The Boston Red Sox Thursday, March 4, 2021

* The Boston Globe

Hirokazu Sawamura ‘excited’ after making first bullpen appearance for Red Sox

Peter Abraham

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Under gloomy skies, Hirokazu Sawamura threw 23 pitches to Kevin Plawecki in the bullpen adjacent to the Red Sox clubhouse Wednesday morning.

What would usually be an unremarkable event drew quite a crowd.

A dozen or so teammates and coaches watched the newcomer from Japan, as did a similar number of journalists.

“It was my first bullpen session ever in the US, and wearing this jersey, the Red Sox jersey,” Sawamura said via a translator. “So I was so excited. But at the same time, I was a little bit nervous.”

Sawamura, who turns 33 in April, had a 2.77 earned run average over nine seasons in Japan. The Sox signed him to a two-year deal last month to bolster their bullpen.

The baseballs used in Japan are slightly different than those made for Major League Baseball. The Japanese ball is tackier, and the seams are lower. Sawamura said he started throwing with the MLB baseball after last season in preparing for a move overseas.

“Very likable guy,” Sox manager Alex Cora said. “I remember when we talked to him in the offseason … he was very honest about what he wanted to do, why he wanted to come here.

“He asked questions, and Chaim [Bloom] got some answers. We talked about the bullpen and the city and everything involved to be part of this organization.”

Cora joked that Sawamura owed him a bottle of wine because he interrupted a weekend away with his girlfriend to take a call from Japan.

Sawamura is wearing No. 22 in spring training but could switch before the start of the season.

Dalbec delivers Bobby Dalbec homered twice and drove in three runs in a 14-6 rout of the Twins Wednesday. Dalbec has homered three times in eight at-bats this spring, all to right-center and more than 400 feet at Hammond Stadium.

Every Red Sox starter had at least one hit, and it was 12-1 after an eight-run fourth inning.

Kiké Hernández doubled twice, walked, and drove in two runs. J.D. Martinez was 2 for 3 with a two-run double.

“We have a good offensive team,” Cora said. “We believe we’re going to score runs this year.”

Support for Boone Before taking questions after the game, Cora reacted to the news that Yankees manager Aaron Boone was going into surgery in Tampa to have a pacemaker installed.

“My thoughts and prayers for everything that is going to go on,” Cora said. “He’s one of my best friends in baseball; we were teammates at ESPN. I know he’s going to be fine and we’re going to get back to competing again. Looking forward to seeing him in New York.”

Where’s Verdugo? Alex Verdugo is healthy but not scheduled to play his first game until Friday.

What gives?

“Getting to know Alex, as far as the swing is, he feels he’s not ready for action although he’s been on the back fields facing a lot of guys,” Cora said. “I told him not to rush. I think Friday [and] Sunday is pretty good for him.

“What I really want is him to go out there and play defense with everybody else. That’s the most important thing. As far as his swing and his health, he’s OK.”

Verdugo is not behind. It’s more preparing in a way he feels most comfortable.

“There’s a lot of stuff with Alex about how he feels about his swing,” Cora said. “He has his own routine as far as not hitting outside. He doesn’t want to get caught up hitting pull-side homers. His process is very interesting, and I enjoy talking to him.

“It’s nothing about lack of preparation or other things. He’s building up and it’s part of his program. I’m comfortable with it.”

Worcester home debut May 11 Triple-A Worcester will start its season May 4 with the first game at new Polar Park on May 11. The team also confirmed that the Red Sox would use Polar Park as its alternate site for reserve players in April.

There will be no Triple A All-Star Game, and Worcester picked up home games on July 13 and 14 as a result. There also will be no playoffs, allowing the season to end Sept. 19.

Mata sidelined Bryan Mata, the well-regarded 21-year-old righthander, has some soreness behind his biceps and didn’t pitch as scheduled Wednesday. He’s scheduled for an MRI Thursday. “Right now, as it is, there’s nothing serious,” Cora said. “We’re making sure we slow it down the right way.” … Franchy Cordero went through the intake process Tuesday and could be on the field by Thursday. “There’s some catch-up to do,” Cora said … Xander Bogaerts (right shoulder) remains in rehab mode, but the Sox believe he’ll have time to be ready for Opening Day … Jeisson Rosario left the game in the fifth inning when he pulled his left hamstring chasing a fly ball in right field.

Wednesday’s Red Sox spring training report: An explosive fourth

Peter Abraham

Score: Red Sox 14, Twins 6 (seven innings)

Record: 2-2

Breakdown: The Sox had 15 hits, nine for extra bases, including a pair of home runs by Bobby Dalbec. They scored eight runs in the fourth inning as the first nine batters reached base off Glenn Sparkman and Chandler Shepherd. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli opted to end the inning with one out. Nick Pivetta allowed one run over two innings. Raynel Espinal struck out the side in the seventh.

Next: The Sox play the Orioles in Sarasota on Thursday at 1:05 p.m. Matt Andriese gets the start against righthander Dean Kremer. WEEI-AM has the game.

A swing flaw ruined J.D. Martinez in 2020. Here’s how he sought to correct it

Alex Speier

In the final days of the 2020 season, J.D. Martinez made no attempt to mask his horrendous disappointment. A self-made player who had become one of the most consistent middle-of-the-order producers in baseball from 2014-19 saw his offensive numbers plummet and his swing fall apart.

Typically, the power of Martinez’s swing comes from the ground up, a carefully calibrated kinetic chain transferring strength from the feet to the hips and torso and into the upper body. But in 2020 — en route to a .213 average, .291 OBP, and .393 slugging mark in the compressed season — that broke down dramatically, with Martinez rushing out with his front side, opening his hips too quickly, then throwing his hands at the ball, resulting in hollow contact.

“I don’t remember a day where, start to finish, he was happy,” said Red Sox hitting coach Tim Hyers.

To achieve a reversal, Martinez was not simply going to rely on his track record.

“The words when he left were, ‘I’m getting after this,’ ” Hyers said.

When Martinez returned to South Florida, he did not ease into the offseason. A hitting mechanic got back into the garage.

Martinez has made Team Sosa Baseball — a renowned South Florida facility run by Ricardo Sosa that is frequented by several big leaguers — his primary offseason base for several years. This year, he set up residence quickly.

“In previous years, he’d like to go out on a boat — he’s a big fisherman — and have his off-days,” said Kevin Suarez of Team Sosa. “This year, he had no offdays, man. He was in there every single day, even on the weekends.”

Suarez estimated he threw Martinez 200-300 pitches or flips per day in the morning (”My arm was hanging”), with Martinez continuing his work with others in the evening. Then he’d go home and continue his work until he felt that he’d locked in the precise movement he sought.

“I think he’s insane,” Suarez joked. “He picks it apart all night. He’s got to have some time off from baseball, but he goes home and practices and makes it perfect.”

Martinez wasn’t going to focus on one area to the exclusion of others. A player who rebuilt his swing completely in the 2013-14 offseason wanted once again to completely disassemble it and put it back together.

Martinez would take a round of swings, then examine video of it before stepping to the plate for another round.

He knew that he’d been sliding too far forward and opening up too quickly with his hips, but with his repetitions, he identified a root cause of that. Instead of remaining anchored on his right ankle at the start of his swing, he started his weight transfer too early, something that became pronounced in 2020. He believes the issue stemmed from an ankle injury in Game 1 of the 2018 World Series.

Once he identified the back heel as the foundational problem, Martinez could work through his remaining sequence of moves. He was deliberate in that process, exacting in his standards for what qualified as comfort with each component of his swing.

“He’d come in and say, ‘Kev, look at this, man — I figured it out. Look what I’m doing!’ ” Suarez said. “He was happy. He’s like a little kid at a candy store.”

Martinez took his work from the cages of Sosa Baseball to the field at his alma mater, Nova Southeastern, typically in sessions that lasted a couple of hours at a time following hours of strength and conditioning work.

Laz Gutierrez, Nova’s head coach, had worked with Martinez in 2018-19 as the Red Sox mental skills coach. In watching the slugger this offseason, Gutierrez was struck by Martinez’s purposefulness.

“Last year has served as such a big motivator for him,” Gutierrez said. “This is a kid who has always worked hard. He’s accomplished what he’s accomplished because of that work ethic and that attention to detail. I just think it’s been elevated to a completely different level. J.D. is a scientist when it comes to this.

“J.D. has always been a high-repetition guy. He probably drives the Red Sox medical staff crazy, puts them on pins and needles. But what was different this time, it wasn’t just about volume. It was about quality reps. To me, it was more of a surgical approach.”

While he’s able to get considerable value from his work in cages, Martinez likes to see the flight of the ball on a field to validate his progress. Over time at Nova, the progress became evident. Balls flared to right field early in the offseason increasingly became thunderous drives with the familiar arc that Martinez seeks.

“He goes from struggling in the beginning of the offseason — ‘My swing sucks; I don’t feel good’ — and at the end of it, he just explodes at the ball,” Suarez said. “Now he’s happy: ‘My swing is perfect; my swing is great.’ ”

Martinez has been slightly more measured in his assessments with the Red Sox staff since arriving in Fort Myers. Nonetheless, Hyers sees a difference in Martinez, with the way he’s creating whip with his bat, and without the frustration and doubt that trailed him throughout 2020.

“In 2020, he was just all over the place with his moves and things he didn’t want to do — just very inconsistent,” Hyers said. “I’m seeing, early in camp, him controlling moves. The snap and crack [of the bat] is closer to ’18 and ’19 for me. I hear the crack of the bat that I’m excited about.”

Martinez has said he is excited about the coming year, but spring optimism comes without guarantees. He has experienced across-the-board statistical decline each of the last two years, an ominous development for a 33-year-old. It’s fair to wonder whether the declining numbers — particularly against fastballs — are the product of mechanics or simply evidence of age-based decline.

Yet as was the case entering 2014 — the spring when the Astros released him — Martinez is navigating through camp with both confidence that he’s found something and an edge carved by that sort of perceived skepticism.

“I think that you’ll see what 2020 has done is add a sense of urgency,” Gutierrez said. “[He wants] to prove, ‘I am still one of the best hitters in Major League Baseball. I’m on a mission, and I want to show everyone that I am still J.D. Martinez.’ ”

* The Boston Herald

Kiké Hernández embracing Alex Cora’s challenge to be Red Sox’ leadoff hitter

Steve Hewitt

Kiké Hernández seems to have found the fit he’s always wanted in the Red Sox.

Not only is Hernández getting the opportunity to be the Red Sox’ everyday second baseman, but Alex Cora is giving him the chance to have the keys to the offensive engine as their leadoff hitter. And he’s seizing it.

“He said he’s going to challenge me,” Hernández said Wednesday, repeating what the manager has said throughout the spring. “He wanted me to come into camp and set as a goal for me to be the leadoff guy of this team and I told him that I believe that I can do it and I was up for the challenge. …

“So far, it’s going pretty good.”

That might be an understatement. In his first three games this spring, Hernández has batted leadoff in each and shown he’s more than capable. He’s reached base in seven of his first eight plate appearances, with three walks, two doubles and a home run.

Of course, it’s early, it’s only spring training and Cora warned after Wednesday’s 14-6 rout of the Twins that Hernández is known to have good springs. But the Red Sox believe in his offensive potential and are excited to unlock it.

