The Boston Red Sox appear to be set up perfectly for a “kill two birds with one stone” scenario.
On May 2, Boston first baseman Triston Casas suffered a left patellar tendon rupture when he ran out a groundball and lunged at the bag to beat the throw. He would be taken off the field on a stretcher, and after surgery, he was declared out for the season.
The Red Sox have struggled to find a sufficient replacement for Casas in the weeks since he was injured. Nick Sogard, Abraham Toro and Romy Gonzalez have split most of the innings, and Boston recently began giving rookie Kristian Campbell some reps in practice, hoping he could learn a new position.
However, none of the current options have provided a solid answer, and Boston manager Alex Cora knows that history has shown how difficult the search for an effective replacement can be tricky.
“Honestly, we’ve been through this dance before in the past,” Cora said on Sunday. “We learned with Kyle (Schwarber), he got hurt right away in Detroit, his first day of taking ground balls. (Christian) Arroyo, playing in New York, first play, he stretched, he got hurt. Franchy (Cordero), we moved him to first, it wasn’t great. It’s not easy. We’re taking a chance here. All this talk about, ‘This guy should play first, this and that.’ I can give you five examples of why it didn’t work the last five years.”
Roman Anthony Continues Crushing at Triple-A Worcester
Meanwhile, Worcester outfielder Roman Anthony, the top prospect in Major League Baseball, continues to tear up Triple-A pitching, showing on a daily basis that he has nothing left to prove in the minor leagues. On Tuesday against the Durham Bulls, Anthony hit his sixth home run of the season, a 369-foot bomb that left his bat at 103.5 mph, and through 42 games, he is slashing .322/.450/.520.
“Difficult at this point to justify Roman Anthony still being at Triple-A,” MassLive reporter Christopher Smith posted to X (formerly Twitter).
The difficulty for Boston is in finding a permanent spot for Anthony in their lineup. Ceddanne Rafaela, Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu have been the starters in the outfield, and the Red Sox have repeatedly shutdown the suggestion that Anthony be moved to first base.
Trading an Outfielder for Houston’s Isaac Paredes Would Open Spot for Roman Anthony
But Boston Globe columnist Peter Abraham proposes a different option: trade one of the starting outfielders for someone to play first base, which would open a position for Anthony.
Noting that the Houston Astros have a “dire need” for a left-handed hitter “to create better lineup balance,” Abraham suggests that the Red Sox could trade either Duran or Abreu for Isaac Paredes, who has 40 career starts at first base. A 26-year-old right-handed hitter who was part of the trade that sent Kyle Tucker to the Chicago Cubs, Paredes is slashing .264/.376/.448 with eight home runs and 25 RBIs.
“[Paredes] would be a good fit for the Red Sox,” Abraham wrote.
And more importantly, he would help provide a good answer to two questions for Boston.
Red Sox Trade Pitch ‘A Good Fit’ to Solve Dual Problems