Watching the Rangers and Diamondbacks conduct an errorless World Series until the third inning of Game 4 reinforces just how bad, and just how damaging, the Red Sox defense was last season -- and just how hard it's going to be to fix.
That task now falls to new chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, who will be officially introduced at Fenway Park on Thursday. His creativity will be taxed almost immediately, because the returning roster leaves him pretty well boxed in.
Rafael Devers may eventually be forced off of third base, but it probably won't be this year, which means he could extend his record streak of leading American League third basemen in errors to a seventh season.
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Likewise, slugging first baseman Triston Casas just came off a breakout offensive campaign that was mitigated by his defensive shortcomings.
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They're not alone. The Red Sox fielded below-average defenders at second base (a rotating cast of characters), center field (Jarren Duran), and left, where Masataka Yoshida ranked among the worst defenders in baseball.
Even assuming a full season from Gold Glove-caliber shortstop Trevor Story, Breslow must still solve one of the club's biggest flaws without a lot of wiggle room to do it.
It's hard to overstate how awful the Red Sox were last season. They ranked as the worst defense in baseball by a staggering amount, compiling a negative-50 outs above average, 14 worse than the runner-up Reds. The Diamondbacks (plus-34) and Rangers (plus-32) ranked second and third, respectively, behind only the Brewers (plus-41).
So what might Breslow do? First off, he should utilize the DH slot to get one of his worst defenders off the field. This means saying goodbye to productive veteran Justin Turner, who will almost certainly opt out of the final year of his contract in search of a multi-year deal, but that's fine, because the Red Sox aren't one Justin Turner away from contention.
The most likely candidate is Yoshida, who not only cost the Red Sox seven runs despite playing half his games in one of the game's smallest left fields, but who also wore down considerably during his big-league debut season. After hitting .316 with 10 homers in the first half, Yoshida plummeted to .254 with just five in the second. The Red Sox recognized that fatigue tended to produce mechanical issues with his swing – the more tired he was, the more he rolled over to second – and at age 30, Yoshida will need to be managed.
Putting him at DH would remove his glove from the equation and allow the Red Sox either to pursue a right-handed hitting left fielder who's at least an average defender, or move Duran there and try to upgrade center field.
The entire outfield is in flux, because right fielder Alex Verdugo – a Gold Glove finalist and the team's only plus defender prior to Story's return – is a trade candidate, thanks to his mediocre offensive output, unreliability, and ballooning potential contract in arbitration. He could be replaced by Wilyer Abreu, a power threat with the arm to play right and some experience in center.
In the infield, Story will play a pivotal role. His range to his right should decrease the pressure on Devers, and even if his arm isn't yet top-flight following surgery, his pinpoint accuracy more than compensates. An obvious area with upgrade potential is second base, where the Red Sox oscillated between all-hit, no-field types like Enmanuel Valdes and punchless defenders such as Pablo Reyes.
"I do believe the last few weeks when Trevor played almost every day, you saw the changes," manager Alex Cora said after the season. "At second, we were basically platooning Valdy and Pablo — well, (Luis) Urías played a lot — but I think with Trevor at shortstop playing every day, you see the difference. Now we're going to decide what we do at second base. I think Trevor at short helps Raffy at third base. We made some subtle adjustments as far as our defensive alignment toward the end and it felt good. Let's put it that way.
"So, I think up the middle we're going to be solid with Trevor staying healthy. He's a game changer. He's elite. I think he was, what, a plus-8, plus-9? He only played a handful of games, so I feel really good about that and then from there we'll attack the offseason, decide what we're going to do at second, and obviously Raffy's going to play third base."
Of all the issues facing Breslow in his new job, upgrading the defense offers the quickest path back to respectability.