Trevor Story, Roman Anthony, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa are all starting rehab assignments this week. The Red Sox have a puzzle to solve.<\/p>\n
This is the kind of problem you want to have. Three players coming back from the IL, a roster that\u2019s been playing the best baseball in the American League (well, until last week), and a manager who has to figure out how to fit everybody. Honestly, this is the right time for these moves to be happening. With the team coming back down to earth after their magic month and change, I\u2019m less worried about breaking up chemistry and more worried about finding stability to keep the Wild Card spot this squad has for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n
Chad Tracy has some real decisions to make. Let\u2019s walk through them.<\/p>\n
The Less Simple Than It Looks One: Isiah Kiner-Falefa<\/p>\n
The conventional wisdom says IKF comes back and Eli White or Anthony Seigler goes. Bench a speedy utility outfielder or a replacement level infielder, bring in a veteran utility infielder, call it done.<\/p>\n
Except White isn\u2019t just an outfielder anymore. He got some reps in the infield last week, and that changes the calculus. White brings elite speed\u2014the kind that changes games in ways that don\u2019t show up in traditional box scores, whether it\u2019s late-inning defense, a stolen base, or covering ground in the outfield during a blowout you don\u2019t want to burn real arms for. IKF is the more polished infield defender with more positional versatility on the dirt. White is faster and more dynamic. Seigler is the clubhouse firecracker, and sometimes getting rid of that affects a team more than you can expect.<\/p>\n
The argument for keeping White over IKF is more legitimate than it might initially seem. And here\u2019s the thing: if they do go that route\u2014IKF gets released, White stays\u2014Anthony Seigler becomes your utility infielder. Seigler can play second, short, wherever Tracy needs him. He\u2019s hit enough this year to justify a roster spot on his own. The Seigler-as-utility-IF path is genuinely compelling. Don\u2019t sleep on it.<\/p>\n
The Complicated One: Trevor Story<\/p>\n
Story is a legitimate major league shortstop. When he\u2019s healthy and productive, he\u2019s a quick runner with real pop and a strong glove at a premium position. He\u2019s not coming back to ride the bench.<\/p>\n
The question isn\u2019t whether Story plays\u2014it\u2019s where Andruw Monasterio goes when he does.<\/p>\n
Because Monasterio isn\u2019t going away. He\u2019s been one of the most consistent run producers in this lineup for two months\u2014a doubles and RBI machine who has shown up in big spots repeatedly. You can\u2019t sit him. But you also can\u2019t leave him at shortstop, because Monasterio is a horrific defensive shortstop. That\u2019s not debatable. Story is a significantly better defender at the position and deserves to have it back.<\/p>\n
The natural resolution: Story to short, Monasterio to second base. His bat plays anywhere in the infield, and second base covers his defensive limitations better than short does. Then Seigler slides into the utility infielder role, giving Tracy a switch-hitting bat off the bench who\u2019s proven he can do damage in this lineup.<\/p>\n
The version of this that makes everybody uncomfortable: if Story comes back and isn\u2019t fully himself at the plate after months away, Tracy has a real call to make about whether slotting him in at the expense of what Monasterio is currently doing is actually helping this team win. Story has earned some benefit of the doubt. But this team has earned its record too. Give Story his spot back, let him find his timing, and watch what happens.<\/p>\n
Behind all of this, the Franklin Arias question looms. But that\u2019s a piece for another time.<\/p>\n
The Exciting One: Roman Anthony<\/p>\n
Masataka Yoshida going to the IL with a hamstring strain is bad news\u2014he\u2019s been a steady offensive presence all season. But it accidentally cleared the path for the best prospect in baseball to get his first real look at a pennant race.<\/p>\n
Anthony comes back from rehab, Micky Gaspar goes back to Worcester, and Anthony DHs while Yoshida is out. Simple. Clean. The service time question is gone now anyway. Put the kid in the lineup.<\/p>\n
The harder question is what happens when Yoshida comes back off the IL in ten days, because that DH spot disappears and someone loses at-bats. Here\u2019s where it gets interesting: Jarren Duran is not hitting. He\u2019s been one of the team\u2019s biggest offensive disappointments over the last month, and the numbers justify having a real conversation about his role. But Duran is still a legitimate major leaguer who needs reps to find his way\u2014you don\u2019t just bench him cold.<\/p>\n
So Tracy has three realistic paths when Yoshida returns:<\/p>\n
One: Yoshida DHs, Anthony moves to left field, Duran loses starts. Rafaela and Abreu stay where they are, the outfield becomes a rotation, and Duran works his way back through starts rather than sitting entirely.<\/p>\n
Two: Duran stays in left, Anthony takes the DH at-bats, Yoshida sits more than he\u2019d like. This is harder to sell to Yoshida but it keeps Anthony in the lineup every day without disrupting the outfield alignment.<\/p>\n
Three: Duran in left, Yoshida as primary DH, and Anthony gets gradually folded in\u2014DH days when Yoshida needs a breather, spot starts in the outfield when someone needs a day off. The ramp-up approach, designed to give Anthony major league at-bats without fully displacing anyone.<\/p>\n
Duran\u2019s struggles make all three versions of this defensible. Tracy will probably start with option three and let Anthony\u2019s bat make the decision for him.<\/p>\n
When Yoshida comes back and Anthony\u2019s path gets complicated, Tracy will have to make harder calls. But the answer to \u201cdo you want Roman Anthony in your lineup?\u201d is almost certainly yes\u2014and the sooner this team finds out what he can do at the major league level, the better.<\/p>\n
This team went 21-4 in July. They won nine straight series. They\u2019re coming back down to earth. They\u2019re getting healthy at exactly the right time. The roster crunch isn\u2019t a problem\u2014it\u2019s a symptom of how good this organization has gotten in a very short time. Figure out the lineup. Put the best nine on the field and let it ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trevor Story, Roman Anthony, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa are all starting rehab assignments this week. The Red Sox have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3540,27],"class_list":["post-40758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rome","tag-red-sox-analysis","tag-rome"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}