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Pablo Reyes

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.

Red Sox Outright Vladimir Gutierrez, Pablo Reyes

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Red Sox righty Vladimir Gutierrez went unclaimed on outright waivers and has accepted an assignment to Triple-A Worcester, reports Francys Romero. Boston designated him for assignment last week. Also sticking with the organization following a DFA is utilityman Pablo Reyes, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. Like Gutierrez, he went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Worcester. Either player could’ve rejected the assignment in favor of free agency, but they’ll stick with the organization and no longer require 40-man spots.

Now 28 years old, Gutierrez was a high-profile signing out of Cuba back in 2016, when the Reds gave him a $4.75MM bonus and paid a 100% tax on top of that sum. He was one of Cincinnati’s top pitching prospects for a few years but wound up giving them just 150 2/3 innings of 5.44 ERA ball while posting strikeout and walk rates of 17.3% and 10.4%, respectively — both worse than the league average.

Despite those struggles, Gutierrez would surely have received a longer look with the Reds if not for injuries. A torn ulnar collateral ligament in 2022 led to Tommy John surgery. Gutierrez returned to the mound to toss a handful of minor league innings last September but didn’t get back to the big leagues. He was removed from Cincinnati’s 40-man roster and became a free agent following the season. After a few showcases for big league scouts, he signed a minor league deal with the Marlins. He’s since bounced from Miami, to Milwaukee, to Boston via waivers and will now stay put in Worcester for the time being.

The 30-year-old Reyes has been with the Sox since 2023 but hasn’t been able to follow up on a solid .287/.339/.377 slash he posted in 185 plate appearances last season. He hit just .183/.234/.217 in his first 64 trips to the plate this season while fanning at a 29.7% clip that’s nearly triple his 11.4% mark from the prior season.

Reyes has appeared in six straight big league seasons, but last year’s 185 plate appearances were the most he’s accrued in a single season. Overall, he’s taken 572 turns at the plate in the majors and produced a .248/.309/.349 batting line between the Pirates, Brewers and BoSox. The versatile Reyes has appeared at every position on the diamond except for catcher. His career numbers at third base are particularly solid, though he made a few costly errors there earlier this season.

Red Sox Designate Pablo Reyes For Assignment

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The Red Sox announced Monday morning that they’ve designated infielder Pablo Reyes for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to newly acquired first baseman/outfielder Garrett Cooper, whom the Sox added in a cash deal with the Cubs over the weekend.

Reyes has been with the Sox dating back to last season but is out to a brutal start at the plate, hitting just .183/.234/.217 with a 29.7% strikeout rate in his first 64 plate appearances. It’s a far cry from the .287/.339/.377 slash he posted through 185 trips to the plate with the ’23 Sox, when he punched out in only 11.4% of his turns at the plate. Reyes’ 19 strikeouts on the season are already just two fewer than the 21 he posted in nearly three times as much action last year.

The 30-year-old Reyes has appeared in parts of six big league seasons but never topped last year’s 185 plate appearances. He’s a lifetime .248/.309/.349 hitter in 572 plate appearances between the Pirates, Brewers and Sox. He’s played every position on the diamond with the exception of catcher, including a four-inning cameo on the mound. Reyes has drawn solid ratings at third base, in particular, though his versatility has in a way prevented him from picking up a meaningful sample at any single position; his 289 career frames at the hot corner are the most he’s tallied at any one spot.

Reyes is out of minor league options, so the Sox didn’t have the ability to simply send him down to Triple-A Worcester without first exposing him to waivers. They’ll have a week to trade Reyes, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or release him. He’s previously been outrighted in his career (twice, in fact), which gives him the right to reject a minor league assignment in the event that he does clear waivers.

Red Sox Promote Ceddanne Rafaela

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3:55pm: The Sox have now officially announced all of these moves.

3:30pm: The Red Sox are recalling prospect Ceddanne Rafaela, per Ian Browne of MLB.com, along with infielder/outfielder David Hamilton. In corresponding moves, infielder Pablo Reyes is going on the injured list while outfielder Wilyer Abreu heads to the paternity list.

Rafaela, now 22, was signed by the Sox as an amateur out of Curaçao for a modest bonus of $10K. He has since performed well in his rise through the minor leagues and is now considered one of the club’s top prospects, though a somewhat divisive one. He has always hit well on the farm but has done so while swinging at just about everything, leading some evaluators to question whether that hyper-aggressive approach could be exploited by major league pitchers. He also began as an infielder but wasn’t considered an excellent defender there, though his move to center field a few years ago seems to have been an astute one, as he’s now considered elite at that position.

