On the bright side, they are only a few moves away from being right back in the conversation for a world series run once again.
Problem #1:
By far the biggest whole in the Red Sox line up is who the hell can man 3rd base. When healthy, Will Middlebrooks is shaping out to be the poor man's Mark Reynolds; Mendoza-line average, and a surprising amount of pop off the bat. But, the man is on the DL for the second time this year, leaving Brock Holt (who?) to take over the duties.
Personally, this is a pretty easy fix. Now that Bradley and Bogaerts (under achieving so far) are on the 25 man roster, Garin Cecchini is the organization's top prospect. Luckily, the man just happens to play 3rd base. He's also 23 and has been tearing up minor league pitching ever since he arrived in 2011. His only knock is his defense, but who really cares about defense in the MLB anyway? Cecchini is a smart, cheap, and exciting spark for the squad to make.
The teams other option is to trade for a third baseman, most likely Chase Headley. NOT SMART. The Sox have a lot of prospects and the Padres will want at least 4 of them for their underachieving, 30 year old Headley. Not only is he still looking for a follow up to his 2012 campaign, but he is an impending free agent, bound to be over paid (by the Yanks, most likely). Just not a smart move.
Problem #2:
The team needs an upgrade at starting pitcher after Jon Lester. Lester is the only one with an ERA under 4, and Lackey is the only one with any confidence to challenge a good team. Peavy is streaky, Dubrount brings nothing to the table, and Buchholtz is just plain awful.
Luckily, the Sox have about 4 MLB ready starters and 3 MLB ready relievers. Management wanted to wait for September call-ups for most of them, but, like Cecchini, the time is now. Their top pitching prospect, Henry Owens has put aside his early season struggles, and is now mowing down competition, as well as Allen Webster (2.54 ERA). These two are the obvious call-ups.
After them, Anthony Ranaudo is also shaping into form and has arguably the best stuff of any prospect. they also have former UCONN stud, Matt Barnes, who also has a sub-2.60 ERA.
Pitching is the easy fix, no need to even look on the market when your system is better than any option out there.
Problem #3:
Personally, I do not see this as much of a problem. The platoon of Gomes and Carp in left are doing their thing, and Victorino is trying to stay off the DL in right. Jackie Bradley Jr. has been receiving most of the blame for the OF's lack of production, but he's a top prospect going threw some growing pains. He is just too talented to go the whole year without making some kind of positive impact.
There are really only two long-shot solutions here:
1.) See what the Marlins want for Stanton, or the Dodgers want for Kemp. Stanton is a bit more far fetched so I'm not even going to discuss that. Kemp, on the other hand, is definitely available and would fit the line-up nicely.
As you can see, they Sox really are not that far off and have extremely cheap and easy ways of fixing their problems. Hopefully they can turn the ship around while keeping in tack their top Minor League system. You can definitely expect the team to make at least one of these moves within the next month or so. If it were, I'd pull the trigger a little bit early, but expect Webster to be the first guy up.
