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Red Sox Select Jamie Westbrook

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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.

Red Sox To Place Vaughn Grissom On 10-Day Injured List

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Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, including Ian Browne of MLB.com, following today’s win over the Tigers that second baseman Vaughn Grissom will need to be placed on the 10-day injured list due to what he termed a “mild” hamstring strain. Grissom exited the game after pulling up while running out a groundout earlier in the game, leading to catcher Connor Wong replacing Grissom at the keystone. According to Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic, Cora indicated to reporters that Wong’s surprise appearance at second base today was due to utility infielder Romy Gonzalez not being available, although he did not specify what was ailing Gonzalez or if he would be available tomorrow afternoon.

The news about Grissom constitutes another brutal injury blow for a Red Sox club that has struggled to stay healthy this year, particularly on the positional side. Grissom himself has appeared in just 23 games this season after being sidelined into May by a hamstring strain during Spring Training. Fortunately, as noted by Browne, that strain impacted his left hamstring, while today’s injury was a right hamstring strain. That Grissom’s injury is a new one should allow him to return to action more quickly than if he had re-injured the same hamstring as before, but he’ll nonetheless miss at least the next ten days without a clear timetable for his return to action.

When he’s been healthy enough to take the field, the start to Grissom’s Red Sox tenure has been a difficult one. He’s hit just .159/.209/.163 in 86 trips to the plate for Boston so far this season. That’s a particularly difficult pill to swallow for Red Sox fans given the fact that veteran southpaw Chris Sale, who the club swapped to Atlanta in order to acquire Grissom, has dominanted to a 2.12 ERA and NL-best 2.11 FIP in his first ten starts with the club, helping to anchor the club’s rotation alongside Max Fried in the absence of ace Spencer Strider.

While Grissom’s production to this point won’t exactly be difficult for the Red Sox to replace, his absence will only serve to further compound the club’s other positional injuries. Trevor Story, Triston Casas, Tyler O’Neill, and Masataka Yoshida are all already on the injured list, with Story out for the season and Casas also facing a lengthy absence. Fortunately, the club’s situation is not without silver linings. Cora told reporters (including MassLive’s Christopher Smith) earlier today that O’Neill’s ailing knee has responded well to a cortisone shot and the club figures to be without the outfielder for only the ten day minimum, a timeline which should allow him to return to action early next week.

Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe relayed similarly optimistic news regarding Yoshida, who told reporters that he’s no longer feeling any negative effects from the thumb injury that sidelined him last month. That won’t help the Red Sox in the short term, as Yoshida will still need to build up after a month of time rehabbing the injury before he can return to the big league club, but it’s still an encouraging sign for a team that figures to be without Grissom for at least a couple of weeks. Both Yoshida and O’Neill were hitting at an above-average clip overall at the time of their injuries, and if healthy should be able to step into the club’s outfield mix as key pieces alongside Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu.

The impending return of O’Neill, in particular, should be a relief for the Red Sox as it can provide the club with the opportunity to utilize versatile rookie Ceddanne Rafaela, who has mainly played center field for the club this year, on the infield dirt while Grissom is unavailable. In the meantime, the club figures to turn to Enmanuel Valdez and David Hamilton up the middle, with Gonzalez also a potential contributor at the keystone should he return to action in the coming days.

Alex Cora: No Plans To Discuss Red Sox Extension Mid-Season

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Red Sox manager Alex Cora entered the 2024 season without a contract lined up for 2025, and comments he made to reporters, including The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey, yesterday indicate that he and the club do not intend to discuss a possible contract extension during the season.

“We’ll play it out, and whatever is decided is decided,” Cora said, per McCaffrey. “…My situation will be taken care of in the future, whatever the organization decides — or whatever I decide to do.”

