It’s not often you see a player starting games in the postseason who is then cut loose in the offseason, but the Boston Red Sox might be weighing that possibility.
The Red Sox were exceptionally thin on both sides of the ball by the time they played the New York Yankees in the Wild Card Series, but they somehow managed to win Game 1 thanks to Garrett Crochet’s dominance and some timely hitting. One of the biggest hits came from surprise second-base starter Nick Sogard, who legged out a double thanks to Aaron Judge’s questionable elbow in right field.
Boston doesn’t necessarily know who its second baseman will be by opening day, but it’s highly unlikely it will be Sogard. And after acquiring two new utility player candidates for the upcoming season on Tuesday, one insider believes it’s possible Sogard has already played his last game in a Red Sox uniform.
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Will Red Sox cut ties with Sogard this offseason?
After the Red Sox 30-year-old Tristan Gray from the Tampa Bay Rays and 27-year-old Braiden Ward from the Colorado Rockies, MassLive insider Chris Cotillo named Sogard among the players whose 40-man roster spots were in jeopardy between now and spring training.
“One could argue that the Red Sox already had too many versatile, fringy utility types on the roster with Nick Sogard, Nate Eaton, David Hamilton, Vaughn Grissom (and in a different boat, Kristian Campbell) all in the mix,” wrote Cotillo.
“The addition of Gray — and of Ward, who will certainly be a non-roster invitee — may signal that someone else in that group could lose his spot soon. Eaton and Sogard started playoff games out of necessity but aren’t long-term solutions.”
Despite his postseason heroics, Sogard is unlikely to be much more than the player he’s shown himself to be: versatile, can put the bat on the ball, but might never hit the ball out of the park. He does have two minor-league options remaining, which makes him a viable candidate to stash if someone else on that list is behind him in the pecking order.
One great playoff game isn’t an indicator that a player will have a lucrative market, but if the Red Sox were considering booting Sogard off the 40-man roster, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see another team trade a lottery ticket prospect to acquire him.