Bobby Dalbec

Brewers Sign Bobby Dalbec To Minors Deal

By Mark Polishuk | May 10, 2025 at 2:18pm CDT

The Brewers have signed Bobby Dalbec to a minor league deal and assigned the infielder to Triple-A, according to Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

After signing a minor league deal with the White Sox during the offseason, Dalbec’s contract was selected to Chicago’s active roster a little over three weeks ago, and he hit .222/.333/.278 over 21 plate appearances in his brief time in a Pale Hose uniform. The Sox designated him for assignment earlier this week, and once Dalbec cleared waivers, he opted for free agency instead of an outright assignment to Triple-A, as was his right since Dalbec has previously been outrighted in his career.

It wasn’t long ago that Dalbec was a top-100 prospect, and viewed as a potential first baseman of the future in Boston. A big .959 OPS over 92 PA in 2020 hinted at this potential, and a .240/.298/.494 slash line and 25 homers over a large sample size of 453 PA in 2021 seemed to be a step forward, even if his 34.44% strikeout rate that season underlined his major flaw at the plate. Since Opening Day 2022, Dalbec has hit only .199/.272/.328 in 520 PA at the big league level, with 195 whiffs in those 520 trips to the dish.

Now 29 years old, Dalbec may be a depth option in Milwaukee, though the Brew Crew’s relative weakness at third base may provide an opening for more MLB playing time. Rookie Caleb Durbin has been getting most of the time at the hot corner, and with Vinny Capra just designated for assignment, Dalbec now gives the Brewers a bit of experienced depth. Dalbec has primarily been a first baseman for most of his career, but he has amassed a good chunk of playing time at third base, plus a handful of appearances as a right fielder at both middle infield slots.

White Sox Outright Penn Murfee; Bobby Dalbec Elects Free Agency

By Darragh McDonald | May 6, 2025 at 6:05pm CDT

The White Sox have sent right-hander Penn Murfee to Triple-A Charlotte, reports Scott Merkin of MLB.com. There had been no previous indication that the righty had been removed from the 40-man roster but the Sox evidently passed him through waivers in recent days. Their 40-man count drops to 39. Merkin adds that infielder Bobby Dalbec, who was designated for assignment two days ago, also cleared waivers but has exercised his right to elect free agency.

Murfee, 31, was claimed off waivers from the Astros in November. His White Sox tenure got off to a rough start. He logged 12 2/3 innings over 15 appearances, allowing 11 earned runs for a 7.82 ERA. That’s a small sample and it’s possible luck played a part in it. His .390 batting average on balls in play and 67.3% strand rate are both to the unfortunate side. His 3.85 SIERA suggests he deserved better. But on the other hand, his 20.6% strikeout rate was a big drop from his previous work.

Prior to joining the White Sox, Murfee logged 83 1/3 innings with the Mariners over 2022 and 2023. In that time, he had a 2.70 ERA, 27.9% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate. Unfortunately, he required UCL surgery in June of 2023, wiping out the remainder of that season and his 2024.

After the 2023 season, the Mariners put him on waivers. Even though he was facing a notable absence, his numbers were good enough that he bounced to the Mets, Braves, Astros and White Sox on waiver claims. All his pitches have seen a slight drop in velocity this year relative to 2022. Perhaps that provides some explanation for the reduced strikeout rate and, in turn, the lack of interest on the waiver wire.

Murfee finished 2024 with two years and 169 days of service time, just three days shy of the three-year line. By spending the first month-plus of the 2025 season on the active roster, he pushed over that three-year marker. He qualified for arbitration in the winter as a Super Two player but couldn’t push his salary up terribly high due to his injury absence. He and the White Sox avoided arbitration in January by agreeing to a salary of $780K, just a bit above this year’s $760K minimum.

Since he has over three years of service, he has the right to reject this outright assignment in favor of free agency. But since he has less than five, he would have to forfeit his remaining salary in order to exercise that right. As such, he is likely to report to Charlotte and attempt to work his way back onto the roster.

