The Monday, March 9, 2020

* The Boston Globe

Sunday’s report: Red Sox pull out narrow win

Peter Abraham

SCORE: Red Sox 7, Twins 6

RECORD: 6-10-2

BREAKDOWN: The Sox scored four runs in the seventh inning to take a 5-3 lead. Jonathan Lucroy had a two-run . They added two more in the eighth inning on a triple by Chad De La Guerra. The bullpen nearly gave it away when Chris Mazza allowed three runs in the ninth. Durbin Feltman came and allowed an RBI single before getting the final out on a deep fly ball to center.

PLAYER OF THE DAY: Lefthander Martin Perez worked four scoreless innings and struck out seven. He has a 1.35 ERA in three starts.

NEXT GAME: The Sox play the Braves in North Port on Monday at 6:05 p.m. Ryan Weber is scheduled to start against Felix Hernandez. King Felix has worked 8 2/3 innings in three games and allowed two runs. He is in Atlanta’s camp on a minor league contract.

Could Martin Perez emerge as an important cog in the Red Sox rotation?

Peter Abraham

FORT MYERS, Fla. — It was a smart move in December when the Red Sox signed lefthander Martin Perez for one year and $6.5 million to be their No. 5 starter.

Perez, who turns 29 in April, averaged 159 innings for the Rangers and Twins the previous four seasons with a 4.95 .

For a team trying to trim its payroll while staying competitive, Perez was a good fit.

Then was traded to the Dodgers and felt pain in his left elbow after facing hitters for the first time since last season. He will be out until at least May and, quite possibly, all season.

Now the Red Sox are preparing to open up with Perez as their No. 3 starter. A player who was considered a good bargain is now being counted upon to take on a bigger role he might not necessarily be equipped to handle.

The regular season starts in 18 days and the Red Sox have lined up their rotation. It’ll be Eduardo Rodriguez, Nate Eovaldi, Perez and Ryan Weber for the first four spots. The Sox could use openers in the last slot or find another starter via trade.

No other in camp has shown he’s deserving of a rotation spot at this point. The huddled masses yearning to breathe major league air haven’t really worked out.

"The other guys we’ve extended out at this point I don’t think anyone has shown us like, hey, they can do it,” said manager Ron Roenicke. “I think when we brought them into camp we felt like their histories suggested they had a chance to do that … Hopefully we see something.”

Perez offered some hope on Sunday with four shutout innings against the Twins. He allowed four hits, all singles, and struck out seven with one walk.

Perez said he focused on location more than velocity. He was effective at 93-94 miles per hour with occasional bursts of 95-96 m.p.h.

The Red Sox have worked with Perez on throwing his changeup more frequently to diversify how he can attack hitters. It was something he had success with early last season pitching for the Twins, then got away from it to his detriment. In the end, they left him off the playoff roster.

Perez has benefited from working with Pedro Martinez on using his legs to keep his delivery straight toward the plate. Perez refers to it as being “on line” with is body.

“I was trying to throw the ball in front of my eyes,” he said.

Perez had been given similar advice by coaches at different points of his career. But it’s different when it comes from a Hall of Famer such as Martinez.

“I’ve heard it a lot before. But to hear it from Pedro, it’s a lot,” he said. “I just came here and want to do my job to help the team the team to win. That’s my goal, to stay healthy and do all that I can.”

Perez was the No. 2 starter with in three seasons, so this is nothing new for him.

“No. It doesn’t matter if you’re going to be a No. 1 or a No. 3,” he said. “I just want the ball every five days to go out there and compete. It doesn’t matter if you’re going to start the first game. The No. 1 is going to do the same job, give the team a chance to win.”

Perez enjoyed facing some of his former Twins teammates on Sunday, particularly 22-year-old Luis Arráez, a fellow Venezuelan he got to know well last season.

“I watched him growing up and we signed from the same academy,” Perez said. “I had a chance to speak with him before he signed and now facing him at the big league level is an honor.”

When Arráez fell behind in the count in the third inning, he yelled back to the mound that he was ready to hit. Perez then struck him out.

“He’s one of my favorite guys and I enjoyed that,” Perez said.

There’s a chance Perez could be what the Sox need, a pitcher who can keep them in games and give their offense a chance. He’s hardly an ideal No. 3 starter, but that’s where they are.

“I think he’s fine,” Roenicke said. “He was a really good pitcher [against] the group he faced today. We feel good with where he is. If we can count on him for a lot of innings; that’s really going to help us. If he throws the ball like he did [Sunday], he’s really going to help us.”

Michael Chavis set on platooning at first base

Peter Abraham

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Red Sox ran out of second basemen by mid-April last season and called up even though he lacked experience at the position. He handled the defensive work far better than was expected then switched over to first base when Mitch Moreland went on the .

Chavis also added some pop to the offense — 29 extra-base hits and 58 RBIs in 95 games — before a shoulder injury ended his season in August.

With Jose Peraza signed to play second base, the Red Sox envision a more specific role for the 24-year-old Chavis this season. Their plan is use Moreland and Chavis and in a platoon at first base.

“When a lefthander is pitching against us it will probably be for sure Mitch’s day off. I think that’s what we’re kind of thinking now,” manager Ron Roenicke said Sunday. “We’re not planning on Mitch playing 140 games this year. So that’s one way to do it.

"Michael should be in there all the time against a lefthanded starter. And when we think Mitch needs days off — if he’s got a week in a row against righthanders — we’ll slip Michael in there somewhere.”

It should be a productive pairing. Moreland has a career .789 OPS against righthanders. Chavis hit better against righthanders (.774 OPS) than he did lefthanders (.742) last season, but the feel is he’ll hit lefties well.

Chavis also could fill in at second or third if needed and the Sox are still considering introducing him to the outfield. How much of a utility role he plays will hinge on whether Tzu-Wei Lin is on the roster.

Unlucky 13 The Sox dropped 13 players off their camp roster before the game.

Catcher Roldani Baldwin, /infielder , infielder Jeter Downs, first baseman Josh Ockimey, righthanders R.J. Alvarez, Trevor Hildenberger, and and lefthander Mike Kickham were reassigned to minor league camp. Infielder and C.J. Chatham were optioned to Triple A Pawtucket along with lefthander Kyle Hart and righthanders Mike Shawaryn and Phillips Valdez.

Outfielder Marcus Wilson was optioned to Double A Portland and lefthander Yoan Aybar was optioned to Single A Salem.

Wong (23) and Downs (21) were two of the players acquired from the Dodgers for and David Price. Both finished last season in Double A and the expectation all along was that they would return to the minors.

The Red Sox also lost righthander Hector Velazquez, who was claimed off waivers by the Orioles. The Sox now have 47 players in camp.

Outfield options With sure to start the season on the injured list, J.D. Martinez is the fourth outfielder. But Lin has shown he can play center and Peraza has experience in left field. … Former Sox reliever Hideki Okajima was among the large group of Japanese media on hand to watch Kenta Maeda’s start for the Twins.

Some parting reflections from spring training

Chad Finn

FT. MYERS, Fla. — Departing thoughts after eight days in Florida, which sounds too much like “28 Days Later” for my liking …

I know, you were told there would be no math, but give this a thought since it’s something that is clearly occupying interim manager Ron Roenicke’s mind at the moment. If the Red Sox play 162 nine-inning games this season, that comes out to 1,458 half-innings that will need to be pitched. (Yes, I know there will extra-inning affairs and maybe a game shortened by rain here or there, and road losses may only require eight innings of pitching. Stay with me here.)

The three certainties for the rotation — Eduardo Rodriguez, Nate Eovaldi, and Martin Perez — pitched a total of 436.1 innings last year. Even if all three provide best-case scenario seasons in 2020, that’s still roughly 900 innings that needs to be accounted for by the rest of the rotation (presuming we don’t see Chris Sale for a while) and the bullpen.

With the season opener 17 days from Monday, such uncertainty is not ideal. Roenicke acknowledged Sunday that the calculations don’t quite provide the answers he wants right now.

