The Red Sox announced a flurry of roster moves this morning. Right-hander Justin Slaten was placed on the 15-day injured list with shoulder inflammation, and was replaced on the roster by right-hander Luis Guerrero. Meanwhile, Boston selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Nate Eaton. Infielder Nick Sogard was optioned to Triple-A in order to make room on the active roster, while catcher Blake Sabol was designated for assignment to clear a 40-man roster spot. The additions of Eaton and Guerrero were previously reported last night.
Slaten, 27, has emerged as a crucial piece of the Red Sox bullpen over the past two years. Plucked from the Rangers in the 2023 Rule 5 draft, the right-hander has posted a 3.09 ERA with an even stronger 2.77 FIP across 78 2/3 innings of work. That’s been enough to make him one of the top set-up men on the roster in both of his years with the Red Sox, serving in a high-leverage role setting up closer Kenley Jansen last year and Aroldis Chapman this season. Impressive as those results have been, however, Slaten’s taken a bit of a step back this year. His strikeout rate has dipped to 17.8%, his walk rate has jumped to 7.8%, and he’s shaved nearly ten points off his ground ball rate relative to last year.
Perhaps today’s placement on the injured list offers some level of explanation for that step backwards in production. The right-hander told reporters (including Chris Cotillo of MassLive) that he’s just dealing with some “fatigue” in his shoulder and hopes to be back in action after only a minimum stint. Losing a key piece of the bullpen is never a good thing, but if a two-week trip to the shelf can help Slaten get back to the dominant form he flashed in 2024 that could be well worth it for the club.
As for Sabol, the 27-year-old is a fellow alumnus of the Rule 5 draft. Selected by the Giants in the 2022 installment of the draft, Sabol hit .243/.313/.392 (95 wRC+) in 121 games with the Giants between the 2023 and ’24 seasons while splitting time between catching and the outfield. Unfortunately, Sabol did not show enough offensive potential to serve as a regular outfield option nor enough growth defensively behind the plate to be rostered as a regular catcher in the eyes of San Francisco. That led the club to designate him for assignment back in January, and he was traded to the Red Sox shortly thereafter.
Sabol has largely been a depth option for the Red Sox this year, and has only appeared in eight games with the big league club with a -14 wRC+ in that extremely limited opportunity. The Red Sox will have one week to trade Sabol or attempt to pass him through waivers. If he goes unclaimed, Boston will have the opportunity to outright him to the minor leagues to use as non-roster depth going forward. Connor Wong and Carlos Narvaez have settled in as the club’s primary catching tandem, and depth options like Yasmani Grandal and Seby Zavala remain in the fold at the minor league level.
Unfortunate for the Slaten injury,
And why in heck is Sogard getting optioned? Does Boston seem obsessed with AAAA guys?? Eaton has no businesses in the majors, just like Abraham Toro, and it means Boston has no real backup infielder as Nate Eaton is mostly an OF by trade.
At least Eaton’s stay will be VERY brief, as Romy Gonzalez returns this week.
They still have Hamilton for better or worse. Wong and Campbell are now the backup First Base options until Romy returns
I would have kept Sogard, the more versatile defender, over Hamilton. Hamilton is decent at 2B but can’t really field other positions.
Looking forward to the return of Romy.
Wait – I prefer Hamilton. As a pinchrunning option he can turn any single or walk into a run.
On a different roster, I might agree with you? Hamilton has come in as a PR nine times so far this year, stolen three bases, scored four runs. That’s something – but I’m not sure it is enough to justify a roster spot on a four man bench.
Wait – Story is in one of his patented hot streaks again, just like I said the other day. He’s basically prime JBJ at this point.
As much as it irks me to see the Red Sox wasting so much money on Story, and blocking Mayer from his natural position, he’s not really a BAD player. He’d be a pretty good utility infielder if he was paid $2M instead of $20M.
Quite the hot streak.. No idea what Fever is talking about, this dude is OPSing ~.550 over his last 7 until today. 1 HR and a couple hits today is not a hot streak.
Dude is 40% below average at the plate and below average on defense too. They need to cut him instead of blocking the youngsters just because his contract is bad.
Wait – What if Cora decided on a 5-man bench by sacrificing a reliever?
Yeah I know, at least I made ya laugh ;o)
Good – Why not just ask me? I’m always happy to explain.
