FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 The competition for the final Red Sox starting rotation spot is starting to heat up, and today one of the club\u2019s most noteworthy offseason additions will begin making his case.<\/p>\n
Johan Oviedo will make his Red Sox debut on Wednesday, taking the hill as the club travels across town to face the Minnesota Twins at Hammond Stadium. Oviedo is expected to throw two innings, and Red Sox manager Alex Cora said he just wants to see him throw strikes and keep making progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw what he can do last year when he\u2019s in the zone,\u201d Cora said of the former Pittsburgh Pirates righty. \u201cHe\u2019s a big dude that has great extension, a good fastball, I think he\u2019s been making strides throughout camp. The last live was a real good one, throwing fastballs down and away, it\u2019s a tough at bat. Just go out there, get your two innings and move on and keep getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Offensively the Red Sox will roll with their four primary outfielders, including Roman Anthony batting leadoff and serving as the designated hitter, Ceddanne Rafaela batting second and playing center field, Jarren Duran batting third and playing right, and Wilyer Abreu batting fifth and playing left.<\/p>\n
Duran and Abreu typically play left and right field, respectively, but are switched up today to help them prepare for the World Baseball Classic, where they will play right and left for Mexico and Venezuela.<\/p>\n
Carlos Narvaez will serve as the catcher batting cleanup, and the infield will consist of Nathan Hickey at first, Brendan Rodgers at second, Andruw Monasterio at shortstop and Nick Sogard at third base.<\/p>\n
Garrett Whitlock, Justin Slaten, Tyler Uberstine, Jake Bennett and Tayron Guerrero are scheduled to follow Oviedo out of the bullpen.<\/p>\n
Red Sox lineup<\/p>\n
Roman Anthony DH<\/p>\n
Ceddanne Rafaela CF<\/p>\n
Jarren Duran RF<\/p>\n
Carlos Narvaez C<\/p>\n
Wilyer Abreu LF<\/p>\n
Nick Sogard 3B<\/p>\n
Andruw Monasterio SS<\/p>\n
Nathan Hickey 1B<\/p>\n
Brendan Rodgers 2B<\/p>\n
Johan Oviedo P<\/p>\n
How to watch<\/p>\n
When: 1:05 p.m.<\/p>\n
Where: Hammond Stadium, Fort Myers, Fla.<\/p>\n
Broadcast info: NESN, NESN 360, WEEI 850 AM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 The competition for the final Red Sox starting rotation spot is starting to heat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,48,4635,5416,822,60,3190,4,89,151,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-592394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston-red-sox","10":"tag-grapefruit-league","11":"tag-johan-oviedo","12":"tag-minnesota","13":"tag-minnesota-twins","14":"tag-minnesotatwins","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-red-sox","17":"tag-spring-training","18":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116132173884993235","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592394","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=592394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}