His overall prospect stock shot up in 2022, as he split his time between High-A and Double-A with a combined batting line of .299/.342/.538 and a wRC+ of 134 while spending more time in the outfield. That got him onto some top 100 prospect lists and selected to Boston’s 40-man roster in November, to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He’s had another strong performance here in 2023, hitting .302/.349/.520 between Double-A and Triple-A for a wRC+ of 121.

As mentioned, there is divided opinion on Rafaela as a prospect. Baseball America doesn’t currently have him on their top 100, recently ranking him #6 in the club’s system. Kiley McDaniel recently provided a top 50 update to his prospect rankings without Rafaela making the cut. However, MLB Pipeline has him at #77 in the league, Keith Law of The Athletic recent put him at #48 and FanGraphs has him all the way up at #31.

The major question mark seems to be whether his approach at the plate will work in the big leagues. He’s drawn walks in just 105 of his 1,852 plate appearances in the minors thus far, a rate of 5.7% that’s well below the 8.5% major league average. But his overall offense is strong enough that he’ll get a chance against big league pitching.

This part of the calendar is a popular time for prospect promotions, since there’s not enough time left in the season for players to exhaust rookie eligibility. That’s significant under the new collective bargaining agreement, as players with rookie status that feature on top prospect lists can potentially earn their clubs an extra draft pick in future seasons based on awards voting.

That will be a concern for the future. For now, the club will hope Rafaela can hit the ground running and perhaps provide a jolt to finish the year, as they are currently just 4.5 games out of a playoff spot. But it will also give them a chance to evaluate Rafaela prior to the offseason, with center field a bit of a question mark. Adam Duvall has spent plenty of time there but is a free agent at season’s end. Jarren Duran has had a breakout season but is getting some help from a .381 batting average on balls in play and is currently on the injured list. Abreu has been playing some center but is considered by many to be a better fit for a corner. The final weeks of the season could perhaps provide the club some more information on how their center field depth chart looks for 2024.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Red Sox Have Multiple Infield Decisions Looming

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The Red Sox are planning to reinstate Yu Chang from the injured list and install him as their starting shortstop within the next couple of days, but that’s only the first of several decisions regarding their infield mix. Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com outlines the situation neatly, noting that there are ostensibly three roster spots for four infielders: Chang, Christian Arroyo, Enrique Hernandez and Pablo Reyes.

Like Chang, Reyes is expected to be activated from the injured list before long. Based on overall track record — he’s a career .250/.312/.361 hitter — the 29-year-old would seem to be the odd man out. Reyes is hitting .303/.338/.364 so far this season, however, and while it’s only come in a sample of 72 plate appearances, that’s still better output than the rest of the group. Arroyo is batting .243/.278/.375 in 163 plate appearances, while Hernandez has struggled immensely this year with a .225/.282/.333 slash in 291 plate appearances. Each of Arroyo, Chang and Reyes is out of minor league options, while Hernandez cannot be optioned by virtue of his Major League service time.

Further muddying the infield mix, manager Alex Cora told the team’s beat last night that Justin Turner could begin mixing in at second base soon (Twitter link via Ian Browne of MLB.com). The 38-year-old has just nine innings at second base since 2015, eight of which came earlier this season. He hasn’t started a game at second in eight years, but he’s been one of Boston’s best hitters (.282/.354/.461), and Cora voiced a desire to maximize the offensive potential for a club that has averaged fewer than two runs per game during a 5-8 slump over the past 13 games. It seems unlikely that the Red Sox would install Turner at second base on a full-time basis, given his age and lack of recent experience there, but even occasional reps at the position will cut into opportunities for Arroyo, Hernandez and others.

Looming further in the distance is the return of shortstop Trevor Story, who could begin a minor league rehab assignment following the All-Star break, per Cora (Twitter link via Mac Cerullo of the Boston Herald). While Story has previously spoken about the possibility of returning as a DH in July before moving to shortstop in August, it seems that won’t happen. Cora indicated that when Story returns, it’ll be as a shortstop. That’s still a ways down the road, but it’d likely push Chang either into a utility role or, depending on the outcome of the upcoming roster decisions, perhaps into a more frequent role at second base.

