The Boston Red Sox were one of the most aggressive teams of the MLB offseason. However, despite all the spending and the new faces, Alex Cora's team has yet to find its best version.
They're far below .500 and haven't been able to put together a consistent effort night in and night out. But we're just 35 games into the season and one should know better than to count such a talented team out already.
If anything, Cora wants his team to draw inspiration from their neighbors, the Boston Celtics.
The Celtics were struggling mightily and some hoped they break their core up. Then, they turned the page and became one of the best defensive teams in the NBA, up to the point where they're on the Eastern Conference Finals:
"Very proud of what they've done," Cora told NBC Sports Boston. "I like to follow the other teams to see how people react to them. At one point, people were screaming to break that team up. And now they're in the conference finals. I think patience paid off."
Cora wants his players to take a look at the Celtics and put the same kind of effort. The world is watching them, and they know it.
Then again, they can't win 10 games in one day. They need to take a day-to-day approach to start looking like themselves again:
"That's something that we've been talking about today," Cora said. "National TV people are here. Bob Costas is here. They're talking about the standings and this team and that team, whatever. At the end of the day, you've got to play consistent. When you start playing consistent, you get to certain points. Let's get to .500 first. And then from there, we take off, see where we're at.
The Red Sox are 14-22 and finally got out of the bottom of their division. Now, all they need to do is put together a nice streak:
"It's a long season, and anything can happen," Cora sentenced. "We're very talented. We know that, but we've got to be consistent. I mean, the Astros were in the same boat as us, what 20 days ago and then they took off. So this is a sport of streaks. You have to avoid the losing ones and get hot like three times a year to get that long one. You learn from what you have around and you take off from there."
Trevor Story won't struggle all year long. Chris Sale might come back at some point. Chaim Bloom will find a replacement for Jackie Bradley Jr.
The Red Sox are way too good not to turn things around, and while they may not be World Series material just yet, they won't be a .400 team for too long, either.