After six seasons with the Dodgers as mostly a super-sub utility player, it’s exactly the kind of situation the 29-year-old Hernández was looking for this winter in free agency. A career .240 hitter with a .313 on-base percentage, he didn’t get the consistent playing time he needed to reach his offensive ceiling. But that’s all changing with the Red Sox.

Though Cora is challenging him, Hernández isn’t putting any pressure on himself to perform this spring. He seems to be at ease in his new situation, knowing he has the confidence from the club that he can do the job he’s always wanted.

“I feel like in the last couple of years, I always wanted to be an everyday guy and at times, I tried to prove too much and it ended up working against me,” Hernández said. “This year, these guys are trusting that I’m more than capable of being an everyday guy. Every year, I would go into camp trying to win an everyday job and this year, it’s a little different where I’m able to just play and think about getting ready for the season and just trying to work on different situations and do the little things.

“That’s the biggest difference for me. I’m not going to try to prove anything. They know what I can do and it’s just a matter of just playing freely and doing what I can do and everything else is going to take care of itself.”

Red Sox hitting coach Tim Hyers was the Dodgers’ assistant hitting coach in 2016 and 2017, and that familiarity also played a factor in Hernández choosing Boston. Hyers said he sees a player in Hernández who’s more consistent in his daily approach than he was in ‘16 and ‘17, when he was still young. Now, Hernández understands himself more, his moves in the batter’s box are cleaner and he knows his body better.

“I just think now, we’re getting him at a perfect time,” Hyers said. “We’re getting a mature player, a guy who’s been on a winning team, he’s won, he’s been playoff-tested and I think he’s coming into his own. That’s the part that I’m really excited about.”

When Hyers coached him in 2016 and 2017, the knock on Hernández was that he couldn’t hit breaking balls, especially from righties, but his numbers since then have steadily improved. And he’s always been comfortable with hitting fastballs, which he’ll be hunting for in his new role with the Red Sox.

That role will be much different than he’s accustomed to. With the Dodgers, Hernández often hit low in the order, and if he wasn’t starting, he was often coming on late as a substitute, and he flourished as that spark plug. But though he only started as the leadoff hitter 57 times in six years with the Dodgers, Hernández believes it suits him.

“It’s a spot I’m comfortable with,” Hernández said. “I always think that if I get to hit in the first inning, I feel like I’m more in the game than when I’m in the bottom of the lineup and I have to wait until late in the second or in the third inning. It just kind of feels like it’s been a few innings and you have yet to hit.”

Cora likes his leadoff hitters to be aggressive, like Mookie Betts was in 2018, and Hernández will certainly be looking for pitches to hit right away, as he’s shown this spring. But he knows how important it is to get on base for an explosive lineup behind him that includes Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez.

“I’m a good fastball hitter, so sometimes I’ll be ready to hit early from the first pitch in the game on,” Hernández said. “We got a pretty good lineup and for me, try to put a good AB together and either make good contact and drive the ball somewhere or just be selective and take your walk and that’s basically what I’m trying to work on right now.”

So far, it’s working, and at this rate, Cora may not have much of a choice but to pencil Hernández into the No. 1 spot on his lineup card for Opening Day.

“I believe in him and I think he can,” Hyers said. “I don’t think he has to prove himself in spring training. I would just say more, give us quality at-bats and then when the season starts, I think the course of time will tell if he can maintain that. …

“I think he’s really focused. We’re in a good spot. We have a player who’s focused, wanting to prove that he’s supposed to be in there and I think if he gets consistent ABs, he can show everybody what he’s capable of doing.”

Red Sox RHP Nick Pivetta ‘feeling really confident’ after spring debut

Steve Hewitt

Alex Cora doesn’t want Nick Pivetta to feel like he has something to prove, and it doesn’t sound like the Red Sox right-hander has a chip on his shoulder, either.

The Red Sox traded for Pivetta last August in the deal that sent Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree to the Phillies, and he’s projected to start the season as the No. 5 starter. But after spending four seasons with the Phillies, where he produced a 5.40 ERA as he only started 15 games over 2019 and 2020, the 28-year- old Pivetta isn’t looking back, just focused on his new chance.

“I’m very grateful that the Red Sox wanted me as a starting pitcher,” Pivetta said. “I think I’ve said that before, but that’s really important for me because that’s what I value myself as. I can help a team do that, and I put myself in that position. You just go with it. It’s part of the business, part of the game. You get moved around. It’s just, when a team goes out and gets you and gets some guys and they value you at the position you value yourself at, it’s really important. It’s a really big confidence booster as well.”

Though he gave up a home run in his first start of the spring in the Red Sox’ 14-6 win over the Twins, Pivetta is feeling good about himself.

After heading to the alternate site after being traded last season, he made two starts for the Red Sox in the last week of the year and went 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 10 innings. That momentum seemed to translate to his work this winter and early this spring training. On Wednesday, his fastball velocity averaged 95 mph and topped out at 96, and he felt good about his pitches.

“I’ve definitely taken a lot of steps forward from when I was at the alternate site to now,” Pivetta said. “I worked really, really hard in the weight room this offseason, worked hard on my mechanics, worked on how I delivered pitches, commanding my pitches better, game-planning better all in all. So I’d say a lot better. I’d say I’m in a really good position right now. I’m feeling really confident.”

Pivetta is excited to be a member of the Red Sox, where he believes he’ll have a chance to contend for a championship. He complemented how well-run the organization is from its coaching and training staffs, which he thinks can help maximize his talent and reach his potential.

“For me, it’s just getting back to my normal self, how I started my career,” Pivetta said. “Just having that confidence, having just my plan and sticking to it and just going out and being myself for the most part. Obviously, the Red Sox have a lot to offer. (Dave) Bush is a tremendous pitching coach and he has a lot of really great knowledge all around the board, so it’s working with him, getting those details fine-lined down and getting ready for the season to compete and do a really good job and help this team really get to where we want to go.”

Red Sox Notebook: New pitcher Hirokazu Sawamura throws first bullpen

Steve Hewitt

After a lengthy wait, Hirokazu Sawamura is finally in Fort Myers and pitching with the Red Sox.

The Japanese pitcher, who the Red Sox officially signed in mid-February, landed in Florida late last week after visa issues delayed his arrival from Japan. Sawamura had to wait a little longer as he went through intake testing and adjusted to the time difference before joining his new team at the facility Tuesday morning. On Wednesday morning, he pitched for the first time in Red Sox garb as he completed his first ever bullpen session in the United States.

“I was so excited but at the same time I was a little bit nervous,” Sawamura said, via translator Yutaro Yamaguchi.

Sawamura is still adjusting to a new environment, with the weather in Fort Myers seemingly being his biggest change.

“It’s been good weather,” Sawamura said. “Pretty hot. Nice environment, I’ve been loving that. So if I can just get it going with this climate, environment, I should be good to go.”

It’s unclear when Sawamura will pitch in spring training games, but he continued to work out while in Japan and as a reliever, he shouldn’t need much time to build up. He said he’ll throw another bullpen soon and then talk to pitching coach Dave Bush about what’s next.

“I’m healthy,” Sawamura said. “I’m in good condition. If I can make progress quickly, that would be great.”

Alex Cora already ruled Sawamura out as a closer candidate, but he’ll certainly be a big part of the Red Sox’ plans in the bullpen. The manager, though he was only able to see three pitches of Sawamura’s bullpen, will take it slow with the 32-year-old pitcher as he adjusts to a new environment and team.

“We told him to just make sure he’s comfortable with the surroundings of where the weight room is, the training room, his locker is somewhere here, I don’t even know which locker he is,” Cora said. “Very likable guy. I remember when we talked to him in the offseason, he was very honest about what he wanted to do, why he wanted to come here. He asked questions. Chaim (Bloom) got some answers. We talked about the bullpen and the city and everything that’s involved to be part of this organization. Very likable. …

“He owes me a bottle of wine because I was in the middle of a mini-vacation, no twins, nobody,” Cora joked. “We were in the mountains in Puerto Rico. Yeah, because of that phone call, I get a bottle of wine from him. I’m waiting for that one, too.”

Triple-A delay ‘smart’

The start of the Triple-A season, which was scheduled to begin April 6, will be delayed until early May, according to a report Tuesday by ESPN, which Cora agrees with.

“I had a feeling that was going to be the case,” Cora said. “You need X amount of players to play in Triple- A and some of those players are back home. They’re not here. So it’s the smart thing to do.”

The Worcester Red Sox’ inaugural season is now tentatively scheduled to begin May 4 at Buffalo, with their home opener at Polar Park slated for May 11 against Syracuse, per the schedule on the team’s website. It’s expected that Polar Park will be the location for the Red Sox’ alternate training site during April, as players will train in preparation for the season and stay ready in case they need to be called up to Boston.

Mata scratched

Bryan Mata, the Red Sox’ top pitching prospect, was scheduled to pitch Wednesday but was scratched due to soreness on the backside of his triceps. Cora doesn’t believe it’s serious but he’ll have an MRI on Thursday.

“He’s very important for us,” Cora said. “We’re making sure we slow it down the right way. Hopefully he can get on the mound sooner rather than later.” …

After the Red Sox’ 14-6 win over the Twins on Wednesday, Cora opened his postgame press conference by expressing his thoughts for Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who’s taking an immediate leave of absence to have surgery for a pacemaker.

“He’s one of my best friends in baseball,” Cora said. “We were teammates at ESPN and I know he’s going to be fine and we’re going to get back to competing again. Looking forward to seeing him in New York.” …

New outfielder Franchy Cordero is expected to join the Red Sox on Thursday after he gets his intake results. Cora said there will be some catching up for him to do after his arrival was delayed due to his placement on the COVID-19 list.

* The Providence Journal

Xander Bogaerts making progress

Bill Koch

Xander Bogaerts (right shoulder) seems to be making progress.

The shortstop took 30 swings off a tee on Tuesday and reported to work again at JetBlue Park on Wednesday. Bogaerts has yet to resume throwing after experiencing shoulder soreness early in spring training.

“When you start seeing him walking around and taking grounders and running and outside – that means he’s ready to go,” manager Alex Cora said. “We’ve got to make sure he understands we’re not going to rush him.”

Kiké Hernandez started in place of Bogaerts and knocked out a pair of hits in a 14-6 win over the Twins. Boston overcame an early 1-0 deficit with four runs in the top of the second and eight more in the third.

“We have to make sure his progression is the right one,” Cora said. “We still have plenty of time for him to build up and to get his at-bats and be ready for the start of the season.”

Sawamura 'excited, nervous' about joining Red Sox

Bill Koch

Hirokazu Sawamura threw his first bullpen session with the Red Sox on Wednesday.

The right-hander took the mound at JetBlue Park and delivered 23 pitches to catcher Kevin Plawecki. Sawamura completed his travel from Japan to Florida over the last week and played catch for the first time on Tuesday.

“It’s my first bullpen session in the U.S. and wearing this jersey — the Red Sox jersey,” Sawamura said through translator Yutaro Yamaguchi. “I was so excited, but at the same time I was a little bit nervous.”

Sawamura signed a two-year deal with a complicated mutual option for 2023 in the offseason, and Boston plans to employ him at the back end of its bullpen. Red Sox manager Alex Cora has initially ruled out Sawamura as a closer candidate, but he could eventually put himself in line for some high-leverage work.

“I don’t think performance is going to matter,” Cora said. “It’s just for him to feel comfortable. We know the stuff. We know the adjustments he made after he got traded.”