Cora has been at the helm of the Red Sox since 2018, with the exception of the shortened 2020 season when he was replaced by Ron Roenicke while serving a one-year suspension due to his role in the 2017 Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. Boston, of course, won the World Series during the first season of Cora’s tenure. The Red Sox missed the postseason in 2019, however, and upon Cora’s return to he manager’s chair in 2021 have generally hovered in the vicinity of .500 with 277 wins and 267 losses entering play today. They’ve made the postseason just once during Cora’s second stint with the club, advancing to the ALCS in 2021 after securing a Wild Card spot.

Of course, much of the blame for that mediocre performance in recent seasons lies at the feet of the front office, which is currently on its third head of baseball operations since Cora joined the staff in 2018 after hiring former Cubs assistant GM Craig Breslow as chief baseball officer this past offseason. Given the turmoil the Red Sox have faced at the top of their baseball operations department and a payroll that has surpassed $200MM just once in the past five seasons after reaching a peak of more than $236MM in 2019 (per Cot’s Baseball Contracts), it’s hard to place Boston’s struggles in recent years at the feet of Cora.

In fact, the Red Sox have generally exceeded expectations to this point in the 2024 campaign, posting an even 29-29 record entering play today despite minimal additions after last year’s 84-loss campaign and significant injuries to key pieces such as Lucas Giolito, Garrett Whitlock, Trevor Story, and Triston Casas. The club’s solid play amid those injuries and low expectations have reinforced Cora’s reputation around the league as one of the game’s most respected managers, and should make him an enticing managerial candidate in the event that he doesn’t return to the Red Sox in 2025. Cora’s situation brings to mind that of former Brewers manager Craig Counsell, who departed Milwaukee after choosing to enter the 2023 season without an extension in favor of a five-year, $40MM contract with the Cubs this past winter.

McCaffrey notes that Cora was “keenly aware” of Counsell’s deal with the Cubs this past season, and it would hardly be a surprise if he hoped to land a similar deal for himself this winter. On the other hand, it’s at least possible Cora could look to take his impending free agent status as an opportunity to move out of the dugout entirely. The 48-year-old has previously suggested that he would like to move to a front office role at some point down the line, although he noted last autumn that he was not yet ready to make the jump.

Coincidentally, the Red Sox themselves figure to be in the market for an addition to their front office brain trust this winter, with Sean McAdam of MassLive.com noting that Breslow recently told reporters he doesn’t expect to hire a second-in-command until this winter. That’s hardly a surprising development, as it was reported just last month by Alex Speier of the Boston Globe that the club had hired an outside consulting firm to conduct an audit of the organization and offer Breslow recommendations regarding potential changes. As noted by McAdam, Breslow suggested that the ongoing audit could have an influence over his decision regarding the GM job, noting that it could nudge them toward promoting an in-house candidate or indicate that they’d be best served hiring from outside the organization.

While the opening in Boston’s front office and Cora’s previously stated long-term career goals appear to line up, there’s been no indication from either side that Cora and the Red Sox are considering the possibility of their manager moving upstairs next season. Instead, it appears that decisions by all parties, both regarding Cora’s future in the organization and the vacant GM role below Breslow in the baseball operations hierarchy, will be set aside until this winter as the club attempts to weather a storm of injuries and return to the postseason after back-to-back last place finishes in the AL East.

Seven Veterans With Opt-Out Opportunities This Weekend

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As part of the 2022 collective bargaining agreement, MLB and the Players Association agreed to a few automatic opt-out dates for some veteran players on minor league contracts. Article XX(B) free agents — generally, players with over six years of MLB service who finished the preceding season on a big league roster — who sign minor league contracts more than ten days before Opening Day receive three uniform chances to retest free agency if they’re not promoted.

The first comes five days before the start of the season. For players who pass on that initial opt-out, they have additional windows to explore the open market on both May 1 and June 1 if they’ve yet to secure a spot on the 40-man roster. There were 31 players who initially had that option in Spring Training.

Eleven of them — Carlos Carrasco, Garrett Cooper, Chase Anderson, Dominic Leone, Eddie Rosario, Jesse Winker, Kevin Pillar, Jesse Chavez, Brad Keller, Curt Casali and José Ureña — are currently on MLB rosters. Joely Rodríguez, Tyler Duffey, Matt Barnes and Drew Pomeranz made it to the big leagues but were subsequently removed from the 40-man roster; Barnes and Pomeranz are free agents.