“Innings without a doubt are important,’’ he said. “[I’m] trying to figure out with our roster where we are. Somebody needs to give us those innings as starters in order to have the bullpen last, unless you can make a lot of changes bringing guys up and down [from the minors]. If you don’t have your starters giving you innings, and not always just five innings, sometimes they need to go a little bit farther.”

Roenicke got a crash-course in how to deploy an opener from chief officer Chaim Bloom and the analytics department earlier this spring, and the Red Sox may even end up using more than one opener on a regular basis. The Rays had success with this approach when Bloom was part of their organization, and it’s been interesting to speculate which members of the current pitching staff might end up being the Red Sox’ version of Ryne Stanek or Ryan Yarborough.

One pitcher who is clearly going to get a chance, either as a starter or an opener, is Ryan Weber, the 29- year-old righthander who had a 5.09 ERA in 18 appearances (three starts) last season.

“Whether he’s going to be a fourth starter or whether he’s going to be a fifth starter, or an opener depending upon what happens with Chris [Sale], I think he’s a guy that we feel like can do it,’’ said Roenicke. “The other guys we’ve extended out at this point I don’t think anyone has shown us like, hey, they can do it.”

Not exactly high praise there for all the Chris Mazza and Jeffrey Springs types Bloom brought in this offseason. Weber has a 5.08 career ERA for four teams in parts of five seasons, including a brief 2018 stint with the Rays, so whatever the Red Sox see in him now — beyond availability — hasn’t been obvious.

▪ is a baseball lifer who has seen a lot, but he’s forever best known for getting the start at catcher for the Yankees in the first game after Thurman Munson died in a plane crash in August 1979. Beyond his current duties as the Red Sox bench , his more recent recognition comes from his talent for filling out the lineup card in stylish calligraphy. So we regret to note that there was a mistake among Narron’s precise work on Friday’s card. He spelled third base prospect Bobby Dalbec’s name as “Dalbek”. Then again, Dalbec, who is built like a young, presumably pre-androstenedione-and-other-stuff Mark McGwire, struck out 7 times in 22 at-bats. So in one sense, perhaps, the 'K' was fitting.

▪ Hideki Okajima was a visitor to Red Sox camp Sunday morning. When spotted him outside the clubhouse, he engulfed him in a bear hug, which when you think about it is probably as close as one can get to knowing what it’s like to get hugged by an actual bear. While all of us were documenting the arrival of Japanese ace Daisuke Matsuzaka (you know, I’m starting to think there never was a gyroball), his countryman Okajima arrived unheralded and emerged as a crucial member of the 2007 World Champions as a Jonathan Papelbon’s primary setup man. His story was one of the great out-of-nowhere ascensions to sustained excellence in recent Red Sox lore. This year’s Red Sox need three or four similar emergences on their staff this year.

▪ As a big-league ballplayer, Roenicke was a journeyman in the young Terry Francona mold, hitting .238 parts of eight seasons with five teams. He did have a pedigree, though. Roenicke was a first-round pick of the Dodgers in the secondary phase of the 1977 draft and put together some superb seasons in the minors. He hit .363 at Single A Lodi in 1978, and in 1981 he hit .316 with a .450 on-base percentage, 15 homers, 25 steals, and 110 walks at Triple A Albuquerque. Toward the end of his playing career in 1987, he played for the Triple A Phillies affiliate in scenic Old Orchard Beach, Maine, where he supplied a moment never forgotten at this address. He was the only player to get a hit off of Mets ace Dwight Gooden during the then-superstar pitcher’s ballyhooed start in Maine while he was working his way back from a stint in drug rehabilitation. The things you remember.

▪ Weird to me that the Red Sox are planning to give Jackie Bradley Jr. some time in right field this spring. Craving versatility is one thing — it’s pretty clear they’re going to try to turn Michael Chavis into the new Ben Zobrist — but Bradley is as good as it gets in center. Leave him there.

▪ Still half-expected to see come around the corner every time I was in the Red Sox clubhouse, probably because many of his lieutenants, including Roenicke, , and Ramon Vazquez, are still part of the staff.

▪ warned players to be cautious when signing autographs because of the Covid-19 virus. But that didn’t stop Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. from accommodating a conga line of autograph seekers while sitting in a golf cart in the late innings of Friday’s Blue Jays-Red Sox split-squad game. Nice to see a young star being so accessible, even at a time when it might not be wise.

* The Boston Herald

Red Sox option Bobby Dalbec, but manager taught him important lesson

Jason Mastrodonato

FORT MYERS — Had Ron Roenicke not taken baseball so seriously, had he taken a bit more time to enjoy himself during his eight-year big league career in the 1980s, he thinks he would’ve been a better player.

More than 30 years since his last big league game, the Red Sox’ interim manager is now trying to help other players not make the same mistake.

One of them is Bobby Dalbec, the 6-foot-4, 225-pound power-hitting corner infielder who had a nice spring but was optioned out of big league camp on Sunday. He’ll likely start the year in Triple-A Pawtucket but the Red Sox know they can count on him if a need at first base arises.

“If we need him, he’s ready,” Roenicke said.

Confidence is one area of Dalbec’s game that he’s still working on. And it can be a tricky thing for a manager to see. Thankfully for Dalbec, Roenicke seems like the perfect guy to guide him toward the big leagues.

“I’m very serious and quiet most of the time,” said Dalbec. “He likes to make sure I’m having fun still. I am. I’m just quiet. I’m a thinker. I’m very intense. I’m working.

“He told me how he was too serious when he played. He doesn’t want me to be like that, which I’m not. I’m just quiet. I’m a speak-when-spoken-to-guy for the most part. So I’m just trying to stay loose, to get better and have fun.”

Dalbec considers himself an introvert and a perfectionist. Roenicke gets it.

“It’s easy to say, just relax and have fun, but if that’s not your personality, it’s hard to do,” Roenicke said. “It wasn’t my personality when I played. I know I would’ve been a better player if I would’ve relaxed and laughed — not during the competition, but when you have time in between, you need to enjoy it more. You need to smile. You need to laugh at some guys when they’re joking in the dugout. Then you turn it back on again and get back out there and compete.”

Roenicke doesn’t want Dalbec to make the same mistake he did more than 30 years ago.

“Some guys can just be loose out there on the field,” Roenicke said. “A lot of guys can’t. I couldn’t do it. I wish I would have.”

It’s not that that Dalbec hasn’t had success.

He hit 59 homers combined over the last two minor league seasons while jumping in the ranks from High- A Salem to Double-A Portland to Triple-A Pawtucket in that span. And in 2019 he cut down on his while increasing his walk rate.

But last fall, when the Red Sox made a handful of September call-ups to add depth to a club that was clearly not going to the playoffs, Dalbec was confusingly left off the list.

And when the Red Sox seemed to have a clear opening at first base entering 2020, they filled the hole with 34-year-old veteran Mitch Moreland just before spring training began.

“I think my first couple years I was always worried about who is going up, when am I going to go up?” Dalbec said. “I got that mentality that I’ll get there when I get there. It’s helped me a lot to stay focused on where my feet are, focusing on the task at hand.”

Having Moreland back on the roster assured that Dalbec would be out of the mix to start the year. But Dalbec doesn’t mind. He said Moreland has taught him a lot at first base, a position he played in college but recently switched back to after spending most of his minor league career at third.

Before being optioned on Sunday, Dalbec was 5-for-22 with one homer. His swing is inconsistent, Roenicke said. But the team’s hitting coaches are thrilled with his mechanics.

“He’s in a really good spot,” Roenicke said. “Now it’s just a matter of recognizing pitches earlier and making better decisions on when he’s swinging.”

A tall guy with long arms, there isn’t much room for .

“J.D. Martinez was telling me last year, it’s like herding sheep; one thing gets out of whack and you have to keep it in line,” Dalbec said. “Just building the motor memory. Obviously working on new things out here a little more, lower body stuff. My upper body and hands are working really well. Just trying to sync those up with my lower body and let it fly in the game and have fun.”

A little bit of fun would certainly please his manager.

“I don’t feel like I have to be quiet, that’s just the way I am,” Dalbec said. “Very introverted at the field. In a different environment, like back home with roommates, I’ll talk more. But I’m here to work. And still having a good time.”

