The Boston Red Sox could make a bold move involving their top prospect.
Boston is firmly in a playoff spot, but the Red Sox could still make some moves to improve their roster. One big move the Red Sox can make is calling up top prospect Franklin Arias, which MLB analysts Jonathan Mayo, Jim Callis, and Sam Dykstra believe should happen.
“The surging Red Sox have gotten little offensively and defensively out of their shortstops this year, and Trevor Story wasn’t playing well before he had sports hernia surgery in May. Meanwhile, Boston has a potential star shortstop who has slashed .310/.394/.565 with 23 homers in 94 games between Double-A and Triple-A at age 20,” the article read.
“Signed for $525,000 out of Venezuela in 2023, Arias is also a solid defender. This situation is similar to what the Red Sox faced with Xander Bogaerts in 2013 — and that season culminated with a World Series championship.”
The Red Sox calling up Arias to take over at shortstop for the stretch run would be a bold move. However, Boston made a similar decision with Xander Bogaerts in 2013, as the analysts noted, and he helped the team win the World Series.
So, perhaps Boston will decide to promote Arias for the stretch run and into the playoffs.
Chad Tracy Makes Feelings Clear on Arias
With Arias lighting up the minor leagues, many Red Sox fans are clamouring for him to get called up.
Yet, he is just 20 years old, so whether or not he’s ready for the big leagues is unclear. Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy believes Arias has the tools but there still is question marks.
“It’s a challenge,” Tracy said earlier this month. “I’ve always said, I think physical gifts and tools-wise, you can watch Franklin and feel like this guy’s gonna play in the big leagues but you never know. It’s the big leagues and you don’t know how people are gonna react. And sometimes they may not react great initially and they may end up being a great player. Sometimes they react really good initially and then struggle. So you just don’t know.”
Tracy believes knowing when a prospect is ready isn’t an exact science, but does think there are ways to have a general idea.
“I think the best thing you can do is (ask), does he have the physical skills to do it? And do you like the character and the mental capacity and the ability to overcome things when they aren’t going right?” Tracy said. “Those are two big ones. By all intents and purposes, from what I know about the kid, he’s got those skills.”
Arias is hitting .312 with 23 home runs and 72 RBIs this season in the minors.
Red Sox Close to Getting Story Back
Although Boston is urged to promote Arias, the team is getting close to getting Trevor Story back.
Story is on a rehab assignment, and he hinted at potentially being back this weekend.
“Yeah, it’s a possibility,” said Story.
Tracy, however, said they want to see how Story reacts to some rehab games this week.
“It’s possible,” Tracy said. “But to be perfectly honest with you, we haven’t discussed that yet. The initial part is, he obviously did a ton of work here as far as building himself up [before the rehab assignment], but we’re really just eyeballing Tuesday and Wednesday. Let’s get through that, have him play seven to nine innings, see how his legs feel. ‘How is this thing responding? How does his swing feel?’ And then we’ll go from there and see. We haven’t gotten deep into those conversations.”
Red Sox Urged to Make Bold Move Involving Top Prospect Ahead of Playoffs