Bryan Shaw, Matt Duffy and Carl Edwards Jr. are on new minor league deals after opting out in Spring Training. Six others — Elvis Andrus, Eduardo Escobar, Mike Moustakas, C.J. Cron, Jake Odorizzi and Kolten Wong — are free agents after being released.

That left seven players with opt-out chances on May 1. While none of them took that immediately, David Peralta opted out of his deal with the Cubs on May 13. He inked a minor league contract with the Padres a few days later and was added to the MLB roster on May 22. Let’s check in on the six remaining players who can retest free agency tomorrow — plus one player whose deal contains a contractual opt-out provision.

Marisnick has had a tough time staying healthy in 2024. The glove-first outfielder has only played in 12 games with the Angels’ top affiliate in Salt Lake. He hasn’t hit in a limited sample, going 5-32 with 14 strikeouts and one walk. Marinsick was out of action between mid-April and the second week of May. He appeared in seven contests before going back on the injured list on May 25. He’s probably best served staying with the Halos, who are without Mike Trout and leaning on Mickey Moniak as their primary center fielder. Moniak is hitting .175/.214/.250 over 126 plate appearances.

Votto’s homecoming has been held up by a Spring Training ankle injury. The former MVP has yet to play in a minor league game. There’s no reason to expect the Toronto native will opt out. Neither Justin Turner nor Daniel Vogelbach is hitting well for the Jays, so there could be an opportunity for Votto once he’s healthy. Vogelbach, as a left-handed hitting DH, is the most direct competition. He has a .167/.273/.292 slash and has only started 13 of the team’s 55 games.

Choi, a lefty-hitting first baseman, was on the injured list for his prior opt-out chance. He’s healthy now, returning to Triple-A Syracuse on May 14. Choi hasn’t gotten into any kind of rhythm offensively, though. The 33-year-old had a .189/.319/.378 slash before hitting the IL. He owns a .171/.268/.286 mark in the 10 games since his return. Choi isn’t hitting well enough to merit a major league opportunity, though he could look for a different minor league contract with Pete Alonso, J.D. Martinez and Mark Vientos firmly above him on the first base/DH depth chart.

Greene pitched in six games for Triple-A Round Rock in April. He allowed 15 runs in eight innings and was placed on the injured list. The Express transferred the veteran righty to the full-season IL two weeks ago, ruling him out for the year.

Neither Fulmer nor Pérez has played this season. Fulmer will miss the entire year after undergoing elbow surgery last fall. His contract is a two-year deal; he almost certainly won’t opt out.

Pérez missed most of 2023 after undergoing a rotator cuff repair on his right shoulder. He played in seven games this spring but has spent the regular season on the minor league IL with an undisclosed injury. The Sox have gotten strong play from their catching tandem of Connor Wong and Reese McGuire. Perhaps Pérez feels there’s a better path to playing time if he signs a minor league deal with another team, but it seems likelier he’ll stick in the organization.

Kemp is not one of the aforementioned Article XX(b) players. He’s playing on a minor league deal that he signed in mid-April with the Twins. Darren Wolfson of SKOR North reported (on X) earliest this month that Kemp’s contract contains a June 1 opt-out date. The left-handed hitting second baseman/left fielder has struggled for Triple-A St. Paul, batting .193/.316/.325 with three homers across 98 plate appearances.

That’s mostly attributable to poor ball in play results. Kemp has shown his typically strong plate discipline, walking 13 times against 17 strikeouts. He has been plagued by a .206 average on balls in play. Kemp was briefly on the Orioles’ big league roster in April and has appeared in parts of nine MLB seasons overall. He hit .209/.303/.404 in 124 games with the A’s a season ago.

Garrett Whitlock To Undergo Internal Brace Procedure

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MAY 30: Whitlock will indeed have the internal brace procedure today, Cora tells reporters. Chris Cotillo of MassLive was among those to relay the news on X.