Dalbec, 30 next month, signed a minor league deal with the Sox in the winter. He got added to the roster about two weeks ago when Chase Meidroth hit the injured list but was bumped off when Josh Rojas returned from the IL. He has shown huge power in his career, with 47 home runs in 1,065 plate appearances, but has undercut that with a massive 36.6% strikeout rate.

Like Murfee, Dalbec is between three and five years of service. His deal with the White Sox reportedly came with a $1.25MM salary in the majors but it’s possible that it was some kind of split deal that wasn’t fully guaranteed and/or wouldn’t pay him as much in the minors. Whatever the details, Dalbec felt comfortable walking away and heading to the open market to see what other opportunities are out there.

Photo courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images

White Sox Designate Bobby Dalbec For Assignment

By Nick Deeds | May 4, 2025 at 10:36am CDT

The White Sox announced a series of roster moves this morning. The club reinstated infielder Josh Rojas from the injured list, selected the contract of right-hander Caleb Freeman, and recalled southpaw Tyler Gilbert to the big league roster. In corresponding moves, infielder Bobby Dalbec was designated for assignment while southpaw Fraser Ellard was placed on the 15-day injured list with a left lat strain and righty Penn Murfee was optioned to Triple-A.

Rojas, 31 next month, signed with the White Sox this past winter after being non-tendered by the Mariners. Drafted in the 26th round by the Astros back in 2017, Rojas was shipped to Arizona in the Zack Greinke trade and made his MLB debut with the Diamondbacks not long after. After struggling to hit at the big league level in his first two MLB seasons, Rojas took a step forward and became a quality regular with a roughly league average bat and a strong glove all around the infield starting in his age-27 campaign back in 2021. The last four seasons have seen Rojas slash .252/.327/.373 with a 97 wRC+ between the Diamondbacks and Mariners while accumulating 7.2 fWAR.

A difficult second half in Seattle last year led to his non-tender, however, and the White Sox scooped him up over the offseason to serve as a veteran option in their young and unproven infield. Rojas began the season on the shelf due to a late spring toe fracture, however, and is only just now getting activated for his debut with Chicago. Since Rojas went down, Lenyn Sosa and Miguel Vargas have mostly handled second and third base. Now that Rojas is in the mix, he figures to start everyday against at least right-handed pitchers, though it wouldn’t be a shock to see him get at least some play against lefties as well despite his lackluster platoon splits thanks to solid defense.

Making room for Rojas’s return in the positional mix is Dalbec, who had taken up a bench role with the White Sox in recent weeks. He made it into just seven games with Chicago before being designated for assignment today, slashing .222/.333/.278 in that time with a 28.6% strikeout rate. A former top-100 prospect for the Red Sox, Dalbec hit .243/.308/.511 with 33 homers in 156 games between the 2020 and ’21 seasons but since then has looked miscast at the big league level, hitting just .199/.272/.328 in 520 plate appearances since the start of the 2022 season while striking out at a whopping 37.5% clip. The White Sox will now have one week to trade Dalbec or attempt to pass him through waivers. Should he clear waivers, Dalbec will have the opportunity to elect free agency as a player with a previous career outright.

Dalbec’s 40-man roster spot will go to Freeman, whose first game with the Sox will be his major league debut. The 27-year-old was a 15th-rounder in the 2019 draft and has mostly posted pedestrian numbers throughout his MiLB career, but he’s gotten off to quite a hot start at Triple-A this year. In 13 1/3 innings of work across ten outings, Freeman has posted a 1.35 ERA while striking out 33.3% of his opponents. Those exciting numbers are still in a very small sample size, of course, but it was still enough for the White Sox to give the righty a look in a bullpen that could surely stand to benefit from a breakout performer within its ranks.

