Red Sox To Place Vaughn Grissom On 10-Day Injured List
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.
Red Sox Designate Zack Short For Assignment
May 8: The Red Sox made the official announcement today. Pivetta and Gonzalez were both activated with Short designated for assignment and Uwasawa optioned.
May 7: The Red Sox will designate infielder Zack Short for assignment, reports Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe (X link). Boston also optioned right-hander Naoyuki Uwasawa to Triple-A Worcester. The moves clear active roster spots for Romy Gonzalez and Nick Pivetta, each of whom will return from the injured list before tomorrow’s game in Atlanta.
Short is out of minor league options, so the Sox didn’t have the ability to send him to Worcester without taking him off the 40-man roster. That out-of-options status contributed to him landing in Boston in the first place. The Mets designated Short for assignment two weeks ago. Boston acquired him for cash on May 1.
The 28-year-old appeared twice for the Sox, going hitless with four strikeouts in seven at-bats. He has only tallied 19 plate appearances all season between New York and Boston. The majority of Short’s big league playing time came with the Tigers a year ago. In 253 trips to the plate, he hit .204/.292/.339 with an elevated 26.1% strikeout rate. Short drew a decent number of walks but didn’t make much of an impact when he put the ball in play.
Teams have nevertheless been intrigued by his ability to handle multiple spots on the infield. He has nearly 600 innings of career shortstop work and more than 200 frames at both second and third base. His defensive grades are mixed. Statcast has given him average marks for his second and third base work while rating him as a below-average shortstop. Defensive Runs Saved has been more favorable, crediting him with average shortstop defense and well above-average work at the keystone.
The Sox will trade Short or place him on waivers within the next few days. He has yet to clear waivers despite being designated for assignment by each of Detroit, New York and now Boston since the end of last season.
Pivetta will take the ball tomorrow, his first MLB start in a little more than a month. The right-hander suffered a flexor strain, but the Sox expressed confidence it was a mild issue that wouldn’t necessitate a long-term absence. He’ll rejoin a rotation that has been arguably the best in the majors in 2024. Pivetta, an impending free agent, was brilliant in his first two starts. He allowed only one run in 11 innings with 13 strikeouts and one walk.
Red Sox Place Romy Gonzalez, Isaiah Campbell On Injured List
The Red Sox announced that infielder Romy Gonzalez has been placed on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to April 11) due to a left wrist sprain. This move comes a day after another IL placement, as Boston sent right-hander Isaiah Campbell to the 15-day injured list Friday due to a right shoulder impingement. Infielder Bobby Dalbec was called up from Triple-A to replace Campbell, while righty Cooper Criswell was promoted today from Triple-A in Gonzalez’s spot.
As manager Alex Cora told The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey and other reporters, Campbell kept his shoulder discomfort private but his attempts to pitch through the issue had disastrous consequences. Campbell allowed eight earned runs over two innings of work in relief appearances on Wednesday and Thursday, quickly halting what had been a positive start to Campbell’s Red Sox tenure. Acquired from the Mariners for Luis Urias back in November, Campbell had a 2.08 ERA over his first 4 1/3 innings and five appearances in a Boston uniform. The righty will now be sidelined for at least the next two weeks, and the severity of the impingement isn’t yet known.
While Campbell worked out of the bullpen, Criswell will act as a spot starter in today’s game against the Angels, filling in after Nick Pivetta went on the 15-day IL earlier this week. Today’s start will mark Criswell’s Boston debut after signing a one-year, $1MM free agent deal with the club after the Rays non-tendered the right-hander in November. There’s some full-circle significance in facing Los Angeles since the Angels drafted Criswell in the 13th round in 2018, and he made his MLB debut in a Halos uniform in 2021. After tossing 4 2/3 innings in cup-of-coffee fashion over the 2021 and 2022 seasons, Criswell got a longer look with Tampa last season and posted a 5.73 ERA over 33 innings, often working as a bulk pitcher behind an opener.
Gonzalez is another offseason acquisition, picked up from the White Sox on a waiver claim in January. Gonzalez played in two games with Boston before hurting his wrist in a fall during Wednesday’s game. X-rays were negative on Gonzalez’s wrist, but an IL stint has been deemed necessary to give the infielder some time to fully heal up.