Kevin Plawecki impressing in Red Sox’ backup catcher competition

Jason Mastrodonato

FORT MYERS — is looking like the early leader for the Red Sox backup catcher job.

The 29-year-old backstop has been a light hitter for the duration of his five-year big league career, over which he’s hit just .218 with a .636 OPS. But he seems to be in mid-season form in Grapefruit League action. He’s 7-for-14 (.500) with five walks and two strikeouts.

“You can’t look much better than what Plawecki has done so far,” interim manager Ron Roenicke said. “He’s caught really well. He has good hands. He sets up nice. Offensively, his at-bats have been outstanding. He’s got a simple swing. He hits the ball to all fields.

“Offensively he’s looked great. If that continues, that’d be a huge plus for him.”

Plawecki is competing with Jonathan Lucroy, 33, who was an MVP candidate while playing for Roenicke for the in 2014.

But Lucroy has been plagued by injuries in recent years. He had surgery for a herniated disk in his neck this winter and is still looking for his swing. He’s 2-for-14 with three walks and five strikeouts.

“Lucroy is a guy that when I had him before, offensively that’s about as good as it gets as a catcher,” Roenicke said. “He’s not there right now. Hopefully he starts swinging like we know he can.

“I know Jason Varitek is working with him on the catching part of it, changing some things he’s done. When I had him in Milwaukee, analytically he was near the top of in framing. He’s got great hands. Then his numbers have started to go down the last couple of years and we want to figure out why.”

A new stance to frame pitches The latest trend in baseball is now catching on with the Red Sox.

Catchers across the league are changing their receiving stance, lowering one knee to the ground to give them a stronger base and allow them to better frame pitches for the umpires.

“There’s pluses and minuses to that,” Roenicke said. “If you’ve got someone on base, it’s a little tougher to block pitches, but it seems to be working. It gives the umpires a better view of balls and strikes. The big thing with catcher is, how many strikes are you stealing in the game? That’s how they’re compared to other catchers.

“For me, putting down numbers is more important than when you steal two pitches a game because what numbers you put down comes into play way more often.”

Christian Vazquez often used the one-knee stance last year.

“He started it last year and looked really good doing it,” Roenicke said. “It seems to work. It’s hard for me to say why it works. I guess it’s just a smaller area where the umpire gets a better view of pitches.”

Vazquez was ranked 12th out of 117 catchers last year based on runs saved above average due to framing. He saved nine runs above average, according to Baseball Prospectus.

Former catcher Sandy Leon, traded to the Indians, ranked seventh with 11.6 runs saved above average. Lucroy, once considered the best in the game at framing, ranked 99th (negative-3.7 runs) and Plawecki 101st (negative-4.6 runs).

Looking for a fourth outfielder Tzu-Wei Lin looks like he has a good chance to make the team if his hamstring heals quickly.

Sunday, Roenicke mentioned Lin as an option to be the fourth outfielder and play some center field. J.D Martinez is also considered a fourth outfield type and Roenicke wants to increase his workload from a year ago. Utility man Jose Peraza can also play some outfield.

“I don’t know if we will strictly cover it with those guys, knowing that they all play out there, or if there is a guy who is just a true outfielder that is going to be on that roster,” the skipper said.

Michael Chavis could also be exposed to the outfield before camp ends.

“We’ve talked about that,” Roenicke said. “We may get him out there some and see how that goes. He runs well enough, throws well enough so he can play out there. He’s good on fly balls. So if we end up doing that I think that also works.”

Jackie Bradley Jr. has only played center field this spring while Kevin Pillar has been in right, but the Sox will switch them before camp ends to get Bradley comfortable in right as well.

Weber likely in the rotation Roenicke again mentioned Ryan Weber as a likely option to start the year in the rotation. Of the other starter candidates who have been extended for length, nobody else has separated from the pack.

Red Sox make cuts The Sox trimmed their roster on Sunday.

Roldani Baldwin, Connor Wong, Jeter Downs, Josh Ockimey, R.J. Alvarez, Trevor Hildenberger, Tanner Houck and Mike Kickham were re-assigned to minor league camp.

Bobby Dalbec, C.J. Chatham, Kyle Hart, Mike Shawaryn and Phillips Valdez were optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket. Marcus Wilson was optioned to Double-A Portland and Yoan Aybar was optioned to High-A Salem.

Hector Velázquez, who was designated for assignment when the Sox signed Collin McHugh, was claimed off waivers by the Orioles. He had a 3.90 ERA in three seasons with the Red Sox.

* The Providence Journal

Two principals in Dodgers trade demoted

Bob Rathgeber

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Red Sox reassigned eight players to minor-league camp on Sunday, including recent additions Connor Wong and Jeter Downs.

Downs, 21, the former No. 3 prospect in the organization, and Wong, a catcher, both came to the Red Sox in the trade that sent Mookie Betts and David Price to Los Angeles. Boston also got outfielder Alex Verdugo in the deal, though he will likely begin the season on the injured list.

Other players sent to minor-league camp include: catcher Roldani Baldwin, first baseman Josh Ockimey, and R.J. Alvarez, Trevor Hildenberger, Tanner Houck, and Mike Kickham.

Five players were also optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket: first baseman/third baseman Bobby Dalbec, infielder C.J. Chatham, and pitchers Kyle Hart, Mike Shawaryn, and Phillips Valdez. Outfielder Marcus Wilson was optioned to Double-A Portland and left-handed pitcher Yoan Aybar was optioned to High-A Salem.

Sox edge Twins

Kenta Maeda excelled in his third start for Minnesota, pitching four scoreless innings and giving up two hits with six strikeouts but the Twins came up short against the Red Sox, 7-6, at JetBlue Park. Josh Donaldson doubled and singled.

Martin Perez’s threw four shutout innings for Boston were backed by Kevin Pillar, who doubled and scored on a single by J.D. Martinez.

Velazquez to Orioles

The claimed right-handed pitcher Hector Velazquez on waivers from the Red Sox on Sunday.

The 31-year-old was 11-7 with a 3.90 ERA in 89 games in the last three seasons with Boston, including 19 starts.

Velazquez will compete for a spot on the Orioles’ staff. One candidate, right-hander Evan Phillips, will begin the season on the injured list due to right elbow soreness.

Eovaldi comes up aces

To say that Sox starter is having a good spring training is a huge understatement. So far, it has been great. He’s pitched 8 innings, including three on Saturday, and hasn’t allowed an earned run. His to walk rate is in the stratosphere ... 12 strikeouts against 1 walk. ... Relief pitcher Austin Brice, acquired from the Marlins in January, has appeared in four games, striking out 10 in 5 2/3 scoreless innings. When he made his major league debut in 2016, he became the first player from Hong Kong to appear in a major-league game.

Around the bases

The Red Sox and Twins continued their Chairman’s Cup spring training series on Sunday, which is now tied at 13-13-2 after Boston’s 7-6 win. The teams will play again on March 20 and 22. They will also see each other seven times during the 2020 regular season — with a late April series at Target Field, and a four-game set in August at Fenway Park. ... Sunday was the team’s 134th consecutive full house at JetBlue Park with an announced attendance of 9,661. In the last several years the Yankees, who train in Tampa, have been the only team with a higher per-game attendance.

Perez bounces back with solid outing vs. Twins

Bob Rathgeber

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Martin Perez, the Red Sox’ left-hander who signed a free-agent deal in December, isn’t blessed with the overpowering stuff he had before Tommy John surgery in 2014.

Now, you can look at him as a “crafty southpaw.”

Case in point: his four-inning scoreless outing against the on Sunday in a 7-6 Boston win at JetBlue Park.

Max Kepler ripped a ground-ball single through the Red Sox shift leading off the game. Perez then settled in and allowed three more hits, all in the infield, struck out seven and walked one over four innings. The hardest hit ball was a two hopper to second base that the Red Sox turned into a double play.

Powder-puff contact has become a Perez staple. Last year, when he won 10 games for the Twins, the hard- hit rate against him was a measly 84.5 percent, better than 96 percent of all major-league pitchers.