Ellard departs the roster in a move that makes room for Freeman on the active roster. The southpaw’s 6.75 ERA in seven outings this year is lackluster, though his 40% strikeout rate in that limited taste of big league action this year was exciting enough that the loss of Ellard from the bullpen mix is still a significant hit to the unit’s overall upside. Meanwhile, Gilbert rejoins the roster as a swing option despite below average results (5.59 ERA, 4.40 FIP) in 9 2/3 innings of work this year at the expense of Murfee, who has been torched for a 7.82 ERA in 15 outings this year and will head to Triple-A for a reset.

White Sox Transfer Martin Perez To 60-Day IL, Select Bobby Dalbec

By Steve Adams | April 21, 2025 at 8:28am CDT

The White Sox selected the contract of infielder Bobby Dalbec from Triple-A Charlotte, per a team announcement. Fellow infielder Chase Meidroth heads to the 10-day injured list due to inflammation in his right thumb, while veteran lefty Martin Perez is moving from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL. Perez exited his most recent start due to forearm soreness and was placed on the 15-day injured list over the weekend due to inflammation in his left elbow.

The Sox haven’t provided further word on Perez’s injury, but the move to the 60-day IL was not expected based on the information that’s been made publicly available. A move to the 60-day IL takes him out until at least late June. That’s a tough blow for the ChiSox, both because Perez has had a nice start to the season and because it clouds his potential outlook as a trade candidate prior to July’s deadline.

Perez, 34, signed a one-year deal worth $5MM over the winter. Through his first three starts with the South Siders, he posted a 1.59 ERA with a 26.9% strikeout rate and 13.4% walk rate in 17 frames. History tells us that Perez is highly unlikely to keep inducing strikeouts at that level but also that his walk rate should be expected to drop substantially; over the past four seasons, Perez fanned just 18.4% of his opponents but also limited his walk rate to a solid 8% mark.

However, Perez was roughed up for four runs in three innings against the Red Sox his last time out. He yielded five hits, including a homer, walked two batters and didn’t record a strikeout. There was no major velocity drop, but Statcast did measure Perez’s cutter at a season-low 84.9 mph on average, down from his 85.5 mph average in his first start. His sinker had a similar dip. That’s not stark enough to prompt major concern, but it’s of some mild note in the wake of his 60-day placement. Presumably, White Sox skipper Will Venable will have more information on Perez’s status prior to today’s series finale at Fenway Park.

Fenway was long the home park for Dalbec, 29. The former Red Sox fourth-rounder (2016) ranked among the team’s best prospects for much of his minor league tenure and posted a solid .243/.308/.511 batting line with 33 home runs through his first 545 major league plate appearances from 2020-21. It’s been a sharp decline ever since. Dating back to the 2022 season, Dalbec has appeared in 175 big league games and tallied 499 plate appearances, but he has just a .198/.269/.330 slash to show for it. He’s fanned in 38% of his plate appearances along the way and nearly 37% of his overall plate appearances in the majors.

Through his first 12 games in Triple-A this season, Dalbec has been on a tear. He’s hitting .326/.354/.696 with four homers, three doubles, a triple and a stolen base in only 48 trips to the plate. He’s still punched out in exactly one-third of those turns at the dish, but he’s stinging the ball when he makes contact.

It seems likely to be a short-term stint on the 40-man roster for Dalbec. He’s out of minor league options, so he can’t be sent back down without first being designated for assignment and passed through waivers.

Meidroth tells MLB.com’s Scott Merkin that x-rays on his thumb were negative. He first felt the issue in Charlotte, prior to his original promotion to the majors. He rested a few days and returned to the Triple-A lineup pain-free. It’s resurfaced recently, and after trying to play through it for the past week or so, he’ll now sit down for a longer spell to try to get the issue cleared up once and for all.

