First to Worst, then Back to First? (A. Littlefield)

Rusney Castillo, and a bunch of other reasons the Sox will be at the top of the AL East next year

Call this piece a wish list, a dream, anything really. This is my list of optimistic, idealistic reasons, why the Red Sox will be in the hunt for another title next year. To address some of the questions that may arise: No, I have not been drinking. Yes, I really think some of this might happen. Castillo is awesome; we might as well go all in on some pitching and a trade for Stanton.

1.       Tampa doesn’t have David Price anymore. That’s kind of a big deal. He’s a perennial Cy Young contender and now he’s in a different division. That’s a gift from god. Boston is about the only team that can hit him regularly so it’s nice to see his 18-ish wins elsewhere.

2.       The Yankees suck. Like bad. Like name someone outside of their outfield not named Derek Jeter.  And chances are you can only name one of the three outfield starters. Right now they have Stephen Drew on second(Offense isn’t important, defense wins championships, like, duh), Chase Headley on third(one good year does not a superstar make), Teixeira on first(he’s going downhill faster than Picabo Street), and McCann is hanging out behind the plate being totally average. Let’s go BoSox, we got this next year.

3.       Jon Lester wants to come back. The letters, the leaks, as long as ownership doesn’t go all Ebenezer Scrooge on the first offer, he’ll be back here. And even more importantly, we need him. We’re about to be incredibly young, and crazy athletic. I’m going to readdress this later. Because bet on it now, he’s coming back.

4.       We can now package Jackie Bradley Jr. who still has crazy upside with possibly Mookie Betts and Alan Webster (maybe) for Giancarlo Stanton. We can also throw in Allen Craig and Will Middlebrooks (since he married Jenny Dell I’ve been hoping they send him to the North Korean League). Miami likes young guys and they aren’t even close to willing to pay Stanton what he’s worth. This prospect brings me back to #3…

5.       (Actually 3b.) Lester is coming back. He would be pitching with an outfield that has two uber-athletic Cuban defectors and Stanton. All three play defense and two out of the three have hit balls that are somewhere between Mars and Jupiter by now. We’re going to have offense. Try to figure out how you put together a lineup that includes Pedroia, Cespedes, Napoli, Ortiz, Bogaerts(If he performs as expected), and Stanton. Correct answer: Pick names out of a hat and watch the offense destroy opposing pitching. What pitcher would look forward to that line-up?

6.       Castillo, where this all began. We gave him 72.5 for 7 years. By comparison we gave Stephen Drew 10 for 1 year and we knew he didn’t have any upside. Castillo is 27, the same age Abreu was this year, and he’s already polished as a defensive and offensive player. He can play short, he’s best in center, and he’s filthy good. The hype is that he looks like Puig or Andrew McCutchen… yeah, they compared him to Cutch. We’re about to see one hell of an outfield.

7.       Boston is an Irish town, so we’ll end on lucky number seven. Cespedes’ Arm, nuff said. If you don’t know what I’m talking about you should watch this, or this, or this… or this if you need to be reminded of his 2013 Home Run Derby performance. He crushes dreams with his arm, crushes balls with his bat.

It’s Boston; we’ll sign some people, trade some people, and be back in it next year. This isn’t the mid-late 90’s, this is post-curse baseball. 2015 is going to be a great year. Worst to first to worst to first… it can and will be done.