Boston Red Sox Announces 47 Players in Starting Group “Summer Camp”

Dubbed by former FanGraphs writer and current Rays front office member Jeff Sullivan, summer camp, or second spring training, or whatever you want to call it, begins this week. It’s been a long months with the players and owners publicly fighting as they tried to come to an agreement for a new season, but now that can be temporarily left behind: that fight will happen again on a larger scale soon with the CBA expiring after the 2021 season. , since baseball is ready to start.

The first step in that process was for the transaction to freeze on Friday, but nothing has really happened on that front so far. I would expect some moves to be made around the league this week before camp. The next step took place on Sunday as the Red Sox and all other teams were due to present their starting group of 60 players for the season. Remember, the season will start with an active roster of 30 men and teams can have up to 30 players in their “taxi” squad.

However, not all 60 players had to be added immediately. More players can be added later, but if a player is removed from the list then they must go through exemptions or be released entirely. The Red Sox were one of the teams that chose to take it a little slower, naming 47 players to the roster on Sunday. They will surely add more in the next week or two. Here’s who made the list so far.

Collectors

Christian Vázquez, Kevin Plawecki, Juan Rye, Jett BandyConnor wong

Perhaps the biggest surprise in this entire initial presentation of the list is the lack of a receiver, with the name of Jonathan Lucroy curiously absent from this list. He, of course, was getting a lot of attention for making the Opening Day list in the original spring training before the pandemic closed the league. However, it seems that this is a clerical movement, the exact reasoning is not clear to me at the moment, and will be added shortly.

David Dermer-USA TODAY Sports

As for the players who did do it, there are no real surprises here. Vazquez and Plawecki are big leagues. Rye and Bandy are of solid depth who have defensive skills and experience in the big leagues. Wong is a prospect who is probably at least a year away from contributing ideally, but old enough to put him on the list now in these strange circumstances.

Infielders

Mitch Moreland, Michael Chavis, José Peraza, Tzu-Wei Lin, Jonathan Araúz, Xander bogaerts, Rafael Devers, CJ Chatham, Bobby dalbec, Marco Hernández, Yairo Muñoz

Again, I think the story here is more about who wasn’t selected than who did it, but this is another example of players to be added later. However, starting with who did it, everyone in the 40-man group did it, including Chatham and Dalbec, who aren’t necessarily raiders for the opening day active 30-man roster. Those two, Hernández and Muñoz are, in my opinion, abroad looking for that list so far.

As for who did it no To do so, he is likely to focus on prospects, especially Triston Casas and Jeter Downs. Most of the organization’s top two perspectives, in some order, were supposed to be on the list, and that’s still the case. Looking at this list, it’s pretty clear that they haven’t included the prospects yet. I guess they want to see if there are any free agents they can bring before using those spots on the prospect list that probably won’t contribute this year. Remember, as I said earlier, you can’t just remove players from the 60-man pool for no reason, so you don’t want to add a prospect unless you know how much space you have.

Gardeners

Andrew Benintendi, Jackie Bradley Jr., Kevin Pillar, Alex Executioner, JD Martinez, John AndreoliCésar Puello

Here we have the first player to be part of the roster who did not make my initial screening at Andreoli. It was certainly considered given the lack of outfielders in my projection, but I thought they would save space for other players. He and Puello are the only players on this starting list who would be in the taxi squad to start the season if everyone is healthy. Of course, others will be added. Jarren Duran is the most notable, and Marcus Wilson, Nick Longhi and Rusney Castillo are other options. Speaking of Wilson, he is one of only two players on the 40-man roster who is not on this starting roster.

Pitchers

Eduardo Rodriguez, Nathan EovaldiMartín Pérez Ryan Weber, Collin McHugh, Brian Johnson, Brandon Workman, Matt Barnes, Josh Taylor, Marcus Walden, Darwinzon Hernández, Heath Hembree, Ryan Brasier, Austin Brice, Colten Brewer, Matt Hall, Kyle hart, Robinson Leyer, Chris Mazza, Josh Osich, Mike ShawarynJefferey Springs Domingo Tapia, Phillips Valdez

There are 24 pitchers on this starting list, representing a touch from more than half of the overall player pool. I have it divided between who I think will make the initial active list, which ends with Brewer, and then who I have linked to for the taxi squad. Here are a couple of surprises for me, Tapia being the number one surprise for me. He spent the entire past season with the Red Sox running at Triple-A and, frankly, he was pretty bad with a 5.18 ERA, less than eight strikeouts for every nine innings and more than four bases for every nine. I’m surprised that you have surpassed someone like Mike Kickham. Leyer was a bit surprising, too, but I think it’s a more defensible option.

As for who will be added, there are a few prospects that should be in the mix when the Red Sox find out how many points they have to play with. Bryan Mata is number one among them, but also Tanner Houck, Thad Ward, and Jay Groome. Yoan Aybar could also be added later as he joins Wilson as a 40-player who didn’t make it to this starting list.

On top of all this, the Red Sox made another move from the list on Sunday to clear a 40-man spot, putting Chris Sale on the 60-day disabled list. Remember, he had Tommy John surgery after the transaction was frozen, so these are the Red Sox who do it now that they can do it. Obviously I was never going to launch this year.