McAdam: Bobby Dalbec has picked up where he left off last fall

One of the few bright spots from the otherwise forgettable 2020 Red Sox season was the play of Bobby Dalbec in the final month of the year.

Promoted from the alternate training site at the end of August, Dalbec made an instant -- and unforgettable -- impression, smacking a homer in his major league debut. A week later, Dalbec really got locked in and launched homers in five consecutive games.

When the season concluded at the end of September, Dalbec had homered eight times -- many of them tape-measure shots -- in just 23 games.

Still, given that the debut took place in September, with the Red Sox long out of contention and sometimes facing young pitchers who, like himself, were just getting acclimated to the big leagues, it was easy to dismiss -- or at least minimize -- his accomplishments. After all, the game is full of players who looked unstoppable under similar late-season circumstances, only to flop later.

This spring, Dalbec has been similarly hot at the plate. He connected for a grand slam in the second inning of their 9-1 pasting of the Minnesota Twins, his second grand slam of the spring and fifth homer overall. Dalbec's five homers lead all Red Sox hitters.

Of course, spring training performances are as difficult to judge as those in September, if not more. Again, there's the issue of facing untested players in a less-than-urgent environment.

But the more you see of Dalbec, the more you start to believe that there is nothing fluky about what he's doing.



First there's the notion of his immense raw power, which has been on display.

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"If you miss with him,'' warned teammate Eduardo Rodriguez, "the ball is going to be out of the ballpark.''

Indeed, there does not seem to be a ballpark that can contain Dalbec when he makes contact. And as he demonstrated last season, he's not simply a pull hitter. He's strong -- and quick -- enough to hit the ball out the other way, routinely powering balls out to right-center and right.

Alex Cora, who watched Dalbec announce himself last fall from a distance, thinks the hulking first baseman is not some grip-it-and-rip-it slugger, the kind you find on a slow-pitch softball team.

"He's a baseball player,'' noted Cora. "He pays attention to his baserunning and his defense. He was a good pitcher in college, too. Offensively, he understands. I've been telling him, 'Nobody on, just for it.' ''

Dalbec figures to occupy a spot in the lower third of the Red Sox batting order, where Cora expects a lot of power will be generated, with Hunter Renfroe another member of that triumvirate.

Cora knows, too, that a certain amount of strikeouts will have to be tolerated with Dalbec. It's part of the equation, especially in today's game, that in exchange for a player's light-tower power comes the expectation that there will also be some strikeouts.

But as Cora has noted, Dalbec shouldn't necessarily be thought of as an all-or-nothing hacker at the plate. At every level of pro ball, Dalbec has cut down his strikeout totals the more comfortable he becomes and Cora expects the same in 2021. That would be welcome, since Dalbec's inflated strikeout rate of 42.4 percent (39 whiffs in 92 plate appearances) can't be sustained.

"He controls the strike zone,'' Cora said. "There's going to be some swing-and-misses, we know that. But his swing decisions are not bad. He'll take a 3-and-2 pitch on the black, and if it's a strike, so be it. He can't do damage on those pitches. But with pitches in the zone, he can do what he did (today).''

Dalbec won't be expected to play 150 or more games at first. The arrival of switch-hitting Marwin Gonzalez gives Cora the option to insert a lefty bat at first against a particularly tough right-handed starter. That will protect Dalbec some.

"We'll pick and choose,'' said Cora. "He'll play against lefties and righties, but we'll make sure we give him certain off-days, which is part of it. The reason is, we've got Marwin and he's a good hitter from the left side. It's nothing against Bobby, but we'll take advantage of certain situations with Marwin.''

The luxury to have someone with 30-homer potential hitting eighth or so in the order is evidence of how the lineup can be.

"We're going to score some runs and (Dalbec) will be important for us,'' Cora said. "He can hit the ball out of the ballpark, and the way he works at it, I'm not surprised he's been successful.''