The Red Sox still don’t seem to have a long-term plan for what to do with the five outfielders they have for four outfield/DH spots, to say nothing of what happens when Triston Casas enters the DH picture. But they do have a short-term plan. Alex Cora announced that, starting today, Masataka Yoshida would play three of the next five games, and he’ll even get some game time in left field, where he has made just six appearances over the last two seasons.
It’s not exactly clear to me what the goal is here. The “showcase him for a trade” rationale doesn’t carry water — everyone in baseball knows who he is as a player and no team is going to decide they want him based on a few games in March and April. Moreover, no one really needs much rest at this point in the season; he doesn’t provide an offensive upgrade over any of the players he’d be replacing except for, perhaps, Ceddanne Rafaela; and he’s a definite defensive downgrade over all of them. Players will get injured, of course, and players will need rest, but playing Yoshida three times over the next five games just means the Sox won’t be putting their best team on the field three times over the next five games. It’s long past time to get whatever they can for Yoshida and move on. (Tim Healey, Boston Globe)
Another thing to keep in mind regarding the outfield/DH rotation: defensively, the Red Sox outfield was far and away the best in baseball last year. On a relative basis, it was the strongest component of the team. Roman Anthony is probably the weakest of the four primary outfielders, but he is working hard to improve his defensive game. (Peter Abraham, Boston Globe)
Another thing Anthony is working on right now (as are all big league hitters) is ABS strategy. A poor challenge decision in the third inning of yesterday’s game cost the Sox in a big way. (Christopher Smith, MassLive)
Or maybe it was CB Bucknor who had the worst day as the home plate umpire. “He has one job to do, it’s call balls and strikes,” Alex Cora said, leading me to wonder what exactly the purpose of ABS is if it isn’t actually relieving us of bad calls. (Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic)
One person who did have a good day, though, was reliever Ryan Watson, who became the third pitcher in Sox history to work more than two innings without giving up a hit in his MLB debut. (Mark Inabinnet, AL.com)