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Red Sox vs. Twins: Humberto Quintero starts behind the plate

The Red Sox have an unexpected positional battle on their hands, as Humberto Quintero and Sandy Leon try to make the roster as Ryan Hanigan's backup.

By Ben Buchanan
Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

It's Humberto Quintero's turn to start at catcher with the regular lineup Monday evening as the Red Sox play a rare spring training night game against the Twins.

Boston Red Sox (13-10)

  1. Mookie Betts, CF
  2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
  3. David Ortiz, DH
  4. Hanley Ramirez, LF
  5. Pablo Sandoval, 3B
  6. Mike Napoli, 1B
  7. Shane Victorino, RF
  8. Xander Bogaerts, SS
  9. Humberto Quintero, C

Starting Pitcher -- Justin Masterson

We've seen little enough of Quintero so far this spring. The backup backstop has seen all of 16 at bats with the big league squad over 11 games. This isn't terribly surprising, as the Red Sox were happy to give most of their excess playing time behind the plate to Blake Swihart when they thought they could rely on the duo of Christian Vazquez and Ryan Hanigan.

Now with just one week left before Opening Day, a positional battle has broken out between Quintero and the newly-acquired Sandy Leon to act as backup to Hanigan, who has never started as many as 100 games in a season before. There's not many opportunities left to get them time both at the plate and with the starting rotation, so every game counts.

First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. ET with broadcasts on NESN, WEEI, and the MLB Network.

Editor's Note: SB Nation is hosting a $6,000 one-day Fantasy Baseball league for MLB Opening Day on FanDuel. It's $5 to join and first place wins $1,000 and four tickets to a game. Enter now!

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