Acquired from the Red Sox in the Garrett Crochet trade, the 23-year-old Meidroth was Boston’s 2022 fourth-round pick. He opened the year with a .267/.450/.600 slash through 40 Triple-A plate appearances before being summoned for his MLB debut, and he’s batted .269/.387/.269 in his first 31 trips to the plate as a big leaguer.

White Sox Designate Oscar Colas For Assignment, Claim Greg Jones From Rockies

By Steve Adams | March 26, 2025 at 12:51pm CDT

The White Sox have designated outfielder Oscar Colas for assignment and claimed infielder/outfielder Greg Jones off waivers from the Rockies, per a team announcement. Chicago optioned Jones and righty Justin Anderson to Triple-A Charlotte. The Sox also reassigned infielders Bobby Dalbec, Tristan Gray and Chase Meidroth to minor league camp alongside righties James Karinchak and Steven Wilson.

Now 26 years old, Colas came to the White Sox with considerable fanfare. The Cuban-born slugger was touted as one of the more intriguing prospects on the 2020-21 and 2021-22 international amateur markets. He bizarrely (and frankly, unfairly) drew comparisons to Shohei Ohtani, of all players, for his plus raw power and because he’d dabbled in pitching during his time in Cuba and a brief foray into Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Outlandish as that comparison was, it did set some unrealistic expectations among fans who were dreaming on Colas as a potential superstar.

Even before the White Sox signed him, Colas had signaled that he no longer intended to pitch and that he’d focus his efforts on his work as a position player. He formally signed with Chicago in Jan. 2022 for a reported $2.7MM bonus. Colas went on to tear through minor league pitching that season, slashing .314/.371/.524 with 23 homers across three levels. Strong as those rate stats were, his production came with some red flags. Colas spent the bulk of the season playing against younger and less experienced competition, and he rarely walked. His strikeout rates also climbed rapidly as he moved from High-A to Double-A to Triple-A.

The Sox gave Colas his big league debut in 2023, and he quickly looked overmatched. In 75 games and 263 plate appearances, he hit just .216/.257/.314 with a tiny 4.6% walk rate and a bloated 27.6% strikeout rate. Of the 328 big league hitters with at least 250 plate appearances in 2023, Colas chased balls off the plate at the 13th-highest rate, per Statcast, despite also turning in a well below-average contact rate on such swings. Only 39 of those 328 hitters had a lower overall contact rate than Colas.

For all of Colas’ big league struggles in 2023, he at least turned in a .272/.345/.465 line in Triple-A Charlotte. That was league-average production by measure of wRC+ — a testament to the hitter-friendly nature of the Triple-A International and Pacific Coast Leagues. Colas showed solid discipline in the minors, walking at a 9.2% clip against a roughly average 22.3% strikeout rate.

The 2024 season brought considerable regression. Colas hit only .246/.332/.400 in Triple-A. His 11% walk rate was an improvement, and his 23.1% strikeout rate effectively matched the prior season, but Colas’ power deteriorated. He also became increasingly prone to hitting grounders and harmless infield flies; nearly one-quarter of his fly balls in Triple-A last year registered as infield flies. That’s more than double the 10.3% MLB average. Despite the Sox fielding a historically bad team, they scarcely gave Colas a look; he logged only 38 plate appearances and hit .273/.368/.273 while fanning 10 times (26.3%). Spring training hasn’t done Colas any favors. He received only 18 official plate appearances and went 4-for-16 with seven strikeouts.

The White Sox will now trade Colas or place him on waivers within the next five days. Outright waivers are a 48-hour process, which could drag his stay in DFA limbo out to a maximum of one week. Though he was a touted prospect not long ago, Colas’ struggles and limited skill set might allow Chicago to keep him. Today’s front offices typically aren’t enamored of power-focused corner bats with questionable on-base skills and sub-par defensive acumen.

In Jones, the Sox will pick up one of the sport’s fastest players. The 27-year-old has only six MLB plate appearances to his credit — he went 1-for-6 with a homer for Colorado last year — but drew 80 grades for his speed as a prospect. Jones went 46-for-49 in stolen bases at the Triple-A level last year despite being limited to just 89 games by injury. He hit .267/.344/.453 with the Rockies’ top affiliate (99 wRC+).

