slipping away in late May and really plunged in June, July and August, Abreu too often was missing in action.

“He would like to have a little more consistency; he struggled at parts of the season,” manager Robin Ventura said. “But at the end of the year his numbers are what they are. It just indicates how good of a hitter he is.”

Singling out Abreu for blame in another disappointing season is far from fair. But as the most dangerous hitter in the Sox’s lineup, Abreu’s early struggles were damaging.

“I’ve been having some ups and downs during this season,” Abreu said. “Everybody knows that. But I think fighting through all those stretches, right now I’m having my best moment in this whole season, and that’s part of all my work and all the advice that I’ve been getting from different people, especially from the hitting coach.

“This is a long season. No matter what, how good or bad your first half was, you still have the second half to do better. That’s what I’ve been trying to do.”

Why has Abreu done so much better in the second half, particularly the last six weeks?

He is no longer chasing pitches off the plate and in the dirt, he’s no longer vulnerable to inside pitches, and Abreu’s bat speed has noticeably quickened.

As Hahn looks ahead to next season’s roster, he must feel better knowing Abreu has emerged from a brutal stretch and is back to being a productive hitter.

“It certainly makes you more confident as you see him over the last six weeks, projecting out that he’s going to be that same player that he was for the first two years of his career,” Hahn said. “Earlier, when he was scuffling, you looked at some of the things he was doing from his approach or some of the mechanical issues he might have been having and you felt confident he was going to be able to get back.

“But, in all candor, you like seeing the performance match what you’re projecting, and we’ve certainly seen that over the last six weeks.”

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