The Red Sox made the move for Adley Rutschman hoping they were getting the kind of catcher who can change a lineup. At his best with the Baltimore Orioles, he looked every bit like that player. But through the first stretch with Boston, the results have been rough.
Rutschman, 28, is hitting just .059/.273/.059 with no extra-base hits and one hit in 17 at-bats. For a Boston club trying to lock down a postseason spot, that’s not close to enough production, even with the season still early and Rutschman working his way back from an injury.
He knows the fix isn’t about panic.
"Just trying to stay with my process, not make any drastic changes," Rutschman told The Boston Globe's Alex Speier.
“Bottom line. I want to perform for these guys and come out here and be able to do what I do, but at the end of the day . . . you really have to stick with [process] or else baseball is a game of failure and can get you in a bad mind-set quickly.”
Boston didn’t acquire a player without a track record. Rutschman was a three-time All-Star and, in parts of his career, one of the best catchers in baseball. He was better early on, too, putting up OPS+ marks of 131 and 128 in his earlier seasons before settling in as a slightly above-league-average hitter.
That was still the profile in Baltimore this year, where he played 67 games and posted a 115 OPS+. Solid, sure. Special, not quite.
The Red Sox were willing to take on that risk because of what he has been before. In 2022, Rutschman posted a 5.4 bWAR, then followed with 4.3 in 2023. Those are the versions of Rutschman Boston needs now.
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