Truck Day Is Only Two Months Away

Actually, it's 65 days.

February 4: Truck Day
February 13: First workout for pitchers and catchers
February 18: First full-squad workout
February 23: Red Sox play MFY
March 28: Opening Day! Red Sox at Mariners

J.D. Martinez was voted the 2018 Player of the Year, as announced by the MLB Players Association. JDM: "I'm very honored and blessed to receive this award, as it comes from the players. To be regarded the best by the men I most respect is a significant achievement in my career."

Tyler Thornburg - who had a 5.63 ERA in 25 games for the Red Sox in 2018 - has resigned for $1.75 million.

Could Matt Barnes close next year? ... Alex Speier, Twitter: "The chief criticism of Barnes is his walk rate - which was high. He walked and struck out exactly as many guys last year as Kimbrel while giving up fewer HRs and allowing less flyballs that were in danger of creating damage, despite facing more hitters."

           IP     H    R   BB    K   HR    WHIP
Kimbrel   62.1   31   19   31   96    7   0.995
Barnes    61.2   47   25   31   96    5   1.265

Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic, November 15, 2018:

Here's a look at five reasons why [Mookie] Betts won the MVP honors ...

While WAR gets a bad rap for being cast as the sole statistic by which some voters judge MVP candidates, Betts led the majors with 10.9 WAR this season, the highest for any position player since 2002, when Barry Bonds posted 11.8 WAR. ... [Betts] had more hits, runs and a better slugging percentage in fewer games than fellow AL MVP finalists José Ramírez of [Cleveland] and Mike Trout of the Angels. ...

Betts finished tied for the major-league lead in runs scored (129) with Cleveland's Francisco Lindor despite playing in 22 fewer games. ...

With two outs and runners in scoring position, Betts hit .433 (13-for-30) with a 1.571 OPS, including four home runs.

Of his 32 home runs, 13 came with the score tied. ...

He recorded two separate three-homer games this season on April 17 and May 2 and has now hit three homers in a game four separate times in his career — more than any other Red Sox player in history.