Red Sox prospect Karson Simas opened eyes within the organization during his short stint with the WooSox
The Red Sox are loaded with top infield prospects in the likes of Marcelo Mayer, Nick Yorke, Chase Meidroth, and Yoeilin Cespedes. While fans are dialed into the career paths of these players, there’s an under-the-radar prospect who got a cup of coffee with the WooSox last month.
Karson Simas was added to the Worcester roster while they were on the road in Toledo on April 24. The Fresno, Calif., native was much-needed bench depth for the WooSox, who have been shuttling players to the Red Sox all season long.
While with Worcester, Simas opened some eyes over the four games he played with his bat hitting .429 (6-for-14) with nine total bases, five runs, one homer, five RBI, one stolen base, and an 1.114 OPS.
“It's just above and beyond, you know, just been a dream of mine to play baseball at a professional level and never quite got above a Double-A. So when I got this opportunity, I just put my feet down and ran with it,” Simas said to Beyond the Monster.
Simas was returned to Greenville Drive in order to facilitate the addition of Bobby Dalbec to Worcester. Now that he is back in High-A, is it possible for a player who isn’t highly touted to open eyes after making an impact at Triple-A even though he’s not likely in their long-term plans.
“I think he's made a huge impression on everybody with the quality of his at-bat and the way he's played defense and left field,” said WooSox skipper Chad Tracy. “He’s played third the last couple days. The only thing he's gotten is a chance, but he's played mostly third in Greenville before he came here. But the quality of his at-bat has been very impressive. I think no doubt he's made an impression on everybody. Like, look what this kid's doing at this level. And he wasn't even hardly getting a ton of chances to play in Greenville.
“I definitely think that the way he's performed, you know, has been an eye-opener for people because it's not just the hits. You're kind of looking like, man, that bat path looks pretty good. And damn, that ball got smoked. There's some exit velocity there. He's got the ability to drive it. I think yeah, for sure, I think he's definitely done himself good here with the performance here.”
Even though it was a small sample size, Simas is not considered a top prospect. Before his promotion, he was only hitting .115 with a .192 slugging percentage and is only a career .218 hitter since joining the Red Sox organization in 2019. If the WooSox’ bench gets short again at any point in the year, Simas should be on the short-list to return to Polar Park.