He said he had long been told that he needed to use his legs more to be successful. Though he listened, he didn’t take the advice seriously, he said.

This spring, though, that same recommendation came from one of the greatest pitchers in Red Sox history — Pedro Martinez.

“When it comes from Pedro, it means a lot. He told me to use my legs more and to focus on my line to the plate,” Perez, 28, said after his Sunday outing.

“I wasn’t trying to throw too hard ... 92-93 (miles per hour) ... and staying on my line. Everything was fine,” Perez said.

Perez’s performance Sunday was a zillion times better than his outing five days earlier when he couldn’t get out of the first inning against the Yankees.

When Perez signed his one-year $6.5-million contract (with a team option for 2021), it appeared he would be Boston’s fifth starter, with Rick Porcello leaving via free agency. But things have changed. With Chris Sale starting the season on the injured list and David Price being traded to the Dodgers, suddenly he’s No, 3 behind Eduardo Rodriguez and Nathan Eovaldi.

Perez is an eight-year major-league veteran, having suited up for the Rangers and Twins. Last season, he pitched to a 5.12 ERA and 1.518 WHIP in 165 1/3 innings. He gave up 184 hits, 94 earned runs, and 23 home runs with 135 strikeouts.

“It doesn’t matter, No. 1 or 5th,” Perez said. He added that the rotation “will be fine. Injuries happen all over baseball.”

Perez has a career ERA of .486 and a 53-56 record. His best season came in 2017 with the Rangers — 13- 12 with a .482 ERA and 115 strikeouts over 185 innings.

Other candidates who could join the Red Sox rotation early in the season are relievers Chris Mazza and Matt Hall, neither of whom was particularly impressive on Sunday.

Hall allowed three hits and two earned runs in one inning, while Mazza gave up four hits and three runs in 1 2/3 innings of work.

Boston heads to Venice, Fla., on Monday to take on the Braves at 6:05 p.m.

* MassLive.com

Boston Red Sox roster moves: Bobby Dalbec, Tanner Houck among 15 cuts from major league camp

Chris Cotillo

The Red Sox made a series of cuts from major league camp Sunday, trimming down the pool of players in consideration to make the 26-man roster.

Among the 15 cuts were prospects Bobby Dalbec (optioned to Pawtucket) and Tanner Houck (re-assigned to minor league camp), who were thought to have an outside chance of cracking the roster to begin the season.

The Sox reassigned eight players to minor league camp (Houck, catcher Roldani Baldwin, catcher/infielder Connor Wong, infielder Jeter Downs, first baseman Josh Ockimey, and pitchers R.J. Alvarez, Trevor Hildenberger and Mike Kickham. Boston optioned five to Triple-A Pawtucket (Dalbec, infielder C.J. Chatham, and pitchers Kyle Hart, Mike Shawaryn, and Phillips Valdez), one (outfielder Marcus Wilson) to Double-A Portland and one (lefty Yoan Aybar) to High-A Salem.

Houck, Hart, Shawaryn and Valdez were thought to be in consideration for major league spots with the Sox looking for two starters and two or three relievers to fill holes to begin the season. Pitchers vying for spots who are still in camp include Chris Mazza, Austin Brice, Josh Osich, Colten Brewer, Matt Hall, Jeffrey Springs, Ryan Weber and .

The Red Sox now have 47 players in camp, including 33 on the 40-man roster and 14 non-roster invitees. Among the notable remaining non-roster invitees are Johnson, catcher Jonathan Lucroy, infielder Marco Hernandez and outfielders Rusney Castillo and Jarren Duran.

Boston Red Sox lose Hector Velazquez to Orioles on waivers

Chris Cotillo

The Orioles claimed pitcher Hector Velazquez off waivers from the Red Sox on Sunday, the clubs announced. Velazquez had been designated for assignment by Boston on Thursday.

Velazquez, 31, made 89 appearances (19 starts) for the Red Sox over the last three years, posting an 11-7 record and 3.90 ERA in his swingman role. The right-hander, who was originally signed out of Mexico in Feb. 2017, was vital to the Sox during their 2018 championship run (3.18 ERA in 85 innings) but struggled in 2019 (5.43 ERA in 56 ⅓ innings) and fell down the depth chart once new chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom added a series of arms from outside the organization.

Since being hired in October, Bloom has focused on turning over the back end of Boston’s roster and improving the club’s depth. In addition to cutting Velazquez, he has outrighted , Marco Hernandez, Bobby Poyner and Denyi Reyes, waived Trevor Kelley and traded Sam Travis and Travis Lakins while adding 13 players from outside the organization to the 40-man roster.

Velazquez was designated for assignment Thursday to make room for righty Collin McHugh, who signed a one-year deal. The Orioles, who had the second-worst record in baseball last year, were second in the waiver order for Velazquez and made a claim.

Boston’s 40-man roster remains full.

* RedSox.com

How Vázquez became Red Sox No. 1 catcher

Anthony Castrovince

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- There’s a catcher competition going on in Red Sox camp. Veterans Kevin Plawecki and Jonathan Lucroy are staging a backup battle in which Plawecki’s strong Grapefruit League performance makes him the early favorite, but Lucroy’s past ties to interim manager Ron Roenicke from their shared Milwaukee days are not to be ignored.

But the above only underscores an obvious point that would not have been at all obvious a year ago: The Red Sox have a sure-fire starting catcher in Christian Vázquez.

A year ago, Vázquez was embroiled in a competition that also featured Sandy León and . Because Vázquez’s defensive adeptness was offset by his brittle bat most of 2018, he figured to have to fight for every at-bat. And the offseason overhaul he made to his swing wasn’t bearing fruit in the Grapefruit League games, as he had just five hits in 38 at-bats.

“Really, I was doubting [the swing changes],” Vázquez said. “I didn’t know if this was going to work. I was trying something different in my swing and had never tried it before. And in Spring Training, I didn’t hit good. But when the season started, it was a different story.”

Sure was.

Vázquez got a roster spot, and then he had one of the best seasons of any catcher in the sport. To put his season in perspective, here’s where Vázquez ranked in FanGraphs’ Wins Above Replacement tally for catchers:

1. J.T. Realmuto, Phillies: 5.7 2. , Brewers: 5.2 3. Mitch Garver, Twins: 3.9 4. Christian Vázquez: 3.5 5. Tom Murphy, Mariners: 3.2 6. Roberto Pérez, Indians: 3.0

Vázquez beefed up that total value accumulation by making major gains on the offensive side. His weighted runs created plus (wRC+) mark went from 42 (or 58% below league average) in '18 to 102 (or 2% better than league average) in ’19. And as a testament to his earning of an everyday opportunity, he was one of only four catchers in MLB who accrued 500 plate appearances (Realmuto, Grandal and the Mets’ Wilson Ramos were the others).

“It’s huge, when you’re talking about a guy that’s out there every day pretty much like he was,” Red Sox interim manager Ron Roenicke said. “It pushes your lineup so deep. He’s hitting seventh or sometimes eighth. When you’re that deep, you’re going to score a lot of runs.”

In the lead-up to 2019, Vázquez worked with Lorenzo Garmendia -- a coach who runs Gradum Baseball, a group of analytics-based hitting facilities in South Florida -- to reshape his swing so that he could better handle outside pitches. Vázquez became one of the many players across MLB paying more attention to their swing path, aiming for more elevation and better barrel rates. And though it took time for the changes to lead to anything tangible, by year’s end his barrel percentage had jumped from 1.9% to 6.2%, his rate of solid contact from 5.2% to 8.8%. It all led to 23 homers and 26 doubles.

“You need to produce to help the team win,” he said. “One day, I clicked. I hit the ball hard [the opposite way] to right-center field. And after that I was feeling good. It became normal.”

If this is Boston’s new normal, then the backup catching competition -- intriguing though it may be in the moment -- is but a blip on the radar. The Red Sox have their guy behind the dish. The 29-year-old Vázquez has accrued 36 defensive runs saved since his 2014 debut, ranking him in the top 10 in baseball in that span. He’s seventh in framing runs over the course of his career, meaning he can steal strikes for his pitching staff. And now he’s a verifiable offensive weapon, putting his name in rare company at a time when catcher production is hard to come by.

