The Red Sox Are Officially Done Missing David Ortiz

Even with 93 wins and a division title, there was something missing with the Boston Red Sox last year.

Now it's back.

David Ortiz's retirement seemed to change the entire lineup, and the 2017 Red Sox became a team without power and without presence. Signing J.D. Martinez in the offseason seemed to change it all back, and the 2018 Red Sox are a team that can slug with anyone.

You've heard about all the home runs the New York Yankees have hit, and rightfully so. The Yankees have hit more than anyone.

But the Red Sox are second. They're second in the majors, a year after they were 27th.

A year after they were the only American League team without anyone who hit 25 home runs and the first Red Sox team in 24 years to finish last in the league in homers, the Red Sox have a 25-homer guy (Martinez, of course) with 81 games to play. Not only that, but they've got another guy with 20 (Mookie Betts).

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They scored nine runs Tuesday, with four home runs. They scored nine runs Wednesday, with three homers. They've scored 48 runs in their last six games, and as Tom Verducci said on MLB Network at the end of Wednesday's 9-6 win over the Los Angeles Angels, "The Red Sox just score as many runs as they need."

The Sox reached the halfway point of the season with 54 wins, their most in a first half since 1978, and with 116 home runs, their most since 1977.

They've been able to match wins with the Yankees in an American League East race that figures to go right down to the end. They've come close to matching home runs with the Yankees, too, and if one of this weekend's games at Yankee Stadium turns into the Home Run Derby, the Red Sox won't mind their chances.

It's a fascinating race in the AL East, with both teams on pace to blow past 100 wins. Baseball Prospectus' playoff odds have both teams at better than 99 percent to make it to October, but winning the division means avoiding the one-and-out pressure of the Wild Card Game.

(Under the old system, both teams would get in easily, without any real penalty for finishing second, so that Wild Card Game is the reason we should see a thrilling, meaningful division race.)

It's not fair to say the Red Sox couldn't win without all those home runs, because they did win the East last year. But they knew when the season ended that they had to address the power gap and that they had to find someone who could act as an Ortiz stand-in.

I wrote a Bleacher Report column last November about the need for power and the need to sign Martinez. But don't give me too much credit. Anyone could see it, and I wasn't the only one to write it.

Ortiz had homered 30 or more times in each of his last four seasons in Boston. He led the league with 48 doubles as a 40-year-old in 2016.

Without him in 2017, Betts led the Red Sox with 24 home runs. Without Ortiz, the whole lineup seemed less potent.

Now it's not.

Betts, with an 1.112 OPS, is back to being one of the best hitters in the game. Andrew Benintendi, Xander Bogaerts and Mitch Moreland have far better numbers than they did last year, too.

Then there's Martinez, whose 25 home runs lead the majors. The homers have mattered, too; the Sox are 21-3 when Martinez hits at least one.

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The Red Sox still have potential issues. They couldn't hold a 6-1 lead against the Angels on Wednesday, although their powerful lineup simply went ahead and scored more runs. They haven't been able to get Dustin Pedroia healthy at second base, and they haven't been able to get Rafael Devers going at third or get much production from Jackie Bradley Jr. in center field. With Drew Pomeranz and Steven Wright on the disabled list, they're a little thin in the rotation.

They have needs, and even though they might have baseball's best-ever July general manager in Dave Dombrowski, they have a depleted farm system that leaves Dombrowski without many valuable prospects to offer in trade.

But a year after they wondered whether the loss of Ortiz had forever changed their lineup, the addition of Martinez has changed it right back.

He doesn't look like Ortiz. He certainly doesn't sound like Ortiz.

But in a revived Red Sox lineup, Martinez is playing the Ortiz role.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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