Red Sox to have Enmanuel Valdez focus on his defense following his option to Triple-A Worcester
The Red Sox optioned Enmanuel Valdez to Triple-A Worcester on Tuesday, after recalling infielder Jamie Westbrook to Boston.
While Valdez is back in Worcester, he will focus on cleaning up his defense. He will work with WooSox bench coach Jose Flores, primarily at second base. The last time Valdez was in Worcester, he needed to work on getting his bat going, and he played all over the field.
“He’s going to work hard with Flo at second base. That’s the biggest thing,” WooSox manager Chad Tracy said. “The big thing when he came down the first time was we have to get the bat going right. The bat wasn’t what it was before, and then he went back up and actually swung the bat at a much better clip. And then he had got a little sloppy at times at second base, which is the thing that we talked to Alex [Cora] today about... [Valdez and Flores] work great together, and they have really good routines, and we’ll spend a lot of time honing in on that, even if he’s not playing there every day.”
Another reason that Valdez was optioned to the WooSox is also because the Red Sox will face three lefties during their final homestand before the All-Star break.
“It’s where we’re at this week. We face three lefties,” Red Sox skipper Cora said. “I think this is the first time this season that’s happened. We made that switch. Obviously, no promises when you send somebody down, but Valdy’s a part of this. He’ll go down there and get his at-bats, and we’ll see what the future holds.”
With Valdez in Worcester, Nick Yorke will play more outfield, and Chase Meidroth will spend some time on the left side of the infield. Yorke has played left field nine times in his 27 games in Worcester after playing the outfield for the first time in his professional career 12 times with the Sea Dogs.
Yorke’s versatility has not gone unnoticed by Tracy, who raved about his ability to track balls in the outfield.
“[He’s looked] pretty damn good. I wondered how it was going to look, because he only played 12 games there in Portland. But he’s made some nice catches. He ran a ball down on left center the other day on a dead run and jumped and caught it. He ran two balls down right in front of the bullpen wall here and tracked it really nicely. So overall, my take on it is he’s taking to it pretty darn well.”
