Red Sox Outright Naoyuki Uwasawa

TODAY: The Red Sox outrighted Uwasawa to Triple-A after he cleared waivers, according to Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe (X link).

JULY 9: The Red Sox have selected the contract of right-hander Trey Wingenter, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive on X. Wingenter was acquired from the Tigers on the weekend and had an assignment clause in his contract, meaning he needed to be added to the roster. To make room for him, the club has optioned left-hander Cam Booser and designated right-hander Naoyuki Uwasawa for assignment. They also optioned infielder/outfielder Enmanuel Valdéz and recalled infielder/outfielder Jamie Westbrook.

Uwasawa, 30, had spent his entire career with the Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball until signing a minor league deal with the Rays over the winter. He wasn’t going to make the Rays’ roster out of camp but had an upward mobility clause in his deal, meaning he would have to be traded if any other club was willing to give him a spot. The Red Sox were interested and sent cash to the Rays to get a deal done, though they have largely kept Uwasawa on optional assignment.

The righty has made two appearances at the big league level this year, with one earned run allowed in four innings. He’s mostly been serving in a swing role at the Triple-A level, with fairly uninspiring results there. He has a 6.54 ERA in 42 2/3 innings over 13 appearances, including six starts. He only struck out 18.5% of opponents while giving out walks at a 12.3% clip. The club tried moving him to a relief role, with his six most recent appearances coming out of the bullpen, but without a significant improvement. He had a 6.32 ERA in his first seven appearances this year and a 7.15 ERA in the last six.

The Sox will now have a week to trade Uwasawa or pass him through waivers. Since the waiver process takes 48 hours, any potential deal would have to come together in the next five days. His results this year have been poor but teams could perhaps be interested based on his NPB track record. He tossed over 1,000 innings in that league with a 3.19 ERA before making the move to North American ball, though that came despite a fairly tepid 19.7% strikeout rate. The lack of velocity/strikeout stuff was the biggest knock on him before crossing the Pacific and those concerns seem to have been borne out so far.