Health and performance leading up to the returns of Chang, Reyes and Story can certainly impact the eventual roster management, but even independent of the Aug. 1 trade deadline, the Red Sox will have a handful of roster decisions to make in the relatively near future.

Red Sox Notes: Deadline Spending, Kennedy, Sale, Injury Updates

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The Red Sox have a 41-42 record and are 4.5 games out of a wild card berth as the calendar flips to July, so it remains to be seen whether or not the team is truly a contender for the postseason.  In the opinion of Sox team president/CEO Sam Kennedy, “we definitely believe that this group can string a run together and get us back in this thing,” but Kennedy admitted to MassLive.com’s Sean McAdam that “this is obviously not where we want to be.  It’s sort of been a tale of two teams, given the streaky nature of our play….Every time we have a great stretch we seem to then falter and fall down.”

With this in mind, Kennedy said that Boston’s first order of business is just to play some consistent baseball, before considering any next steps.  “No one’s thinking about the trade deadline right now. We’re just thinking about trying to put ourselves in a position where we’re looking to add to this team,” he said.

Kennedy’s comments are similar to those made by chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom earlier this week, and Kennedy reiterated that upper management has “no concern” over Bloom’s ability to improve the roster, and that Bloom “will have full authority to do what is in the best interest of the organization, short-term and long-term.”

Bloom’s future with the Red Sox has been a topic of some controversy given the team’s relative lack of results over his three-plus seasons in charge of the front office, and the potential end of his contract.  According to McAdam, Bloom’s deal is thought to last through at least the 2024 season, which would indicate that Bloom received a five-year contract when he was initially hired by the Sox after the 2019 campaign (unless Bloom has since signed an extension).  The Red Sox are 235-232 during Bloom’s tenure, with a trip to the ALCS in 2021 sandwiched between last-place finishes in 2020 and 2022.  The Sox are currently in last place again in the AL East, though with the caveat that the club plays in baseball’s hardest division.

Money is apparently not an issue for ownership, as Kennedy stated that “if we’re in position to add to this team as we approach the deadline, there won’t be any hesitation or reservation about” spending beyond the luxury tax line.  As per Roster Resource, Boston’s luxury tax number is just shy of $221.3MM, and thus under the $233MM Competitive Balance Tax threshold.  Of course, while Kennedy didn’t address this possibility, one would imagine that the Sox might look to stay under the threshold if they do indeed fall out of contention over the next few weeks, given how Bloom’s attempts to both buy and sell at last year’s deadline resulted in a roster that finished with both a losing record and a tax bill.

August 1 is not just deadline day, but also the first day that Chris Sale would be eligible to be activated from the 60-day injured list.  Initially played on the 15-day IL on June 2 with right shoulder inflammation, it was soon announced that Sale was suffering from a stress reaction in his shoulder blade, and was facing yet another lengthy IL stint.

The good news is that Sale has been cleared to start throwing, after undergoing another MRI on Thursday.  The plan is for Sale to throw every other day for the time being, with the southpaw throwing from 60 feet but not at max effort.  Beyond these first steps, Sale’s timeline is still largely undetermined.

“This isn’t a very common issue,” Sale told The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey and other reporters.  “We had a couple guys who were reference points from the past, but again how many times am I going to stand up here and say something freak happened?  So obviously, could have been worse, and [I’ve] been through worse.  Just happy for today to be able to start this process and get back to doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”

Red Sox manager Alex Cora also updated reporters (including The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham) on several other injured players.  Yu Chang and Richard Bleier will each start a rehab assignment with Double-A Portland this weekend, while Pablo Reyes’ rehab assignment is slated to begin on Tuesday.  John Schreiber has thrown a pair of bullpen sessions and could be nearing a rehab assignment of his own, once he faces hitters during a live batting-practice session.

Zack Kelly also started a throwing program yesterday, which is particularly notable considering that the right-hander underwent an ulnar nerve transposition revision in his right elbow back in early May.  There was some optimism at the time that Kelly might be able to return before the end of the season, and while there’s much to be done before this becomes a reality, it’s certainly a good sign that Kelly is already throwing in some limited capacity.

Red Sox Recall David Hamilton For Major League Debut

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The Red Sox announced that they have placed right-hander Corey Kluber on the 15-day injured list due to right shoulder inflammation. Infielder David Hamilton was recalled in a corresponding move.

