No one expected Franchy Cordero to win a Gold Glove at first base. But it was hard to imagine he'd be this bad.
Cordero hit a low point with his fielding Wednesday night by committing three errors against the Cleveland Guardians at Fenway Park. Two of those errors came on the same disastrous play in the third inning (see the video below), and his third allowed Cleveland to produce the tying run in the eighth inning en route to a 7-6 win over the slumping Sox.
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Cordero now has eight errors in 42 games (39 starts) at first base this season. That includes just 17 complete games, so if Cordero stays at first base for all nine innings, there's a 47 percent chance he'll commit an error.
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Here's more context on Cordero's fielding struggles, per Baseball Reference and The Boston Globe's Alex Speier:
- Cordero's eight errors at first base are the second-most in Major League Baseball. Among the 20 first basemen with the most errors, Cordero is the only one with fewer than 300 putouts.
- Cordero is averaging one error every 37 innings -- by far the most in MLB.
- Cordero's three errors Wednesday ties the Red Sox record for the most in a single game by a first baseman.
- Cordero and Mo Vaughn are the only Red Sox first basemen since 1945 to commit three errors in one game.
Cordero hadn't played first base in four major league seasons before joining the Red Sox in 2021, so you could argue he deserves some benefit of the doubt. But it's clear Boston can't rely on him as an everyday first baseman. The team's other option isn't much better, either: Bobby Dalbec ranked second among MLB first basemen in 2021 with 11 errors.
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If we take chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom at his word that the Red Sox are trying to make the postseason, then they desperately need an upgrade at first base, where Cordero and Dalbec have struggled in the field and at the plate.
That was never more obvious Wednesday night, when Cordero's trio of errors led to Boston's 11th loss in its last 13 games.