“I hate to be on the bench,” he said. “It’s that simple. “I need to be on the field. I want to help every day.”

Notes: Pérez impresses; roster cuts and plans

Anthony Castrovince

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- After Martín Pérez was unable to escape the first inning in an outing against the Yankees last week, the lefty righted himself with four scoreless innings in Sunday’s 7-6 win over the Twins at JetBlue Park. Facing his 2019 teammates, Pérez followed advice he had received early in camp from the great Pedro Martínez, focusing on location, not velocity.

“[Pedro] just told me, ‘You throw hard when you need it, not every time,’” Pérez said. “Move the ball, stay on the line, use your legs and you’ll be fine.”

Pérez was initially projected to be Boston’s No. 5 starter when he signed with the club this winter, but he’s now the No. 3 starter in the wake of the David Price trade and the Chris Sale elbow setback. Though the order is ultimately unimportant, what this means, in real terms, is that the Red Sox will need depth in innings from Pérez in the season proper, lest Nathan Eovaldi and Eduardo Rodriguez have even more pressure heaped upon them.

There are two very big question marks in the Nos. 4 and 5 spots. The newly signed Collin McHugh, who is coming back from surgery to address a flexor tendon strain, is still being evaluated and not throwing.

“Somebody needs to give us those innings as a starter for your bullpen to last,” Red Sox interim manager Ron Roenicke said. “And not always just five innings, sometimes they need to go a little farther. So that’s what I’m hoping for [Pérez].”

The two rotation spots after Pérez are still undecided at this point, but right-handed journeyman Ryan Weber, who pitched primarily in relief for Boston last season and has allowed one unearned run in five innings, has the upper-hand for a rotation spot, at best, or opener opportunities, at worst.

“The other guys we’ve extended out,” Roenicke said, “I wouldn’t say anybody’s shown us, ‘Hey, we can do it.’ Right now, there are two spots where we can give guys the opportunity to do it, and hopefully, we see something.”

Roster trimming The Red Sox made another round of roster moves prior to Sunday’s game.

Jeter Downs, the prospect acquired in the Mookie Betts trade, was among eight players who are not on the 40-man roster and who were reassigned to Minor League camp. The others were: catcher Roldani Baldwin, catcher/infielder Connor Wong, first baseman Josh Ockimey and pitchers R.J. Alvarez, Trevor Hildenberger, Tanner Houck and Mike Kickham.

Five players from the 40-man were optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket: infielders Bobby Dalbec and C.J. Chatham and pitchers Kyle Hart, Mike Shawaryn and Phillips Valdez.

Outfielder Marcus Wilson was optioned to Double-A Portland, and left-hander Yoan Aybar was optioned to High-A Salem.

Additionally, right-hander Hector Velázquez, who was designated for assignment when McHugh was signed, was claimed off waivers by the Orioles.

Boston now has 47 players remaining in big-league camp.

Fourth outfield spot unclear With trade acquisition Alex Verdugo still not swinging a bat as he recovers from a stress fracture in his back, the Red Sox aren’t sure whether they’ll carry a true fourth outfielder or fill that spot with a hodgepodge of guys who will also serve other roles, but can also play in the outfield.

“Because [designated hitter] J.D. [Martinez] can play the outfield, he’s a fourth outfielder,” Roenicke said. “If [infielder Tzu-Wei] Lin is on the roster, he plays center field. And then [infielder José] Peraza plays the outfield. I don’t know if that’s how we’re going to cover it, or if there’s a guy that’s a true outfielder that’s going to be on that roster. We’ve discussed it a lot.”

Roenicke is planning to have center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. and right fielder Kevin Pillar flip spots on occasion this spring, beginning next week, so that each can get acquainted with the other position.

The plan at first base The hamstring issue that hobbled Mitch Moreland for a few days is in the rearview, as Moreland was in the lineup for a second straight day on Sunday.

As far as the regular season goes, Moreland will once again primarily be limited to facing right-handed pitchers. Last season, 82% of his 335 plate appearances came against righties.

When Moreland is off, Michael Chavis will face lefties, and Peraza can play second base.

“We’ll see, physically, how they’re doing, but also how they’re swinging the bat,” Roenicke said. “If somebody’s swinging the bat well, you get them out there more often.”

Up next Night time is the right time for Boston’s second trip to the Braves’ new spring home in the last few days. Weber, who stands a good chance of locking down a regular role on the pitching staff, will start Monday’s 6:05 p.m. ET game at CoolToday Park opposite Félix Hernández. Right-handers , Colten Brewer and Marcus Walden are also scheduled to throw.

* WEEI.com

The Monday Baseball Column: The most interesting pitcher in Red Sox spring training

Rob Bradford

FORT MYERS, Fla. — He often walks in when most are walking out. He very well may never get in a Grapefruit League game this season. And the only thing that separates him from the sea of other minor- leaguers who live life on the other side of the JetBlue Park complex is a 6-foot-6 frame that makes bystanders wonder who this might be.

He is , perhaps the most interesting player in Red Sox spring training.

For Red Sox fans the name still rings a bell. When you’re the 12th overall pick in the 2016 MLB June Amateur Draft you’re going to garner some attention. But it has been a while for Groome. Too long. And he realizes it.

“I think everyone knows it,” Groome told WEEI.com regarding the importance of 2020. “I have my family pushing me because they know I’m back where I need to be. I’m healthy. They just want to see me finally start up a full season again. It has been a long time.”

The importance of Groome’s existence isn’t complicated. Despite two straight seasons that have been derailed by health issues — including last year’s recovering from Tommy John surgery — he still represents perhaps the highest upside of any Red Sox minor-league pitcher.

One look at the big lefty throwing a baseball, even casually, and it’s not hard to decipher why so much anticipation follows Groome.

But, as he pointed out, it has been a long time. Three total starts in the past two seasons (all coming at the tail-end of 2019), to be exact.

“Last year was a totally different scenario because last year I was just trying to get my feet back into it. This year it’s go-time. I just have got to perform. I’m full-go which I haven’t been for a while,” Groome noted. “It’s been frustrating but now the way I’m feeling with everything … I’m still young and ready to play but I have to stay healthy and perform.”

It seems odd to put so many organizational eggs in the basket of a pitcher whose production at his highest level of , Single-A Greenville, resulted in a 3-7 record and 6.70 ERA in 11 starts back in 2017.

But for the 21-year-old, that first go-round in pro ball seems like a lifetime ago. Living the life he has the past two seasons will do that.

“I wasn’t used to having injuries, especially this severe, so I just wanted to get it over with,” said Groome, who has no restrictions heading into this spring training. “After the first couple of months, I think it finally hit me. I look down and I see a scar on my arm that I never thought I would have. It was a crazy experience the whole thing.”

He added, “Another good thing going through surgery is you learn a lot more about the game. How many games I watched throughout the two years I basically rehabbed was a lot. You have nothing better to do. You just want to watch. I know it’s Rookie Ball but seeing what hitters do against certain pitchers. If one of my teammates is out there and he’s a lefty throwing hard I pay extra close attention because it’s kind of the same thing of me pitching. You take what you can get.”

Fair or not, the current state of the Red Sox makes Groome’s existence even more intriguing.

According to SoxProspects.com, he is still the fourth-ranked Red Sox minor-leaguer, just one spot behind fellow pitching prospect Bryan Mata. It says a lot. With all the uncertainty there is still all that expectation.

“I had it a lot in high school, the showcase circuit. I was never the guy who would want to go out and impress people,” he explained regarding the attention. “I knew if I played how I was supposed to it would speak for itself. I just like playing. If I do good, I do good. If I don’t I have to do better next time.”

Groome is still a ways away, most likely beginning this road back in Greenville. But no matter where he is, people will be watching. That’s just how it is when so much hope is attached. It’s the kind of anticipation that doesn’t disappear just because of a few lost years, as the southpaw is finding out.

“I have always been humble,” he said. “I haven’t done anything yet. I haven’t been in the big leagues so I can’t say anything about the team up there.”