MAY 25: Whitlock is tentatively set to undergo an internal brace procedure, he told The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey and other reporters.  The details will be confirmed after more testing this coming week.  Assuming the surgery takes place as planned, Whitlock will miss roughly 11-12 months in recovery, as opposed to the longer 13-15 month timeline associated with Tommy John surgeries.

MAY 20: Garrett Whitlock has suffered ligament damage in his throwing elbow, Red Sox manager Alex Cora announced to reporters (including Chris Cotillo of MassLive). The Boston right-hander will go for further evaluation tomorrow to determine whether he can avoid surgery.

This was the outcome which the team and its fans feared last week. Whitlock reported elbow soreness coming out of a rehab start for Triple-A Worcester on Wednesday. He’d been working back from an oblique strain that had shelved him since the middle of April and had been hoping to return to the MLB team in the coming days.

Instead, there looks to be a good chance that his 2024 season is over. If Whitlock does need surgery, it would threaten his ’25 campaign as well. Whitlock has already undergone a Tommy John procedure in his career. That came back in 2019 when he was pitching in the Yankees farm system. Whitlock also had two elbow-related injured list stints in 2023, the latter of which cost him five weeks between July and August. Neither of those involved any ligament damage, but this injury unfortunately appears to be more serious.

The 27-year-old hasn’t had a full season as a starting pitcher since his time in the minors. He was an excellent multi-inning relief weapon for his first two MLB campaigns. Boston gave him 10 starts last year before his July injured list placement. Whitlock worked out of the bullpen after returning. The Sox moved him back into the starting staff to open this year. He allowed only four runs in 18 1/3 innings prior to the oblique injury.

Cooper Criswell has stepped into the rotation behind Brayan Bello, Nick Pivetta, Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck. Signed to a $1MM contract last winter after being non-tendered by the Rays, Criswell has been quietly excellent through his first 29 1/3 frames for the Sox. He owns a 2.76 ERA with a solid 23.3% strikeout percentage and a tidy 5.8% walk rate.

Criswell, who will take the ball tomorrow against his old team in Tampa Bay, should hold a rotation spot for the foreseeable future. Starting pitching could be an area that first-year chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and his staff look to address around the deadline, assuming they hang in postseason contention. Boston blanked the Rays this evening to pull back to .500 at 24-24. They’re long shots to stick with the Yankees and Orioles at the top of the AL East but are firmly in the Wild Card picture.

While Boston’s rotation has been a surprising strength thus far, their front five is light on experience. Pivetta is the only member of the group who has ever started 30 MLB games in a season. He and Bello are the only ones who have surpassed the 130-inning threshold at the big league level.

That lack of volume is a big reason that Boston signed Lucas Giolito, who had been one of the league’s most durable pitchers, to a two-year free agent deal. Giolito immediately down with a partially torn UCL in Spring Training. He underwent an internal brace procedure and will miss the entire season.

Even if Whitlock is able to avoid going under the knife, he’s certainly in for a long-term absence. The Sox will move him to the 60-day injured list when they need a 40-man roster spot. Whitlock, who signed an extension back in 2022, is playing this season on a $3.25MM salary. He’ll make successive salaries of $5.25MM and $7.25MM over the next two seasons. Boston holds a $10.5MM option on his services for the 2027 campaign.

Red Sox Place Tyler O’Neill On Injured List

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The Red Sox announced to reporters that outfielder Tyler O’Neill has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 26, due to right knee inflammation. Infielder Enmanuel Valdéz was recalled in a corresponding move. Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe was among those to relay the info on X.

O’Neill, 29 next month, started out scorching hot with the Red Sox but has cooled off considerably. He was hitting .320/.433/.693 through the end of April but has hit just .151/.244/.301 since the calendar flipped to May. He told reporters recently that his knee has been bothering him for a bit and was probably affecting his swing, per Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic on X.

