A Healthy David Price Could Be The X-Factor For The Red Sox In 2018

While baseball is the ultimate team sport and it’s atypical for one singular player to make-or-break a team, a healthy David Price could absolutely singlehandedly boost this Red Sox team up to another level if all goes to plan.

If I had to guess, the Red Sox lineup we saw last year is pretty much what we’ll see again come Opening Day. I have a nasty feeling JD Martinez will end up staying with Arizona because he’s a petty little diva who thinks $125 million isn’t enough for him. Last season, this Red Sox team won 93 games and the AL East and a playoff game. Given how battered their starting rotation was and how blatantly nonexistent their lineup was, that’s pretty damn good. Add a healthy David Price into that equation? Now you’ve got something cooking. Seriously though, can you imagine the 1-2 punch of Sale-Price we’ve been waiting for for an entire season? Goodness gracious.

Before we get too excited (note to self) about this, we must remember that Price damn near needed Tommy John surgery less than a year ago. Shoutout to his magic elbow. Albeit, he is 32 years of age and these things don’t just fade away. In fact, more often than not, they pop back up again once the player is deemed “healthy”. Once he starts throwing, his coaches =, himself and fans should all keep a close eye on that elbow heading into April. He had lots of down time last season and this entire offseason to get well and based on what we saw from him velocity- and stuff-wise in September/October, as long as he doesn’t push it, he’s on the right track.

The aforementioned 2017 Red Sox lineup will seemingly return in just a matter of weeks, which probably means yet another season of a lack of offense. The team relied on Chris Sale more often than not in those close games that he pitched in to win it for them, which didn’t always work out. Price can absolutely act as a Sale 2.0 in that sense and help do his part every five days to make up for abysmal hitting performances. If Rick Porcello can even merely upgrade his 2017 season, that could play a huge role, as well. If I were Dombrowski, I’d probably seek some starting pitcher depth (RIPIP Doug Fister) because of the varying question marks surrounding the current rotation.

If Price can build off of and continue with his momentum from last season and be careful not to push his elbow too far, the Red Sox are in solid hands. Red Sox fans have yet to see him at his best on the mound, but that could very well change in 2018. If there’s anything to look forward to as a Red Sox fan, it’s that very possibility. It isn’t out of the realm of possibility at all that Price puts up his first Cy Young-caliber season alongside Sale who is sure to replicate his first season in Boston.

People forget that Price nearly beat the Houston Astros by himself, twice, back in early October. That series legitimately could have went the other way if anyone in that lineup knew how to hit in the clutch, or at all. Calling him the x-factor of this baseball team may be strong, but I don’t mind. I’d even go as far to say that pitching is the glue of the Red Sox entirely, holding the roster together. We saw how that rotation struggled without just one of their starters; you can’t afford to have that happen again.

God knows Boston needs all the help they can get, seeing as how the Yankees have reincarnated the Bronx Bombers of the 1920’s. It’s hard to view the Yankees as anything but a serious threat to the Red Sox. Imagine if Stanton were a Yankee last season? The Red Sox would have been slaughtered. Having another anchor in the rotation to help ease the pain against any lethal lineup, let alone New York, will be huge for the team.

I don’t want to be ~that writer~, but when David Price has a successful, bounceback season in 2018, I won’t say I told you so, but I might say I told you so. He has a real chance to be the team’s most important player and by September be the team’s most valuable player. We all know he’s an extremely competitive athlete and has tons of motivation each time he steps foot on the mound. Him versus Giancarlo Stanton in an important game could very well be something out of a baseball fan’s wet dream. In order for things to go to plan, I’d prefer to keep the verbal altercations with the media to a minimum and for him and those around him to make sure his left elbow isn’t forced to do anything it isn’t capable of. I should totally become Price’s personal pitching coach…