That’s for the rest of us.

AN INTERESTING ADDITION

Connor Wong was undeniably the least publicized name of the three players coming to the Red Sox in the trade for Mookie Betts, simply representing a chance to become a future big-league backup catcher.

But before being sent down Sunday Wong left an intriguing impression. Despite a fairly undersized frame (maybe 5-foot-11, 180 pounds) he managed to flash the power that produced a combined 24 home runs in 2019, popping a pair of Grapefruit League homers.

Considering some of the adjustments Wong made toward the tail-end of last season thanks to some high- end technology, it’s worth keeping an eye on the backstop’s development.

“I noticed with MoCap (Motion Capture), being able to overlay my swing on top of major league guys just to see the differences and see how the body works,” he said. “We put my swing on top of Justin Turner’s swing. It wasn’t even about the power, I just had a lot of swing and miss in my bat because my hips kept rotating whereas his would stop and his bat would go through centerfield and my hips would keep rotating and my barrel would follow and I would be off pitches sooner than he would. That one really opened my eyes.

“It’s really cool. The data we have now can really be useful. But it’s a trap. You have to be careful. You can get caught up in it and be consumed with it. But using it the right way can be really useful.”

NO ESCAPING TECHNOLOGY

Speaking of machines, it is hard to miss the new additions on the backfields at JetBlue Park. Nine portable TrackMan machines.

The contraptions were an investment made by the Red Sox in order to start collecting a whole new round of data starting on Day 1 of spring training. Every side session. Every bullpen session. Everything. No longer was spin rate, velocity, release point, etc. going to be measured just on the main field.

“This is the first spring we have collected data on everything in spring training,” said Red Sox pitching coach . “For the most part we’re trying to capture everybody every time they are on the mound.

“The eye test was all we had before and guys self-reporting. There is still value to that. Sometimes it doesn’t match up. Sometimes guys are better than they feel and sometimes they’re not. It’s a way to balance out our own evaluations.”

The collection of data is really as much about next year as it is this time around. Since this is the first year implementing this approach, it won’t be until 2021 that the Red Sox can compare many of these pitchers’ results so early in spring training.

So long to “the ball was coming out of his hand really nice” narrative.

“Guys were reluctant to have their movement tracked this time of year, but most players realize there is value to it. I’m not judging them. I’m just giving them feedback to get them to where they need to get to,” Bush said. “I don’t know if we’re going to need all this next year. But we had to start somewhere and start building up a baseline to work off.”

KEVIN PILLAR HAS SOME THOUGHTS

The eye test for Pillar has always produced impressive results when analyzing his defensive acumen. The analytics? Not so much. For an outfielder with such a stellar reputation in the field, the measurements have been a mixed bag.

So we asked him about it …

“It’s a very complex question for me to answer. Analytics is just a piece, maybe a small piece, in determining someone’s pure value. I think there are a lot of things analytics don’t take into consideration when it comes to the human element. Whether it’s weather conditions, sun, the fear factor of approaching the wall, the wall behind you, the wall to the side, players overlapping, infielders going back and you coming in. There is a human element that the advanced metrics don’t take into considerations. It’s not as simple as black and white. They might say that ball had a 50 percent chance of being caught but they don’t understand the fear factor of running full speed and having about six inches before you’re about to collide with the wall. It’s easy to have a mathematical formula saying this ball should be caught X amount of times …

“A huge portion of the game is playing in some sort of shifts, which includes the outfielders now shading outside their normal territory. It always seemed a little unfair that the defensive metrics held so much weight when these external factors aren’t taken into consideration. Players are positioning themselves less and less in this game. It’s more about front office, advance scouts, coaching staffs that are trying to put their athletes in the best position to be successful.

“All my years in Toronto we would have a meeting 20 minutes before we went out to stretch. We would talk about our pitcher on the mound, we talked about how we were going to position all the hitters in the lineup. Most importantly the last component was making sure we used our eyes and we all communicated whether a guy was late, a guy was cheating or if our pitcher didn’t have his best stuff that day and we made adjustments according to what we saw. Moving to San Francisco I bought in the idea of using the cards a little bit more. I was in a new league, with new pitchers facing new hitters and I felt like it was going to be best for me to buy into the positioning they gave me because I was learning on the fly. As the year went by I started using my instincts a little bit more out there.

“I definitely think the advanced metrics can be used as a tool to help us. I don’t think it is the end-all, be- all, but I do think it is the small piece of the puzzle.

“We don’t move to our glove side as well as we move to our throwing side so maybe when the positioning says play here I can shade over a little bit because I move better in a certain direction. That stuff that is a piece of the puzzle, not the entirety of the puzzle. A lot of the stuff they are doing is good but in some way I think it is an unfair way of determining someone’s value or the way we perceive how somebody can impact the game on the defensive side of the ball.”

SOME OTHER THINGS …

- Brian Johnson has been hitting 93 mph on the radar gun. This is of note considering the average velocity on his fastball the last two seasons has been just under 89 mph.

- Red Sox non-roster outfield hopeful John Andreoli made a significant sacrifice this past offseason. The 29-year-old Worcester native prioritized his wife’s career over his, moving to New Jersey in order to make it easier for Cara (Harvey) Andreoli to go on auditions for her acting career.

- It’s interesting to note that believes the group the Red Sox will start 2020 with represents the best Opening Day infield defense the team will have had since he arrived. “To start the season, yes,” the coach said when asked if he believed this would be his best defensive infield to start a season. “I think we’re in a good place right now defensively. Defensively we’re going to be really good this year.” One of the key elements, he pointed out, was the presence of Jose Peraza at second base. Peraza first left an impression on Febles at the Single-A level in 2014.

- Martin Perez said the two teams to call him immediately at the outset of free agency: the Red Sox and Blue Jays.

- In case you have missed it, Rusney Castillo entered Monday hitting .521 (12-for-21) in Grapefruit League action.

Meet your likely Red Sox No. 4 starter, Ryan Weber

Rob Bradford

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- With all the talk of openers and injuries, Ron Roenicke understands the reality of these Red Sox: They need to find legitimate innings from starting pitchers.

It's why the idea of relying on a wave of bullpen arms to complement Eduardo Rodriguez, Nathan Eovaldi and Martin Perez might not be realistic. That's where Ryan Weber comes in.

"I think Weber has shown -- whether he’s going to be a fourth starter, fifth starter or an opener, and what happens with Chris -- I think he’s a guy we feel like can do it," said the interim manager when asked if any pitcher had separated himself in terms of getting a permanent spot in the rotation. "The other guys we’ve extended out, I wouldn’t say anybody has shown us, hey, they can do it. I think when we brought them into camp, we felt like their history, they have a chance to do that. So as we go farther in camp and figure out - right now we have two spots with Chris not throwing right now, we have two spots where we give guys an opportunity to do it. Hopefully, we see something."

The fact the Roenicke surfaced Weber was telling.

The 29-year-old has impressed this spring training, allowing one run over his five innings while striking out seven and not walking a batter. But another part of the equation is the impression left on Roenicke during Weber's brief stint with the Red Sox last season.

"t means a lot," he said regarding the Red Sox' confidence in him to this point. "It shows myself what I have done in the past has paid off and that they have seen that I am able to go out there and start a major league game and give adequate innings and keep the team in it. It really helps with the confidence level, too. I never really thought of the negative side of it. I just kept saying, ‘Keep doing what you do. You can control what you can control. Go out there and do your best. If it is meant to be it will happen.’

"I have always known that I had the ability to go out there … Being in the right place at the right time is a big battle to overcome. Having Ron there last year seeing what I can do. He believes in me. We’re in, I wouldn’t say a bind, but there opportunity was out there and Ron believes in me. Especially the manager to believe in me, not just the pitching coach."

A big part of the impression left on Roenicke by Weber was rooted in a memorable six-inning, one-run outing in Toronto last May. But it has also been cemented with what the Sox have seen over the past couple of weeks. And part of that success has been a product of a suggestion made by the Sox' interim skipper.