Hamilton, now 25, was selected by the Brewers in the eighth round of the 2019 draft. He didn’t make his professional debut that year and then the pandemic wiped out the minor leagues in 2020. He finally got to play in the affiliated ranks in 2021, getting into 101 games between High-A and Double-A. He hit .258/.341/.419 between those two levels for a wRC+ of 110 while stealing 52 bases and playing both middle infield positions.

That showing was strong enough that the Red Sox took notice, acquiring him in the trade where they flipped Hunter Renfroe to the Milwaukee in exchange for Jackie Bradley Jr. Since Bradley was coming off a nightmare season, the Brewers threw a couple of prospects into the deal, including Hamilton.

Last year, Hamilton was in Double-A for the whole season. He hit .251/.338/.402 for a wRC+ of 104 while adding another 70 bases. At the end of the year, the Sox added him to their 40-man roster to prevent him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He’s moved up to Triple-A this year and has continued to do his thing, hitting .255/.339/.486 for a wRC+ of 102 while swiping another 27 bags.

Infielder Pablo Reyes has been dealing with an abdominal strain in recent days but feels he will avoid a stint on the injured list, per Ian Browne of MLB.com. Nonetheless, Hamilton will provide the club with another middle infield option for as long as Reyes needs to rest.

Red Sox Shuffling Infield Alignment

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The Red Sox are shuffling up their infield alignment, most notably dropping Enrique Hernandez from the everyday shortstop role and returning him to his more familiar split between center field and second base, manager Alex Cora announced to reporters last night (Twitter links via Alex Speier and Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe). For the time being, utilityman Pablo Reyes will take the reins at shortstop. Cora also started Justin Turner at first base over Triston Casas last night, calling that the team’s best defensive alignment and noting that the Sox plan to work with Casas on his defense. (Turner, however, made a key error late in the eventual loss.)

Trevor Story’s offseason elbow surgery threw a wrench into the Red Sox’ infield plans, prompting the team to sign Adam Duvall to man center field and push Hernandez to shortstop — a position where he’d logged just 163 innings in the preceding four seasons combined. The Sox also picked up Adalberto Mondesi in a trade with the Royals, hoping he’d bring some additional depth, but he’s yet to play in a game this season due to ongoing injury woes.

Hernandez, 31, proved himself to be a lights-out defender in center field during his first season with the Red Sox in 2021, and Defensive Runs Saved has long credited him as an above-average second baseman. The shift to a less-familiar shortstop position wasn’t necessarily expected to be easy, but it’s been far more difficult than the team envisioned. No player in baseball has more errors than the 14 Hernandez has committed in just 411 innings at short. Defensive Runs Saved (-7) and Outs Above Average (-8) have graded him as one of the game’s six worst defenders at any position so far in 2023. As a team, the Red Sox rank 26th in MLB in DRS (-20) and are tied for last in OAA (-16).

Hernandez’s struggles haven’t been confined to his glovework. This year’s .228/.296/.356 is a near-mirror image of last year’s lackluster performance. When Boston inked Hernandez to a one-year, $10MM extension last summer, the hope was surely that his bat would rebound closer to it 2021 levels (.250/.337/.449) and that the versatile Hernandez would continue to provide premium defense at multiple spots. That hasn’t happened, and Hernandez’s trouble on both sides of the ball is just one of the many reasons Boston sits two games below .500 — 14 games out of the division lead and 5.5 games back in the AL Wild Card race.

Casas, too, has fallen shy of expectations — particularly at the plate. Were the burly 24-year-old performing up to expectations with the bat, the team would likely be willing to live with any defensive shortcomings at first base. Instead, Casas is hitting just .200/.324/.368 with seven home runs. He’s walking at a sensational 15.8% clip but also fanning in 26.6% of his plate appearances. On top of that, he’s been dinged for -6 DRS and -4 OAA at first base.

The veteran Turner is outperforming Casas in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage alike thus far, and he’s looked comfortable enough in his 133 innings at first base that it seems the Sox are comfortable giving him some increased work there. Cora didn’t declare that there would be a full-time switch from Casas to Turner, but it certainly seems the Boston club is taking a hard look at its defense as it searches for ways to improve.

