Kelly Shoppach Clears Waivers

According to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe, Red Sox backup catcher Kelly Shoppach has cleared waivers. Shoppach was placed on waivers, along with shortstop Mike Aviles, just a few days ago.

Now that Shoppach has cleared waivers, he can be dealt to any of the 29 other teams. Moving Shoppach would allow the Red Sox to give more playing time behind the plate to rookie Ryan Lavarnway, who right now, in David Ortiz's absence and in the presence of both Shoppach and Jarrod Saltalamacchia, has been forced to share plate appearances between catcher and the DH spot with multiple other players.

Shoppach has hit .250/.327/.471 with five homers and 19 extra-base hits overall in 158 plate appearances. He's on a one-year deal, and in the last month-plus of it, so it's likely that many teams could find a way to add him to their budget easily at this late date. We'll see, though, as the Red Sox didn't move him before the July 31 deadline.

Presumably, no mention of Aviles clearing waivers implies that he did not, meaning that he's going to stick in Boston through 2012.