Sawamura spent the majority of his career with the Yomiuri Giants before a deal last season to the Chiba Lotte Marines. The 32-year-old recorded 73 saves in a two-year period with the Giants from 2015-16. He’s expecting to work vertically in the strike zone with his fastball-splitter combination.

“I feel good,” Sawamura said. “I’m healthy. I’m in good condition. If I can make progress quickly that would be great.”

Cora was with the eventual champion Red Sox in 2007 when Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima both debuted. Okajima allowed a solo home run on the first pitch he threw to John Buck, a solo shot to center field in Kansas City. The left-hander allowed just two more earned runs prior to June 1 and pitched to a 2.22 ERA in what wound up an American League All-Star season.

“We thought he was just here for the ride with Daisuke – ‘Oh, he’s just hanging out here,’” Cora said. “And then all of a sudden he became one of the best pitchers in the league and one of the most important pieces of us.”

Pivetta aims to return to form

Bill Koch

Nick Pivetta wants to be the pitcher he was in 2016.

The Phillies valued the right-hander as a promising prospect at that time. Pivetta posted a 3.27 ERA across 27 starts at Double-A Reading and Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He struck out 138 in 148⅔ innings and eventually made his Philadelphia debut the following April.

The next four years saw the Phillies gradually sour on Pivetta. He was shifted to the bullpen and eventually traded to the Red Sox as a 27-year-old in August. Organizations generally don’t part with arms that young unless they’ve given up hope — moving Pivetta and Connor Seabold to bring back Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree is likely to have been considered a minimal return not so long ago.

Pivetta made his spring debut with Boston on Wednesday in a 14-6 smashing of the Twins. He allowed a solo homer to Mitch Garver in the bottom of the first inning but was clean otherwise at Hammond Stadium. Pivetta retired six men on 41 pitches, throwing 25 for strikes.

“To me, it’s just getting back to my normal self — how I started my career,” Pivetta said. “Just having that confidence, having my plan and sticking to it. Just going out and being my normal self for the most part.”

Pivetta touched 96.2 mph with his four-seam fastball — what was billed as a power arm still appears to be in fine working order. It’s how Pivetta refines his approach that will be key to jumping back onto what looked like a promising path. He’s been moved twice ahead of the trade deadline by clubs in search of bullpen help — the Nationals, the team who drafted him initially, traded Pivetta for former Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon in July 2015.

“I don’t want him to feel he has to prove people wrong,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “If that’s what motivates him, good. But he doesn’t have to do that.

"We like the player. We like the talent. He did a good job last year toward the end of the season.”

Pivetta made three relief appearances with Philadelphia in 2020, pitching to a bloated 15.88 ERA in just 5⅔ innings. Boston stashed him at the alternate site in Pawtucket both to build up his pitch count and, if viewed cynically, to delay his free agency until after the 2024 season. Pivetta debuted for the Red Sox in September and was the winning pitcher in both of his outings, completing five innings twice.

“It’s like a breath of fresh air,” Pivetta said. “I’m really enjoying my experience so far and I’m really excited for the season. I think we’re all ready.”

Thunderstorms rolled through Florida in the morning and the Red Sox extended the electricity until well after the sun reappeared. Bobby Dalbec bashed a pair of home runs in his first two plate appearances, going deep to right-center each time. He now has three round-trippers this spring — all at this ballpark, all deposited in the same general vicinity.

“It was fun to watch on TV — it’s a lot better to watch it in person,” Cora said. “He’s saying all the right things. He’s acting the right way. He’s a good baseball player.”

Dalbec’s first of the day happened during a barrage against Minnesota closer Alex Colomé, who entered in the top of the third with a 1-0 lead. The right-hander allowed five hits and four earned runs, as Kiké Hernandez added a two-run double to left and J.D. Martinez chipped in an RBI double to left. The Red Sox put seven balls in play against Colomé at an average exit velocity of 99.9 mph.

“We have a good offensive team,” Cora said. “We believe that we’re going to score runs this year. The top third of the lineup is going to be very athletic, then the run-producers in the middle, then the bottom three are going to hit the ball out of the ballpark.”

Dalbec, Hernandez and Martinez all finished with two hits apiece as Boston mounted a 15-hit attack in just seven innings. Eduard Bazardo, Caleb Simpson and Raynel Espinal each threw a scoreless frame in relief.

* MassLive.com

Jarren Duran’s muscle, Nick Yorke’s bat: 10 Boston Red Sox farm system observations early in 2021 spring training

Christopher Smith

Red Sox No. 2 prospect Jeter Downs homered in his first spring training at-bat Sunday. Top outfield prospect Jarren Duran blasted a home run Tuesday.

Meanwhile, pitching prospects Thad Ward, A.J. Politi, Eduard Bazardo, Connor Seabold, Garrett Whitlock and Stephen Gonsalves all have tossed scoreless outings.

“It’s great because it’s where we’re at as an organization,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “You see the first part and that’s the big league club and we have our goals and we’re going to keep getting better for what we want to accomplish. And then the second part is player development. Some of these guys have been in the organization since before Chaim (Bloom) got here, but he’s added other guys. And it’s great to see them play and to talk to them about certain situations.”

Cora added, “The fact that they’re not only young but they’re good players, it makes it better. These kids know where they’re going and they’re here to learn the game. But at the same time, when they go out there, they are competing. They’re competing at a high level and that makes it fun.”

Below are 10 early observations about the Red Sox farm system from big league spring training camp.

TEN OBSERVATIONS ON THE RED SOX FARM SYSTEM EARLY IN SPRING TRAINING

1. Jarren Duran is in the best shape of anyone at camp

Center field prospect Jarren Duran is in the best shape of anyone at Red Sox major league spring training camp. He takes after his dad who he called a “gym freak” with a weight room in his garage at home.

“He lifts, he sleeps, he eats and he plays baseball,” Cora said about Duran after he homered Tuesday.

Duran has natural athleticism and speed. His speed is off the charts and it allows him to turn singles into doubles and doubles into triples. But he is not relying on just speed.

His excellent physical shape shows he puts in a tremendous amount of work off the field, inside the gym. It shows he is committed to being Boston’s longterm center fielder of the future. He has added home run strength and he made swing adjustments to hit more balls in the air. But he still has elite speed which could allow him to bunt for a single or beat out an infield grounder. He also has the chance to be an above- average defender because of his speed.

2. Chaim Bloom starting to look really smart for drafting Nick Yorke

Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom shocked everyone by drafting Nick Yorke 17th overall in 2020. MLB.com had the 18-year-old ranked as the 139th-best prospect in the draft.

But the Red Sox felt Yorke would have been a consensus first-round pick if the 2020 amateur season had not been shortened due to COVID-19. Boston also was able to sign Yorke for $2.7 million — $909,700 below his slot value. That allowed Bloom to sign third-round pick Blaze Jordan for $1.75 million — $1.0821 million above his slot value.

Yorke impressed in a limited sample size against advanced pitching at the alternate training site last year. He then stroked a single against Atlanta’s A.J. Minter, one of the NL’s top relievers last year, during his first at-bat of spring training Monday.

Yorke is described as a pure hitter. The Red Sox view him as an offensive second baseman.

“I saw him a few days ago in the batting cage and he’s lost some weight,” Cora said Feb. 23. “He’s in a better place physically. He’s a tall, strong kid. And that was impressive. I look and I was like, ‘Who’s this kid?’ They told me, I was like, ‘Wow, he’s impressive.’”

Yorke and the other infielders are learning a lot. Cora said he has the young infielders standing near infield coach Carlos Febles and quality control coach Ramon Vazquez during spring training games.

“Ramon and Carlos are moving the infielders, so we’ve got the young kids right next to them so they can actually see how it looks from our perspective and the spacing on defense,” Cora said.

3. Eduard Bazardo could make MLB debut early in 2021

Eduard Bazardo, who is on the 40-man roster, needed to throw only eight pitches for his perfect frame Sunday (he’s scheduled to pitch again Wednesday). He maxed out at 94.7 mph after sitting 93-96 mph and touching 97 mph with his fastball at fall instructs.

Bazardo previously sat in the low-90s but he added 12 pounds and velo last summer while training at the Red Sox’s academy in the Dominican. He always has had elite spin rate on his curveball.

“The velocities up. Everybody knows about the breaking ball but I do believe the fastball is going to make a difference,” Cora said.

4. Andrew Politi is a legit prospect

Andrew “A.J.” Politi is not on the 40-man roster and hasn’t pitched above High A yet, but he might not be far behind Bazardo. The 24-year-old likely will start his season at Double-A Portland or Triple-A Worcester.

He struck out the side Tuesday.

“Good breaking ball,” Cora said. “The fastball, he got some swing-and-misses. He seems like he was overthrowing it but you can see the separation. He’s one of those guys that he has a vertical attack. Fastball up, breaking ball down. It’s a good one. He throws it from the same window. He’s one of the guys that watching on video impressed me. Mature and he’s a good athlete, too. So that was good to see.”

Keith Law, the prospect guru for The Athletic, ranked Politi Boston’s No. 15 prospect heading into 2021 and also named him the farm system’s sleeper. “Politi could make a jump this year, at least into their top 10 if not the global list (MLB’s Top 100 prospect list),” Law wrote.

5. Connor Seabold, the real steal of the Brandon Workman trade?

The Red Sox acquired Nick Pivetta and Connor Seabold from the Phillies for Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree last August.

Pivetta is expected to begin the season as Boston’s No. 5 starter. He’ll make his 2021 spring training debut Wednesday.

Seabold, meanwhile, might end up being the better of the two pitchers.

He pitched a scoreless inning Monday. He showed increased velocity on his fastball. He was up to 95-96 mph, Cora said. The righty worked in the low-90s at the alternate training site last season.

Seabold’s top pitch is his changeup. So adding more speed to the fastball creates even more separation between the fastball and changeup, Cora pointed out.

“There was a big margin between the fastball and the changeup,” Cora said.

Seabold has a solid chance to make his MLB debut during 2021. He could become a No. 4/5 starter for Boston in the years to come.

6. Red Sox are lucky Yairo Munoz remains in the organization

The Red Sox somewhat surprisingly placed Yairo Munoz on waivers this past offseason — and he somewhat surprisingly cleared waivers to remain in the organization.

Munoz is 4-for-8 with a homer, double and three RBIs in three spring training games so far. He was one of four players to homer for Boston on Tuesday.

“Yairo, he crushed that pitch to right-center,” Cora said.

The 26-year-old posted a .511 slugging percentage, .844 OPS, one home run, five doubles, four RBIs and six runs in 12 games (45 plate appearances) for the Red Sox in 2020. He has a career .278/.332/.402/.733 line in 208 major league games (555 plate appearances). He also had 4 Defensive Runs Saved in 56 innings in left field for Boston last year, per Fangraphs.

He is one of the top outfield depth options heading into 2021. He will play for Boston at some point this season.

7. The Red Sox have acquired legit catching prospects

Connor Wong — who Boston acquired with Alex Verdugo and Jeter Downs from the Dodgers for Mookie Betts and David Price — has made a lot of improvements defensively since last spring training.

Cora has been impressed with Wong’s quick hands. He also has a strong arm and he’s working on a one- knee catching stance.

