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Rusney Castillo is out of the lineup Tuesday night against the White Sox--a decision which has led to no small amount of heat for John Farrell.
| CHICAGO WHITE SOX | BOSTON RED SOX |
|---|---|
| Adam Eaton - CF | Mookie Betts - CF |
| Tyler Saladino - 3B | Alejandro De Aza - RF |
| Jose Abreu - 1B | Xander Bogaerts - SS |
| Melky Cabrera - LF | David Ortiz - DH |
| Avisail Garcia - RF | Hanley Ramirez - LF |
| Geovany Soto - C | Pablo Sandoval - 3B |
| Alexei Ramirez - SS | Mike Napoli - 1B |
| Emilio Bonifacio - DH | Blake Swihart - C |
| Gordon Beckham - 2B | Jemile Weeks - 2B |
| Jeff Samardzija - RHP | Wade Miley - LHP |
When Shane Victorino was traded, Ben Cherington paid some lip service to the idea that they were looking to get Castillo time in the majors. Given that just one day later Alejandro De Aza is in right field, some are taking this to be a bit of madness on the part of the Red Sox.
There has certainly been plenty of that from Boston this year. Players hanging onto playing time while bringing no production to the table with no real hope of establishing any sort of trade value. Mike Napoli has an OPS approaching 1.000 in the second half, for instance, and it would be a damn miracle if the Red Sox got any more for him than they did for Shane Victorino, which is to say a little bit of cash and no real talent.
This, however, is not one of those situations. The line between the two might be small, but it is there. At this point, after all, there are just three games left between now and the trade deadline. In that time, if the Red Sox can keep putting Alejandro De Aza--who is now hitting .259/.313/.433 on the year after 132 strong plate appearances with the Red Sox--in the line of sight of teams that might be looking for some outfield help, it's probably worthwhile. They won't come away with anything more than a lottery ticket for De Aza. Nobody is going to pretend he's some kind of star. But a lottery ticket is probably worth a game or two of playing time for Castillo.
First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. ET with broadcasts on NESN and WEEI.
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