Dalbec’s addition can shore up the infield mix to some extent, but Gonzalez is now the fourth infield option on Boston’s injured list, joining Trevor Story, Vaughn Grissom, and utilityman Rob Refsnyder. Story will miss the entire season in the wake of shoulder surgery, while Grissom (hamstring strain) and Refsnyder (broken toe) have started minor league rehab assignments. Grissom and Refsnyder are tentatively on pace to be activated off the IL in late April, though Grissom’s timeline is a little uncertain since injuries prevented from playing whatsoever during Spring Training.
The impact of so many missing infielders is evident in Boston’s glovework, as McCaffrey notes that the defense has essentially fallen apart since Story was sidelined. The Red Sox are near the bottom of the league in Outs Above Average (-5) and Defensive Runs Saved (-7), and their 16 errors is tied for the most in baseball.
Three of those errors came in yesterday’s 7-0 loss to the Angels, and the lineup was also missing Rafael Devers. Due to nagging soreness in his left shoulder, Devers has missed Boston’s last two games and will also sit out of today’s contest.
“I’ve been feeling it since Spring Training,” Devers told MLB.com and other media yesterday. “But every time I was swinging, I was feeling it a little bit more and more. So for me, I think like two or three days [off] could be enough. I hope it doesn’t keep bothering me after these two or three days, but that’s something I can’t control. That’s why I’m just trying to keep working to get stronger, to get my shoulder back in a good way.”
It’s safe to say that Devers’ shoulder has contributed to the third baseman’s slow start, as Devers is hitting just .184/.326/.395 over his first 46 plate appearances. This relative lack of production has contributed to the lineup’s inconsistency, as the Red Sox have had trouble scoring runs despite hot starts from Tyler O’Neill and Jarren Duran.
Red Sox Claim Romy Gonzalez, Designate Zack Weiss
The Red Sox announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed infielder/outfielder Romy Gonzalez off waivers from the White Sox. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, Boston designated right-hander Zack Weiss for assignment. Chicago had designated Gonzalez for assignment last week in order to clear space for free agent signee John Brebbia.
In parts of three seasons with the White Sox, Gonzalez is a .222/.239/.361 hitter with five homers and seven steals in 239 plate appearances. Gonzalez’s approach at the plate has been a major issue, however. He’s walked in just 2.1% of his plate appearances against a jarring 36% strikeout rate. On pitches within the strike zone, Gonzalez’s 83.3% contact rate is just slightly under league average. However, his 50.2% contact rate on pitches off the plate is tied for 543 among the 593 hitters who’ve taken at least 200 plate appearances over the past three seasons. That lack of contact on pitches off the plate is exacerbated by the fact that only 39 hitters in that same group of 593 have chased off the plate more frequently than Gonzalez (41.5%).
Big league troubles notwithstanding, Gonzalez has been a reasonably productive hitter in the upper minors. He batted .267/.355/.502 in his lone season at the Double-A level and is a .251/.332/.451 hitter in parts of two Triple-A seasons. When he has made contact in the big leagues, it’s also typically been loud. Gonzalez has averaged 90.4 mph off the bat and put 45% of his batted balls in play at 95 mph or greater.
Defensively, Gonzalez is capable of playing all over the diamond but has spent the bulk of his time at shortstop (847 innings), at second base (616) and in left field (579). He has a pair of minor league option years remaining, too, making him a flexible bench option for the Red Sox for the foreseeable future, however long they choose to continue carrying him on the 40-man roster.
Boston claimed the 31-year-old Weiss off waivers from the Angels back in late August. He spent the remainder of the 2023 campaign in manager Alex Cora’s bullpen, pitching 8 2/3 innings and holding opponents to a pair of runs on three hits and four walks with eight punchouts. Weiss has appeared in parts of three MLB seasons dating back to his 2018 debut and carries a 4.61 earned run average with an impressive 28% strikeout rate but an ugly 12.7% walk rate in 27 1/3 MLB frames.
Those K/BB numbers are near-mirror images of the rates he’s posted in Triple-A (28.2% strikeout rate, 12.6% walk rate). Weiss averages 94.3 mph on his heater and generates tons of whiffs on his slider, which he threw at a 70% clip in his limited MLB action this past season. His overall 13.9% swinging-strike rate and 33% opponents’ chase rate in his three big league cups of coffee are both intriguing, but those traits are undercut by his lackluster command.