He had a big hit in Wednesday’s game.
Next game hit a 431 foot homer driving in 2 runs.
Next game just missed a homer to CF with Harris leaping at the wall.
And today 2 hits and a walk including a bases clearing double that prevented a consecutive shutout loss.
That’s why you really need to watch the games.
He has a history of incredible hot streaks, cutting him now would be insane. He’s also been solid in the field.
I think Toro has earned his keep more than Sogard has.
Yeah, Toro has been good. Doing everything you could hope. I don’t really expect that to continue, but you can’t fault anything he’s done.
Toro’s batting average is .310 and has an OPS .844 with 7 extra base hits in 58 at bats. Yes, Toro has earned his playing time.
Romy due back soon and toro has been well above avg thus far
You must not have watched any of the games this past week, because Toro has actually been hitting, unlike most of the roster
Eaton has been playing all over the infield at AAA.
Digi – Toro is so good he’s batting cleanup today.
Yeah I know, Cora is just going with the hot hand right now.
And Toro rewarded the faith by going 2-4 with a run scored. At this point however they have to construct the lineup to win games they need to do it. Another 2-4 road trip and now home for the Angels…
Eaton has no businesses in the majors? Like a one hour photo booth, bouncy house castle, bubble tea shop and a forensics lab that sells travel supplies like international multi prong adapters and takes passport fotos?
As someone who has coached baseball for almost 30 years and watched player development at every level, I find it comical how many keyboard warriors there are on this site that think a player can never continue to develop after the age of 23. It happens every day. Players continually develop well into their late 20’s and some into their 30’s.
Toro is 28 years old and hitting .310 since his call up. I am not saying he will sustain that average, but there are exactly 11 everyday players hitting over .311 in the league.
Toro is hitting .310 with a 132 OPS+. He is showing he belongs.
Sogard is hitting .245 with a 72 OPS+. Why should he not be optioned?
Smells like super two is cooking and almost ready in Boston
That has to be what they’re doing. Which is just lame. I really don’t understand…this team needs a huge jolt, has the #1 prospect in the game, and chooses their hero to be…Nate Eaton
@manfraud, as many others have pointed out, Romy in due to return soon, clearly indicating that Nate Eaton is not being chosen to be their hero, but just a stopgap for their normal everyday guy. Hopefully they’ll throw up the bat signal soon however
Nate Eaton not being chose to be their hero maybe but being forced to drive a thresher in a mano e mano game of chickin a la Kevin Bacon to win his girl’s hand in Footloose
The Angels and Yankees have a lot of left handed pitching, so Eaton may get some at bats at 3B for Marcelo Mayer during this brief stretch.
This team isnt winning this year so the smart business play is to manipulate the calander by a week or two. Sure you risk pissing off the player but these are the rules the mlbpa agreed to even after a work stoppage during the last negotiation..all teams take advantage and until the mlbpa priotizes this its gonna keep hapening so lets stop acting like this is some great manipulation..its in the rues the mlbpa could have changed it decided not to and the teams are simplying playing by them..its that simple
Fpg you keep saying the red sox owners said that they are not trying to win until 2026 i have never read nor heard this from anyone but you..do you have any proof at all that your statement is true? Or are you just making things up again.
Hes just making things up again.
Man – Sox owners have said they won’t try to win until at least next year, they seem to be telling the truth … THIS time.
They’re 4 games out from a wild card at the start of June. There’s no excuse for a team to give up in that position, or at least not have the balls to try. They have their problems but ultimately they’re an offense first team who’s gone cold and bringing up Anthony can be what they need to reignite things. Of course it may not, but again, it’s at least trying something
my guess is breslow loathes cora so much that he’s counting the minutes until 2028 when
he can put his own guy in and fully open the window
At least they can count on the great Garrett Crochet every fifth day. Like I was telling you all back in the spring, and everyone kept saying he’s “unproven” and all that BS. The man is one of the top five starters in baseball.
But..that doesnt make sense breslow signed cora just last year ..technically Cora is breslows guy
The Wild Card is a fraud. There’s minimal value to fighting over a slim chance of being the last Wild Card, especially when you don’t have the talent on the roster to win in October.
