversations and meetings with players, he continues to reiterate being "responsible," on the bases and feels the team has done that so far. But he's also stressing they can be aggressive, and that there's a difference between what happened in 2017 and his plan for 2018.
"That's one of the things I've been talking to them [about]," Cora said. "And obviously the wall has to do with it sometimes. They were in a lot of situations where, just watching video, last year and this year, base hit to center, the guy from second was going to score easily, but the batter/runner just kept going. Because that's what they've been taught. Not here, but throughout their career, is trade an out for a run. That's not the case anymore, you have to be careful with that.
"If you start looking at the 81 outs [made on the bases], there were a lot like that, first and second, the guy from second scored, the trail runner gets thrown out at third – just because there's two outs, let's make sure we score the run. So we're trying to preach that they have to be aware what the defense is, who's running in front of you, if it's a close play at the plate and if it's not. So they have to be aware."