Health, or the lack thereof, has been a major factor in the outfielder’s career. A fully healthy O’Neill is capable of being an elite player, as he showed in 2021. He got into 138 games for the Cardinals that year and hit 34 home runs. His .286/.352/.560 batting line translated to a 143 wRC+, or 43% above league average. He also stole 15 bases and got strong grades for his outfield defense. FanGraphs considered him to have been worth 5.3 wins above replacement and he finished eighth in National League Most Valuable Player voting.

But the two subsequent seasons saw him get snakebit by injuries. He only played 168 games combined over the 2022 and 2023 seasons, hitting .229/.310/.397 for a wRC+ of 98. He went to the IL at various times for a right shoulder impingement, a left hamstring strain, a lower back strain and a right foot sprain.

With just one year remaining before he reached free agency and St. Louis having a clogged outfield yet again, they flipped him to Boston for a couple of pitchers. The Red Sox were surely hoping to get the healthy version of O’Neill, so that he could either help them compete or perhaps be flipped for a larger package than what they gave up. Since then, they have seen both extremes of the O’Neill experience.

How the Sox decide to approach the deadline will undoubtedly be determined by how they fare between now and then. They are currently 28-27 and just 2.5 games back of a playoff spot. If they can hover around there for the next few months, they could keep O’Neill around as part of a playoff push. He could be a candidate for a qualifying offer at season’s end, depending on how healthy and effective he is in the second half. Though if he’s healthy and the team falls in the standings, he would likely be available on the trade market this summer.

The fact that his injury is just being described as inflammation, as opposed to a strain or a tear, is perhaps a sign that he won’t be on the IL for too long. Manger Álex Cora suggested as much earlier today, as relayed by Ian Browne of MLB.com on X. With O’Neill joining Masataka Yoshida on the injured list, the outfield mix will consist of Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela and Rob Refsnyder for the next little while.

Red Sox Release Vladimir Gutierrez

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The Red Sox announced that Vladimir Gutierrez has been released.  The right-hander had been pitching at Triple-A Worcester since he was acquired from the Brewers last month, though he was designated for assignment and then outrighted off Boston’s 40-man roster earlier this month.

Because Gutierrez has previously been outrighted in his career, he had the option to reject that assignment and opt into free agency.  He chose to stick with the Sox at that point but now finds himself on the open market anyway, as the righty simply didn’t seem to be in the team’s plans.  Gutierrez didn’t help his case with a 9.00 ERA over eight innings in Worcester, as he allowed more walks (12) than strikeouts (eight) over his five appearances.

Gutierrez could now potentially join his fourth different organization in as many months.  He inked a minor league deal with the Marlins during the offseason, and has since been designated for assignment three times — once apiece by Miami, Milwaukee, and Boston.  Gutierrez has seen some big league action this season, with a 6.75 ERA in four innings for the Marlins before he was DFA’ed and then claimed off waivers by the Brewers at the start of April.

Those four innings represented Gutierrez’s first time on a Major League mound since 2022, as Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the entirety of the 2023 season apart from 6 1/3 minor league innings in the Reds’ farm system.  Formerly a highly-regarded pitching prospect during his time in Cincinnati’s minor league ranks, Gutierrez debuted in the Show in 2021 and finished eighth in NL Rookie of the Year voting after posting a 4.74 ERA in 114 innings.  Home runs and control became greater issues for him in 2022, however, as Gutierrez struggled to a 7.61 ERA in 36 2/3 innings before the TJ procedure brought his tough year to an early end.

Red Sox Sign Brad Keller

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11:50AM: The Red Sox have officially announced Keller’s signing and optioned Kelly in the corresponding move.

10:12AM: The Red Sox are nearing a deal with right-hander Brad Keller, according to MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. The deal is pending a physical and the club hopes to make it official before today’s game against the Brewers, which is scheduled to begin at 1:35pm local time. Cotillo adds that right-hander Zack Kelly has been optioned to the minors to make room for Keller on the active roster. Boston’s 40-man roster currently stands at 39, so no corresponding 40-man move will be necessary to add Keller.

