The Boston Red Sox Tuesday, May 18, 2021 * The Boston Globe Red Sox plan to increase roster versatility soon with promotion of Danny Santana Alex Speier Man-for-all-positions Danny Santana could join the Red Sox roster as soon as the current six-game road trip. Santana has hit .364/.423/.682 with two homers, a double, and a steal in six games with High A Greenville and Triple A Worcester. He has played shortstop, second, third, left, and center in those half-dozen contests. “He’s almost there,” manager Alex Cora said. “We’ve been moving him around all over the place. He’s moving well. “This is a guy, it gives us another alternative. Let’s see where it takes us. We feel good about where he’s at, not only physically, but as a hitter and as a player.” Santana, 30, had an April 30 opt-out in his minor league deal, but he and the Red Sox agreed to push that date into May when the start of his season was delayed by a foot infection in spring training. He’ll remain in Worcester at least through Tuesday, but his ability to move all over the field and switch-hit could prove particularly valuable during Boston’s weekend series against Philadelphia, during which National League rules will be in effect (with no designated hitter). In 2019, Santana hit .283/.324/.534 with 28 homers and 21 steals in 130 games for the Rangers. But in 2020, while limited to 15 games by an elbow injury that ultimately required modified Tommy John surgery in September, his numbers slid to .145/.278/.273. The Sox signed him in spring training — while he was still working his way back from the surgery — to a minor league deal that included a prorated $1.75 million big league salary. Though Santana was slowed by the foot infection, both his foot and elbow have recovered to the point where he’s likely to help in the big leagues in the near future. The presence of Santana along with Kiké Hernández (expected back from his hamstring injury Tuesday) and Marwin Gonzalez would give the Red Sox three of the most versatile players in the game. Outfield assistance During a big league career that spanned parts of 14 seasons from 1991-2004, Red Sox outfield/first base coach Tom Goodwin jokingly suggests, he modeled his outfield play on an icon from another sport. Goodwin described himself as “a guy who didn’t have a strong arm at all — I think I had maybe two in my career. I was like Shaq with assists.” Goodwin was being a bit unfair to himself — he had 34 career assists — and Shaquille O’Neal, whose 299 assists in 1999-2000 are the third-most by a 7-footer in the last 25 years. That said, it’s safe to say that neither Goodwin nor O’Neal delivered assists at the eye-catching pace of this year’s Red Sox outfield. The Sox lead the majors with 13 outfield assists (entering Monday, no other team had more than 10). Hunter Renfroe has been particularly dazzling, with five assists from right field — tied for the most by any outfielder this season. In addition to his arm, Renfroe also has shown impressive range. He is tied for the lead among right fielders with eight defensive runs saved (per Baseball Information Solutions) while MLB.com ranks him the fourth- best right fielder with two outs above average (a metric that evaluates only his range and not his arm). “He’s been marvelous — not just throwing,” said Goodwin. “He’s almost a center fielder playing right field. He communicates a lot as far as the positioning goes. He’s just done a great job being a leader out there.” Goodwin said that Renfroe’s pregame work was reminiscent of that of former Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. Araúz to Worcester With Hernández set to come off the injured list, the Red Sox optioned Jonathan Araúz to Worcester after Sunday’s game. Araúz is 2 for 8 with a double and two walks in four big league games this year. Hernández, serving as the team’s primary center fielder while also seeing a half-dozen games at second base, is hitting .239/.298/.425 with four homers and 12 extra-base hits in 30 games … After Monday’s off- day, the Red Sox are set to open their lone series in Dunedin, Fla., Tuesday. The Blue Jays are still playing home games at their spring training venue, TD Ballpark, but when the Red Sox next play them on the road in July, the Jays will have migrated north to Sahlen Field in Buffalo. They aren’t permitted to host games in Toronto under COVID-19 travel restrictions … The Red Sox will face Jays ace Hyun Jin Ryu in the opener Tuesday. The lefty is coming off his best start of the season (7 innings, 1 run, 6 strikeouts) in a 4-1 win against the Braves last Wednesday. A decade in, Matt Barnes finally embraced a plan of attack. The result? He’s been better for the Red Sox now than ever before Alex Speier It’s been almost exactly 10 years since the future formed in front of Matt Barnes’s eyes. On May 7, 2011, the UConn righthander dominated the University of South Florida at Dodd Stadium in Norwich, Conn. Over eight innings, he allowed one run while striking out 10 in a 2-1 victory. Barnes possessed a typically electric fastball that night. Red Sox area scout Ray Fagnant noted that throughout his 2011 season at UConn, Barnes almost always showed his top-end velocity of 97-98 miles per hour in his final inning of work, and that outing was no different. Moreover, against USF, Barnes flashed what Fagnant described in his report of that game as a “separator” — a power curve that locked up hitters. “Solid all year,” Fagnant wrote in his report, “but this was the outing we waited to see.” The Sox weren’t the only ones who saw something that game. Barnes recognized Fagnant was not alone as a Red Sox representative in the stands — that he’d been accompanied by Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein. Barnes also knew that Epstein had seen him before. The previous summer, in the Cape League, Epstein and a phalanx of Red Sox front office members made a trip to see Barnes pitch against 2010 Red Sox draftee Anthony Ranaudo — an outing in which Barnes struck out 14 over seven innings. Barnes believed his future was pointing him in the direction of the Red Sox at the No. 19 pick of the first round in the draft. “There’s no such thing as certainty in the draft or this line of work,” remembered Barnes, “but I felt pretty certain that for the Red Sox, if I got there I was going to get taken.” Thirty days later, on June 6, 2011, Fagnant — representing the Red Sox at the MLB Draft in Secaucus, N.J. — sat on a bus outside his hotel, surrounded by Hall of Fame players waiting to head to MLB Network Studios for the event. He received a call from Red Sox amateur scouting director Amiel Sawdaye, who asked him to find a place where he could speak privately to those in the team’s draft room. “The area guy is not going to determine who we take up high, but I potentially determine who we don’t take,” explained Fagnant. “[Sawdaye] said, ‘Matt Barnes — speak now or forever hold your peace. Are you on board?’ I said, ‘Absolutely. Ability is one thing. That’s the easy part to scout. But the character, absolutely — I’m completely on board.’” In a way, that night — in which UConn was playing Clemson for the right to advance to an NCAA Super Regional — offered another fitting harbinger of Barnes’ future. The righthander had been a starter all season, but wasn’t slated to pitch that night given that he’d started a few days earlier. But before that game, he approached UConn coach Jim Penders. “I said, ‘If this game is close in the eighth or ninth, give me the ball,’” Barnes said. The offer proved unnecessary, as the Huskies won in a blowout, but it served as a fitting prelude for the career that has followed. Barnes found out mid-game that he’d been taken by the Sox, and took a moment both to appreciate and find amusement in the development. “It was kind of crazy to me, having grown up a Yankees fan,” said the Bethel, Conn., native. “I found out I’d been drafted by the Red Sox and thought, ‘Well, isn’t that funny?’ But it’s been incredible here.” A full circle decade Barnes has been many things to the Red Sox over the past decade. He is the last member of that franchise- changing draft class of 2011 — from which nine big leaguers have emerged, including Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Travis Shaw — to remain with the Sox, a status that serves as a testament to the way the organization has valued his contributions. Foremost, Barnes has been ready whenever asked to pitch in the late innings, typically unassuming and often overshadowed yet steadily valuable over the course of 344 big league regular season appearances (eighth most all time by a Sox pitcher) that have mostly come against the heart of opposing teams’ lineups. He was also the team’s most reliable reliever in the 2018 October championship run.