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Luis Guerrero

Red Sox Place Justin Slaten On IL, DFA Blake Sabol

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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.

Red Sox To Select Nate Eaton

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The Red Sox are poised to select the contract of infielder/outfielder Nate Eaton ahead of their game against Atlanta tomorrow, according to a report from Chris Henrique of Boston Sports Journal. MassLive’s Chris Cotillo adds that the Red Sox are expected to recall right-hander Luis Guerrero tomorrow. The club’s 40-man and active rosters are both at capacity, meaning additional corresponding moves will be necessary to complete those transactions before tomorrow’s game.

Eaton, 28, made his big league debut with the Royals back in 2022 and posted solid numbers for the club across 44 games with a .264/.331/.387 slash line in 122 trips to the plate. The performance was enough to earn him a role on the 2023 club, but unfortunately he wasn’t able to maintain the previous year’s league average production in year two. His slash line collapsed to just .075/.125/.075 in 56 plate appearances, and that was all she wrote for Eaton’s big league career until now. He spent all of last year at Triple-A Omaha with the Royals but didn’t get called up to the majors, and this past offseason he signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox. He’s hitting a solid but unspectacular .277/.364/.446 (117 wRC+) in 225 plate appearances for Triple-A Worcester so far this year.

It’s not the most exciting profile, and it certainly won’t sate Red Sox fans who have been calling for the promotion of star outfield prospect Roman Anthony since Opening Day. With that said, Cotillo made the observation in the aftermath of today’s reporting regarding Eaton that Boston is likely to face a number of left-handed starting pitchers in the near future during series against the Angels and Yankees; given that the Red Sox have previously cited Anthony’s work against left-handed pitching as one area where they hope to see growth from the budding star, it’s not hard to see why the club might prefer an extra right-handed bat in the mix rather than bringing another lefty bat like Anthony into the fold, at least in the short term.

Turning back to Eaton, the 28-year-old offers another right-handed bat for a heavily left-handed Red Sox lineup and can bring versatility to the table. He’s played all three outfield spots and third base in the majors, with additional cameos at both second base and shortstop during his time with the WooSox. He’s also a threat on the basepaths, having swiped 27 bags in 31 attempts for Triple-A Omaha last year. It’s unclear what the corresponding move for Eaton’s addition to the roster will wind up being, and as such it’s hard to predict where exactly the Red Sox plan to use him in the coming days. If an outfielder like Rob Refsnyder or Ceddanne Rafaela is headed for the injured list, it would make sense for Eaton to get most of his reps on the grass. Meanwhile, if he subs in for a player like Nick Sogard or Abraham Toro, perhaps he’ll see most of his time bouncing around the infield.

As for Guerrero, Cotillo notes that the right-hander is not yet eligible to be recalled back to the big league roster unless it’s to replace an injured player, which suggests at least one member of Boston’s pitching staff is headed to the injured list. Whoever he may end up replacing, Guerrero has long looked ready for an extended opportunity in the majors. Since making his big league debut in 2024, the right-hander has pitched to a 0.59 ERA with a 2.42 FIP and a 22.8% strikeout rate. Those are excellent numbers, but they’ve come in just a 15 1/3 inning sample size in the majors with less encouraging results at Triple-A. Even so, given his success in short bursts at the big league level there’s little harm in giving Guerrero a longer look given the recent struggles of more established arms like the recently-injured Liam Hendriks.

Red Sox Designate Sean Newcomb For Assignment

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The Red Sox announced this afternoon that they’ve designated left-hander Sean Newcomb for assignment. The move makes room on the active roster for right-hander Luis Guerrero to be recalled from Triple-A.

Newcomb, 32 next month, is a former first-round pick who was selected 15th overall by the Angels back in 2014. He was swapped to Atlanta in the Andrelton Simmons trade prior to his MLB debut and spent parts of six seasons with the Braves from 2017 to 2022. During that time, he pitched to a league average 4.25 ERA in 144 appearances (57 starts) with a near-matching 4.27 FIP. That overall number doesn’t tell the full story, however, as Newcomb was actually an above-average pitcher (110 ERA+) over his first three years in the majors. Things took a turn for the worse after that, however, and by the end of the 2022 season he had been cut by the Braves and had a 7.45 ERA with a 5.57 FIP over his 73 2/3 innings of work in the majors from 2020 to 2022. He spent the following two seasons in Oakland with a roughly average 4.32 ERA despite shoddy peripherals that were more or less in line with his numbers during his previous struggles.

Newcomb’s future was filled with uncertainty entering Spring Training this winter. He had signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox over the winter, but the club had a loaded pitching staff and Newcomb hadn’t exactly shown much at the big league level in recent years. Fortunately for the soon to be 32-year-old, the Red Sox suffered a number of injuries throughout the spring. That, in conjunction with an impressive Spring Training, was enough to get Newcomb an opportunity to break camp not just with Boston, but as a member of the starting rotation while players like Lucas Giolito, Kutter Crawford, and Brayan Bello began the season on the IL.

Newcomb’s five starts with Boston over the season’s first month were something of a mixed bag. The southpaw completed the fifth inning just once in those outings and surrendered a 4.43 ERA overall, but his peripherals looked quite strong as he struck out 25.7% of his opponents while walking 10.5%. He got bumped from the club’s rotation as other pitchers started to get healthy, but remained on the roster as a long relief option and excelled in that role as well, with a 3.06 ERA and 3.81 FIP in 17 2/3 innings of work across six relief outings.

In all, the lefty finishes his time with the Red Sox with a 3.83 ERA and 3.28 FIP across 40 innings of work. It’s a solid track record, and it would hardly be a surprise to see a pitching-needy club scoop the southpaw up either via trade or the waiver wire in the coming days given his previous pedigree and more recent success in the majors this year. The Red Sox will have one week to either trade Newcomb or attempt to pass him through waivers. Should he clear waivers, they could attempt to outright him to the minors as non-roster depth but he would have the opportunity to reject that assignment.

As for Guerrero, the right-hander has yet to give up an earned run in 14 innings of work at the major league level across the past two seasons. He’s rode the shuttle between Triple-A and the majors frequently for the Red Sox in recent years due to the fact that he has options remaining, but has yet to get an extended audition at the big league level. It’s possible his opportunity is now, although it must be noted that the Red Sox have a number of hurlers on the injured list whose activation will eventually require someone to be sent down to the minors or otherwise removed from the roster.

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