“I really like the fact that communication is No. 1 in his defensive game,” Cora added. “You see him in the dugout talking to Jason (Varitek), to the pitchers. And for a young guy to be able to do that right now is eye opening.”

Ronaldo Hernandez, who Boston acquired from the Rays, has yet to appear in a spring training game. MLB Pipeline has him ranked Boston’s No. 15 prospect. He is only 23 years old and has showed some power in the minors like Wong.

Bloom has added three legit catching prospects in Wong, Hernandez and even Jhonny Pereda, who won the Venezuelan Winter League Rookie of the Year this past offseason. Pereda, who turns 25 in April, has not made his 2021 spring debut.

8. Garrett Whitlock will make the Opening Day roster

Cora talks glowingly about Rule 5 Draft pick Garrett Whitlock every time he’s asked about him.

After Whitlock’s two scoreless innings Tuesday, Cora said, “The stuff is there. He pays attention to detail. Very good kid in the clubhouse. Always talking to other pitchers and watching and learning.”

Boston selected Whitlock from the Yankees. He must remain on the active roster all season (barring IL stints) or be offered back to New York.

Whitlock has the longterm potential to be a backend starter and he could win the No. 6 spot in the rotation if Boston starts 2021 with a six-man rotation, not a five-man rotation. He could be used in several roles, including spot starter, long reliever and short reliever, this year. Boston probably will use him more as a bulk reliever but he also could receive chances in high-leverage situations where he the Red Sox need a groundball. He had a 2.20 groundout-to-flyout ratio in 2019. The Red Sox feel he’s the type of pitcher who can take advantage of infield shifting.

9. Tanner Houck likely will start the season at the alternate training site

Tanner Houck has worked on developing a splitter as his third pitch, but it still seems like it’s a work in progress that could result in him starting 2021 in the minors.

“Continuing to work on that to the point where he feels comfortable and confident attacking the zone with it and throwing it whenever he needs to,” pitching coach Dave Bush said.

Houck allowed just one earned run (0.53 ERA) and struck out 21 batters in 17 innings for Boston last year. But it feels like his only opportunity to begin 2021 on the Opening Day roster is if Boston goes with a six- man rotation. Pivetta, who has no options remaining, seems locked into the No. 5 spot.

Whitlock and Matt Andriese would be candidates along with Houck for the sixth spot if the Red Sox use a six-man rotation.

10. Jeter Downs has some power, remember

Downs is 2-for-4 with a homer, three RBIs, one walk and two strikes in three spring training games. He is the top prospect Boston acquired in the Betts trade.

Cora has talked a lot about Downs’ smooth defense and his ability to slow down the game on defense (although he has made two errors so far). The 22-year-old also reminded us of his strength when he bashed an opposite field home run in his first at-bat.

“He crushed that ball to right field,” Cora said. “He did. And then the at-bat, the next one, it was a good swing up the middle.”

Downs posted a .526 slugging percentage, .888 OPS, 24 homers, 35 doubles and four triples in 119 games (535 plate appearances) at High A and Double A combined in 2019.

Nick Pivetta, Boston Red Sox starter, tops out at 96.2 mph with fastball in 2021 spring debut; ‘I’m feeling really confident’

Christopher Smith

Boston Red Sox starter Nick Pivetta’s fastball topped out at 96.2 mph and averaged 95.1 mph in his 2021 spring training debut against the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday.

Pivetta threw 41 pitches: 24 four-seam fastballs, eight knuckle-curveballs, eight sliders and one changeup.

He pitched two innings, allowing one run and one hit (a solo homer).

“I’ve definitely taken a lot of steps forward from when I was at the alternate site (last summer) to now,” Pivetta said. ‘I’ve worked really, really hard in the weight room this offseason. Worked on mechanics. Worked on how I deliver pitches. Commanding my pitches better. Game-planning better. ... I’d say I’m in a really good position right now. I’m feeling really confident.”

Pivetta averaged 92.8 mph with his fastball in a very small sample size in 2020, 94.6 mph in 2019, 94.8 mph in 2018 and 94.5 in 2017, per Baseball Savant.

“It’s always something I’ve had in my back pocket,” Pivetta said about his velocity. “I’ve been very, very fortunate of that. Commanding that is much more of a priority to me. It’s attacking the strike zone, getting ahead of guys and putting guys away early.”

Pivetta, who is out of minor league options for the first time in 2021, is expected to be Boston’s No. 5 starter. The Red Sox acquired the righty last August with Connor Seabold from the Phillies for Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree.

He has nice spin on both his curveball and fastball.

“It’s always interesting getting traded,” Pivetta said. “I’m very grateful that the Red Sox wanted me as a starting pitcher. I think I’ve said that before but that was really important for me because that’s what I value myself as.”

Pivetta said it was nice to have fans in the stand. He is looking forward to pitching in front of a crowd at Fenway Park.

“It’s just nice to hear fans in the stadium. Look around and there’s faces. It’s really cool. It’s really refreshing for a change. I just can’t wait until we get to Boston, hear them going, hear that ‘Sweet Caroline.’ I’m super excited. It’s good for everybody. It’s good for our nation. It’s good for baseball.

Hirokazu Sawamura throws first bullpen with Boston Red Sox: ‘I’d just like him to get comfortable,’ Alex Cora says

Chris Cotillo

At the beginning of his Zoom session with the media before Wednesday’s game, Red Sox manager Alex Cora jokingly told reporters that they needed to hurry up with their questions. There was a new show in town, and Cora wanted badly to see it.

Reliever Hirokazu Sawamura, having finally arrived in camp earlier in the week after dealing with visa issues in his native Japan, was throwing his first bullpen as a member of the Red Sox. Cora, who has already seen more than 40 pitchers throw bullpens since arriving in Fort Myers, didn’t want to miss it.

Unfortunately for Cora, the media availability ran a little bit long.

“I saw three pitches,” the manager joked after Boston’s win over the Twins.

Even if he missed Sawamura’s debut, Cora will get plenty of chances to see the righty throw before the end of camp. This week, once Sawamura arrived in Fort Myers and passed the mandated COVID-19 intake screening, the goal was to make the newcomer as comfortable as possible in his new surroundings.

Sawamura, a nine-year Nippon Professional Baseball veteran who signed a two-year deal with a club option last month, isn’t sure when he’s going to pitch in a game. But the first bullpen session under the hot Florida sun was a much-welcomed step in his acclimation to Major League Baseball.

“It was my first bullpen session ever in the U.S. and wearing this jersey, the Red Sox jersey,” Sawamura said though interpreter Yutaro Yamaguchi. “I was so excited, but at the same time I was a little nervous. It has been good weather, pretty hot and nice environment. I’ve been loving that, so if I can just get it going with this climate, I should be good to go.”

Sawamura, who thrived after being traded from the Yomiuri Giants to the Chiba Lotte Marines midway through last year, said he took a few days off after the end of the season before he began training for 2021. Knowing a move to North America was possible, the soon-to-be 33-year-old started throwing with a MLB- certified baseball, which is a bit larger and heavier than the baseball used in Japan.

Cora, who first met Sawamura on a Zoom call while the Red Sox were recruiting the righty, called him a “very likable” guy who he believes will fit in well with his new teammates. Sawamura’s arrival reminded Cora of 2007, when a little-known reliever named Hideki Okajima arrived in Red Sox camp alongside Daisuke Matsuzaka.

“Spring really doesn’t matter,” Cora said. “When I saw (Okajima) in ’07, he was giving up lasers left and right. We thought he was just here for the ride with (Matsuzaka), like he’s just hanging out here. All of the sudden, he became one of the best pitchers in the league and one of the most important pieces of us.

“I don’t think performance is going to matter,” he continued. “I’d just like him to feel comfortable. We know the stuff and the adjustments he made after he got traded. We’ll make sure he’s comfortable early in the season.”

Cora hasn’t said exactly how he’ll use Sawamura early in the year, but he has ruled out the possibility of him closing games. In April, Cora said, the Sox might use Sawamura in lower-leverage situations to help him get acclimated without dealing with high pressure.

Sawamura is working with Cora and pitching coach Dave Bush to plan out the next steps of his progression, though the group hasn’t determined when he’ll make his Grapefruit League debut. There is one thing on Sawamura’s to-do list, though, as Cora said the pitcher owes him a bottle of wine for pulling him away from a mini-vacation in the mountains of Puerto Rico to take a Zoom call during the recruiting process.

Even though visa issues caused a late arrival for Sawamura, all signs are pointing to him being ready for Opening Day on April 1.

“To see him around just working with us, that’s a good step,” Cora said. “Now we’ll see what’s next. He has been working in Japan so he’s not that far off.”

Boston Red Sox notebook: Bobby Dalbec homers twice in blowout, Kiké Hernández stays hot; Franchy Cordero arrives in camp

Chris Cotillo

Bobby Dalbec sure likes hitting at Hammond Stadium. Three days after hitting his first spring home run against the Twins, Dalbec added two more as the Red Sox won, 14-6, on the other side of Fort Myers.

Dalbec hit a solo shot off reliever Alex Colomé in the third inning and added a two-run shot off Glenn Sparkman to start an eight-run fourth for Boston. So far in Grapefruit League play, Dalbec is hitting .500 with three homers.

“It was fun to watch on TV,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “It’s a lot better to watch it in person. He’s saying all the right things, he’s acting the right way. He’s a good baseball player. He cares about the other stuff -- baserunning and defense. His work ethic is amazing.”

Cora praised Dalbec for the work he put in during the off-season, including losing around 10 pounds. He has also enjoyed watching him work with hitting coaches Tim Hyers and Peter Fatse so far this spring.

Boston scored at least nine runs for the second straight day, with Dalbec, Kiké Hernandez and J.D. Martinez each pitching in two hits. Hunter Renfroe and Jonathan Arauz each had doubles 12 hitters had at least one hit on the day.

“We will score runs,” Cora said. “We have a good offense. That was cool to see today. Hitting the ball all over the place, running well on the bases, obviously Bobby hitting the ball out of the ballpark. Overall, it was a good offensive day.”

Hernández stays hot

Hernández, who homered against the Rays on Tuesday, had another nice offensive day, going 2-for-2 with two doubles, two RBIs and a walk. He has reached base in his last seven plate appearances.

Cora, who is considering putting Hernández in the leadoff spot, likes what he sees.

“I do believe there’s more there,” Cora said. “The last few years have been tough on him as far as getting at-bats against righties, for obvious reasons. (The Dodgers) have a complete team over there. I do believe he can hit lefties and righties. He’s not a swing-and-miss guy, he controls the strike zone. I think, with him, the most important thing with him is when he’s ahead in the count, to not expand. For right now, it’s good. He’s known to have good spring trainings.

“I challenged him to do the job up there and make me make a decision,” Cora said. “Push me to make a decision.”

Verdugo getting ready at own pace

Outfielder Alex Verdugo still hasn’t appeared in a spring training game, but he’s not hurt. Verdugo progresses at a different pace than most players early in spring training and Cora respects that.

“He has his own routine as far as not hitting outside,” Cora said. “He doesn’t want to get caught up as far as not hitting the pull side homers. His process is very interesting and I enjoy talking to him. It’s nothing about lack of preparation or other things. He’s building up, it’s part of his program and I’m comfortable with it.”

Cora plans to play Verdugo on Friday against the Rays and again on Sunday against Atlanta.

“Getting to know Alex, as far as the swing is, he feels he’s not ready for action,” Cora said. “He has been on the back fields facing a lot of guys. I told him not to rush.”

