Trying to make sense of a historically bad Red Sox lineup

Trying to make sense of a historically bad Red Sox lineup originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

So about Thursday’s Red Sox lineup…

Listen, it’s one thing to lose one of your best hitters to a collision (Tyler O’Neill) and another (Rafael Devers) to knee pain that may trace to the same fender-bender in short left field. The Red Sox had hoped those would be short-term absences, but on Thursday they put O’Neill on the injured list and activated outfielder Rob Refsnyder.

It’s also understandable for the offense to suffer following a season-ending injury to your middle-of-the-order shortstop (Trevor Story) and a season-opening one to the promising youngster expected to play second base (Vaughn Grissom), although you’ve known about the latter since spring training.

It’s another thing entirely, however, to build your roster with such a blatant disregard for the possibility of injuries that you leave yourself with this lineup for a getaway day matinee vs. the Guardians:

1. Jarren Duran, LF

2. Triston Casas, 1B

3. Wilyer Abreu, RF

4. Enmanuel Valdez, 2B

5. Connor Wong, DH

6. David Hamilton, SS

7. Pablo Reyes, 3B

8. Reese McGuire, C

9. Ceddanne Rafaela, CF

Brennan Bernardino, P

The Polar Park jokes write themselves, but it’s worth noting exactly how the Red Sox ended up with such an underwhelming batting order barely two weeks into the season.

The @redsoxstats X account lays it out perfectly.

Minimum salaries as far as the eye can see. In the case of Duran and Casas, that’s because they’re young players with upside. Every functional roster would love to have one or two of those. The problems lie everywhere else.

Abreu and Valdez arrived in the same deal from the Astros for catcher Christian Vazquez, and so far neither looks particularly dynamic. Valdez has some power, but can’t play reliable defense, and Abreu found a lot of holes last year to inflate his batting average. The Red Sox should’ve tried to upgrade both of them this winter.

Wong and McGuire have actually produced like one of the best catcher platoons in baseball, but it doesn’t speak well of the offensive depth when both must play simultaneously.

Hamilton simply isn’t a big leaguer, outside of his speed, and Rafaela has so far confirmed our worst fears about his inability to lay off pretty much anything, his average sinking to .155 through 58 at-bats. That leaves Reyes, a…