The Red Sox have activated Rich Hill from the COVID-related injury list, and the veteran southpaw is set to start tonight’s game against the Rangers. Righty Kutter Crawford was optioned to Triple-A after yesterday’s game, creating space for Hill on the active roster. In another move, the Sox also announced that outfielder Jaylin Davis has been designated for assignment.
Hill returns after a little over a week on the COVID-IL, as the lefty tested positive for the coronavirus. Now in his age-42 season and in his fourth different stint with the Red Sox, Hill is still effective, posting a 2.86 ERA over his first five starts and 22 innings of the season.
With Michael Wacha still on the regular injured list due to left intercostal irritation, Hill’s return will bring one full-time starter back into the Red Sox rotation. Nathan Eovaldi, Nick Pivetta, Garrett Whitlock, and Tanner Houck comprised the rest of the starting five, with the expectation that Houck will likely return to bullpen duty once Wacha is ready.
Davis was claimed off waivers from the Giants in late April, and the outfielder has played nine games at Triple-A Worcester and two games at the big league level. That makes it a fourth straight season of MLB action for Davis, albeit in somewhat sparing fashion, with only 28 games and 72 plate appearances on his resume in the Show. The 27-year-old Davis is struggling to shed the “Quad-A” label, as he has yet to produce much in the majors, but also little else to prove in the minors (a .958 OPS over 554 PA at the Triple-A level).
Rich Hill can be translated as a mountain of gold, this old boy keeps showing up.
Jaylin Davis isn’t “struggling” to shed the Quad A label, he hasn’t been given much of an opportunity to do so. He’s appeared in a mere 28 games over the course of those 4 seasons and gotten only 72 plate appearances. Over half of those (47 PAs) came in 2019, when the Giants played him in 17 games. How does playing in about a month’s worth of games over 4 years give anyone much of chance to show their abilities. A lot of highly touted prospects need more time than that to begin to shine.
Baseball77 – Great point. Bloom is very bad about premature judgments. He canned Benny for 14 games and 39 at bats!!! And that’s after contributing big time to a WS ring and several other years!!
Davis would have a better chance elsewhere because he’s not on Cora’s and Bloom’s favored list. I think the same is true for Dalbec, JD, Bogey and Sale. For whatever reason, these guys all get treated differently than Devers, Kiki and Robles.
It’s not fair and it doesn’t belong in baseball but the Red Sox have a long reputation for issues like this. They gave up on Betts and Price after Mookie boldly confronted them on the issue.
Like I said, Davis would be better off somewhere else like all those not on the acceptable list created by Bloom and Cora.
Benny is not good. Trading Benny was not a mistake.
Yeah because JBJ is better-right??
He’s talking about Andrew Benintendi not Benny Agbayani.
The player they traded for is just a bad. At least benny has some success at the MLB level.
@KD17 What in the world are you talking about? I’m a Yankees fan that lives in New England and would say most of what you just said is nonsense.
Sale was not a bloom signing and has done nothing but been hurt since he signed his last deal. I don’t put that on sale, but how is he supposed to feel about him? Plus, what has bloom or Cora done in regards to Sale to say that he is not on their favored list? He’s barely played and as far as I know his checks still cash.
The offer the Sox made to Bogarts was pretty bad, but all that says is they don’t want to commit long term to a 30 year old shortstop. Maybe they wanted him to switch positions and he said No so they made their feelings known via their contract offer. Either way, he’s probably gone after this season. Bogarts last deal, again, was not done by bloom.
Price was a turd. He certainly contributed to their last title, but he was hated by the entire fan base and was inconsistent in the regular season. Mookie wasn’t going to sign in Boston, regardless of what they offered him, and as far as I remember they did make a sizable offer to him, so they traded him for what was seen as a good return at the time and unloaded Price in the process.
You have examples of how all these guys have been mistreated?
Question was not if Sale was going to break down it was when. White Sox knew he was a head case and was eventually going to run into arm/shoulder troubles considering his delivery. They were glad to unload him. Red Sox got lucky that he lasted as long as he did. Extension was a huge mistake.
Premature rejectulation?
The big question is, when are they going to bring Casas up? The Red Sox production at 1B is the worst in the majors season to date. With the Sox being so far behind in the standings, they can’t afford to have automatic outs in the lineup and JBJ, Dalbec/Cordero are all basically automatic outs, not to mention the Catcher position and the horrible start from Kiké at the plate. The Sox need to inject some offense into this lineup and Casas seems like the logical choice to provide that. Right now, Xander, Devers and JDM are providing 80%+ of their offense and that needs to change quickly. Who knew that losing their hitting coach would have such an adverse effect on this team but it certainly has.
I am sure that the FO will sit on Casas as long as they have to in order to avoid a situation in which it appears they are bringing him up to “save” the team. That’s too big a burden for a youngster who, frankly, is getting along all right in AAA but is not killing it they way he is expected to. The expectations around Casas’s performance will be high enough–having to suddenly carry the team is too much to add. And I think they are genuinely sold on a last chance stand for Franchy, who seems to have made some positive changes (like making contact). But Dalbec? He needs Worcester very badly.
Agreed, Casas is doing ok, but with a batting average around .245 and an OPS under .800, he is NOT even nearly the most productive offensive player at Worcester let alone the savior of the Red Sox offense.
At this point I would continue to platoon Franchy and Dalbec until Casas get hot, because currently he is not.
Could it be that the leash for underperformers is a long one considering the short spring training? Perhaps the season past was playing over their heads. Frustrating to be sure. Are they concerned with Casas not having many AAA at bats yet and he’ll struggle in the show? Maybe their reluctance to begin his major league clock. It’s still early. One can envision a sell off and a punt on the season if they fall back another half dozen games. The math tells us they need to go around 80-50 to get to the post season. That is a tall order.
Bobby Smac I do think last year they played way over their heads. The Renfroe trade was just awful and that is being nice. Hard to compete and rebuild your minors system at the same time and we are seeing that rebuilding the minors is more important than competiting now. A strong farm system saves John Henry money long term and gives the team more controllable players on the cheap. Like Whitlock for example….
Hyers has a reputation as one of the best hitting instructors in the game. Look at Texas this year, that offense is churning along well Texas just needs pitching
Texas offence in this series just looks ANEMIC !!
lol covid wasn’t going to stop Dick Mountain.
Davis should be able to hook on with a non contender and do well. Definitely worth a long look.