The Red Sox have designated infielder Chase d’Arnaud for assignment, according to Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe (via Twitter). He’ll make way for righty Hector Velazquez, whose contract was selected.
Boston also moved injured hurler Steven Wright to the 60-day DL. He was already expected to miss the entire season, so that was only a formality. The team now has one open 40-man slot.
Boston hardly utilized d’Arnaud after claiming him late last month from the Braves. He took just a single plate appearance, in fact. The versatile 30-year-old carries a .233/.289/.314 batting line over 448 plate appearances, with those spread over parts of six MLB seasons.
Meanwhile, the 28-year-old Velazquez has quite an interesting story. He signed with the Red Sox after a lengthy run in the Mexican League, culminating with a breakout 2016 season. Thus far, he has impressed at Triple-A. Over 29 frames, he owns a 1.55 ERA with 6.2 K/9 against 1.6 BB/9 while allowing only 18 base hits.
It’s worth noting that Velazquez is playing on a very unique contract arrangement. As Evan Drellich reported during camp, Velazquez received only a piece of the $30K bonus upon signing. But his deal includes an apparently newfangled provision that allows him to earn salary escalators based upon how many consecutive days he remains on the active roster.
I saw that coming from a mile away. Don’t even know why they picked him up if they were barely gonna use him.
Can the Braves claim him back please?
Braves do need to claim him back
Yes they can
I thought that only apply to rule five players, he can accept a demotion to Pawtucket or will be granted free agency, am I wrong?
Or will have to go through the waiver process rather
Oh no no, that just can’t happen. Coppy has to keep that roster spot eternally open for Bonifacio!
Bonifacio is already on the roster. Therefore, we don’t need to keep another one open for him.
It was a joke. He meant they have to keep him on the roster
Sounds like the pitcher is the more interesting part of the story yet all the comments are just a big Chase D’Arnaud lovefest…go figure.
MLBTR has reported on the interesting structure of Velasquez’s contract. Low base with incentives for each day on the 25-man roster? The taxi meter is running. Best wishes for success!
I had not seen that! Thanks for noting, I’ll work it into the post.