With runners on base Weber now holds his glove by his stomach instead of in line with this chest. According to the pitcher, it has made a difference when it comes to being quicker to the plate, not allowing the opposition to identify pitches and shortening up his delivery.

"Ron told me that last year," explained Weber, who had the 19th-slowest average fastball in the majors last season (88.4 mph). "It was about time to home plate. Runners on base can also easily see into my glove. And honestly, for me it’s easier to hold it there. These people are smart. They will explode little minor details in your delivery so if I can do one little thing to keep the baserunners off guard or disrupt the timing of the guy at the plate, I’m going to do it."

* The Athletic

Alex Verdugo, pitcher? New Red Sox outfielder wants to be next two-way player

Chad Jennings

FORT MYERS, Fla. — This is the future as Alex Verdugo sees it. First, he’ll get healthy. Then he’ll prove, once again, that he’s a standout big-league hitter. And when he gets through a full season at full strength, he’ll start an offseason throwing program, build strength and durability in his arm, throw a few bullpens in spring training, then wait for the first regular-season blowout when the Red Sox need an inning of mop-up work.

“And I’d be like, ‘All right, I won’t throw hard today, I promise you guys!’” Verdugo said. “I’ll just go out there, and maybe I’m throwing 70 percent and touching 90 (mph). And then they’re like, ‘Wait a minute!’”

Yes, the Red Sox new right fielder, the big prize for Boston in last month’s Mookie Betts trade, wants to be baseball’s next two-way player.

It’s not a joke. Verdugo made that much clear. It might not be realistic — he acknowledged that, too — but Verdugo was one of the top high school pitchers in the 2014 draft. The team that selected him, and the team that now has him, were each torn on whether he would be better at the plate or on the mound. His arm is still notoriously strong, he throws left-handed and the baseball landscape has changed since he turned pro.

Three years after Verdugo was drafted, the Rays picked Brendan McKay fourth overall and let him develop as both a pitcher and a hitter. A few months after that, Shohei Ohtani signed with the Angels and had a .925 OPS with a 3.31 ERA his rookie year.

“Once you’re in pro ball, (people said) no more two-ways,” Verdugo said. “Then it was like, a couple of guys came in doing two-way, and I’m like, ‘Maaaannnn! Dude, I could do that!’”

If that sounds like untethered bravado, consider this: It wasn’t until the Dodgers stacked their draft board that they decided to label Verdugo a hitter. The Red Sox also had him as a hitter on draft day, but it was a close decision and their scouts were split. Each team had a nearly identical scouting report: Fastball sitting around 90 mph, topping out at 93-94. Good curveball. Good control. Competitive with a feel for pitching. Dodgers scouting supervisor Brian Stephenson said Verdugo’s upside was that of a No. 3 starter, and was a relatively safe bet for a high school left-hander.

“He wasn’t just a stuff guy,” Stephenson said. “(He) could really pitch. Good delivery. Threw strikes.”

Forced to choose, though, the Dodgers labeled him an outfielder, believing he could always transition back to the mound if hitting didn’t work out. But almost six years later, there’s less certainty about whether a player has to choose. Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom was in the Rays front office when they drafted McKay and gave him a chance to do both. McKay reached the big leagues that way. Position players moonlighting as pitchers have become so common that baseball has a new two-way player rule to clarify a role that’s still unusual, but no longer unheard of.

“This isn’t a momentary trend, I don’t think,” Bloom said via email, “and our game is increasingly open to new ideas and removing limitations that have historically existed. Whatever works, we know teams will pursue. But it still takes a special player to do both and a lot of work on the part of the staff to help manage workload on both sides of the ball.”

So, what about Verdugo as a two-way player?

“I generally don’t like to take options off the table,” Bloom said, “but right now our sole focus is on helping Alex through his rehab so he can impact us at the plate and in the outfield! It just goes to show how confident he is.”

Doing both is not simply a question of confidence and talent. It’s a challenge of durability and effectiveness, and that was true for Verdugo even in high school. In perhaps the greatest game he ever pitched, he struck out 18 batters in six innings during the state quarterfinals as a junior pitching for Sahuaro High School in Tucson, but his coach had to pull him despite a tied score in a win-or-go-home situation. Verdugo had pitched out of the bullpen the previous game, and his pitch count that day was too high to risk any more.

“He was pretty much on a restricted pitch count basically his entire career,” said Mark Chandler, his coach at Sahuaro. “Everybody knew the kid’s going to have a future. … You don’t want to be that guy to screw it up.”

Verdugo had been the opening-day starter at Sahuaro ever since his freshman year. By the time he was a senior, classmates Justin Hammergren and Vinnie Tarantola had emerged as legitimate pitching prospects in their own right — each would go on to play college ball — which eased the burden on Verdugo’s arm. The Cougars didn’t have to lean on their phenom quite as much, but he was still the standout.

Asked to provide his own scouting report, Verdugo perhaps oversold his velocity — he swore he topped out at 97 mph, though everyone else seems to remember 94 — but he might have undersold his curveball, which Red Sox vice president of scouting Mike Rikard called a “hammer.” Online scouting reports also praise Verdugo’s curveball and say he had good control for a hard thrower. Verdugo said he’d mix in a two-seamer, cutter, slider, underwhelming changeup, even a mid-80s knuckleball

“I threw it as hard as I possibly could,” he said. “And it danced, too. Scouts actually loved that pitch. Scouts would trip out and be like, what was that?”

Verdugo’s high school pitching stats

Year IP K BB ERA OBA Freshman 66 2/3 100 42 3.15 .245 Sophomore 61 2/3 78 39 2.04 .232 Junior 65 130 29 1.29 .211 Senior 52 2/3 93 31 2.26 .211 Source: MaxPreps

Of course, Verdugo could also mash. He hit.532 with 18 doubles his senior year, he’d hit for even more power as a junior, and when USA Today named him first-team high school All-America, his listed position was outfielder/pitcher. Verdugo told the newspaper — even then — he believed he could make it to the major leagues in either position.

MaxPreps named him the fifth-best high school lefty in the 2014 draft, ahead of current Mariners starter . The Dodgers had Verdugo — as a pitcher — ranked ahead of 12th overall pick , another high school lefty. According to Stephenson, the only West Coast high school left-hander the Dodgers liked more than Verdugo was , the eventual No. 1 pick in the draft.

While some outlets favored Verdugo as a hitter heading into the draft — Baseball Prospectus, for one, noted “the arm is obviously plus” but wrote of “greater upside in the outfield” — did not mince words.

“Some teams believe (Verdugo) wants to go out as a hitter,” the magazine wrote, “but his professional future is definitely on the mound.”

The Red Sox passed on Verdugo twice in that draft. They had two first-round selections and used them on Michael Chavis and , a pair of strong selections from a good first-round class. The Dodgers took Verdugo 62nd overall.

It took one full season for Baseball America to label him a top 100 prospect. At the end of his second full year, he was top 60. By the end of his third season, Verdugo was in the big leagues, ranked as the 37th-best prospect in all of baseball. Questions about whether his bat could carry him had been answered.

“I was always very confident in myself,” Verdugo said. “And I wanted to prove I could be a big-league hitter instead of a big-league pitcher, which everybody pretty much already was like, ‘You could be in the big leagues (as a pitcher).’ And I was like, ‘I can do it as a hitter, too. It’s not a big deal.’”

Verdugo said he never told scouts not to draft him as a pitcher, but he did tell them that he liked to pitch but loved to hit. The Dodgers’ Arizona-area scout was Dustin Yount — Robin Yount’s son — who’d only recently stopped playing and had a knack for relating to young hitters.

“He’d go and sit with Alex and talk, just shooting the shit,” Stephenson said. “Every time they started talking, it was always about hitting. So, if you really got to know Alex, you knew he wanted to go out and hit.”

Verdugo wanted to be in the lineup every day. He wanted to chase balls in the outfield. He didn’t want to sit around and wait. He wanted to play.

Which gets to the heart of his desire to do it all.