Keller, 28, signed with the White Sox on a minor league deal back in March and made five appearances with the club, including two starts, before being designated for assignment last week. Keller subsequently elected free agency and returned to the open market with a 4.86 ERA in 16 2/3 innings of work with Chicago under his belt. That performance may be better than what Keller earned, as he struck out just 17.1% of batters faced while walking 7.9% and allowing a whopping 29.4% of his fly balls to leave the yard for home runs. Those iffy peripherals left him with a 6.55 FIP and a 5.16 xERA, although a 4.02 SIERA and 4.09 xFIP both suggest Keller’s ERA was actually higher than what should have been expected based on his underlying performance.

Regardless of the results from Keller’s time with the White Sox, he’ll now get another opportunity to re-establish himself at the big league level in Boston. Keller was once a promising mid-rotation arm with the Royals, as he posted a 3.50 ERA and 3.90 FIP across his first 360 1/3 innings of work in the majors between 2018 and 2020. Since then, however, his results have declined drastically. His final three seasons in Kansas City saw him post a 5.14 ERA with a 4.79 FIP before he was ultimately sidelined partway through the 2023 campaign by a shoulder issue before undergoing surgery to correct Thoracic Outlet Syndrome back in October. TOS is a particularly difficult injury for players to come back from, and players such as Stephen Strasburg and Chris Archer have seen their careers negatively impacted by the issue in recent years.

Keller will hope to buck that trend with the Red Sox, joining a pitching staff that appears poised to lose right-hander Garrett Whitlock to elbow surgery after already losing righty Lucas Giolito to that same procedure earlier in the year. The club is currently relying on a starting rotation of Brayan Bello, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Cooper Criswell, and Nick Pivetta. While it’s possible that Keller could slot somewhere into that mix, a more likely scenario would be Keller joining veteran righty Chase Anderson as a potential multi-inning relief and spot starter option in the club’s bullpen mix.

Making way for Keller on the club’s active roster is Kelly, who is in his third season as an up-and-down reliever for the Red Sox. The right-hander has generally pitched to solid results when in the majors for the club, with a career 3.18 ERA across 39 2/3 innings of work. Kelly has been particularly effective this season, with a strong 2.16 ERA in 16 2/3 frames despite a 19.4% strikeout rate and a massive 13.9% walk rate that have left him with a lackluster 4.99 FIP. Now back in the minors, Kelly figures to act as optionable depth for the club going forward alongside Josh Winckowski and Naoyuki Uwasawa.

Red Sox Notes: Jansen, O’Neill, Mata

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Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen frequently found his name in the rumor mill all throughout the winter as the club reportedly fielded offers on the veteran in the run-up to Spring Training. No deal ultimately materialized, but that doesn’t mean the team has shifted gears. As relayed by Bob Nightengale of USA Today this morning, the Red Sox still “plan” to trade Jansen before the trade deadline with Nightengale adding that the club isn’t interested in bringing him back for the 2025 campaign.

It’s not necessarily a surprise that the Red Sox would still have interest in dealing Jansen given their efforts to shop him this winter. Boston is currently at .500 with a 26-26 record that places them ten games out in the AL East, making the club passing the Yankees and Orioles for a division title appear unlikely at best. The club’s odds at a Wild Card spot are somewhat better, as they sit just 2.5 games back of the Twins for the third spot, but Boston has shown a willingness to deal rental pieces even while on the fringes of playoff contention in recent years such as when they traded away catcher Christian Vazquez at the 2022 trade deadline despite a 52-52 record.

As for Jansen, the 36-year-old has posted a solid season for the Red Sox to this point with a 3.24 ERA and a 2.59 FIP with eight saves in nine chances across 17 appearances. On the other hand, Jansen’s 13.9% walk rate is surely concerning to potential buyers even in spite of the righty offsetting it with a strong 29.2% strikeout rate. Those control issues combined with Jansen’s hefty $16MM salary this season could make the veteran righty a less attractive piece to clubs in need of relief help than other alternatives who would be unlikely to boast Jansen’s track record but could come with better peripherals and less of a financial burden.