If you told me they were 4 out of the division and best record in the league, I’d perk up.
that extension came from ownership
The great Garrett Crochet is totally immune from any further injury. An age 22 TJ ensures him that he’ll never have another pitching arm injury. He’s the likely All Star AL starter for the next 5 yrs at least, as every other pitcher but him will see significant time on the IL.
lol
Hank – With all due respect, Red Sox Nation always knew he had Top 5 talent.
It’s a little soon to predict he’ll stay healthy the remainder of the year. Let’s see what happens after his next two starts against the Yankees.
The easy part of the schedule is officially over for him.
Man – I appreciate your optimism but fact is they are 5 games back in the loss column for a WC and need to pass 5 teams which is very difficult. And that’s despite having the 2nd-easiest schedule in MLB.
Let’s see how they do when the schedule toughens Friday.
Dasit – You’re assuming Henry doesn’t extend Cora again.
Good chance Cora becomes the GM after 2027.
If the Red Sox ever said they would not try to win until 2026, that would be big news, repated every day like the Full Throttle comment.
Can you explain?
What super two? The Man of Steel and his superfriend canine Crytpo?
To be fair, there wasn’t ever a place for Anthony. That doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t be promoted, just that it is a little tougher to find room.
Over the off-season I was half expecting Abreu to be traded. Kinda glad they dragged their feet on that one!
It’s only June and the bullpen is already significantly overworked.
This happens every year with the Sox. Starters don’t go deep, bullpen is overworked early into the season. Rinse, repeat.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills, the Sox don’t learn from their previous mistakes.
4.2 IP, 80 pitches every game. Completely stupid managing to pull guys like that. We need to see more of what Buehler did yesterday, a guy throwing 100 pitches damned the circumstances.
Agree…..CORA needs to stop the BS of 4.2 IP
That’s how Cora manages. Crazy would be keeping the manager and expecting something different.
Wait – What do you think of Cora changing his mind last minute on KC playing 1B? The guy is such a scatterbrained tool, never thinks things through or keeps his word. Perhaps he got pressured because he’s mentally abusing KC.
breslow: this is a bridge year
fan base: we’ve been hearing that for 3 years
breslow: exactly. we use bridge years to bridge the gap between the previous bridge year and the following bridge year
So it’s a pier year.
grappling hook year?
How about we borrow a portal gun from Rick and Morty..,
Bridge decade… they had 1918… so, they’ve won 2018… figure they’re good till… what, 2104?
By the time the Red Sox bridge to contention is finished, the Atlantic will have risen 30 feet to swallow Fenway – and they’ll need that bridge just to get out of the park.
And yet, they have the most WS championships this century,
GASox – Great time last weekend! I’m finally familiar with the battery area. Galleria worked out great for parking. Hotel in Marietta worked out well, but I need to find a hotel near the airport for an early flight day after the ASG that’s not in a high crime area. Yesterday I drove to Kroger in Hapeville, oh my you know it’s bad when there’s two armed cops stationed inside a grocery store!! I was gonna book in College Park but just saw the crime stats for there. I definitely need to be south of downtown, I-75 traffic is bad and morning rush hour is probably brutal.
Fever, there’s hotels directly connected to the airport via the complimentary sky train – like atlanta airport mariott gateway. It’s a 2 minute ride over to the lobby on the connected train.
Glad to see you got to watch two quality wins, even if the action ended after the first inning of the latter.
When I lived in Decatur, before hitting East Cobb, there was a Kroger grocery store in town where some people I knew lived. It was nicknamed the murder Kroger around town…
GaSox – Thanks, I’ll check it out. Hopefully the prices aren’t too outrageous, I don’t like paying Boston/Cali prices outside of Boston/Cali. LOL
Speaking of Kroger, every time Mayer stepped to the plate in Atlanta they played the Halloween theme song. I thought it was pretty lame considering the hatchet man is named Michael Myers which really isn’t even close to Marcelo’s name. And why would the Braves want to make Marcelo seem intimidating like that? It was just so odd.
So Campbell has been moved down to 9th and is still not playing first base, I’d really like to know what precipitated the change in plans. Did Cora finally realize on his own it was a bad idea at this time? Or was he told to change his mind?
Ref is batting third and has great numbers against Anderson, as does Devers and Story and Wong (who is not starting though). Angels have been ice cold the past 10 days so we are getting them at a good time.