Jones is in the last of his three minor league option years. The former Rays first-rounder has split the bulk of his pro career between shortstop and center field. He’ll give the South Siders some depth at both spots and would presumably be an option in the outfield corners or at second base and third base as well. The Rockies gave him 64 games in center, 16 at shortstop, eight at second base and four in right field last year.

Colorado picked Jones up in a March 2024 trade sending left-handed pitching prospect Joe Rock to the Rays. The Rockies are left without anything to show for that swap now, whereas Rock has blossomed into a nearly MLB-ready rotation prospect for Tampa Bay. Rock profiles as more of a back-end starter or multi-inning reliever than a top-of-the-rotation talent, but the swap has clearly worked out in the Rays’ favor to this point.

White Sox Sign Bobby Dalbec To Minor League Deal

By Darragh McDonald | January 7, 2025 at 2:47pm CDT

The White Sox announced that they have signed infielder Bobby Dalbec to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that Dalbec will make $1.25MM if in the majors with $500K of incentives available to him as well. The CAA Sports client will also have opportunities to opt-out of the deal in June or July if not on the roster.

Dalbec, 30 in June, joins a new organization for the first time in his career. He was drafted by the Red Sox in 2016 and played for that club at the big league level for parts of the past five seasons. The book on Dalbec is that he has power potential but strikes out far too often to make use of it. He has taken 1,044 trips to the plate in his major league career thus far, hitting home runs in 47 of those but also getting punched out 36.8% of the time.

That’s something that’s actually gotten worse over time. He hit 25 home runs in 2021 while striking out at a 34.4% clip, with the Red Sox surely hoping for that number to come down as he got more big league experience. But he’s had 146 plate appearances over the past two seasons and been set down on strikes at a massive 48.6% clip in those. He was outrighted off Boston’s roster in September and elected free agency at season’s end.

The White Sox are a good fit for him, as there’s not much blocking his path back to the big leagues. Dalbec has mostly played first base in his career but has also seen significant time at third, while making brief appearances in the middle infield and in right field.

Chicago just wrapped up the worst season of the modern era and has very little settled in its position player mix. Andrew Vaughn is still the first baseman but his production has declined in each of the past two years. Even if he bounces back, the White Sox are highly likely to trade him since he can only be retained via arbitration through 2026.

Veterans like Josh Rojas, Mike Tauchman and Austin Slater have been brought in to shore up various parts of the roster but any of them could be cut loose or traded throughout the year, depending on how things go in 2025. Youngsters like Miguel Vargas, Bryan Ramos and Colson Montgomery will be allotted lots of future playing time but none of them are established in the majors just yet.

Despite the strikeouts, Dalbec has continued to produce in the minors. He’s had 956 Triple-A plate appearances over the past three years with 58 homers. Though he had a 34.6% strikeout rate in that sample, he also had an 11.8% walk rate, a combined batting line of .260/.358/.523 and a 121 wRC+. If he can bring some of that up to the majors with the White Sox, he has less than three years of service time and can therefore be cheaply retained beyond this year via arbitration if he has a roster spot at season’s end. He is now out of options, however, which could make it tricky for him to hold a roster spot even if he gets one.

12 Players Elect Free Agency

By Mark Polishuk and Nick Deeds | November 3, 2024 at 8:17am CDT

As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.

Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. These transactions are all reflected on the MiLB.com or MLB.com logs unless otherwise stated.

