In the end, it might not matter much for the Boston Red Sox as they sort out the construction of the roster. The team made a major trade deadline move by picking up star Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman, giving up a haul of mostly top-line pitching prospects, and in the process brought on Jake Rogers, who was meant to be an emergency fill-in and backup to Connor Wong until Rutschman was ready to take the field. Now that Rutschman is nearing a return action, and his first game with the Red Sox, it will be time to jettison Rogers.
Except, well, a funny thing happened during Rogers’ week with Boston. He played in three games and had three hits in six at-bats. He scored four runs, hit two doubles and walked twice. More important, his reputation as a good game-caller and framer of pitchers showed through in the Friday night game he caught from Payton Tolle, in which Tolle went 6.0 innings and gave up two hits and one run while striking out 14, the most electric performance of his young career.
So, the presumption is that the Red Sox will want to keep Wong as Rutschman’s backup. But it sure would be tough to dump Rogers after the week he has had.
Red Sox Will Need to Cut Catcher for Adley Rutschman
The Red Sox won’t have to make that determination until after Monday night’s game in Toronto, as the team is expected to activate Rutschman on Tuesday. It’s possible that Boston could carry three catchers, especially with Rutschman still coming back from his wrist injury, but that is a longshot.
As Chris Cotillo of MassLive wrote on Twitter/X: “Adley Rutschman will go through a workout here at Rogers Centre and the expectation is he will be active tomorrow. Chad Tracy said it would be a challenge to carry three catchers. Move will come overnight.”
The move is expected to the DFA-ing of Rogers, who hit .161 this season with the Tigers before he was let go (he had been former Detroit star Tarik Skubal’s personal catcher), and hit .200 with Baltimore before he was dealt to Boston.
Craig Breslow Defends Trade
While the Red Sox have gotten some criticism on the move from fans and media for the high price in prospects that was given up for the oft-injured Rutschman, CBO Craig Breslow was not hearing much of that. He told the Boston Globe that the construction of the pitching-heavy roster called for this kind of move.
“That [roster mix] sounds pretty [expletive] sustainable to me,” Breslow said. “It’s one thing to make a trade like this and say, ‘It’s this year or bust.’ It’s another to say, ‘[Catcher] is a need we had. If we didn’t solve that need right now, we’re going to have that need in the offseason or we’re going to have that need at the next trade deadline.’
“This is an opportunity for us to improve the team while also having this position player core, starting rotation, and bullpen that is going to be around for a while.”
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Red Sox Face Tough Decision as Adley Rutschman Nears Debut appeared first on HEAVY.