The Red Sox hope Jeter Downs he may be the guy who will take second base in the future, but the 22-year-old is likely to start 2021 in Triple-A. He had just 12 games under his belt at the Double-A level before the coronavirus canceled the 2020 season. In the meantime, Yairo Munoz and Christian Arroyo both could buy time at the cornerstone, but the Red Sox want this pair to win their opportunities. Otherwise, Michael Chavis he looks like the starter, despite being a natural field player.
Consequently, they contacted the second baseman at the free agency, exploring agreements with Enrique Hernandez, Kolten Wong, Cesar Hernandez, and Dee Strange-Gordon, although no business seems imminent. Marwin Gonzalez could be an attractive option due to its versatility, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (Twitter links) Gonzalez has a history with the Red Sox manager Alex Cora of his days in Houston, although this is not a period of time that neither side wants to highlight. Outside of Xander Bogaerts and Rafael DeversHowever, the rest of Boston’s infield is still testing for full-time reps, so they may prefer to add a versatile glove that can work over a series of potential squad iterations.
Otherwise, Boston keeps looking for arms to add to the rotation mix. Garrett Richards and Matt Moore are two names that they looked at recently, by Cotillo. Richards will make sense on many teams now that he looks fully recovered from Tommy John’s surgery. He posted 4.03 ERA / 4.28 FIP on 51 1/3 entries for the Fathers in 2020, with 10 matches, a strikeout rate of 21.6 percent, 8.0 percent of walking fee and 40, 1 percent groundball fee.
Moore would be a more surprising candidate, having registered only 10 entries since 2019. The 31-year-old southpaw played in Japan last season, registering an ERA of 2.65 out of 85 entries.
Of course, Boston baseball chief Chaim Bloom comes from Moore. Their careers were mirrored in several ways, while both worked in the organization of the Rays. Bloom was only at the beginning of his career on the Rays’ board when Tampa called Moore in the 2007 draft. Bloom was then Assistant Director of Operations for the Secondary League while Moore moved forward in the organization. In 2011, Moore made his professional league debut while Bloom was promoted to Director of Baseball Operations.