Speculatively speaking, outfielder Tyler O’Neill could be another piece the Red Sox make available in the event they sell this summer given his status as a pending free agent. O’Neill got off to a scorching start in April with nine home runs in 21 games but has crashed back to Earth in the month of May, hitting just .151/.244/.301 over his last 82 trips to the plate. O’Neill added some context to his recent struggles following an incident during yesterday’s game where his knee collided with the Green Monster in left field, causing him to leave the game due to soreness.

O’Neill told reporters (including The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey) after the game that his knee had already been bothering him prior to last night’s incident and that it has “probably” affected his swing, although he remains day-to-day and it’s unclear if he’ll require a trip to the injured list. Rob Refsnyder and Garrett Cooper could be among the players to take over O’Neill’s spot in the lineup should he miss time due to the issue.

Also dealing with injury issues is right-hander Bryan Mata, who is out of options but has yet to make his big league debut due to a hamstring string that’s kept him from playing this season. The righty recently began a rehab assignment in the minor leagues, but that assignment hit a snag on Thursday when he began to experience some soreness in his lat. As noted by MassLive’s Christopher Smith, the Red Sox initially believed the soreness to be in his shoulder and his lat but Mata has since clarified that he’s only feeling an issue in his lat.

Smith notes that manager Alex Cora indicated to reporters on Friday that Mata is “likely” to be pulled from his rehab assignment, a move that kick the club’s decision on Mata’s future further down the road. Mata can only be on a rehab assignment for 30 days before the Red Sox must either recall the righty to the big league roster or designate him for assignment, but that clock will reset if he’s pulled from his rehab assignment and begins another one at a later date. Mata has made just twelve appearances across all levels of the minors since the end of the 2022 season but looked excellent across three levels of the minors that year, pitching to a 2.49 ERA in 83 innings of work.

Mets Acquire Pablo Reyes From Red Sox

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The Mets have acquired utilityman Pablo Reyes from the Red Sox in exchange for cash considerations, as announced via the MLB.com transactions wire.  Reyes was designated for assignment at the end of April but cleared waivers and was outrighted to Boston’s Triple-A affiliate.

This marks the second time that Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns has acquired Reyes, as Reyes signed a minor league deal with the Brewers in January 2021 when Stearns was still in charge of Milwaukee’s front office.  Reyes played in 58 MLB games for the Brew Crew during the 2021-22 seasons before landing in Boston, with a brief stopover with the A’s sandwiched in between.

Reyes has hit .249/.309/.349 over 572 Major League plate appearances, suiting up in six of the last seven MLB seasons (an 80-game PED suspension kept Reyes off the field entirely in 2020).  A career-high 185 of those plate appearances came just last season, as Reyes got into 64 games with the Sox as part of the team’s revolving door at both middle infield positions.  Reyes hit .287/.339/.377 in those 185 PA, translating to a 93 wRC+ since Reyes’ lack of power undermined his solid batting average and on-base numbers.

Defensive versatility has been Reyes’ calling card moreso than his bat, as he has gotten at least a bit of action at every position on the diamond except catcher over the course of his Major League career.  However, he has exclusively played as an infielder (and occasional mop-up pitcher in blowouts) since the start of the 2022 season.  The Mets traded Zack Short to the Red Sox a few weeks ago and just released Joey Wendle earlier this week, so Reyes fills New York’s need for utility infield help.  Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil are locked into everyday duty in the middle infield roles while Brett Baty has seen most of the third base work despite struggling at the plate, and Mark Vientos has been hitting well in a bid to stick in the majors and cut into Baty’s playing time.

Since Reyes is out of minor league options, the Mets will have to keep him on the active roster unless they first designate him for assignment before trying to send him to Triple-A.  In the event that Reyes clears waivers and is then outrighted off the 40-man, he has the right to elect free agency rather than accept that assignment, since he has been previously outrighted in his career.

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