As good as his speed is for the outfield, he doesn’t really have first step quickness. This is why he gets picked off base and it is also why he is a below average infielder. In the outfield his arm is OK but often he throws to the wrong base – and those throws are partially due to the fact that he throws where HE as a base runner would go instead of where an intelligent base runner would go.

Getting picked off first base in the second inning while your team is up by four runs is a bad play. Getting picked off of second base in the seventh inning while your team is up by three runs is a really really really bad play. If Leury was doing this at age 22 it would be prudent to accept the mistakes and expect improvement. Leury doing this at age 26 is cause for concern. If the team was not rebuilding, these kinds of (frequent) mistakes would knock him off the active roster.

This is actually a much bigger challenge for Rick Renteria. He has to allow young-ish players leeway while giving less rope to veterans. And he (along with Hahn) has to decide when the competitiveness window SHOULD be open and allow less leeway for mistakes even for the younger players. Leury Garcia on a crappy 2017 Sox team will get more leeway than Eloy Jimenez ought to get on an expected-competitive 2020 Sox team.

It is THIS that I actually watch the current games for – Renteria HAS to change his approach as the rebuild goes on. He can get away with ill-advised bunting strategy now in order to have more evaluation opportunities so that when the time comes to bunt a lot less, the few times it is called for he has better knowledge of which player can be asked to do it and which one should not. He has to learn which pitchers can be asked to go another 10 pitches in a high-leverage situation when the knee-jerk reaction is to make a change. I call this long-term spectating which is more of a mental exercise than the emotional outlet one has when watching a competitive team.