Rosario injured

Outfield prospect Jeisson Rosario injured his hamstring running after a ball in the fifth inning of Wednesday’s win. Cora is hoping the injury isn’t too serious.

“We’ll check him again tomorrow and see how he feels,” Cora said. “Probably a few days off, hopefully.”

Rosario was one of two prospects acquired from the Padres in the August trade that sent Mitch Moreland to San Diego. He’s projected to start the year at Double-A Portland.

Other notes:

* Shortstop Xander Bogaerts (shoulder soreness) took 30 swings off the tee for the second straight day Wednesday and could progress to throwing and fielding drills soon.

“He’s feeling better,” Cora said. “When you start seeing him walking around, taking grounders and running outside, it means he’s ready to go. We’ve got to make sure he understands we’re not going to rush him.”

* Outfielder Franchy Cordero (COVID-19 related injured list) has arrived in Fort Myers and is going through the intake screening process, Cora said. If he passes, Cordero will join the team for workouts tomorrow.

The Red Sox still need to make two 40-man roster moves to officially activate Cordero and catcher Kevin Plawecki from the COVID-19 IL. It’s expected both players will be ready for Opening Day.

“There was a slight delay in the Dominican for him to come here and a delay with baseball activities, so there’s some catching up to do,” Cora said.

* The Red Sox expect to make some cuts Tuesday, Cora said. This year, with no minor-league camp, that means players who are sent down will work out at different times of the day.

Boston is off Monday, giving Cora and the coaching staff a day to make some decisions.

* The Red Sox will be back in action Thursday in Sarasota, where they’ll face the Orioles for the first time this spring. Right-hander Matt Andriese is on the mound for the Sox with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m.

Bryan Mata injury: Boston Red Sox top pitching prospect to receive MRI because of right triceps soreness

Christopher Smith

Boston Red Sox top pitching prospect Bryan Mata (right triceps soreness) will receive an MRI on Thursday.

“So we’ll have more (information) probably later tomorrow or early (Friday),” manager Alex Cora said after Boston’s 14-6 victory over the Twins in Grapefruit League action Wednesday.

Baseball America ranks the righty Boston’s No. 1 pitching prospect and fourth best prospect overall behind Triston Casas, Bobby Dalbec and Jeter Downs.

The Venezuela native will turn 22 on May 3. He has a 3.40 ERA and 1.35 WHIP 69 minor league starts.

He posted a 3.43 ERA and 1.28 WHIP in 21 starts between High-A Salem and Double-A Portland in 2019. He averaged 9.5 strikeouts compared to 3.6 walks per nine innings.

Mata was sitting 96-98 mph at the alternate training site last summer.

He throws a four-seamer, two-seamer, slider, curveball and changeup. In 2019, Mata committed to his two- seam fastball while also working hard on developing his slider into his best secondary pitch.

Worcester Red Sox Opening Day tentatively scheduled for May 4; Polar Park will be Boston Red Sox alternate training site in April

Chris Cotillo

The Worcester Red Sox are tentatively scheduled to begin their inaugural season in Buffalo on May 4 and host the first game at Polar Park against Syracuse on May 11, a source confirmed Wednesday morning. The WooSox were originally scheduled to start their season on April 6 and host their home opener a week later but Major League Baseball is pushing back the start of the Triple-A season by a month.

Polar Park will serve as the Red Sox’ alternate training site throughout April, multiple sources said. Up to 28 players will train in Worcester for a month before the Triple-A season begins. It’s unclear if fans will be allowed to attend workouts before the beginning of the season, though no fans were allowed into the alternate site (Pawtucket’s McCoy Stadium) last year.

The WooSox are expected to release an official statement later Wednesday. The schedule on the team’s site already reflects the changes, though it’s unclear if games will be added in late September to account for the delay.

On Tuesday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that MLB was planning on delaying the Triple-A season to better fit the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination timeline so that major-league teams wouldn’t have to quarantine players who are called up. Teams can only have up to 75 players in spring training at the moment, meaning some players projected for Triple-A are not getting a chance to prepare for the season in a traditional way.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora said he believes delaying the season makes sense.

“I had a feeling that was going to be the case,” Cora said. “You need X amount of players to play in Triple- A and some of those players are back home. They’re not here. It’s the smart thing to do.

“You just have to make sure the other players are ready to play baseball and the way it was looking, no chance they were going to be ready,” he said.

When spring training concludes at the end of the month, the Red Sox will carry 26 players on their Opening Day roster and send up to 28 to train in Worcester. The rest of the organization’s minor-leaguers will remain in Fort Myers for their version of spring training throughout April.

At the alternate training site, players and coaches will participate in daily workouts, including intrasquad games. The proximity to Fenway Park will make it easy for the Red Sox to call players up to the majors during the first month of the regular season.

Boston Red Sox top pitching prospect Bryan Mata scratched because of soreness behind triceps

Christopher Smith

Boston Red Sox top pitching prospect Bryan Mata was scheduled to pitch in relief Wednesday. But he has been scratched because of soreness behind his right triceps. The Red Sox and Twins are scheduled to play at 1:05 p.m.

Manager Alex Cora said he probably will have more information after the game.

“Just a little bit sore on the back side of the triceps,” Cora said. “So we’re going to push him back, give him a few days of treatment. Right now, as it is, it’s nothing serious. But obviously if it takes longer, we’ll do what we have to do to check on him. He’s very important for us. So we’re making sure we slow it down the right way. And like I said, hopefully he can get on the mound sooner rather than later. I’ll have more probably after the game.”

Baseball America ranks the righty Boston’s No. 1 pitching prospect and fourth best prospect overall behind Triston Casas, Bobby Dalbec and Jeter Downs.

The 21-year-old Mata, a native of Venezuela, posted a 3.43 ERA and 1.28 WHIP in 21 starts between High-A Salem and Double-A Portland in 2019. He averaged 9.5 strikeouts compared to 3.6 walks per nine innings.

Mata was sitting 96-98 mph at the alternate training site last summer.

He throws a four-seamer, two-seamer, slider, curveball and changeup. In 2019, Mata committed to his two- seam fastball while also working hard on developing his slider into his best secondary pitch.

Mata will turn 22 on May 3. He has a 3.40 ERA and 1.35 WHIP 69 minor league starts.

* RedSox.com

Sawamura throws bullpen session at JetBlue

Ian Browne

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Hirokazu Sawamura, the right-hander from Japan who brings great intrigue with him to Spring Training, put his Red Sox uniform on for the first time Wednesday morning at JetBlue Park.

Not long after that, Sawamura went to one of the mounds in front of the clubhouse at Fenway South and threw a 23-pitch bullpen session with a wave of camera clicks from the Japanese media serving as a soundtrack.

Sawamura, a veteran of 10 pro seasons in Japan, threw all fastballs and splitters in what was perhaps his most attended bullpen session ever.

“It was my first bullpen session ever in the U.S. and wearing this jersey, the Red Sox jersey, so I was so excited,” Sawamura said through interpreter Yutaro Yamaguchi. “But at the same time, I was a little bit nervous. To answer your second question, it’s been good weather. Pretty hot. Nice environment, I’ve been loving that. So if I can just get it going with this climate, environment, I should be good to go.”

Luckily for Sawamura, he got his bullpen session in under cloudy conditions about an hour before one of those epic Florida downpours.

In their quest to upgrade the bullpen this winter, the Red Sox talked to numerous free agents and explored many trade targets.

The trade with the Yankees for Adam Ottavino was move No. 1. The second significant bullpen acquisition was the signing of the hard-throwing Sawamura, which was made official on Feb. 16.

Sawamura’s entry to camp was delayed by visa issues, which were resolved in time for him to make the long flight from Japan over the weekend.

After going through the COVID-19 intake process and getting some time to recover from jet lag, Sawamura was ready to get to work on Wednesday.

“Very likable guy” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “I remember when we talked to him in the offseason -- as you guys know, we talked to a lot of people, we were in everything, including some players from Japan -- he was very honest about what he wanted to do, why he wanted to come here. He asked questions. [Chief baseball officer] Chaim [Bloom] got some answers.”

Cora appreciated the depth of the conversation, if not the unexpected timing.

“We talked about the bullpen and the city and everything that’s involved to be part of this organization. He owes me a bottle of wine, because I was in the middle of a mini-vacation, no twins, nobody,” quipped Cora. “We were in the mountains in Puerto Rico. Yeah, because of that phone call, I get a bottle of wine from him. I’m waiting for that one too.”

In truth, Sawamura’s biggest gift to Cora could be how he pitches.

The Red Sox project him to be one of their key relievers late in games, joining Matt Barnes, Ottavino and Darwinzon Hernandez.

Though Sawamura had back-to-back solid seasons as a closer for the Yomiuri Giants in 2015-16, Cora said that the 32-year-old won’t start the season in that role.

That would be a lot of pressure for someone who already is acclimating to a new culture, a new baseball, a new climate and a whole new crop of hitters.

As for the different baseball -- which is the biggest adjustment for most Japanese pitchers when they come to the U.S. -- Sawamura started adapting to it over the winter in anticipation of signing with a Major League team.

“After the season in Japan last year, I took some days off, but right after that, I started working out using the Major League baseball,” Sawamura said. “And the climate here and Japan are different, so obviously the climate, the wetness and humidity ... I’ll have to make adjustments in terms of handling the Major League baseball.”

Sawamura, who isn’t sure when he will pitch in a Grapefruit League game for the first time, knows that he’s likely to have to change his approach to thrive against the best hitters in the world.

“I’ve got to see how effective I can use the strike zone,” Sawamura said. “I’m the type of guy who kind of pitches in the high strike zone and lower part. I don’t use the corner work. It’s more like vertical movement. If I could make those adjustments, I should be able to adjust to Major League batters.”

Various adjustments -- and how quickly and adeptly he can make them -- will be the determining factor in how big of a success story Sawamura is for the Red Sox.

Notes: Pivetta debuts, Dalbec shows power

Ian Browne

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Nick Pivetta’s quest to start over with the Red Sox is off to a good start.

In his Grapefruit League debut on Wednesday, Pivetta gave up a wind-blown solo homer to Mitch Garver, but he was otherwise sharp in a two-inning performance in which he retired six of the eight batters he faced.

The righty gave up just the one hit, while walking none and striking out one in Boston’s 14-6 road win against the Twins at Hammond Stadium.

The team’s projected fourth or fifth starter, Pivetta is no longer burdened by the expectations he could never seem to live up to in Philadelphia.

“For me, it’s just getting back to my normal self, how I started my career,” Pivetta said. “Just having that confidence, having my plan and sticking to it and just going out and being myself for the most part. Obviously, the Red Sox have a lot to offer. [Dave] Bush is a tremendous pitching coach and he has a lot of really great knowledge all around the board. So it’s working with him, getting those details fine-lined down and getting ready for the season to compete and do a really good job and help this team really get to where we want to go.”

After he was acquired by the Red Sox -- along with Minor League righty Connor Seabold -- for Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree last August, Pivetta spent extended time at the alternate training site in Pawtucket, R.I.

Given the chance to make two starts for the Red Sox at the end of the season, Pivetta was sharp, going 2-0 and giving up two earned runs in 10 innings.

Pivetta thinks he has made a lot more progress since then, and he carried that with him to the mound on Wednesday.