Infielders

Jose Barrero (Rangers)*
Bobby Dalbec (Red Sox)*
Kevin Smith (Yankees)
Jamie Westbrook (Red Sox)*

Pitchers

David Buchanan (Reds)
Shintaro Fujinami (Mets)
Brad Keller (Red Sox)*
Josh Maciejewski (Yankees)
Darren McCaughan (Marlins)
Anthony Misiewicz (Yankees)
Nick Ramirez (Dodgers)
Naoyuki Uwasawa (Red Sox)

* Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported that Dalbec, Westbrook, and Keller have elected free agency. Francys Romero reported that Barrero has elected free agency.

Red Sox Outright Bobby Dalbec

By Nick Deeds | September 10, 2024 at 2:36pm CDT

Sept. 10: Dalbec went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Worcester, per a team announcement. He’ll remain in the organization.

Sept. 8: The Red Sox announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Richard Fitts, whose promotion was reported last night. The club designated infielder Bobby Dalbec for assignment to make room for Fitts on the 40-man roster and optioned right-hander Chase Shugart to Triple-A in order to clear space on the active roster.

Dalbec, 29, was a fourth-round pick by the Red Sox in the 2016 draft who earned plenty of attention with a dominant debut during the shortened 2020 season. After being called up halfway through the 60-game campaign, he emerged as the club’s regular first baseman down the stretch and slashed a torrid .263/.359/.600 with an eye-popping eight home runs in just 92 trips to the plate. Though the Red Sox ultimately finished fifth in the AL East that year and no one expected Dalbec to continue slugging at a 63 homer pace in his first full season in 2021, there was nonetheless optimism regarding the then-25-year-old’s future.

While Dalbec didn’t hit at the same otherworldly level he did during his first taste of big league action, his first full big league campaign in 2021 was a productive one nonetheless. In 453 trips to the plate across 133 games, Dalbec hit a respectable .240/.298/.400 with 25 home runs, 21 doubles, and 5 triples as Boston’s primary first baseman. That strong power production helped to offset his massive 34.4% strikeout rate and make him an above average (106 wRC+) bat overall, but things took a turn for the worse for Dalbec when his power evaporated during the 2022 season. As his isolated slugging dropped nearly a hundred points year-over-year while his strikeout rate held fairly steady, his production cratered and he wound up slashing just .215/.283/.369 with a wRC+ 20% worse than league average in 117 games in 2022.

That wound up being Dalbec’s final opportunity as a regular with the Red Sox, as he spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons primarily in Triple-A as optionable infield depth. He hit quite well for Triple-A Worcester in both of those years, but his opportunities at the big league level were sparse and did not see him succeed. In a combined 146 trips to the major league plate over the past two years, Dalbec hit a ghastly .159/.234/.235 while striking out at a whopping 48.6% clip and slugging just two home runs. While Dalbec has increased his versatility these past two years, appearing at all four infield spots and right field in the major leagues, no amount of versatility was able to overcome that brutal production at the plate.

With Dalbec set to be out of options and potentially arbitration-eligible headed into the 2025 campaign, it’s hardly a surprise that the Red Sox have decided to cut bait on the once-promising infielder. Should he go unclaimed on waivers, the Red Sox will have the opportunity to outright him to the minor leagues for the remainder of the 2024 season, though Dalbec will have the opportunity to elect minor league free agency in search of a change of scenery at season’s end.

AL East Notes: Duran, Romano, Orioles, Abreu

By Mark Polishuk | June 22, 2024 at 3:11pm CDT

The Red Sox haven’t yet discussed a contract extension with Jarren Duran, the outfielder told MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo earlier this week, though Duran doesn’t seem bothered by the lack of talks. “I’m just here to play baseball. If they come talk to me, then they come talk to me, but I’m just enjoying playing baseball with this team,” Duran said. The Sox aren’t exactly on a ticking clock, as Duran doesn’t reach arbitration eligibility until this coming winter, though he will likely qualify for Super Two status and thus earn a fourth arbitration year.

That extra arb year could make things very lucrative for Duran, given how has continued to up his game in 2024. He has hit .280/.347/.478 over 350 plate appearances this season, just about matching the numbers he posted over 362 PA in 2023. When combined with his excellent baserunning and solid defense in left and center field, Duran has generated 3.1 fWAR, a number topped by only eight players this season.

