Why Boston Red Sox Decision to Option Hot-Hitting Utility Man Was the Correct One
Utility men Mickey Gasper and Anthony Seigler were the victims of a Red Sox roster crunch. But did the team make the right move?
Video Transcript
What's up everyone?
Zach Coe here for Roundtable.
The Red Sox inevitable roster crunch arrived on Sunday morning as the team activated Roman Anthony and Trevor Story off the injured list, optioning utility men Anthony Seigler and Mickey Gasper to Triple A to make room on the twenty-six man roster.
Now, for Seigler, the writing had been on the wall for a little bit now.
He'd seen his playing time slowly decrease as Nick Sogard emerged as the everyday second baseman, and it really came down to positional versatility because I think if you were just sheerly looking at the numbers at the plate, then Andrew Monasterio would've been the most obvious candidate to go down.
However, Trevor Story hasn't played since the middle of May.
He's not going to be able to play shortstop on a daily basis, and if you sent Monasterio down to Triple A, then there wouldn't have been an option to fill in at shortstop when Story does need a breather.
So that made Seigler really the only guy that could have gone down to make room for Story.
Now, as far as Gasper is concerned, I've seen a lot of people complaining on social media that Gasper got sent down, and there's no mistake about it.
Since he got recalled when Masataka Yoshida landed on the IL, Mickey Gasper has been an absolute revelation for this team.
He's hitting four twenty-three with a seventeen ten OPS.
Five of his six Major League home runs came in this eleven game stretch, but his role simply became redundant with Anthony's return.
Against right-handed pitching, Gasper was handling the DH duties where it's assumed that Anthony's going to take over in that role as he is doing on Sunday with Jarren Duran in left field.
However, against left-handed pitching, Anthony's likely gonna slide out to left field as Jamai Jones takes over the designated hitter duties, and there simply was no place for Gasper to get consistent enough playing time unless you were going to DFA one of Eli White or Jamai Jones.
And when you have a player like Gasper who's limited positionally and defensively and still has options remaining, it just makes so much more sense to send him back down to Triple A rather than l- risk losing a lefty masher in Jamai Jones or a defensive specialist/pinch runner in Eli White.
So that really was the only logical decision for the Red Sox to make regardless of how well Gasper was swinging the bat.
But September call-ups are right around the corner.
Gasper and Seigler will have to go down to Triple A for at least ten days barring an injury before returning to the big league roster.
But make no mistakes about it, both of those guys are definitely gonna have an impact again in twenty twenty-six.
