ESPN writer has no answer for Red Sox' baffling offseason decisions

BOSTON -- With camps opening in Florida and Arizona, spring training has officially arrived. With that comes the obvious surges of hope and positivity for the upcoming season.

With the Boston Red Sox, though, it can be difficult to see the light. Coming off a last-place finish, the Red Sox lost Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez from the lineup, while adding the likes of Justin Turner, Adam Duvall and Masataka Yoshida. Considering Bogaerts and Martinez were two of just four Red Sox to hit more than 15 home runs, and considering they accounted for about 20 percent of the team's RBIs, it's fair to wonder if the additions will be able to make up for the lost offense. 

ESPN's Bradford Doolittle set out to answer that question, in article titled "Why your MLB team didn't do what you wanted this winter." The mission of the article was to provide the reasoning for some of the more head-scratching decisions around MLB, typically making some well-reasoned assumptions about the thought process taking place in front offices around the country.

For the Red Sox, the question was simple: "Why the heck didn't the Red Sox get middle-of-the-order hitters?"

But Doolittle couldn't conjure an answer.

"This process has us better positioned to ... oh, never mind. I got nothing," Doolittle wrote. "First of all, thanks for not asking about the rotation. Or the middle of the infield. Or our general lack of success in free agency. Or Mookie Betts. Or Xander Bogaerts. Or ... what was the question again?"

Suffice it to say, folks in Boston aren't the only ones entering the 2023 season with some serious doubts about the Red Sox' roster for the upcoming season.