{"id":568031,"date":"2026-02-12T11:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T11:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/568031\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T11:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T11:26:16","slug":"red-sox-polarizing-driveline-founder-kyle-boddy-are-focused-on-winning-games-not-fixing-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/568031\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox, polarizing Driveline founder Kyle Boddy are focused on winning games, not fixing baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyle Boddy<\/a> lives approximately 3,000 miles from Boston on the other side of the country in Washington.<\/p>\n

But the Driveline Baseball founder and special advisor to Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has become a polarizing figure in Boston sports.<\/p>\n

Is Driveline\u2019s influence making the Red Sox<\/a> a better and more efficient organization? Or is it making Boston too dependent on analytics and science?<\/p>\n

Boddy isn\u2019t in the business of trying to fix the game, although he admits that baseball itself could use some adjustments and rule changes to be more appealing to viewers.<\/p>\n

Driveline is about making players better within the game\u2019s current structure. The Red Sox, meanwhile, believe strongly in Driveline\u2019s methods. They are going to continue to use these methods to try to get the most out of their players to win as many games as possible.<\/p>\n

The influence Driveline has on the Red Sox isn\u2019t going away. It\u2019s growing under Breslow\u2019s leadership. The Red Sox hired four more former Driveline employees this offseason<\/a> and promoted hitting coordinator John Soteropulos to Alex Cora\u2019s major league coaching staff<\/a>. Soteropulos, who worked at Driveline from April 2019 to January 2023, is serving as an assistant hitting coach.<\/p>\n

Boddy understands the charges leveled at him and sabermetricians by talk radio hosts, fans and other baseball traditionalists. The nerds, a group he counts himself among, have contributed, in some degree, to making baseball less entertaining. It\u2019s just not their problem to solve. Their focus is on getting their teams to score and prevent as many runs as possible, whether it\u2019s using data to put together defensive shifts to turn balls hit with high expected batting averages into outs or using advanced metrics to calculate the value of players.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom an entertainment product perspective, we do need to do a better job,\u201d Boddy said. \u201cBut that\u2019s not the club\u2019s job. That\u2019s the league\u2019s job. The club\u2019s job is to win. And so we\u2019re going to make decisions that we feel lead to the most winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The way the game is played these days, velocity and power-hitting lead to wins. That\u2019s why the nerd group is focused so heavily on those two areas. The scrutinized Red Sox\u2019 offensive approach aligns with the Driveline methods and what Ted Williams once preached<\/a>: pulling the ball in the air. Meanwhile, the Red Sox also have used Driveline\u2019s methods to increase fastball velocity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a power-on-power game these days, and maybe I actually agree with talk radio hosts that I don\u2019t think that leads to a very entertaining product, in my opinion,\u201d Boddy said. <\/p>\n

Former Driveline employees hired by Red Sox this offseasonPosition Elijah BoyerDouble-A Portland assistant hitting coachCody GraccoHigh-A Greenville assistant hitting coachIvan QuackenbushLow-A Salem assistant hitting coachBrent HokenessAssistant baseball scientist<\/p>\n

Red Sox fans tend to turn to social media to blame the Driveline methods when Boston\u2019s offense has a bad game. <\/p>\n

In October 2025, NESN analyst Lou Merloni responded simply on X to a fan who questioned whether Red Sox hitting coach Pete Fatse<\/a> should return in 2026:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Pete has done a good job. People mischaracterize him a \u2018Driveline guy\u2019. He\u2019s not, no matter how many people tell you he is. Most people don\u2019t even know what \u2018Driveline\u2019 is.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a misunderstanding about what Driveline does and who in the Red Sox organization works or worked for the company. <\/p>\n

With Driveline\u2019s influence only increasing within the organization, it\u2019s worth understanding what the company does.<\/p>\n

Boddy said he doesn\u2019t think anyone is being malicious when they criticize Driveline or assume incorrect information about it. He also doesn\u2019t expect radio hosts to learn everything about his company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is it on a radio host?\u201d Boddy said. \u201cWhy should I have these expectations like, \u2018Oh, well, you should do a lot of research and read Wikipedia and read Kyle\u2019s book.\u2019 Why should they do that? They\u2019ve got a million things they got to do, so it doesn\u2019t bother me. I\u2019m honored, honestly, that Driveline is that relevant to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driveline doesn\u2019t have a one-size-fits-all approach. It\u2019s not aiming for every pitcher to throw 100 mph or every hitter to pull the ball in the air and develop 30-home run power. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this big perception of Driveline as like this end all, be all,\u201d former Red Sox pitcher Walker Buehler said. \u201cAt the end of the day, they\u2019re trying to physically improve the average outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buehler described it as Driveline \u201cbuilding engines that are more efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether that be a swing or a throw, if you can operate more efficiently, then your bad ones aren\u2019t as bad,\u201d Buehler said. \u201cAnd I think they\u2019re kind of doing the upside and the downside, raising both of them, or the ceiling and floor, however you want to look at it. If you get more efficient, both of those are going to rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driveline\u2019s biomechanics lab gives individual assessments and reports on how each client\u2019s body moves. From there, they devise training plans for deliveries, swings, etc.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to have all the skills required to be a necessary hitter,\u201d said Soteropulos, Boston\u2019s new assistant hitting coach who previously worked as a business associate and then a hitting trainer at Driveline. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to make contact. You want to hit the ball hard. You want to do all those things that comprise successful hitting. And you also want to make sure that you lean into your strengths. Lean into your strengths and then also address any weaknesses, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soteropulos joining the staff doesn\u2019t mean the Red Sox are going all-in on launch angle and power to the pull side or doubling down on one specific approach.<\/p>\n

