Michael Chavis is Going to Force the Red Sox’ Hand

Without sugarcoating it, the Boston Red Sox have been terrible in 2019. There are only three teams with a worse record than the defending 2018 champs: the Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals, and Miami Marlins. There seems to be nothing going right for Boston. Chris Sale is 0-5, the offense is slumping, Rafeal Devers has not improved defensively.

Still, there has been one silver lining in this otherwise horrendous start. That has been Michael Chavis. The rookie has not particularly lit the world on fire in his eight career games, but he has produced at second base. Production at second base is something the Red Sox have not seen since 2017 when Dustin Pedroia played over 100 games.

Chavis is currently hitting .250, with 3 home runs, and an OPS slightly above 1.000. So what do they do when Brock Holt, Eduardo Nunez, and Dustin Pedroia come back if ever? At this point they can not send Chavis back down to the minors. He has provided a spark to the bottom of the lineup that was not there without him. The bottom three in the Sox order this offseason has been a black hole. Jackie Bradley Jr., Steve Pearce, Sandy Leon, Christian Vasquez, Tzu-Wei Lin. Vasquez is the only one of that bunch hitting over the Mendoza Line.

Sure, Holt is solid and Nunez is alright but neither of them are starting caliber players on a team with World Series aspirations. There is a reason they acquired a past-his-prime Ian Kinsler at the 2018 trade deadline. The position is one of weakness.

You could hold your breath on Dustin Perdroia, but he is toast. Jerry Remy said on the NESN telecast that the former MVP told him that he had to get a floor in his house redone because it hurt his knee to walk on it. Do you think he will be able to go out and produce at a high level in the major leagues? Pretty unlikely.

If Chavis continues to perform the struggling Sox can not afford to send the prospect down. He has become a key part to this Sox offense right now. It will be interesting to see, but Chavis’ current performance will force the Sox to make some tough decisions down the line.

-Jarrod Ribaudo (@Jribs53)