Only pointing out that the guy cannot stay healthy and banking on him being healthy is foolish thinking. At what point do “freak” or “injuries beyond his control” become the norm and we accept that?
Exactly. That's why you make the fungible guy make the cross-country trip.
this is the play. If you want to keep D as a priority then you move RAF to SS and O’Neill to CF
He looks like a much more competent defender with more positional flexibility than Hamilton and he's been hitting the bejesus out of the ball so far.
I hate taking Rafaela out of center but this is probably best for the team if Story’s out. Plus, I think it may be a bit premature to pull the plug on Abreu. This gives them a chance to see what he can do.
I think many would disagree but it was tellling to me that Hamilton was at DH at Worcester for their doubleheader opener. You downgrade 2 positions anyway defensively with whatever move you do, but weird that we chose to do it to MIF instead of OF
Their home opener was Tuesday and Hamilton was at SS. Yesterday was a double-header where he DH'd in game one and played SS in game 2.
I think ideally it would be Duran Rafaela Anthony in the OF, Abreu backing up. We're thinner on capable OF than IF in the near future.
Oh thanks. Didn’t know. Really appreciate your post. I see now he went to med school in St Kitts. Not that the school is necessaily bad, just questioning the motives for going there. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa nonetheless.
Sorry I should have probably put a LOL or made a .. I was just playing off the doom and gloom of the previous posters in the thread. I should have made myself clearer. It does sux though without a doubt.
Now Shane Bierber is heading for Tommy John surgery in Cleveland. What a rash of injuries in the first two weeks of
baseball. Talk about an injury prone player. Shane has missed time in 21 23 24 and obviously part of 2025.
Sogard would require a 40 man move. Maybe if Story goes on the 60-day, but I don't think we know if Story will need that yet.
FWIW, Hamilton had no handedness split in AAA in '22, but in his better '23 campaign, showed a .100 OPS split. But it's not like he's shown a straight-up LHP vulnerability in AAA.
If I remember correctly, word is Iglesias hasn't been an above average SS defensively the past couple years, but his defensive fWAR was positive as recently as 2022. I don't know what to believe, tbh, but he's 34 now and there's a good chance he's lost a step.
The key piece of information about Romy is that he had *gulp* a persistent shoulder injury that sapped his power (pretty good in the minors) for most of his time in Chicago. As soon as he showed up apparently healthy in Spring Training, he started to get interesting. It’s not that we think his HR and 3b yesterday are his true talent; it’s that they are evidence of a healthy shoulder and thus a chance of living up to the minor league track record.
I would hope that Hamilton is here as depth and a late inning pinch runner while Story is being evaluated and a longer-better term plan is formulated.
It’s 100% this. They are across the country for 2 more games.
Yeah if Romy's the choice, it probably makes sense to just let him stay in WOOstah to play today and tomorrow vs Buffalo and then meet up with the team in Boston on Monday rather than to have him fly cross country twice in just a couple of days.
Not really a Red Sox season until someone suggests we bring back Iglesias.
Sogard does not seem to have much of a high ceiling.
IMO, unless Rafaela is going to be deemed a long term option at SS there are two better CF options on the 26 man roster now. Short term I would leave Duran in LF, move O'Neill to CF and let Abreu play in RF. If Romy Gonzalez is an option at SS then let him play there and keep the current OF with Abreu as the 4th OF.
Believe me, I don’t like the idea.
Haha, all good, no way for you to know. His training is what it is, plenty of good and bad docs from there.
Something worth noting about Iglesias is he was released (at his own request via an opt-out) by the Padres last June when he had no shot at being called up to the big leagues. No one, including the SS-starved Red Sox, picked him up after that. Now he's toiling in the Mets farm system. Iglesias is toast. If we're going to bring back former Sox for defensive purposes, I'd rather they sign JBJ out of the independent leagues and move Rafaela to SS. Neither is going to happen nor should they.
huh? Not comparable. Sorry if my wording made it seem like they were connected. Wasn’t linking the two.
I think the point being made with Strider is that: all injuries make signings look bad in hindsight.
If story is out for the season, our chances of making the post season are pretty close to zero so we should make decisions with a long term future involved. That might mean leaving Rafaela in a familiar position as he transitions to the majors.