In fact, the 2025 AL champion Blue Jays hit the most balls in play and posted the lowest strikeout rate (17.8%) of any team under hitting coach David Popkins, a former Driveline client, and Toronto senior hitting biomechanist Ben Jones, a former Driveline employee.<\/p>\n

This 2026 Red Sox want a balanced lineup with power and contact, but they are lacking power on paper. Breslow, however, sees certain players emerging. He said a fully healthy season out of Roman Anthony should help. He also pointed to trade addition Willson Contreras and right fielder Wilyer Abreu being important sources of power.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s going to be a slug and power that emerges from this group, but I also think we have a pretty balanced lineup,\u201d Breslow said.<\/p>\n

The Red Sox are making a conscious effort to make more contact this year, especially with a runner at third base and fewer than two outs. They improved in that area late last season. During the final two months, they had the eighth-fewest whiffs (905) in MLB after posting the third-most (2,143) in the first four months.<\/p>\n

The Red Sox\u2019 hitting approach begins in the minors and almost identically aligns with what Driveline teaches to its clients. Driveline focuses on bat speed, swing decisions and batted ball quality. The Red Sox practice four core areas, additionally focusing on swing characteristics.<\/p>\n

The Red Sox loved Kristian Campbell\u2019s elite contact rate at Georgia Tech but saw opportunities for the 6-foot-3 infielder\/outfielder to hit for more power. They made adjustments to his swing to increase his power, though it meant trading some contact ability in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone like Roman, who didn\u2019t go to college, probably has to make slightly different approaches where it\u2019s like his power is crazy where it\u2019s maybe bat-to-ball skills need to improve,\u201d Boddy said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s where the big core four are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soteropulos said biomechanics is \u201cdefinitely an important piece that needs to be monitored, tracked and evaluated\u201d but it\u2019s just one of many pillars that get the most out of a player\u2019s on-field performance. Hitting coaches also see a lot of things with their own eyes, he added.<\/p>\n

He also said that while right-handed hitters can benefit from pulling the ball in the air at Fenway, that\u2019s certainly not the only approach. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe modern game demands a lot of hitters, and you have to have multiple clubs in the bag, and you can\u2019t be one-dimensional,\u201d Soteropulos said. \u201cThere\u2019s too many pitch shapes. Pitchers have advanced a lot in the last five to 10 years, and for hitters to have success and be successful, they need to be able to hit the ball to all parts of the field and hit pitches in every part of the zone and also hit a lot of different pitch shapes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo while Fenway is uniquely shaped, I think like the base approach of our hitters, it varies from guy to guy, for sure,\u201d Soteropulos added. \u201cBut just be dynamic. Have our hitters be dynamic and be able to be successful against a lot of different pitch shapes and a lot of different pitch velocities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boddy said the best teams make contact and he welcomes the league to make changes to increase balls in play and make it a faster-paced game.<\/p>\n

\u201cFans want to see balls in play. They want to see a faster game,\u201d Boddy said. \u201cThey want to see more players involved. And that\u2019s on the league to make changes, and they have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boddy noted that there\u2019s a lot of experimenting with rule changes in the minor leagues. Those have already led to some rule changes in the majors, which have led to an increase in stolen bases to make the product more entertaining. <\/p>\n

\u201cBaseball has the longest tradition of any of the sports, so it can be hard to make rule changes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyle Boddy lives approximately 3,000 miles from Boston on the other side of the country in Washington. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[1002,5,141,48,2542,74840,74841,19,6095,4,2421,557,5059,89,2543,185,151,2111],"class_list":{"0":"post-568031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-1002","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-boston","11":"tag-boston-red-sox","12":"tag-bostonredsox","13":"tag-cincinnati-reds-baseball","14":"tag-feb-23","15":"tag-major-league-baseball","16":"tag-mens-sports","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-national-league-baseball","19":"tag-professional-baseball","20":"tag-professional-sports","21":"tag-red-sox","22":"tag-redsox","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-spring-training","25":"tag-sunday"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116057419611581831","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}