Verdugo still wants to play. He knows all of this pitcher talk is just talk until he can stay healthy for a full season. No team is going to let a promising outfielder with a bad back and only one 500 at-bat season start throwing bullpens. It would be too reckless. Verdugo knows that. Even if a team were to try it, Verdugo would have to be forthcoming about any tightness, any soreness, any nagging red flag. There’s a reason so few players have done it.

But the same confidence that made Verdugo believe he could be a big-league hitter leads him to believe — he seems to know it for sure — that he can be a big-league pitcher. When he warms up before workouts, he sometimes goes through his pitching motion and fires fastballs so menacing assistant strength coach Edgar Barreto has worn a catcher’s mitt just to play catch with him.

“I wouldn’t throw it hard if I didn’t think you could protect yourself,” Verdugo told him.

Verdugo sees pitching as just another opportunity. Another way to help the team, show what he can do, stand in the spotlight, all eyes on him, and prove himself. It’s another way to play.

“Any time you go 0-for-3 or 0-for-4 and then, just come in one inning and just blow up hitters?” he said. “That’s how you get out your steam. That’s how you get out your anger. Not like throwing or slamming anything. It’s just like, dude, let me go strike somebody out. And if I get racked, too, on the mound, that’s a tough day at the office! That’s a bad day, dude!”

Verdugo hasn’t had many bad days on the mound. Of course, he hasn’t had any days on the mound, period, in almost six years. No minor-league manager in his right mind throws a top prospect out there for an inning of mop-up work, no matter how well he threw the ball in high school. It’s either a part of the plan, or it isn’t. It’s either a development strategy, or it’s a high school fantasy.

But Verdugo can see it now. The slow buildup of arm strength. The quiet bullpen sessions to show what he can do. That first opportunity with nothing on the line. And if that goes well, who knows what happens next?

“The kid can do both things,” Chandler said. “If he gets an opportunity, and somebody wants to give him that opportunity, I’ll bet you something like this just might come about.”

Verdugo can imagine it. He can see it. He’s lived it.

“I would be like a little kid again,” he said. “Just playing ball again. Driving to the games or the tournaments, that was cool coming out of center field to go throw one inning … just try to freakin’ blow up the doors, and after that, I go back to center and we have another guy come in.”

This is the future as Verdugo sees it. Just like it was in the past.

With a big round of moves, Red Sox roster begins to take shape

Chad Jennings

FORT MYERS, Fla. — None of Sunday’s 15 cuts from Red Sox camp was particularly surprising. Even the notable prospects, despite some intrigue, always seemed more likely to begin the season in the minors.

The moves, though, did bring a surprising amount of clarity about the Red Sox’ plans. At this point, they could cut just four pitchers off the 40-man and have their Opening Day roster set.

Here are Sunday’s moves.

· Catcher Roldani Baldwin, catcher/infielder Connor Wong, infielder Jeter Downs, first baseman Josh Ockimey, and pitchers R.J. Alvarez, Trevor Hildenberger, Tanner Houck, and Mike Kickham reassigned to minor league camp. All eight were non-roster invites to big league camp.

· Corner infielder Bobby Dalbec, middle infielder C.J. Chatham, and pitchers Kyle Hart, Mike Shawaryn, and Phillips Valdez optioned to Triple-A.

· Outfielder Marcus Wilson optioned to Double-A.

· Lefty Yoan Aybar was optioned to high Class-A

And here’s what we learned:

1. The Red Sox are not going all-in with prospects

Houck, Hart, Dalbec and Chatham remain Boston’s most highly touted players at the Triple-A level, and none of the organization’s top prospects seemed better positioned to make a run at the Opening Day roster. But all four were sent down in one fell swoop.

Houck and Hart will not fill one of the open rotation spots, Chatham will not be a utility infielder, and Dalbec will not provide extra offensive thump while the team waits for Alex Verdugo. At least not right out of the gate. None of those four has a full season of Triple-A experience, and they’ll have to wait at least a little longer to make their big league debuts.

There are still notable prospects in camp, headlined by outfielder Jarren Duran, but he seems all but certain to open in Double-A. The Red Sox might be in the midst of a transition, but they’re not loading the major league roster with prospects just yet.

2. The rotation competition is down to a handful

Not only were Houck, Hart, Shawaryn and Valdez sent down on Sunday, the Red Sox also lost Hector Velazquez, who was claimed off waivers by the Orioles. Bryan Mata and Daniel McGrath were among the first wave of cuts last week.

Now, the only remaining pitchers to have started a game this spring – aside from Eduardo Rodriguez, Nathan Eovaldi and Martin Perez – are Ryan Weber, Brian Johnson, Chris Mazza and Jeffrey Springs. It’s worth noting that Springs has worked as an opener in Texas, but he’s otherwise been a reliever the past two years. Another 40-man pitcher, Matt Hall, has rotation experience, but he hasn’t been used that way this spring.

Increasingly, Weber seems like a favorite for a big league role, and it may be that Johnson, Mazza and Springs are competing for two spots.

3. Backup catcher might be the only bench spot left to decide

We can safely assume either Michael Chavis or Jose Peraza – whoever isn’t starting at second base – will take one bench spot, and either Johnathan Lucroy or Kevin Plawecki will fill the other as the backup catcher. That leaves two bench jobs, with exactly two 40-man players still vying for them.

All that suggests Tzu-Wei Lin and Rule 5 pick Jonathan Arauz are heavy favorites to make the team.

Here are the alternatives:

Infielders: Marco Hernandez, Chad De La Guerra, Jantzen Witte

Outfielders: Duran, Rusney Castillo, John Andreoli, Nick Longhi, Cesar Puello

Some of those players have big league experience and would be justifiable 26th men coming out of camp, but will any one of them intrigue the Red Sox enough to make the team ahead of two versatile players who have to make the big league roster to stay with the team? Maybe, but it’s not unusual to prioritize keeping as many options as possible.

For now, those last two bench spots seem to be Lin’s and Arauz’s for the taking (at least, until the Red Sox start picking through the leftovers cut from other teams at the end of spring training).

4. There’s really no further clarity in the bullpen

Hildenberger was an interesting non-roster player because he spent a lot of time on the Twins big league roster the past three seasons, but his reassignment to the minor leagues hardly qualifies as a big decision.

Aside from the young rotation/long-relief candidates, the Red Sox have yet to reassign anyone to bring significant clarity about their bullpen plans (unless you were particularly bullish on Bobby Poyner, who was previously sent down).

It’s still Brandon Workman, , Heath Hembree, Darwinzon Hernandez, and Marcus Walden as the most obvious favorites, with a group of about nine others competing for a job or two. Might take a while to whittle it down.

5. There might be only four meaningful cuts left

The Red Sox have 47 players physically in big league camp, but three of them are already heading for the injured list and 14 are non-roster players. That leaves only 30 healthy players from the 40-man, which means the Red Sox could cut four and effectively set their roster. The most notable non-roster players competing for jobs seem to be Lucroy and Johnson.

This is the Red Sox spring training roster as it stands today:

Catchers 40-man – Christian Vazquez, Kevin Plawecki

Non-roster – Jonathan Lucroy, Jett Bandy, Juan Centeno

Infielders 40-man – , , Mitch Moreland, Michael Chavis, Jose Peraza, Tzu-Wei Lin, Jonathan Arauz

Injured – Dustin Pedroia

Non-roster – Marco Hernandez, Chad De La Guerra, Jantzen Witte

Outfielders 40-man – J.D. Martinez, , Jackie Bradley Jr., Kevin Pillar

Injured – Alex Verdugo

Non-roster – Jarren Duran, Rusney Castillo, John Andreoli, Nick Longhi, Cesar Puello

Starting pitchers 40-man – Eduardo Rodriguez, Nathan Eovaldi, Martin Perez, Ryan Weber, Chris Mazza, Matt Hall

Injured – Chris Sale, Collin McHugh

Non-roster – Brian Johnson

Relief pitchers 40-man – Brandon Workman, Matt Barnes, Marcus Walden, Heath Hembree, Darwinzon Hernandez, Josh Taylor, Colten Brewer, Ryan Brasier, Jeffrey Springs, Josh Osich, Austin Brice

Non-roster – Domingo Tapia, Robinson Leyer