Red Sox Selecting Nate Eaton, Recalling Luis Guerrero

[Matthew Lenz]

Following a 5-0 shutout on Saturday night, the Boston Red Sox are expected to make two roster moves on Sunday ahead of the rubber match against the Atlanta Braves.

Chris Henrique of the Boston Sports Journal was the first to report the Eaton move, and Chris Cotillo of MassLive was the first on the recall of Luis Guerrero.

While Eaton isn't the position player Red Sox fans were hoping to seen selected, the 28-year-old utility man can play all three outfield positions, as well as the hot corner, and has a 116 wRC+ in 225 plate appearances at Triple-A Worchester. He's had two stints in the big-leagues with the Kansas City Royals with a career slash line of .201/.266./.283 with one home run and 14 stolen bases. The Red Sox signed him to a minor league deal this offseason.

Guerrero, who has pitched 5 1/3 innings this season for the Red Sox, is being recalled after a short stint in Triple-A Worcester. In fact, adding him to the roster today would require the Red Sox to make a corresponding injured list move as it's within the 10 days of being demoted. Guerrero struggled a bit in 20 1/3 Triple-A innings, but otherwise has looked deserving of bigger role with the Red Sox. Albeit a small sample, Guerrero has a 0.59 ERA, 2.42 FIP, and a 14.0% K-BB rate in 15 1/3 career big-league innings.

UPDATE: RHP Justin Slaten has been placed on the IL.

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[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Breslow and the front office are now officially full of crap.

Calling up Eaton instead of Anthony borders on criminal.

Brez gave the safe by-the-book GM/CBO/Manager excuse for choosing Eaton, a right-handed hitter, over Anthony, a lefty swinger. Boston's next opponent, the Angels, will be starting two southpaws... and then the Sox face the Yankees, who have tough lefties Fried and Rodon.

Just in case, let's check this season's stats:

Eaton is a .300 hitter with an .854 OPS in 50 at bats vs. lefties. Pretty good...

... but Anthony vs. lefties: .393 BA, 1.025 OPS in 56 ABs.

How does the analytics dept. sleep at night? (scratch that; they prob don't)

[Bellhorn04]

Eaton isn't going to be a starter, and they're not going to promote Anthony unless it's to be a starter.

I want to see Anthony up soon too, and I think we will.

Maybe they don't want to put him in the position of being "the savior" when the team is going bad like this.

I know they have their reasons, I'm not 100% sure what they are.  

[Old Red]

15 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Eaton isn't going to be a starter, and they're not going to promote Anthony unless it's to be a starter.

I want to see Anthony up soon too, and I think we will.

Maybe they don't want to put him in the position of being "the savior" when the team is going bad like this.

I know they have their reasons, I'm not 100% sure what they are.  

Brez the Prez explained all this. Said he didn’t want to bring Anthony up, and put the pressure on him in a losing situation. I guess it didn’t matter with Mayer, and KC.

[Bellhorn04]

1 minute ago, Old Red said:

Brez the Prez explained all this. Said he didn’t want to bring Anthony up, and put the pressure on him in a losing situation. I guess it didn’t matter with Mayer, and KC.

It's a little different with Anthony because it means Duran, Rafaela or Abreu are replaced or their roles are reduced.  There was room for KC on Opening Day and the Bregman injury made room for Mayer.

I've heaped plenty of abuse on our front office  but I think they have their reasons here.  And I think we'll be seeing Anthony very soon.

Hopefully the fans have some patience with him.  They're already losing some patience with Campbell and Mayer is next. 

[notin]

8 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Brez the Prez explained all this. Said he didn’t want to bring Anthony up, and put the pressure on him in a losing situation. I guess it didn’t matter with Mayer, and KC.

Campbell was brought up to start the season, not to help a struggling team.  0-0 isn’t a losing record.

Mayer was brought up to clean up a childish mess made by Devers that Breslow either couldn’t think of another way out or played the biggest PR card he had…

[Larry Cook]

And yet story remains the starter???

[Old Red]

22 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

It's a little different with Anthony because it means Duran, Rafaela or Abreu are replaced or their roles are reduced.  There was room for KC on Opening Day and the Bregman injury made room for Mayer.

I've heaped plenty of abuse on our front office  but I think they have their reasons here.  And I think we'll be seeing Anthony very soon.

Hopefully the fans have some patience with him.  They're already losing some patience with Campbell and Mayer is next. 

I agree with this, and I still think the brain trust of the Red Sox Cora, and Brez may be in disagreement on how to work Anthony in the lineup FT. 

[oldtimer]

1 hour ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Breslow and the front office are now officially full of crap.

Calling up Eaton instead of Anthony borders on criminal.

Brez gave the safe by-the-book GM/CBO/Manager excuse for choosing Eaton, a right-handed hitter, over Anthony, a lefty swinger. Boston's next opponent, the Angels, will be starting two southpaws... and then the Sox face the Yankees, who have tough lefties Fried and Rodon.

Just in case, let's check this season's stats:

Eaton is a .300 hitter with an .854 OPS in 50 at bats vs. lefties. Pretty good...

... but Anthony vs. lefties: .393 BA, 1.025 OPS in 56 ABs.

How does the analytics dept. sleep at night? (scratch that; they prob don't)

Breslow gives the excuse of the day for not bringing up Anthony. If they sound contrived, they probably are just BS. The  real reason for not bringing up Anthony is less palatable so we get lies instead. The real reason is probably to do with money  and years of control, but Breslow doesn't want to admit it. Meanwhile, we keep the #1 prospect in all of baseball, who is there mainly due to his hitting, stay in the minors when the team continues to struggle to win games. Anthony may not be the solution to the Red Sox issues by himself, but that move is certainly worth a try now.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

4 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Eaton isn't going to be a starter, and they're not going to promote Anthony unless it's to be a starter.

We know both statements are true, which makes Breslow's excuse for calling up Eaton --  left-handed starting pitchers on the Angels and Yankees -- all the more lame.

No one expects Anthony to save the season, but what the Sox have isn't working. A power-hitting prospect with a career .400 On Base Percentage batting in front of Devers every day might help.

Anthony probably won't be as good in the majors, but it's worth noting Jarren Duran had a .366 OB% in 5 years in the minors, and .325 OB% in 5 years in MLB. This season leading off innings, Duran has a .273 OB%... 

 

 

[notin]

11 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

We know both statements are true, which makes Breslow's excuse for calling up Eaton --  left-handed starting pitchers on the Angels and Yankees -- all the more lame.

No one expects Anthony to save the season, but what the Sox have isn't working. A power-hitting prospect with a career .400 On Base Percentage batting in front of Devers every day might help.

Anthony probably won't be as good in the majors, but it's worth noting Jarren Duran had a .366 OB% in 5 years in the minors, and .325 OB% in 5 years in MLB. This season leading off innings, Duran has a .273 OB%... 

 

 

I don’t think Eaton will get many starts.  He does bat RH, as you pointed out, but he also plays everywhere except C and SS.

Hes even pitched in MLB.  Sure it was blowout mop up Dominic Smith stuff.  But Eaton does throw about 99 mph, so maybe he gets a bullpen look.  He COULD be worse than Liam Hendricks, but he probably wouldn’t be…