The Red Sox designated lefty Matt Hall and righty Ryan Weber for assignment Friday afternoon, per a club announcement. Additionally, southpaw Kyle Hart cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Pawtucket.
Those three moves helped clear space for the team to select seven players to the MLB roster: catcher/infielder Connor Wong, right-hander Eduard Bazardo, third baseman Hudson Potts, righty Bryan Mata, righty Connor Seabold, outfielder Jeisson Rosario and lefty Jay Groome. All seven are now shielded from being selected in next month’s Rule 5 Draft.
It’s something of an indictment on Boston’s 2020 pitching staff that Weber, who ranked third on the team in innings pitched, was immediately cut loose. Both Hart and Hall started games for the Sox in 2020 as well. The team’s leader in innings pitched, Martin Perez, had his option bought out at season’s end.
Ownership might not have wanted to publicly acknowledge that the team punted the 2020 season, but the nature of the moves involving the team’s 2020 pitching staff speak for themselves. This club was always a long shot to contend in a deep AL East, although certainly the injury to Chris Sale and Eduardo Rodriguez’s unsettling bout with myocarditis after a Covid-19 battle didn’t help their cause. A lack of depth was always plain to see, however, and this club long looked ill-prepared to deal with inevitable injury troubles that virtually all teams encounter.
Mata, 21, has climbed as high as Double-A and has long been considered one of the organization’s better young arms. Groome probably needs some development time after injuries have slowed the former first-rounder’s career.
Several of today’s names have been added to the system via high-profile trades across the past 12 months. The 24-year-old Wong has also played in Double-A, and as one of the pieces received in the Mookie Betts/David Price blockbuster, is someone the team has high hopes for in the future. Potts is a 2016 first-rounder of the Padres who came over in the Mitch Moreland swap and has also reached the Double-A level. Rosario also landed in Boston via that swap, though he’s further from the Majors having not yet played beyond Class-A Advanced. Seabold could get a look in the rotation as soon as 2021 after coming over from the Phillies in the Brandon Workman/Heath Hembree trade.
