Ben Cherington

baseball player, whatever, that term gets thrown around.

And just look at the arc of his career and what he's had to persevere through to become a really good major league player and kind of carve out the career he's had.

You know, he just felt stronger and stronger as we got into the offseason, that this was not just a bat that would help our lineup, and he has done that, but this was also a personality that would help our clubhouse.

I think as well as you could expect.

I mean, really, you know, it gets talked about.

It gets written about.

He's sort of mature beyond his years, and that really is true.

When we did, even before the contract, when we decided to select him and put him on the roster, you know, we did so knowing or believing at the time that,

And we're going to get good defense at short.

We're going to get good base running.

And we think he'll hold his own offensively in year one.

And long-term, we think he's going to do a lot more than that.

But for year one, we felt like he'll hold his own offensively.

And that's kind of exactly what's happened.

And as you expect for a young player, there's been a couple games where he's been challenged with major league pitching.

He's responded really well to that.

He's made very fast adjustments.

carries himself about like a veteran, you wouldn't think he's as young as he is.

He's really just quickly become a part of the team, and that's a compliment to him.

That's a good question.