The Boston Red Sox face a roster construction conundrum in the likely, but not yet guaranteed event that they make a long-awaited postseason appearance.
Entering play on Friday, the Red Sox are 3 1/2 games back of first place in the American League East, half a game back of the first wild card spot, and four games clear of the wild card bubble. According to Fangraphs, they had a 95.3% chance of making it to the postseason.
Tough decisions are looming in the event the Red Sox get to October, as insider Sean McAdam detailed on Friday. In fact, there may be as many as seven position players fighting for the final two roster spots.
McAdam named Connor Wong, Rob Refsnyder, and David Hamilton as locks to get spots on the postseason roster. He then named three current big-leaguers and three players currently on the Triple-A roster as candidates to make it — or not make it.
“Let’s count, for today, Wong as the backup catcher. He’ll get one of the five bench spots, as will Rob Refsnyder and Hamilton. (For these purposes, we’re counting Gonzalez to be among the “regulars” either at first or second and Masataka Yoshida as the more-or-less regular DH),” wrote McAdam.
“That leaves two spots from among the following: (Nate) Eaton, (Nick) Sogard, catcher Ali Sanchez and let’s call it a wild card — someone like Jhostynxon Garcia, Kristian Campbell or Abraham Toro off the Worcester roster. It might be tempting to count out Sanchez, but if the Red Sox are truly concerned about (Carlos) Narvaez and his knee, they might see the benefit of a third catcher.”
Let’s hope Narváez’s knee isn’t a lingering concern, because Sanchez has all of two plate appearances for the Red Sox in the last month. If he can be removed from the list, Garcia and Toro would seem to be the next names on the chopping block, which leaves former leading prospect Campbell still at a disadvantage because he’s currently in the minors.
If it’s bold prediction time, the guess here is that the roster looks exactly the same as it does today, with injured outfielder Wilyer Abreu swapping back in for Sanchez.
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