Story’s eventual return could help to solidify things in the infield, though he’ll likely return as a designated hitter before he takes any reps in the middle infield. Story said just this week that he’s hoping to return in a DH capacity sometime next month, but he isn’t likely to play any defense until August. Yu Chang’s impending return could give the Sox a more experienced option at short than Reyes, though Chang is a utilityman with a career .206/.271/.358 batting line, so installing him into the lineup isn’t likely to help the Sox’ offense.

Red Sox To Select Pablo Reyes

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The Red Sox plan to select the contract of infielder Pablo Reyes, reports Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). Corner infielder Bobby Dalbec will be optioned to Triple-A Worcester in a corresponding active roster move, reports Christopher Smith of MassLive. Boston already had an opening on the 40-man roster after losing Zack Littell on waivers.

Reyes has played the 2023 campaign in the A’s system. The utilityman signed a minor league contract with Oakland and started the year with their top affiliate in Las Vegas. The Red Sox acquired him for cash this morning. It’s unclear whether Reyes’ deal with the A’s contained an upward mobility clause that required them to make him available if another team offered an immediate roster spot or whether Oakland made the deal out of courtesy. In either case, the 29-year-old returns to the majors for what’ll be a fifth season in six years.

A native of the Dominican Republic, Reyes began his career in the Pirates’ system. He reached the majors with Pittsburgh in 2018 and tallied a personal-high 157 plate appearances the following season. He was suspended for the entire 2020 campaign after failing a performance-enhancing drug test and Pittsburgh cut him loose at the end of that year. Reyes signed a minor league deal with the Brewers and cracked the MLB roster early in 2021. He’d appear in 59 games over the next two seasons.

Between Pittsburgh and Milwaukee, the right-handed hitting Reyes has a .238/.307/.361 batting line over 323 big league plate appearances. He owns a solid .273/.342/.440 slash in just under 1300 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level. That includes a .257/.385/.351 start over 21 games for the Aviators in 2023. He’s long shown solid plate discipline and contact skills without much power.

Reyes is out of minor league option years. Boston will have to keep him on the MLB roster or make him available to other teams via waivers. He brings a fair bit of flexibility to Alex Cora’s bench. He’s logged ample minor league work at both middle infield positions, third base and in left and center field. The bulk of his time — just over 3000 innings — has been spent at the keystone. He’ll add some middle infield depth behind the current starting duo of Enmanuel Valdez and Enrique Hernández.

As for Dalbec, he heads back to Triple-A after a brief recall from the minors. He’s appeared in just seven MLB games this year after topping 100 contests in each of the preceding two seasons. The right-handed hitter owns a solid .238/.374/.475 line over 23 games with Worcester but he’s striking out almost 40% of the time at the Triple-A level.

Red Sox Acquire Pablo Reyes

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The Red Sox have acquired infielder Pablo Reyes from Oakland in exchange for cash considerations, the A’s have announced. Reyes had signed with Oakland on a minor league deal this past offseason.

The 29-year-old Reyes has appeared in parts of four seasons since making his MLB debut with the Pirates in 2018. That year, he hit well in 18 games for the Pirates, slashing .293/.349/.483 with a wRC+ of 126. That showing earned him an expanded role with the club in 2019, though he ultimately struggled over 157 plate appearances with the club to a slash line of just .203/.274/.322 that led the club to designate him for assignment in January of 2020. The following month, Reyes was served an 80-game suspension for PEDs, causing him to miss the entire pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Reyes latched on with the Brewers on a minor league deal ahead of the 2021 season, ultimately sticking with the club for two seasons. During that time, he slashed .258/.330/.344 with a wRC+ of 85 in 103 plate appearances before electing free agency after the 2022 season and signing with the A’s, for whom he did not appear in a major league game.

In addition to his time in the majors, Reyes has spent parts of 11 seasons in the minor leagues, including 1,265 plate appearances at Triple-A, which have resulted in a slash line of .274/.350/.419 at the highest minor league level. Much of Reyes’s value comes from his versatility, as the journeyman has appeared at every position on the diamond except for catcher.

Reyes figures to serve as infield depth in the upper minors for a Red Sox club that has struggled to keep players healthy in the middle infield this season. Infielders Trevor Story, Adalberto Mondesi, Yu Chang, Christian Arroyo, and center fielder Adam Duvall are all currently on the injured list after being penciled in for regular playing time up the middle for the Red Sox at one point or another.

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