“I worked really, really hard in the weight room this offseason, worked hard on my mechanics, worked on how I delivered pitches, commanding my pitches better, and game-planning,” said Pivetta. “So I’d say a lot better. I’d say I’m in a really good position right now. I’m feeling really confident.”

Dalbec launches two more

Rookie Bobby Dalbec came into camp as the heavy favorite to be the team’s starting first baseman. Now, he looks like a lock.

The slugger belted two more homers on Wednesday to give him three in his first eight at-bats of Spring Training.

“It was fun to watch on TV [last season],” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “It’s a lot better to watch in person. He’s saying all the right things. He’s acting the right way. He’s a good baseball player. He cares about the other stuff: baserunning, defense. His work ethic is amazing, I’m happy for him. The work he puts in with [hitting coaches] Timmy [Hyers] and Peter [Fatse] is relentless. Two-strike homers, they count too, and he knows it. If he makes contact, good things are going to happen.”

Mata to undergo MRI Righty Bryan Mata, Boston’s No. 4 prospect per MLB Pipeline, was supposed to make his Grapefruit League debut on Wednesday in relief, but it was pushed back for health reasons.

“He’s going to have an MRI [Thursday], so we’ll probably know more in a couple of days,” said Cora. “Just a little bit sore on the back side of his triceps. So we’re going to push him back, give him a few days of treatment, see how he reacts, and hopefully, right now as it is, it’s nothing serious.

“He’s very important for us. We’re making sure we slow it down the right way. Like I said, hopefully he can get on the mound sooner rather than later.”

Taking it slow with Xander The Red Sox still don’t have a timetable for when shortstop Xander Bogaerts (right shoulder) will play in his first Spring Training game.

“He hit off the tee yesterday, 30 swings. Today, probably he’ll go through the same progression, he’s feeling better,” said Cora. “When you start seeing him walking around and taking grounders and running and outside, it means he’s ready to go. We’ve got to make sure he understands we’re not going to rush him. We have to make sure his progression is the right one, and we still have plenty of time for him to build up and get his at-bats and be ready for the start of the season.”

Verdugo to debut Friday Outfielder Alex Verdugo is projected to play his first game of the spring on Friday. There are no physical issues. Instead, the left-handed hitter is just trying to regain the swing that made him so successful last year.

“Getting to know Alex, as far as the swing is, he’s not ready,” said Cora. “He feels like he’s not ready for action, although he’s been on the back fields facing a lot of guys. I told him not to rush. I think Friday [and] Sunday is pretty good for him. What I really want is for him to go out there and play defense with everybody else, that’s the most important thing.

“But as far as his swing and his health, he’s OK. It’s just one of those that we talked a little bit and I decided, ‘OK, let’s shoot for Friday, you play two games and then after the off-day, we get more consistent playing time.”’

Up next The Red Sox will get their first look at free-agent acquisition Matt Andriese when he starts Thursday's road game against the Orioles. Boston is looking for the righty to be an invaluable swingman this season. First pitch in Sarasota, Fla., is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET. Listen live on MLB Audio.

* WEEI.com

Red Sox’ Rio Gomez, son of legendary reporter Pedro Gomez, reflects on father’s passing

Jesse Pantuosco

Those around baseball are still reeling from the loss of longtime ESPN reporter Pedro Gomez, an industry icon and one of the most respected names in sports journalism. A consummate professional with over three decades of reporting experience, the universally beloved Gomez was also a pioneer, emerging as one of the most prominent Latino voices in sports media. During Tuesday’s Grapefruit League game in Fort Myers, the ESPN broadcast team of Karl Ravech, Eduardo Perez and Tim Kurkjian caught up with Red Sox pitching prospect Rio Gomez, who reflected on his late father’s legacy in a touching in-game tribute.

“The connection and the love that we had that tied us together with baseball was second to none. He was my biggest fan, my biggest supporter,” said Gomez, who has been in the Red Sox organization since 2017. “There were many times where he was more excited about my career than I was.”

Gomez was floored by the outpouring of support he and his family received after his father passed at 58 last month.

“I didn’t know how far his reach was,” Gomez admitted. “It was incredible to see the outreach and support and just all these people who had come forward and reached out to me, whether it be colleagues from ESPN, other reporters in the industry, athletes, coaches, umpires, fans, people all around the baseball world.”

Gomez’s accomplishments in the journalism field are well-documented, but what was he like as a parent? Rio would know that better than anyone.

“He was a very in-the-moment guy. Growing up, we always had a rule at dinner, no phones at the table,” shared Gomez, who pitched to a respectable 2.20 ERA over 39 relief outings for Low-A Greenville and Advanced-A Salem in 2019. “He just wanted to always be connected. When we were together, we were truly together and able to have that face-to-face interaction. That’s just how he went about living his life. He was really good at making a personal connection and relationship with everyone that he came across.”

Not a particularly celebrated prospect coming out of the University of Arizona—he was the 1,091st player drafted in 2017—Rio has endured his share of professional struggles as a lefty specialist with middling velocity (his fastball tops out at 90 mph). But he could always count on his father’s support.

“He’d always be good at being able to tell me what I needed to hear, regardless if it was good or bad,” said Gomez. “It just always seemed like he had the right thing to say. After getting to hear it for 26 years of my life, that’s always going to be embedded in me.”

Unsure if the skills he displayed in college would translate to the pros, Rio found himself at arguably the lowest point of his career in 2018. So naturally, Pedro surprised him at Red Sox camp. Rio said that gesture meant the world to him.

“There was a time when I was in extended spring training in 2018 and I was having a tough time. I was really upset, where it felt like my career was slipping away and out of the blue, he just showed up in Fort Myers and surprised me and was there for a week. It was everything I needed, just to be able to turn everything around.”

As hard-working as he was kind, baseball on ESPN won’t be the same without Gomez, a veteran of 25 World Series and nearly as many MLB All-Star Games (22).

Worcester Red Sox season delayed at least a month; Worcester could serve as alternate site

Scott McLaughlin

Opening day at the new Polar Park in Worcester will have to wait. ESPN’s Jeff Passan broke the news Tuesday -- later confirmed by MLB -- that the start of the Triple-A season will be delayed by at least a month.

Teams will instead once again use alternate training sites similar to those employed during the 2020 season at least through April. Last year’s alternate sites featured a mix of MLB-ready potential call-ups as well as prospects they wanted to make sure were continuing to develop despite not playing games. Passan reports teams are expected to have about two dozen players at the alternate sites to start this season, roughly the size of a Triple-A roster.

The Red Sox used Pawtucket as their alternate site last year, but with their Triple-A affiliate moving to Worcester this season, it would make sense to use Polar Park. The Red Sox have not yet confirmed that is their plan, though.

Passan reports that part of the reason for delaying the Triple-A season is to allow more time for as many players as possible to get vaccinated, making it easier to call players up without them having to quarantine first.

Passan also adds that the Triple-A season is expected to be extended into September to make up for at least some of the lost games from April. It’s unclear if the plan will still be for Worcester and other Triple-A teams to play a full 142-game schedule.

* NBC Sports Boston

Tomase's Red Sox catcher preview: Can Vazquez carry the load?

John Tomase

Below are capsule previews of the Red Sox catching corps, which is a bit of a throwback. Starter Christian Vazquez wants to play as many games as possible, despite the physical demands of the position, and establish himself as a true everyday catcher.

Backup Kevin Plawecki is ideally suited for his supporting role, and he proved last year that he can pitch in a pinch as well.

(Note: Ages are as of Opening Day, while projected stats are courtesy Baseball-Reference and Tom Tango.)

Christian Vazquez

Age: 30

Bats: Right

Outlook: It's easy to forget that Vazquez arrived in the big leagues on the strength of a cannon throwing arm and advanced defensive game. Over the last two years, however, he has emerged as a legitimate offensive threat, with a career-high 23 homers in 2019 and a roughly similar pace last year, when he posted a career-best .801 OPS.

Vazquez possesses borderline All-Star potential and he knows his way around the organization as the longest-tenured player remaining on the roster, since he was drafted back in 2008 by Theo Epstein. He's signed through this season for reasonable money with an affordable $7 million option in 2022. That either makes him a piece of the future, or potential trade bait.

Boston's backstop workhorse Percent of games Vazquez has appeared in since 2019 72.5%

Best case: Vazquez continues to be an opportunist when he sees a fastball he likes and hits 25 homers while catching 140 games.

Worst case: The Red Sox struggle with an injury-riddled pitching staff and Vazquez becomes a prime trade candidate at the deadline.

Projected stats: .253 batting average, 18 home runs, 60 RBIs, .732 OPS

Kevin Plawecki

Age: 30

Bats: Right

Outlook: Chaim Bloom's clever touch was evident in the performance of Plawecki, who arrived from Cleveland in what was effectively a swap of backup catchers. While Sandy Leon went to Cleveland after being non-tendered and hit just .136, Plawecki signed a free agent deal in Boston and promptly hit .341 in 82 at-bats.

He also extended his scoreless streak on the mound to three appearances over two seasons by retiring a pair of batters in an emergency relief outing vs. the Rays. A former New York Mets first-round pick, Plawecki can also play a little first base.

Best case: Plawecki hits .341 again and isn't asked to pitch.

Worst case: He slumps back into the low .200s and forces the Red Sox to explore reacquiring someone like Leon.

Projected stats: .241-8-41-.703

Connor Wong

Age: 24

Bats: Right

Outlook: The Red Sox are intrigued by Wong's athleticism. He was the final piece of the Mookie Betts trade last spring, and even if he doesn't necessarily look the part of a big league catcher at a (generously?) listed 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds, there's plenty to like about his bat.

He has hit .275 with an .852 OPS in parts of three minor-league seasons, and after topping out at Double-A Tulsa in 2019, he should see Triple-A Worcester this year. With the Red Sox valuing versatility, it's also worth noting that Wong played shortstop in college and is considered a viable defender at second and third if the need arises.

Best case: Wong shows that his lifetime slugging percentage of .510 isn't a fluke and forces his way to Boston.

Worst case: He continues striking out at more than a 30 percent clip and stalls in the minors.

Projected stats: None.

* BostonSportsJournal.com

After getting an overhaul last summer, the time may be now for Nick Pivetta

Sean McAdam

When the Red Sox traded for Nick Pivetta last August, they immediately assigned him to their alternate training site.

That, in itself, was something of a surprise, since the Sox were regularly churning through journeymen and 4A starters on the mound on a nightly basis, and while Pivetta wasn’t exactly an All-Star, he had already experienced some success at the big league level.

Surely, he was better than what they had on hand.

As it turns out, the Red Sox were doubly motivated to delay Pivetta’s arrival in Boston. First, there was the matter of his service time. By waiting until the final 10 days of the season, they could realize another year of control of him.

But beyond the economic benefit to sending him to Pawtucket, there was also a baseball reason. The Red Sox wanted Pivetta to focus on some adjustments to his delivery while re-evaluating his repertoire.

Some six months later, it would seem they made the right call.

“I’ve definitely taken a lot of steps forward from when I was at the alternate site until now,” said Pivetta after tossing two innings against the Minnesota Twins, allowing a wind-blown homer in a 14-6 Red Sox win. “I’ve worked really, really hard in the weight room this offseason, worked on mechanics, worked on how I deliver pitches, commanding my pitches better, game-planning better. So I’d say, (I’m feeling) a lot better. I’m in a really good position right now and feel really confident.”

