Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber celebrates his home run during Game 4 of the National League Championship Series on Saturday. Schwarber, who helped lead the Red Sox to an ALCS run last season before leaving via free agency, hit more home runs this season than Boston’s Rafael Devers and J.D. Martinez combined. Matt Slocum/Associated Press
Power still plays.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the final two teams standing in the American League were the top two home run-hitting teams in the league this season. The Houston Astros and New York Yankees combined for 468 home runs during the regular season, the only two teams in the league to hit more than 200 homers this season.
Teams with home run power can turn a game on one swing of the bat. That’s what happened Sunday night when former UMaine Black Bear Jeremy Peña hit a three-run home run to erase an early Yankees lead. The Astros went on to win the game and the pennant.
They will face the Phillies, who showed a little pop in their series win over the San Diego Padres. On Saturday, Philadelphia rode four homers to a 10-4 win and became just the third team in baseball history to win a game after spotting their opponent four runs in the top of the first.
It was a stunning reminder that home-run power allows you to come back from deficits at any point of the game. And a reminder that the Boston Red Sox lacked that type of game-changing pop this season.
Red Sox batters hit 64 fewer home runs this season than they did in 2021. The 155 home runs they hit was the seventh fewest in the AL this season. Kyle Schwarber — who helped lead Boston to an ALCS run last season before leaving via free agency — hit more home runs this year than Rafael Devers and J.D. Martinez combined.
That made Schwarber’s three home runs in the NLCS even tougher to watch for Sox fans.
“We expected to have more home run power,” Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom admitted in his season wrap-up press conference earlier this month.
With the financial flexibility to restructure his roster this offseason, Bloom has a chance to bring more pop to the lineup. He said it will be high on his to-do list.
“If you can’t score runs quickly and in bunches it’s going to be hard to win on some days,” said Bloom, “so that’s definitely something that we want to focus on.”
How much will Bloom be willing to spend to find that power? It’s hard to imagine he will allocate the more than $300 million it will take to bring in Aaron Judge. It’s even harder to imagining the Yankees letting him sign with Boston.
(That said, wouldn’t it be fun to see a good ol’ bidding war between the two old rivals? Bloom could at least drive up the ultimate price the Yankees would have to pay to keep him. But I digress.)
There could be more reasonable options like Mitch Haniger, a pending free agent who is coming off a down year but hit 39 home runs in 2021 and 26 in 2018.
And there’s the hope that some of Boston’s returning players can up their home run production this season. Injuries derailed much of Kiké Hernández’s and Trevor Story’s seasons. The two combined for 44 homers in 2021 but hit only half as many this year.
It’s also safe to expect more homers from the shortstop next season. Xander Bogaerts averaged 26 home runs a year from 2016-21 (excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season) but hit just 15 this season. Hard to imagine he won’t go deep more often if he returns to Boston next year. If he doesn’t, Bloom could look to free agents Trea Turner, Dansby Swanson or Carlos Correa to step in — each hit 21 or more homers this season.
In the end, the Red Sox have the potential and opportunity to feature a lineup with more power in 2023. As we’ve been reminded in these playoffs, winning is a lot easier if you can add runs with a single swing of the bat.
Tom Caron is a studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN.
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