Red Sox catchers provide offensive punch against Twins
The Red Sox have used the long hall to their advantage the last two games, hitting five home runs. Three of those homers were grand slams hit by Christian Arroyo and Wilyer Abreu on Thursday and Reese McGuire on Friday.
McGuire broke the game open against the Twins in the top of the third crushing a grand slam off reliever Emilio Pagan.
The 395-foot blast changed the landscape of the game giving the Red Sox a 7-2 lead.
McGuire is expected to the club’s starting catcher once camp breaks in a couple of weeks. Connor Wong was going to be his battery mate, but he’s dealing with a hamstring injury.
Boston is unsure the timetable right now for Wong. Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters on Thursday that, “It doesn’t look great right now but hopefully we get better news tomorrow morning.”
Caleb Hamilton would like to try and take advantage of additional playing time with Wong on the mend.
The former Twins catcher crushed a solo-home run to deep left center in the top of the eighth. Hamilton’s 402-foot home run was his first of the spring.
The 28-year-old is hitting .600 in four games with a double and today’s blast. It seems unlikely that Hamilton will win a spot on the 26-man roster with Jorge Alfaro in camp. At the very least, Hamilton will provide depth at Triple-A Worcester this year.
Boston only has two catchers on the 40-man roster in McGuire and Wong. Alfaro, Hamilton and Ronaldo Hernandez are all options for Chaim Bloom and Alex Cora to choose from.
Alfaro has the edge over all of these other options due to his major league experience and his “upward mobility” clause in his contract. Essentially, he can leave the Red Sox if another team offers him a 26-man roster spot and Boston elects to not add him themselves.
Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisHenrique
For additional Red Sox, Bruins, Patriots, MLB and NFL content follow Beyond the Monster on Twitter @BeyondtheMnstr.
Join our new Facebook group for all of our latest content, click the link here.