Results aside, there was plenty to like about Pivetta at the time of the deal. He has a classic power pitcher’s body (6-5, 215), a fastball that he can throw in the mid-90s and a competitive attitude on the mound.

What he lacked — as so many young pitchers do — was consistency. But that may now be coming.

And beyond the tweaks he’s made to his mechanics and a shift from his curveball to his slider as his primary breaking pitch, Pivetta has made great strides with his approach. He’s no longer trying to overpower hitters; instead, the focus is on efficiency.

“Commanding (my fastball) is now much more of a priority to me,” he said, “(along with) attacking the zone, getting ahead of guys and putting guys away early. For me, it’s getting back to my normal self and how I started my career – having that confidence, having my plan and sticking to it and going out and just being myself.”

Pivetta has formed a strong bond with pitching coach Dave Bush, whom he credits for aiding his turnaround. But Pivetta also praised the entire Red Sox organization, which has helped him adapt.

“The relationship I have with Bush is really good,” he said. “It’s a really well-run organization. The game- planning is really well done. They have a great weight-training program, an amazing training staff. So everything is tight-knit and has a purpose to it. And I think that’s really important.”

The Phillies had shuttled Pivetta between the rotation and the bullpen, much to his dismay — as starting is his clear preference and the role for which he believes he’s best suited. When the Sox made it immediately clear that they agreed and saw his future as a starter, Pivetta felt like he had finally found the right organization.

“It’s always interested getting traded,” he said. “I’m very grateful the Red Sox wanted me as a starting pitcher. That’s really important for me, because that’s what I value myself as. When a team goes out and gets you and they value you at the position that you think you value yourself at, it’s important. It’s a really big confidence boost as well.

“I can’t say enough. I’m really grateful for the organization. They’ve handle everything really well. I fit in here really nice. It’s a lot of fun for me right now. I can’t be more excited.”

With four rotation spots spoken for (Eduardo Rodriguez, Nathan Eovaldi, Garrett Richards and Martin Perez), Pivetta is in competition for the vacant fifth spot. Because he’s out of options, he has a significant edge over Tanner Houck, another pitcher who wowed the Sox with his September performance. For now, it would seem likely that Pivetta will make the team out of camp while Houck gets the benefit of additional development time at Triple A Worcester.

All of which would make his time at the alternate site late last summer a worthwhile detour.

Red Sox Notebook: Hits (and homers) keep coming; Sawamura throws first bullpen

Sean McAdam

It’s pretty clear that, in the early days of the Grapefruit League schedule, Red Sox hitters are ahead of the opposing pitchers.

Way ahead.

A day after they teed off for four homers and nine runs on Tuesday, the Red Sox erupted for 15 hits in a 14- 6 rout of the Minnesota Twins. The Sox got two homers from Bobby Dalbec and scored eight times in the fourth inning.

In four games to date, they’ve smashed nine homers (entering Wednesday, no other team had more than five) and have scored 32 runs.

“We have a good offensive team,” Alex Cora said. “We believe that we’re going to score runs this year. I’m excited about that. Last year, if I’m not mistaken, the Red Sox led the league in batting average. We will score runs. We have a good offense and that was cool to see today.”

Of Dalbec, who now has three homers in the spring, Cora said: “It was fun to watch on TV (last year); it’s a lot better to watch in person. His work ethic is amazing. I’m happy for him. The work he puts in (with the hitting coaches) is relentless. When he makes contact, good things are going to happen. He’s smart enough and he understands that.”

Kiké Hernández, who is auditioning for the leadoff spot, was 2-for-2 with two doubles and two RBI.

“He controls the strike zone,” said Cora. “I’ve been telling him, if gets a good pitch early in the count, go ahead. I do believe that there’s more there (offensively). I believe he can hit lefties and righties. He’s not a swing-and-miss guy. Right now, he’s good. I challenged him to do the job (at the top of the lineup) and push me to make a decision.”

J.D. Martinez (two hits, two RBI) and Hunter Renfroe (base- loaded double) also stood out. ______

Hirokazu Sawamura threw his first bullpen after arriving in Fort Myers over the weekend.

That’s a good first step,” said Cora. “Now we’ll see what’s next.”

“The climate here and in Japan is different,” said Sawamura though an interpreter, “with the wetness and humidity. (And) I’ll have to make some adjustments in terms of handling the Major League baseball.”

Sawamura is excited about making his first appearance in a game, but knows it’s likely he’ll have to make some adjustments to succeed here.

“I’ve got to see how effectively I can use the strike zone,” he said. “I’m the type of guy who kind of pitches in the high strike zone and the lower part. I don’t use the corner work. It’s more like vertical movement. If I can make those adjustments, I should be able to adjust to Major League hitters.” ______

Bryan Mata has felt some soreness in the back of his triceps and will undergo an MRI Thursday morning…. Jeisson Rosario suffered a pulled hamstring chasing down a ball in the outfield and will be out for a few days…Cora opened his postgame remarks by offering best wishes for New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who is set to have a pacemaker implanted in the next few days. Cora and Boone were teammates at ESPN before beginning their managerial careers. “He’s one of my best friends in baseball,” said Cora. “Looking forward to seeing him in New York…Franchy Cordero went through his COVD intake Tuesday and could be cleared to work out Thursday.

* The Athletic

At Red Sox camp, the ‘Cash Money Coach of the Day Chain’ is what everyone wants

Chad Jennings and Jen McCaffrey

A few days into Red Sox spring training, bench coach Will Venable stepped into the daily coaches meeting holding a gold-plated necklace in his hand. Hanging from the chain was gaudy pendant inlaid with shiny fake crystals. It was in the shape of a dollar sign. Venable had bought it off Amazon for $12.99.

And he was about to make one of his co-workers wear it.

“This chain,” he told them, “is the Cash Money Coach of the Day Chain.”

And a member of the Red Sox staff has worn it every day since.

It’s hung around the neck of hitting coach Tim Hyers and head athletic trainer Brad Pearson and minor league infield coordinator Andy Fox. It’s even been worn by chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom.

“It’s just been a really nice way for us — among the coaches, among the staff — to recognize each other for the things that maybe don’t get recognized otherwise,” Venable said. “It’s just kind of (a way) on a personal level to say, ‘Hey, you’ve been helping me out, you’ve been helping the players out. I want to give you just a little bit of love,’ you know?”

The idea came from Venable’s days on the Cubs coaching staff, where hitting coach Anthony Iapoce had the same tradition. Iapoce’s chains, Venable said, were even more over the top, but Venable’s shares an unmistakable touch of intentional absurdity.

“It’s this gaudy dollar sign,” pitching coach Dave Bush said. “So, it’s awfully hard to miss.”

Said Hyers: “You wear it all day, and players rag you and get all over you.”

But the meaning of the chain is impossible to miss, and that’s the point.

Venable didn’t introduce the Cash Money Coach of the Day Chain right away, but after a few days of camp, he went to manager Alex Cora with the idea for some daily bling.

“I come from (the University of Miami),” Cora said. “He knew I was all in.”

After that, it was a matter of introducing the concept and picking the first winner. The daily coaches meeting usually happens between 7 and 8 in the morning with minor league instructors and members of the baseball operations department in attendance. That’s where Venable unveiled the necklace and chose Bush — for his work scheduling bullpens, throwing sessions and live batting practice for 42 pitchers in camp — as its first recipient.

That meant Bush had to introduce the Cash Money Chain to everyone else in camp, and because Bush doesn’t often walk around with 30 inches of shimmering gold around his neck …

“There were an awful lot of blank stares and questions,” Bush said. “And now the players see someone wearing it every day.”

They see someone wearing it every day because each recipient chooses the next day’s winner. The chain gets handed down from day to day, creating a cycle of recognition and thanks. Bush picked quality control coach Ramón Vázquez, and the ceremony has continued every morning since. The previous day’s winner singles out someone else on the staff, explains what they’ve done to join the tradition, and passes along the chain. The winner wears it all day.

“Camaraderie,” Hyers said. “Keep the troops moving along. And (when you give it away) you say something about the person, so you get to talk about some cool stuff that people do throughout the day that (other coaches and staff) might not hear about unless that happens.”

Venable estimates there are more days of spring training than there are staff members in the daily coaches meeting, so he’s joked that anyone who doesn’t get it at some point is going to be in some trouble at the end of camp.

“The coach of the day is special, (that’s) probably why I’ve never won it,” joked first-base coach Tom Goodwin. “(But it is a) great way for us to start our day. Some of it is good old-fashioned hard work, some of it is humor, there’s a battle scar or two, and throw a birthday boy in there, and you’ve got the many sides of Cash Money Coach of the Day.”

The award also reveals a side of Venable, the only new addition to the Red Sox major league staff who, at 38 years old, was a popular candidate for the team’s managerial job before the Red Sox bought back Cora. This is Venable’s first time as a bench coach, and Cora repeatedly called him the team’s MVP in the early days of spring training for his coordination and scheduling efforts.

It turns out, the Red Sox have an award for that.

“A lot of (the staff) are away from their families and really grinding and sacrificing,” Venable said. “I think sometimes as a coach, it can be a thankless job, and for us to just recognize each other and our efforts and to make it a little more personal, for me, was a no brainer … You wear it with pride.”

* The New York Times

The First Black Woman to Coach in Pro Baseball Thanks Her Mom for the Job

Juliet Macur

When Bianca Smith landed a job as a minor league coach in the Boston Red Sox organization, becoming the first Black woman to coach professional baseball, she thought about her mother.

Her mom died of cancer in 2013 and would have been proud of her daughter’s achievement. But also furious. Dawn Patterson had particularly strong feelings about the Red Sox.

She despised them.

Patterson was a lifelong Yankees fan and hated their rivals so much that when Smith won tickets to Red Sox games while in college at Dartmouth — awarded to students who attended the most varsity sporting events — she would get angry that her daughter would even consider the trip.

“Mom, but these are, like, free baseball tickets,” Smith remembered saying, emphasizing that the offer was too good to pass up.

The steadfast reply: “No!”

It’s a family joke now that Smith, who was hired in January, is making history with the team her mother could not stand.

“If I get a job with the Red Sox, Mom is going to haunt me for the rest of my life,” Smith recalled telling her youngest brother after the team first reached out to her last fall.

But without her mother’s influence, Smith might not be a baseball pioneer right now, a groundbreaker just months after Kim Ng was named general manager of the Miami Marlins, becoming the first woman in Major League Baseball to hold the title.

Smith, who turns 30 next week, said her mother’s ambition, drive and work ethic as a competitive athlete and lawyer are part of her DNA. If not for her mother, she wouldn’t be pursuing a baseball career, one that has recently gained her national attention; sponsorships from companies like Nike, Oakley and Topps; and an offer to write her autobiography. She even has her own baseball card in the works, said her agent, Lonnie Murray.

Smith’s mother introduced a 3-year-old Bianca to baseball, propping the toddler atop her lap to watch games on TV. Smith remembers cheering for the former Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, one of Patterson’s favorite players.

“That’s when I really started to understand what baseball was all about,” Smith said. “I couldn’t get enough of it.”

The person at the Red Sox who first identified Smith’s potential was Molly Harris, the team’s senior talent acquisition specialist. Charged with finding talented and diverse candidates, she discovered that Smith’s résumé was everything the Red Sox had wanted, and more.

