When a team wins the World Series, after the honeymoon is over, there is the matter of how they will follow up that championship season next year. Repeating is an extremely difficult thing to do, seeing how so many things need to go right to win it all. That means that, for the vast majority of reigning champions, the following year represents some degree of letdown. Take the 2012 San Francisco Giants. They followed up their championship run with a supremely disappointing fourth place finish and a losing record. The 2011 Cardinals fared much better, advancing to the NLCS in 2012. The 2010 Giants missed the playoffs in 2011. The 2009 Yankees earned a Wild Card berth in 2010. The 2008 Phillies appeared in the 2009 World Series, but couldn't repeat. The last team to repeat was the Evil Empire itself, who threepeated in 1998, 1999, and 2000.
Where will the 2014 Red Sox end up when all is said and done? After losing one of their best players, Jacoby Ellsbury, to the Dark Side (deja Damon, anyone?), it will be nearly impossible to replace his level of play in center field (except the arm, of course). Jackie Bradley, Jr. may well be ready to start in center next year, but he has very limited experience at the major league level and it's exceedingly hard to predict how he will fare in his rookie season. With the A.J. Pierzinski signing, they have two guys over 35 behind the plate. It's completely unknown what the Sox will get from Will Middlebrooks next year. Xander Bogaerts shows a lot of promise at short, but even he may experience some growing pains. The situation at first base is still up in the air, with Napoli a free agent and no major-league ready replacement on the farm.
Having promising young talent like Bogaerts, Bradley, and even Middlebrooks is a very good thing. Teams with an abundance of young homegrown talent such as the A's, the Rays, the Cardinals, the Orioles, the Nationals have been very successful in recent years. Blocking those high-ceiling prospects with expensive free agents can result in an aging team laden with albatross contracts. However, allowing the prospects to develop at the major league level could mean the team takes a step back next year.
The 2012 Nationals didn't win the World Series, but they advanced to the playoffs and won their first division title since they moved to Washington from Montreal (where they were the Expos). They also brought a division title and playoff berth to DC for the first time in many decades. Their 2012 season was nearly as magical as the Red Sox' 2013 season. The magic wore off for the Nats in 2013, though. The spent much of the season hovering around .500 and their late run was not enough to return them to the postseason. Their young talent struggled to reach the heights of the 2012 team. Yet, they are well-positioned to bounce back in 2014 and return to the top of the NL East.
Why am I talking about the Washington Nationals in a Red Sox blog? Besides their being my NL team, their 2013 could very well be what happens with the Red Sox in 2014. Such a step back would be disappointing after the Magical Tour of Beards and Baseball in 2013, but better the Nats' 2013 season than that of the Giants for the Red Sox in 2014.
