AL Notes: Red Sox, Tigers, Athletics

Two Red Sox position players, Andrew Benintendi and Rafael Devers, feature prominently on Jim Callis of MLB.com’s list of the MLB rookies with the most potential. Benintendi, Callis writes, “combines pure hitting ability, power, speed and defense in a manner reminiscent of former Boston star Fred Lynn.” In fact, three of the top four players on the list are Red Sox products, with Chicago’s Yoan Moncada squeezing in between Cody Bellinger and Devers. Here’s more from the American League.

• With the Tigers miles from contention, the rest of their season provides opportunities for veterans to showcase their skills for other clubs, MLive.com’s Evan Woodbery writes. Some, like Anibal Sanchez, are likely to become free agents (Sanchez has a $16MM option that the Tigers are all but certain to decline, likely opting instead to pay him a $5MM buyout.) Others, like Ian Kinsler and Jose Iglesias, are trade candidates. (Jeff Todd discussed the possibility of a Kinsler deal in his recent Three Needs piece on the Tigers.) Still others, like Bryan Holaday and Tyler Collins, are currently on the fringes of the Tigers’ 40-man roster.
• The Athletics’ new ballpark won’t open for several more years at a minimum, but the team’s future that far down the horizon could still be very bright, Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. The team has a solid young core that includes Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, Franklin Barreto, Marcus Semien, Chad Pinder and Ryon Healy, along with prospects like A.J. Puk, Jorge Mateo, Dustin Fowler, Austin Beck and Lazaro Armenteros. Of course, it’s far from clear which of those players will be keys for the A’s five-plus years down the line — in fact, some of them, like Semien, could well depart via free agency by then. But Jenkins points out that, unlike with the nearby Giants, it’s already possible to imagine good future Athletics lineups based around the players they already have.