The Red Sox will have a week to trade Weiss, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.
White Sox Designate Romy González For Assignment
The White Sox have made their previously-reported signing of right-hander John Brebbia official, announcing that deal today. Infielder/outfielder Romy González was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
González, now 27, burst towards the major leagues with a strong 2021 season. By the end of August, he had played 87 games between Double-A and Triple-A. He hit 23 home runs in that time and drew walks in 10.6% of his plate appearances. His 27.8% strikeout rate was on the high side but he slashed .275/.357/.525 for a 141 wRC+ and stole 22 bases.
He was added to the 40-man roster as a September call-up and has been serving as an optionable depth piece since. Unfortunately, injuries have prevented him from seeing much playing time. In 2022, he only played 32 games in the majors and 35 in the minors. Last year, he went on the IL due to shoulder inflammation in early May. He returned just over a week later but returned to the IL in mid-June due to the same ailment, eventually requiring labrum surgery in August.
To this point, González has played 86 major league games with a tepid batting line of .222/.239/361. But given his health issues, it’s hard to read too much into that, and it’s a fairly small sample anyway. At the time of his surgery, the Sox said they expected him to be ready for Spring Training. He has played the three infield positions to the left of first base, all three outfield spots and has even made an appearance on the mound.
The Sox will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. He hasn’t done much in the majors thus far but he was mashing in the minors when he was last healthy for an extended stretch. Perhaps that, and his defensive versatility, could intrigue one of the other clubs around the league. He still has a couple of option years and has yet to reach arbitration.
White Sox’s Romy Gonzalez Undergoes Labrum Surgery
White Sox’s utility player Romy Gonzalez underwent surgery to repair a labrum tear in his right shoulder last month, the club informed reporters (including Scott Merkin of MLB.com). He’ll miss the rest of the season but is expected to be ready for Spring Training.
It’s not too surprising that Gonzalez won’t return this year. He hasn’t played since June 17, at which point he went on the shelf with what the team had called shoulder inflammation. It was his second IL stint of the season, as he’d also missed a week and a half in early May with shoulder discomfort. The Sox moved him to the 60-day injured list shortly after his second IL placement.
Gonzalez was in the mix for the starting second base job until Chicago re-signed Elvis Andrus early in Spring Training. He ultimately appeared in 44 games and tallied 97 plate appearances in a multi-positional capacity. The 26-year-old had a .194/.208/.376 batting line and now owns a .222/.239/.361 slash in 89 contests over the past three seasons.
Since he’s already on the 60-day IL, Gonzalez isn’t currently counting against the Sox’s 40-man roster. They’d need to reinstate him to the roster or put him on waivers at the start of the offseason. In the interim, he’ll be paid around the $720K minimum rate and collect MLB service. He surpassed the one-year mark this year and wouldn’t be eligible for arbitration until the end of the 2025 campaign if they keep him on the roster.
White Sox Place Michael Kopech On 15-Day IL, Select Bryan Shaw
The White Sox announced a series of roster moves this afternoon. The club placed right-hander Michael Kopech on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation. To fill Kopech’s spot on the active roster, Chicago selected the contract of right-hander Bryan Shaw. To clear space for Shaw on the 40-man roster, infielder Romy Gonzalez was transferred to the 60-day IL.
Kopech, 27, was a first-round pick by the Red Sox in the 2014 draft and came over to the White Sox in the Chris Sale trade prior to the 2017 season. Kopech had a brief cup of coffee in the majors in 2018 that lasted four starts, but became a more permanent fixture of Chicago’s pitching staff in 2021 as a member of the bullpen, where he posted a 3.50 ERA and 2.97 FIP in 69 1/3 innings. 2022 saw the right-hander move to the rotation.
Since then, Kopech’s performance has been solid if unspectacular. In 205 1/3 innings of work across 41 starts, the young hurler has posted a 3.77 ERA and 4.95 FIP. He’s posted a solid 23.3% strikeout rate during that time though his 12.2% walk rate leaves something to be desired, particularly when paired with a groundball rate of just 35.6%. Still, he’s provided solid stability at the back of the club’s rotation. With Kopech joining Mike Clevinger on the shelf, the Sox figure to rely on Tanner Banks and Jesse Scholtens to handle starts in the run-up to the All Star break.
