It’s no secret the Red Sox defense has been struggling, and Kiké Hernández and Triston Casas have been at the center of the club’s fielding woes.
Now the two everyday infielders are set to see their roles scaled back.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora indicated that Hernández will no longer serve as starting shortstop and will instead shift to a utility role, while Justin Turner will see more time at first base in place of Casas, who instead started at designated hitter Tuesday against the Colorado Rockies.
“We went with our best defensive alignment,” Cora said. “That’s something we recognized, obviously the roster is the roster and we have to play with it, but last night I told (bench coach Ramon Vazquez) this is where we’re going.”
Instead of playing shortstop, Hernández will now primarily play second base and center field and will occasionally come in as shortstop in late-game pinch hitter situations. Pablo Reyes will see more time at shortstop, but Cora also emphasized they do not see him as an everyday player either, so the club will most likely mix and match until Yu Chang is ready to return.
Cora also said they’re going to try and avoid using Christian Arroyo at shortstop, leaving the club with limited options with the current roster.
Hernández’s struggles have been well documented. Entering Tuesday he led MLB with 14 errors, 12 of which came on botched throws, and Monday he threw away a ball that would have ended the fourth inning but instead allowed Colorado to score its first run of the game.
Cora said Hernández’s struggles have been surprising and that his arm and mechanics are good, but he’s had a lot of trouble making certain routine plays.
“There are a few plays, especially to his right, where he gets it on time and he slows down and he throws it away. It’s always to his right,” Cora said. “The other ones, trying to turn a double play, all that stuff, that’s going to happen, but the routine ones, he’s having trouble.”
Though Casas drew praise for his defense upon being called up last September, he’s struggled making certain plays and couldn’t cleanly field a routine ground ball in the 10th inning on Monday, which resulted in the eventual game-winning run scoring. Casas leads American League first basemen with four errors, and Cora said there are certain fielding adjustments they would like to see.
“There are a few things he’s not doing,” Cora said. “We’re working with him on his pre-pitch, some things that we have to clean up, decisions on certain ground balls. We’ll keep working with him just like we’re working with Kiké.”
Cora said they have no plans to demote Casas to Triple-A and they will continue working with him at the big league level, but for now the priority needs to be winning games. He said the number one rule of baseball is if you play bad defense you won’t win games, so if the Red Sox hope to close the gap between themselves and their peers they have to take action or risk falling further behind.
“At the end of the day you get (only so many) opportunities to play the position, but you have to make adjustments,” Cora said. “Is it late? Maybe, maybe not. We’ve just got to move on.”
Story’s role a question
With no regular shortstop available on the active roster, the Red Sox could really use Trevor Story back. The two-time All-Star is still recovering from offseason elbow surgery, but on Monday Story said he believes he could be ready to return as a shortstop by August, and possibly by July as a designated hitter.
Story would be a huge help in either capacity, but working him back into the picture as a designated hitter would be much more complicated than it seems at first glance.
Roster-wise, Story serving as everyday DH would require either Turner or Casas to sit most days, and it might also limit the club’s ability to mix and match its outfielders. More importantly, Story would also presumably use up his minor league rehab assignment dates serving as a DH, which might complicate his ability to transition back to shortstop — where he’s really needed — once he is ready to return in that role.
Does that make a Story return as DH in July impossible? Not at all, but Cora said Tuesday that it wouldn’t be easy to pull off.
“With the roster right now it’s kind of hard to do that, but I’m not closing the door,” Cora said. “Like I said a few days ago, right now where we are roster wise that’s very difficult but you never know what could happen in the future.”
Schreiber taking steps
Red Sox right-hander John Schreiber (right teres major strain) threw off flat ground up to 85 feet on Tuesday and is feeling better, Cora said. The reliever has been out since May 15 and has a 2.12 ERA on the season in 18 appearances.
Cora also said lefty Joely Rodriguez (left shoulder inflammation) is expected to throw a bullpen in the coming days, and fellow lefty Richard Bleier (left shoulder inflammation) is still not playing catch. Shortstop Adalberto Mondesi (left ACL rehab) is shut down from baseball activities and is not close to a return.
