TORONTO — Alex Cora and George Springer still keep in touch. The two are forever linked after capturing a World Series together with the Houston Astros in 2017, when Cora was the bench coach and Springer a dynamic leadoff hitter.
And so, during a conversation ahead of the three-game series between Cora’s Boston Red Sox and Springer’s Toronto Blue Jays, the latter offered a summation of the current Boston offence.
“He’s like, ‘It’s like me when I was in Houston early in my career — just go out there and prove everybody wrong and prove that you belong in the big leagues,’” Cora, the Red Sox manager, said from the visiting dugout at Rogers Centre. “And we have a bunch of guys like that.”
Monday marked the first game between the Red Sox and Blue Jays this season. The American League East clubs will see each other a total of 13 times this year, including a stretch of six games in the next 10 days.
Such frequency will allow the Blue Jays — who trail Boston by 2.5 games in the standings — to quickly become acquainted with the brand of baseball that the 2024 Red Sox play.
And while the Red Sox did blast four home runs, including two by Burnaby, B.C., native Tyler O’Neill, in Monday’s 7-3 win over the Blue Jays, that was an anomaly and ran contrary to who they are.
This version of the Red Sox is quite different than what we’re used to seeing from the franchise.
“We went from hitting a lot of home runs and striking out to all of a sudden becoming the Go-Go Sox,” said Cora. “We just got a bunch of athletes and a bunch of young guys.”
Adds Jarren Duran, Boston’s speedy leadoff hitter: “I’d say we’re a young, energetic group. We like to run around the bases. We got a lot of speed, a lot of athleticism. And from what I’ve seen, we like to fight. We’ll get punched in the mouth — they’ll score on us early — but we’ve been able to fight back a lot of games.
“We bring a lot of excitement.”
The Red Sox declared that in the strongest way possible on Sunday night when they stole a franchise-record nine bases during a 9-3 win over the New York Yankees. The third-place club looked like a team fully embracing its new offensive identity.
Boston entered Monday ranked fifth in MLB with 69 stolen bases (by contrast, the Blue Jays were 22nd with 37). That’s a major improvement for the Red Sox, who sat 17th in stolen bases last season and 26th in 2022.
“The game is shifting toward speed and athleticism,” said Craig Breslow, who joined the Red Sox as chief baseball officer in October. “And fortunately, a lot of these guys were here. Some of the tweaks that I made on the roster on the margins support that but Duran, [David] Hamilton, [Ceddanne] Rafaela, those guys are wreaking havoc on the basepaths. It’s exciting and I think it’s important that they’re all foundation pieces.”
The Red Sox have traditionally featured a lineup filled with sluggers. David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez come to mind from the recent past, while J.D. Martinez and Justin Turner were big bats for the club over the past two seasons.
This year, though, the roster construction has left the Red Sox without much true power outside of O’Neill and Rafael Devers. And yet, the team ranks ninth in MLB in runs scored.
Duran says players noticed early in spring training that speed could be a dangerous weapon to deploy during the campaign, whether it’s taking extra bases on hits or stealing bags. He’s certainly lived that so far, using his 94th percentile sprint speed to help him swipe 17 bases.
The 27-year-old outfielder is improving in every facet of the game and has emerged as one of the most exciting members of the Red Sox core. He entered Monday with a 126 OPS-plus and only eight players in baseball have accrued more wins above replacement than Duran’s 2.9 this season.
“I think Duran is a pretty damn good player all around,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said prior to Monday’s game. “He’s played really well against us for sure. I could still picture the three changeups he’s hit out to dead centre against our righties. And he’s kind of a pain in the ass on the bases, too.”
Duran figures to continue to be a thorn in the side of Schneider and the Blue Jays and so do the Red Sox, who possess a strong pitching staff and an improving farm system bubbling with several hyped prospects.
When describing his team, Duran prefers to not call out a specific “identity.” He says every player has their own individual interpretation of what a club stands for and differences may exist in their thinking.
Instead, he chooses to focus on the vibe in the clubhouse and, in that regard, he loves what he’s seeing.
When Turner became a free agent and joined the Blue Jays in the off-season, it created somewhat of a void of veteran leadership on the Red Sox. Rob Refsnyder, 33, is the only position player on the active roster over 30 years old.
“We are holding each other accountable,” Duran said. “We’ve got a bunch of young guys, but we know what it takes to play the game and how to lead each other. So, we’re all leading each other in a certain way.
“It’s not like we’re all leaning on one guy,” he continued. “We’re all getting under each other and backing each other up and leading as a team.”