As for Shaw, the veteran hurler was a second-round pick by the Diamondbacks in the 2008 draft and was a steady relief option for Arizona and Cleveland from 2011-17, with a 3.13 ERA and 3.52 FIP in 446 1/3 innings of work. In five seasons since then, Shaw has been far less effective, with a 5.23 ERA in 268 1/3 innings of work. He signed with the White Sox on a minor league deal back in April and has delivered a solid 4.03 ERA in 22 1/3 innings of work at the Triple-A level since then. Now, Shaw will join the club’s bullpen mix, covering the middle innings alongside the likes of Gregory Santos and Aaron Bummer.
Gonzalez, meanwhile, heads to the 60-day IL a few weeks after being placed on the injured list with right shoulder inflammation, a designation that will keep him out until late August at the earliest. The utility man hit a paltry .194/.208/.376 in 97 plate appearances for the Sox this season prior to his placement on the IL.
White Sox Recall Jose Rodriguez For MLB Debut
The White Sox announced a handful of transactions before tonight’s series opener with the Rangers. The most notable was the recall of infield prospect José Rodriguez for his initial MLB promotion. Chicago also recalled reliever Nick Padilla, placed Lance Lynn on the bereavement list, and put Romy González on the 10-day injured list because of right shoulder inflammation.
Rodriguez, 22, is among the better prospects in a thin Chicago farm system. Baseball America slots him ninth in the organization, crediting him with roughly average physical tools across the board but expressing some concern about a free-swinging offensive approach. BA suggests he’s likely to settle in as a utility type. Keith Law of the Athletic wrote over the offseason that Rodriguez’s bat-to-ball skills could make him an everyday player, likely at second base.
While the Dominican Republic native might be a long-term regular, he’s not likely to step into that role immediately. Rodriguez gets the call directly from Double-A, where he’d been having a middling offensive season. Over 201 plate appearances in the Southern League, he’s hitting .238/.274/.429. Rodriguez has connected on nine home runs but is walking just 5% of the time while striking out in over a quarter of his plate appearances — easily the highest rate of his professional career.
In all likelihood, Rodriguez will find himself back in the minors before too long. He could make his big league debut in the interim, though, offering some middle depth for skipper Pedro Grifol behind the starting duo of Tim Anderson and Elvis Andrus. Added to the 40-man roster last winter to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft, Rodriguez is in his first of three minor league option seasons.
White Sox Designate Hanser Alberto For Assignment
The White Sox announced a series of roster moves today, reinstating right-hander Mike Clevinger and infielder Elvis Andrus from the injured list. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Jesse Scholtens and designated infielder Hanser Alberto for assignment.
The White Sox haven’t had a good solution for second base for most of the year. Andrus was signed with the idea of slotting him next to Tim Anderson but Anderson ended up missing most of April due to a knee sprain. Andrus slid over to short to cover for him but hit just .201/.280/.254 before going on the IL himself due to an oblique strain about three weeks ago.
With Andrus out of action of late, the club has tried a couple of different players. Jake Burger had been playing third base, covering for the injured Yoán Moncada, and hit well enough that the club has considered moving him over to second base now that Moncada is back. He has 11 home runs in 40 games this year and an overall batting line of .270/.314/.603, leading to a 145 wRC+. Given that output, it’s unsurprising that the club wants his bat in the lineup, but he’s still only been entrusted with two innings at the keystone so far this year. Another option is Romy González, who had a terrible start to the season but has been on fire lately. He had a dismal .103/.103/.103 line through April 25 but has hit .286/.295/.667 since that time.
Manager Pedro Grifol recently spoke to James Fegan of The Athletic about the situation, essentially saying that the club will try to ride the hot hand. “I don’t think I’m going to be mixing and matching at second base,” Grifol said. “We need to win baseball games so if somebody’s playing as well as Romy (Gonzalez) is playing, then he’s going to play. If Elvis comes in and he does what he can do, then he’s going to play. Those are conversations that I’ll have with whoever’s involved and we’re going to put the best team on the field that’s going to help us win a baseball game every day.”
