You might not think a jump from scoring the 10th most runs in baseball to 2nd would qualify as huge. And if you are looking solely at runs scored, you might even be right. But offense in MLB is far more complicated than any one number can capture. As the 2017 season came to a close, it seemed painfully obvious that the Red Sox offense was deeply flawed. Yes, it scored 785 runs and had a healthy +117 run differential, but it was missing something. That something was power.
The 2017 club ranked just 27th in home runs hit.