Red Sox, Twins returning to Fort Myers for Spring Training
Spring training is back in Lee County beginning Wednesday next week when the Boston Red Sox open up camp at JetBlue Park at Fenway South in Fort Myers. The Twins will follow the next day Thursday, Feb. 13, at Lee Health Sports Complex in Fort Myers with their camp. Both camps are open to the public.
Pitchers and catchers are due to report to the team’s respective complexes on those dates.
The Red Sox will hold their first full squad workouts on Wednesday, Feb. 12 while the Twins will hold their first full squad workout Feb. 17.
The Red Sox will play their first game of spring training against the Northeastern Huskies Friday, Feb. 21, at 1:05 p.m., inside JetBlue Park. Their first home game against a Major League Baseball club will be Sunday, Feb. 23, when they host the Toronto Blue Jays at 1:05 p.m.
The gates open 90 minutes before each game for the Red Sox.
The Twins will be playing their first spring training game Feb. 22 against the Atlanta Braves at 1:05 p.m. at Lee Health Sports Complex. On game day, parking at Lee Health Sports Complex costs $15.
Both teams are coming off similar 2024 seasons they would like to improve upon.
The Red Sox won half their games, going 81-81 and finishing third in the AL East. They sat third most of the year after exiting Spring Training behind the eight-ball when their main pitching acquisition Lucas Giolito was shut down after his first game and needed Tommy John surgery. The Red Sox hope to have a healthy Giolito ready to go this year.
Then their All-Star slugging third baseman Rafael Devers missed about one-third of the team’s games in the first month of the season due to knee and shoulder soreness. Those injuries would linger later in the year, forcing him to shut his season down early.
Despite playing through pain, Devers was an All-Star again last year and the team will need him to have another big season to compete in the AL Central. Especially after losing their power-hitting outfielder Tyler O’Neill to the Baltimore Orioles in free agency. O’Neill led the team in home runs last year after a trade from the Cardinals before the season and was one of the team’s best trade pickups in years.
Another loss for the team last year was shortstop Trevor Story who hit .380 in Spring Training with three homers before fracturing his shoulder in April and missing most of the season. The Red Sox hope Story can regain some of his past All-Star form. The team slotted young rookie Ceddanne Rafaela into Story’s place at shortstop for half the year and at centerfield for the other half. The 24-year-old showed glimpses of promise in his first season. He is expected to return to the outfield and join All-Star Jarren Duran, who switched between centerfield and left field last year.
Duran hit .285 with 21 homers, 191 hits and an .834 OPS while stealing 34 bases and leading the majors in doubles (48) and tying for the lead in triples (14). He also led American League outfielders in assists (12) and double plays turned from centerfield (2).
The Red Sox are set to enter camp with a significant unknown in their pitching rotation as Nick Pivetta remains unsigned as a free agent. Last year, the 31-year-old righthander went 6-12 but ranked high in other stats such as his mark of 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings, which ranked him in the top 10 in the majors for starters with more than 140 innings. The 6-foot-5 starter posted a 4.14 ERA while striking out 172 batters in 145 innings while allowing 7.9 hits per nine innings. Pivetta carried a 1.126 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) while making 26 starts.
While the Red Sox struggled at times to keep a full rotation of starters last year, the club was busy this offseason adding arms. They signed Walker Buehler off his gutsy World Series performance for the L.A. Dodgers in which he shut down the New York Yankees with six scoreless innings including a win in Game 4 and the last three outs of the World Series to get the save in the deciding Game 5. Although his regular season stats weren’t as shiny, Buehler missed time with a hip injury and missed all of 2023 with Tommy John surgery. The Red Sox are counting on his postseason form being a return to his All-Star form with the Red Sox in which he twice finished in the top 10 of the National League Cy Young voting.
Another big move the Red Sox made in the winter to strengthen their pitching was a trade for Chicago White Sox lefty Garrett Crochet. The Red Sox gave up some mid-level prospects in Kyle Teel, Braden Montgomery, Chase Meidroth and Wikelman Gonzalez for Crochet.
Crochet finished the year with a 1.07 WHIP, placing him among the top 10 in the majors for starters with more than 140 innings pitched. Like Pivetta, he also went 6-12 but with a better ERA at 3.58 and an even better strikeout mark of 209 k’s in 146 innings.
Twins
The Twins went 82-80 last season to finish in fourth place in the AL Central. They were one of the least active teams in the free agent market in the majors, quiet even for their own standards.
The club will be looking to bring back largely the same team this year, anchored by an infield led by All-Star shortstop Carlos Correa. He was named to his first All-Star team since 2021 while posting his best batting average (.310) since 2017 with the Houston Astros. Unfortunately, he missed almost half of the team’s games due to a foot injury that cost him most of the second half of the season.
Carlos Santana, whose 23 homers paced the club last season, signed with the Cleveland Guardians in the offseason.
Third baseman Royce Lewis hit 16 homers in just half a season and catcher Ryan Jeffers hit 21 homers. The club will be counting on continued improvement from some of its young bats like Trevor Larnach, Matt Wallner, Brooks Lee and Austin Martin.
The rotation is led by 6-foot-9 righty Bailey Ober who had a career year posting a 1.00 WHIP, good for fifth-best in the majors among starters with 180 innings or more. He threw to a 3.82 ERA while limiting hitters to just 6.9 hits per nine innings, which also ranked him in the top 10 in the majors. Hitters struggled against Ober all year, batting just .208 against him.
The team’s best pitcher last year had actually been Joe Ryan before a devastating shoulder injury cut his season short. Reports are that Ryan has been throwing bullpen sessions this winter and is healthy, ready to return.
That would be great news for the Twins, as Ryan had posted a 0.985 WHIP in 135 innings, which would have landed him in the top five in the majors had he pitched a full season. Ryan finished the season 7-7 with a 3.60 ERA while striking out 147 batters in 135 innings.
Most impressively, Ryan walked just 23 batters for a ratio of 1.5 walks per nine innings. That would have also placed him in the top five in the majors had he sustained that rate through 180 innings.
Both teams will have a lot of questions to answer in Fort Myers this spring and will offer fans a lot to look forward to.