With the club suddenly juggling multiple options for the second base position, it has squeezed Alberto out of the picture. Signed to a minor league deal in the offseason, he made the club’s Opening Day roster to serve as a bench piece. He has since played in 30 games for the club, around a two-week IL stint due to a quad strain, but has hit just .220/.261/.390. That’s not too far off from his career line of .269/.292/.381, but it seems the Sox will roll with the younger and more exciting players in Burger and González.
The Sox will now have a week to trade Alberto or pass him through waivers. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and retain his $2.3MM salary. Given that financial commitment and his tepid production this season, it seems likely he simply ends up released in the coming days.
White Sox Giving Jake Burger Reps At Second Base
The White Sox will soon welcome Eloy Jimenez back to the lineup, which would potentially cut into the number of designated hitter at-bats available to breakout slugger Jake Burger. With Yoan Moncada holding down third base (Burger’s natural position) and Jimenez taking many DH at-bats in addition to some work in right field, the White Sox are getting Burger some reps at second base, manager Pedro Grifol tells Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times.
The experiment is “past the exploratory stage,” per Grifol — a strong indication that Burger will indeed slot into the lineup at second base at least occasionally. Logging work in the outfield is not under consideration at this time due to Burger’s history of Achilles injuries, but he’ll be mixed in at third base, second base, first base and designated hitter.
The White Sox’ desire to keep his bat in the lineup is understandable. Despite fanning in an untenable 32.4% of his plate appearances, Burger holds a robust .257/.315/.634 batting line thanks to a hefty 10 home runs in 111 trips to the plate. Burger has seen a massive 31.3% of his fly-balls clear the fence for a home run. While it’s unlikely he can sustain quite that level of power output — Aaron Judge had a 35.6% homer-to-flyball rate in 2022 and was the only hitter in baseball to even top 26% — there’s plenty of legitimacy to Burger’s power surge. Statcast ranks him in the 85th percentile of MLB hitters in terms of average exit velocity, and he’s in the 93rd percentile for hard-hit balls and the 99th percentile for barreled balls.
Beyond a pure desire to keep Burger in the lineup, the Sox are surely motivated by the catastrophic production they’ve received from the second base position so far in 2023. Elvis Andrus, Hanser Alberto, Romy Gonzalez and Lenyn Sosa have combined to take all of the team’s at-bats at second base this season. That group has combined for an unthinkably bad .144/.188/.207 while playing the position. Chicago second basemen have posted an astonishing single-digit wRC+ of 5 — indicating that they’ve been 95% worse than an average hitter when weighting for home park and league run-scoring environment.
Second base has been a black hole in the White Sox’ lineup all season, and while Burger likely won’t be an average defender at the position — he’s considered well below average at third base — the Sox are content to trade off some defensive shortcomings to bolster their run production. That’s been a familiar refrain for the Sox in recent seasons, as they’ve regularly trotted out poor defensive alignments — e.g. Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets in the outfield — in the name of improving the offense. Of course, that approach was one of many reasons the Sox fell shy of expectations in 2022; last year’s White Sox ranked 24th in MLB with -17 Outs Above Average, 27th in Defensive Runs Saved (-35) and dead last in Ultimate Zone Rating (-40.5). Only the rebuilding Pirates and Nationals made more errors.
The organization’s hope heading into the season was for a more well-rounded, better defensive product on the field. The Sox let Jose Abreu walk in free agency, thus clearing the way for Vaughn to return to first base after he’d rated as one of the game’s worst outfielders. Andrew Benintendi was signed to shore up left field. Andrus, long a well-regarded defender at shortstop, was brought back to handle second base. Top prospect Oscar Colas isn’t seen as an elite defender but was expected to be an upgrade over the Sheets/Vaughn/Jimenez carousel in right field and was given the Opening Day nod at the position.
As it stands, however, the Sox are only a marginally improved defensive club. They’re still in the bottom third of the league in DRS, UZR and OAA. Andrus hasn’t hit a lick but has played a sound second base, so swapping him out for Burger would weaken one of the few solid spots around the field in order to help beef up a lineup that ranks 20th in runs scored, 20th in home runs, 19th in batting average, 27th in on-base percentage and 20th in slugging percentage.
Jimenez’s return and continued at-bats for Burger figure to boost some of those offensive rankings. But the White Sox, who ranked as one of the game’s best defensive teams as recently as 2020, are trending toward a third straight season on the opposite end of that spectrum.