The Red Sox are about to hit the halfway point of spring training -- almost three weeks down, and about four weeks still to go.
My first stint in Fort Myers is complete, and I'll back later in March.
But for now, here are some thoughts about where things stand:
* The pitch clock is working.
You'll hear assorted grumbling from players, who insist they can't possibly play to the peak of their ability under such duress. This, of course, is nonsense. Most players got into some bad habits over the last 10-15 years -- in part because the rules weren't properly enforced by the umpires -- and now act as though we've arrived at Armageddon. We have not.
It wasn't that long ago that games were played at a far crisper pace and were routinely completed in under 2:40, and it can be done again.
Spring training serves as the perfect time to get through the kinks. Obviously, no one wants to see a regular season game decided by a clock violation, as happened last Saturday with the Red Sox and Braves. But it's better that the umpires strictly enforce the rules now, so that the players are prepared and understand that, once March 30 arrives, MLB means business.
* The overcrowded Red Sox rotation issue may soon be solved.
With six starters competing for five spots -- seven, if you include Tanner Houck -- something had to give. And if on cue, Garrett Whitlock's surgically-repaired hip and Brayan Bello's balky forearm have given the Red Sox an opening.
If there's one thing I've learned covering spring training for more than 30 years, it's this: teams will always seize the slightest physical setback as an excuse to delay a tough decision.
So when the Red Sox start talking about Whitlock being a little behind the rest of the starters as he comes back from a procedure, they're telegraphing their roster moves to come.
It will be easy to have Whitlock's regular season debut for a week or so, and they backdate him some. It saves them from making a decision they don't yet have to make. And if Whitlock's recovery speeds up, there's always the red flag of Bello's tightness.
Eventually, the Sox will have to bump someone from the rotation. But the longer they can kick the decision can down the road, the happier they'll be. By the time the call needs to be made, perhaps another physical issue will rear its ahead. The oldest cliche in the game applies here: These things have a way of working themselves out.
* It's not Kikê Hernandez's defense at shortstop that should concern the Red Sox; it's his bat.
Hernandez has looked smooth in the first few games, and the other day, made a spectacular play on a ball deep in the hole. True, Hernandez hasn't played a lot of short in the big leagues, but he's an athletic defender who uses a quick first step and sharp instincts to cover a lot of ground -- no matter where he's playing.
And remember, even though Xander Bogaerts showed improvement last year, he was only a major league-average shortstop. So Hernandez isn't replacing Ozzie Smith. There will be little dropoff -- if any dropoff at all -- compared to last year.
Offensively, however, is another issue. Hernandez has had only a couple of good months with the bat -- the last few in 2021, and again in October in the team's postseason run when he got hot and was their most dynamic hitter.
But in two seasons with the Sox, he's posted a .721 OPS. And yes, he was limited by a significant injury in the first few months of last year. But even after a lengthy IL stay, he didn't exactly inspire confidence in the final seven weeks with a .653 OPS and only 10 extra-base hits. He didn't homer in the month of September.
* Christian Arroyo is a candidate to have a breakout season.
Arroyo worked hard in the offseason to make himself more pliable and mobile, to help limit the potential for the kind of soft tissue injuries that have derailed his career.
Arroyo can be an above-average defender at second, and a productive bat in the lower third of the order. He's not going to hit 25 homers, but he could hit 15 or so, and contribute with the bat.
He's energized and looks comfortable at second. In his three seasons with the Sox, he's shown he can be a pretty solid player -- when healthy.
Ironically, Alex Cora believes that Arroyo is the kind of player who becomes more durable the more he plays, and that most of his injuries have struck when he's played irregularly. Playing time won't be an issue this year. If he can stay on the field, it should be interesting to see what Arroyo can do playing 140 or so games.
* Bobby Dalbec is getting back to his roots.
There may not be a spot for Dalbec on the 26-man roster, especially when Adalberto Mondesi is healthy. But until then, he can probably earn a temporary spot as a depth option for the corner spots, while also serving as an emergency option at short.
Dalbec's track record is well-known: he's highly streaky, and when things aren't going well, the strikeout pile up at an enormous rate. Too often, he looks caught in between at the plate, putting himself in bad counts, then passively taking a called third strike.
But Dalbec still has incredible raw power, and it's easy to forget that in 2021, when things were going well for him, he often showed that power to the opposite field. Last year, however, Dalbec fell into some bad habits and got pull-happy.
So it was notable that Saturday, Dalbec's first homer of the spring went out to right. And it was no accident.
"That's something I used to be very, very good at,'' said Dalbec, "and I haven't been good at the last couple of years. So I spent this offseason getting the pole-to-pole juice back. My swing has way less effort and is way more fluid. That was the biggest thing I was focused on. It wasn't a swing overhaul; I just got my direction back. I'm shorter to the ball and comfortable staying inside every pitch.''
Part of Dalbec's offseason reading list included re-reading A Zen Way of Baseball by Japanese home run champ Sadaharu Oh, to which Dalbec was first introduced as a freshman, playing in the Cape Cod League.