Spring training statistics are quite limited in their usefulness. Hitters don’t accumulate enough plate appearances to give us a large enough sample size from which to draw conclusions. Pitchers are rounding into form, building up arm strength and facing inferior competition. Simply put, if you’re looking up a player’s spring stats and projecting them to have meaning over a full season, you’re doing it wrong.
Yet spring performances can be important insofar as they may decide positional battles, even on a team as deep and talented as the reigning World Series champs. There are fewer spots up for grabs in Boston than in many other MLB cities, but that doesn’t mean that the Red Sox Opening Day roster has been finalized just yet.
We still have a few weeks to go until the Red Sox open their season, and no player has truly helped or hurt his reputation enough to this point to seriously change how we evaluate him. That said, changes in the organizational depth chart are underway, and we’re gaining a clearer look at who’s likely to begin the season in the majors.
Small sample caveats aside, let’s look at three Red Sox on the way up and three on the way down this spring.