Early Sunday morning, after a strong first game back following more than a month on the injured list, Garrett Whitlock went for a hike wearing a royal blue T-shirt bearing a large yellow rectangle with the word ‘Believe.’
Any fan of the show “Ted Lasso” will recognize the iconic design, a motif throughout the show’s three seasons, which came to an end Tuesday night.
As the shirt suggests, the young Red Sox starting pitcher counts himself among them, though Whitlock is relatively new to the Lasso-verse, a kinder, gentler version of the world as we know it. He started watching during spring training and has been binging the show whenever his frenetic baseball schedule allows. He’s currently a couple episodes into the third, and likely final season.
“I just fell in love with the person, who he is, and everything,” he says.
“To me, what resonates is like, there’s so much more to life than just the sport. Sometimes, we get caught up in the wins and losses, and yeah, it’s a big part of everything,” he acknowledges. “But what he does as a coach is he sees the person, not the player. And that’s big to me, because to me, each person is more than just who they are. You’re more to me than just what you do, that’s what really resonated with me.”
Whitlock’s love of Lasso makes sense for several reasons.
The 26-year-old right-hander’s career thus far has not been unlike Apple TV’s unexpected juggernaut. Whitlock was a December 2020 Rule 5 draft pick from the Yankees, made his major league debut out of the Boston bullpen in 2021, and ended up being a key contributor to their unexpected ALCS run. “Ted Lasso” is a sports comedy-drama series borne from a series of 2013 NBC commercials.
How often do either of those things happen?
1.96 ERA rookie seasons (46 regular-season appearances) don’t exactly grow on trees, especially where Tommy John and Rule 5 picks are concerned. And never before had a show received 20 Primetime Emmy Award nominations (and seven wins) for its first season, let alone one borne from a bunch of commercials from seven years prior. Likewise for Jason Sudeikis, who won Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards for playing the eponymous main character.
Then there’s Whitlock’s life over the last few years as it parallels to show’s plot. He was a minor-league pitcher on the injured list during a global pandemic that forced the cancelation of the 2020 MiLB season. The Yankees left him unprotected from the draft, only for him to be claimed by their greatest rival.
Lasso is an upbeat, biscuit-baking, tea-hating football coach from Kansas hired to lead a fictional London football (soccer) club, but he reveals himself to be so much more than his folksy aphorisms and relentless positivity. He struggles with his mental health, works on himself in therapy, and grows into a more open, vulnerable, stronger version of himself. Along the way, his players and the rest of the AFC Richmond staff change for the better, too.
The show has been described as a balm, soothing and uplifting its viewers amidst their personal struggles and the pandemic. Thus, it would’ve been fitting for Whitlock to have started watching the show in 2020, when the first season overlapped with his recovery. He’s been open about his struggles during that uncertain period.
Whitlock doesn’t have a favorite character per se. He likes Lasso’s personality “a lot,” but also says he really relates to the odd-yet-endearing coach Beard and Roy Kent, the gruff, but devoted captain-turned-coach.
“I’m not as big of a grouch, or whatever,” Whitlock laughs, before referencing Kent’s storyline about leaving Chelsea FC, one of many real clubs featured in the show, for Richmond when he realized he was a star in decline.
“After they had gone to Chelsea, Ted asked him, why’d you leave? And Roy was like, ‘I thought I wasn’t good enough, I didn’t want to have that failure, and now part of me wishes I would have just stood back and enjoyed it while I was there,’ ” he says.
“So many times, as athletes, we get so caught up in the here-and-now that we don’t appreciate the here-and-now. There’s only been right around 20,000 people who’ve ever played in the big leagues, and sometimes we just need to take a step back and really relish the fact that we’re fortunate enough to be one of those 20,000 in history to ever do this.
“We get caught up in the speed of things, and it’s great to just kind of have things that reality-check us. Yeah, there’s a lot of stress and everything that goes along with this, but holy crap, look at what I do?” he says, gesturing to the emerald field where his teammates are taking batting practice. “We get to play baseball.”
Back to the shirt itself, a gift from Carson Roberts, a friend from home.
“We both watch Ted Lasso and talk about it all the time,” Whitlock says. “Part of the reason he got me that shirt is just because, you know, Rule 5 guy, like, no one, no one thought I’d ever be here. I’m not supposed to be here.”
Maybe not at the outset. But Ted Lasso was never supposed to coach a British football club, either.
Alex Cora didn’t mince words when fielding questions, pun intended, about his team’s defensive struggles.
Entering Wednesday they ranked 29th in the majors in defensive runs saved, with their 20 throwing errors tied for second-most.
“We have to play defense,” Cora assessed frankly.
“We’re 29th in the league, and we have a pitching staff that doesn’t have swing-and-miss stuff,” he said. “We get to two strikes, we induce weak contact, we got to make the plays.”
Middle infield, in particular, is a weak spot. Without Xander Bogaerts (free agency) and Trevor Story (injured list), they’re minus-2 defensive runs saved at shortstop, with an MLB-worst 12 errors at the position. Several of their utility and bench infielders are injured, too. They’re without Christian Arroyo and Yu Chang, and trade acquisition Adalberto Mondesí’s rehab from May 2022 ACL surgery is open-ended.
Kiké Hernández originally signed on to be Boston’s second baseman in 2021, but ended up playing primarily in centerfield over his first two seasons. His outfield work was of such caliber that when the Red Sox signed him to a one-year extension last September, the intention was to keep him in centerfield this year.
Instead, he’s played 40 games at shortstop, and only six in the outfield. He’s already played more than double his previous season-high for innings at the position, and the transition from utility player to starting shortstop hasn’t been a smooth one.
“He’s made a lot of errors,” his manager said. “At the same time, he’s made a lot of plays.”
“Out conversions is the most important thing, and he has, he hasn’t converted 12 plays, 11 of them throwing, I believe,” Cora recalls. “Everything has been throwing, and that’s something that, you know, we cannot hide.”
Adam Duvall played his first rehab game on Tuesday night. Serving as Triple-A Worcester’s designated hitter, he went 0-for-3. He’s back in the lineup again Wednesday night, this time to play about five innings in the outfield. Arroyo’s rehab stint with the WooSox continues Wednesday.