An Ivy League education. Two graduate degrees — one in sports business, the other in sports law. Internships with the Cincinnati Reds and Texas Rangers and one with Major League Baseball during which she helped with the draft. College coaching experience. Certifications on multiple software programs that analyze pitching and hitting.

When interviewing Smith late last year, Harris was so impressed that in the margin of her notes she wrote, “WOW!”

One afternoon last month, while standing in a quiet sports storage room at Carroll University in Wisconsin, Smith talked to a reporter via video call about how she became the Red Sox’ top candidate. Shelves of nets, pads and goals formed the backdrop, and baseball bats cracked in the distance.

She had only a few weeks left as hitting coordinator and assistant coach for Carroll’s Division III baseball team and had taken a break from tweaking the mechanics of players’ swings. Soon, she will head to Fort Myers, Fla., to start coaching minor league players at the Red Sox’ spring training facility.

Some of her players want assurances that she will keep in touch.

“One asked me, ‘When you leave, can I still send you video?’” she recalled with a laugh. “I said: ‘Of course you can.’ It’s fun for me. I’ll help anyone who needs it.”

A Shared Language In a family of football and soccer fans — her stepbrother, Reggie Cannon, is a fixture on the United States national men’s soccer team — Smith and her mother shared their secret language of baseball. They lived in Edison, N.J., and later in Grapevine, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, and the mother taught the daughter game strategy.

Smith’s father, Victor Smith, said Bianca took to the game quickly and could watch entire nine-inning games even as a toddler because she had an unusually long attention span and enjoyed watching her mother cheer. She was precocious, her father said, describing a conversation he once had with a manager of her preschool. The woman told him that Bianca had been tying her classmates’ shoes all day. When he asked why, the woman answered, “Because she’s the only one who can.”

As Smith grew up, she would watch games on her own during the day and would stay up late to watch classic baseball movies like “The Sandlot,” “Angels in the Outfield” and “Rookie of the Year,” nearly wearing out those DVDs.

She picked up softball late, when she was about 12 years old, lured to the mental side of playing the game. She was small but nimble, and baserunning was her specialty. About that time, she bought her first baseball jersey, Jeter’s No. 2, using the allowance she had earned doing dishes and washing her dog.

The intricacies of the game fascinated her, and still do. She had the mind of an analyst, studying how plays unfolded and trying to predict the manager’s next move. When she entered Dartmouth, her parents’ alma mater, her baseball obsession was evident in the family cellphone bill.

“There would be a huge spike in her cellular data and she’d say, ‘Oh, sorry, but the Yankees are just doing so well and I just had to watch the games,’” said Bob Patterson, her stepfather. “I always knew when baseball season started.”

Smith’s devotion to the Dartmouth baseball team led to a role as the team manager. She also played varsity softball during her final two years and was the only woman on the club baseball team before she graduated in 2012.

One month later, her mother was diagnosed with a rare cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma that was found in her head and neck.

“I always thought that she would get better,” said Smith, who lived with her mother and stepfather throughout the illness.

Her mother was, after all, a whirlwind of a woman who ran marathons, not because she loved running — she hated it — but to conquer the distance. A woman who went to law school in her late 30s. A dancer who co-founded Ujima, a dance group at Dartmouth named after the third of Kwanzaa’s seven principles.

She was a confident mother: When she noticed that only men coached in her other daughter’s softball league, she volunteered to lead a team, sure she could do better.

On April 24, 2013, nine months after learning that she had cancer, Smith’s mother died. She was 44.

“It hit me that I was 22. My mom’s life was halfway done at that point,” Smith said. “It was a wake-up call. My mom always said that you spend most of your life working, so I needed to find the thing that I love to do.”

Four months later, Smith was at Case Western University in Ohio for dual degrees in business and law, with the goal of becoming a general manager in M.L.B.

She had three of her mother’s childhood stuffed animals in her bedroom and a portrait of her in her living room, reminders of what she had lost. She decided not to wear the WWMD — What Would Mom Do — bracelet her stepfather gave her because, she said, “I don’t like jewelry.” Her grief often came out of nowhere. One day in class she burst into tears and the professor had to console her.

Her ballast was baseball.

Eight Jobs Fifteen minutes into Smith’s conversation with Case Western’s baseball coach, Matt Englander, he named her the team’s first baseball operations manager.

“She deserved a chance because she was so smart and passionate and probably loves the sport more than I do,” Englander said. “I don’t subscribe to the MLB Network and watch old M.L.B. games. I don’t stay up until 3 a.m. watching the Padres play the Marlins or watch the Indians’ spring training games. But Bianca? She does.”

Smith didn’t miss a practice or game. She pitched to players at batting practice, scheduled team travel and meals, helped coach circuit training, watched videos of hitters and sent Englander her critiques.

Her internship with the Reds in 2019 was a turning point. It’s when she decided that coaching, not front- office work, was her real calling. Finally, she had found the thing she loved to do.

She’d be a manager in the dugout, not a general manager at a desk.

In her downtime in the baseball operations department, Smith stole away to watch practice from the stands and take notes, catching the attention of Donnie Ecker, then an assistant hitting coach. She told him she was interested in coaching and offered to help on the field. He took her up on it. Reds Manager David Bell encouraged her to bring her glove to practice.

By internship’s end, Smith wore a Reds jersey with “BIANCA” on the back. She helped at practices by catching throws and warming up the coaches and players, and on game days was in the clubhouse analyzing hitters’ swing decisions. Every day, she made sure to ask coaches at least one meaningful question about baseball, but they were mutually interested in her thoughts.

“It was fun to try to bounce ideas off of her, get her take on things and understand what she was seeing,” Bell said. “I felt like I was learning from her.”

He added: “Could she walk into a major league staff right now and contribute? No doubt. I really believe that she is capable of doing anything in this game.”

Capable and determined. She could have done anything with her degrees in business and law, but baseball was what she wanted. The challenge was to stay financially afloat while she went after it. Her rent bill and her student debts from three degrees loomed.

For a stretch after graduate school, as she applied for full-time positions in baseball, Smith held eight jobs at once so she could pay her rent: Sorting packages at a UPS warehouse at night. Packing online orders at Target. Working the cash register at Dollar Tree. Driving for Uber Eats. Tour guide and youth academy coach for the Texas Rangers. Ticket taker for F.C. Dallas. For extra baseball experience, she was a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Dallas.

Sometimes she would have just 30 minutes to get from one of those jobs to another, subsisting on Lunchables and Pop-Tarts.

Harris, the recruiter, could hardly believe it all.

“I remember putting my pen down and saying, ‘We have to hire her in some capacity,’” she said.

Once, Smith said, a college coach told her she would never get hired because she was a woman. Smith was determined to make her résumé so impressive that “they couldn’t say no.”

Harris said she has seen that before with so many women. “To me, as a woman, sometimes you overcompensate to show: ‘I am here. I am qualified. I am an equal.’”

For Smith, it took some effort to get people to notice her and consider hiring her.

Before getting the Red Sox job, she said, she reached out to more than 100 Division I college coaches and got responses from 26 of them. Only one offered her a position, she said, and he didn’t offer to pay her enough to justify the move.

She applied to 30 to 40 college baseball operations positions, getting only three interviews and no offers. Circling back to those jobs, she noted that only one went to a woman and about 95 percent went to white men.

“I’m perfectly aware that, at least on the college level, I am more qualified than the majority of coaches getting hired,” she said. “As a Black person, I don’t feel like I face the discrimination in sports that I do as a woman.”

Even when she walks out of a dugout wearing a team uniform, she has faced questions like: Which player are you dating? Which one is your son? Are you coaching girls’ baseball?

When Smith got the Red Sox job, Alyssa Nakken, who last year became the first full-time female coach in M.L.B., invited her to a group chat with other women who work full time in professional baseball. Smith was surprised to find dozens of supporters welcoming her into their small but growing club.

The group chat lit up recently, Smith said, when the Mets faced a series of sexual harassment cases, with members applauding the women who reported the abuse.

“I think things will change as more women come into the sport and more feel comfortable about speaking up,” Smith said. “But men are still the majority. They are the ones who still hold the power.”

In the clubhouse, Smith said, the only time she thinks of herself as a woman in baseball is when she is looking for a bathroom or when the coach needs to get her a uniform that fits a 5-foot woman.

“There are going to be players who are uncomfortable with me, and I might not connect with everyone, but as long as they still get the help that they need, that’s fine,” she said. “I’ll just give them space.”

Thanks, Mom Smith didn’t realize she was the first Black female coach in professional baseball until her sister, Rachel, figured it out through an internet search.

Bianca Smith, who in middle school started wearing a headband with Jackie Robinson’s No. 42 on it, said her mother “would have been ecstatic.” Smith was proud to say the Red Sox are on the forefront of history now after being the last M.L.B. team to integrate, which they did in 1959, 12 years after Robinson broke the color barrier.

Her stepfather, Bob Patterson, then startled her with the question, “Have you gotten any death threats yet?” It hadn’t occurred to her that some people might be upset about a Black woman in the sport. But Cannon, her stepbrother, received death threats and racist comments last summer after he criticized fans who booed players for kneeling during the national anthem at an F.C. Dallas game. Seeing this, Smith’s stepfather wanted her to be ready for anything.

Smith, though, isn’t about to let anything distract her from reaching her goal to be a major league manager. Her quest never leaves her mind for long.

Example: In 2018, she went to her first baseball game at Yankee Stadium, on Mother’s Day. As a fan, she soaked in the atmosphere. The raucous cheers. The resounding organ music. The smell of hot dogs and beer.

She recalled thinking: “‘Miss you so much, Mom. Thanks for bringing me into the fandom.’”

But when the umpire shouted “Play ball!” her mind snapped back to work.

“I definitely recognized how important the moment was for me,” Smith said. “But then I was focused on the game.”

* The New York Post

Garrett Whitlock impressing at Red Sox camp after they swiped him from Yankees

Zach Braziller

The Red Sox have one very big reason to keep Garrett Whitlock on their active roster this year: Don’t let him return to the Yankees.

As Whitlock receives praise early on in spring training, it is an interesting subplot in the Rule 5 pick’s drive to make Boston’s team. If the right-hander sticks with them all year, he remains a Red Sock. Otherwise, he gets returned to the Yankees.

Whitlock is off to a good start. Manager Alex Cora has singled him out as someone who has impressed him. Pitching coach Dave Bush followed, raving about Whitlock’s work ethic. The team’s top decision- maker was effusive in his praise as well.

“I can echo some of the praise that Alex has heaped on Garrett Whitlock, who is a Rule 5 pick in our camp,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said on Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio, according to MassLive.com. “I’m a little hesitant to do it because you never want to put too much on Rule 5 guys. These guys, you want them to be able to settle in at their own pace. But this guy has come back from Tommy John looking great, and what’s more impressive — almost — than how he’s throwing the baseball is how he’s carrying himself.”

The 24-year-old pitcher was an 18th-round pick of the Yankees in 2017. But after a strong 2018 campaign, he needed Tommy John surgery in 2019. The Yankees left him unprotected and the Red Sox took him. It may give him a better shot to stick.

“It doesn’t change anything and it’s definitely not comfort or anything like that,” Whitlock said. “Nothing’s given to anyone in this game so I don’t want to ever have that mentality. I have to fight and I have to earn anything I get.”