Coming into tonight’s game, it felt like a new narrative was emerging. Today was the first day of the rest of the season.
No, really: after a season spent lamenting a poor middle infield, our, uh, storied signing from March 2022 was making his return to the Red Sox after an elbow injury that shelved him all season. He played just 94 games in 2022, and at certain times he seemed very much the heralded slugger he was measured up to be from his time with the Rockies, but his strikeout rate was an alarming 30.