Considering how Duran struggled in his first two big league seasons, it isn’t surprising that the Red Sox wanted a little more data beyond just 2023 to make sure that Duran’s breakout was for real. Signing Duran to an extension will be a lot more expensive now than it would’ve been last winter, yet it still might allow the Red Sox to gain some certainty over Duran’s escalating arb salaries, and add another year of control or two over a player they might now view as a longer-term building block. That said, Duran’s age could also be a factor, as he turns 28 in September, and so Boston already has him arb-controlled through his age-31 season.

Red Sox Select Jamie Westbrook

By Nick Deeds | June 2, 2024 at 10:38am CDT

10:38am: Cora told reporters (including MassLive’s Christopher Smith) this morning that Gonzalez’s trip to the shelf figures to be close to the ten day minimum. While the injury doesn’t appear to be a particularly serious one, Cora noted that he was likely to need “a few days” and that the club was likely to need the roster spot in the wake of Grissom’s injury.

9:09am: The Red Sox announced a series of roster moves today, including their expected placement of second baseman Vaughn Grissom on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain. Joining Grissom on the 10-day IL is utility infielder Romy Gonzalez, who was shelved with a left hamstring strain. Grissom and Gonzalez will be replaced on the club’s active roster by infielder Bobby Dalbec and utility man Jamie Westbrook. Making room for Westbrook on the club’s 40-man roster is Garrett Whitlock, who was transferred to the 60-day IL.

With Grissom and Gonzalez both joining Triston Casas on the injured list, the infield mix in Boston has been almost completely overhauled. Dominic Smith and Garrett Cooper figure to continue holding down first base in the absence of Casas, while superstar third baseman Rafael Devers will remain in his regular role at the hot corner with the club. Up the middle, the Red Sox now have Westbrook as a backup option at both shortstop and second base, where David Hamilton and Enmanuel Valdez figure to be the club’s primary options, respectively. Dalbec has primarily been a corner infielder throughout his career but has made brief cameos at the big league level at both second base and shortstop, making him a possible emergency backup option for the Red Sox.

That makeshift infield mix has produced mixed results so far this season. Smith and Cooper have both struggled to hit much at first base, with Smith’s .202/.287/.286 slash line slightly beating out Cooper’s .182/.250/.255. Dalbec appears unlikely to help bolster that first base mix very much after he hit just .132/.207/.170 in a 22-game stint in Boston earlier this year, though his .860 OPS in 115 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level since then could provide some reason for optimism about his ability to contribute.

Things have looked a bit better for the Red Sox up the middle, where Hamilton has shown himself to be an able replacement for Trevor Story in 34 games as the club’s fill-in shortstop. In 102 trips to the plate this season, Hamilton has slashed an above-average .269/.333/.398 while playing passable defense at shortstop. Unfortunately, Valdez has struggled to hit to this point in the season at the keystone, slashing just .179/.206/.358 in 31 games with the club.

That could create a path to semi-regular playing time for Westbrook while Grissom is on the shelf, as the Massachusetts native owns a career .281/.375/.457 slash line at the Triple-A level including a .267/.364/.436 in 198 plate appearances this year. If the minor league journeyman, who will celebrate his 29th birthday later this month, can hit anything close to that in his first taste of big league action, he should have the opportunity to establish himself as a firm piece of the club’s infield mix going forward.

As for Whitlock, the right-hander’s placement on the injured list is hardly a surprise after he underwent an internal brace procedure on his right elbow that ended his season last week. Grissom and Gonzalez both figure to be back in action at some point, though specific timetables for return are not known. Grissom’s hamstring strain was described as “mild” by manager Alex Cora last night, and little is known regarding Gonzalez’s injury beyond the diagnosis provided by the Red Sox alongside his placement on the shelf.

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