Koji Uehara, Christian Vazquez, Heath Hembree return to Red Sox

The Red Sox have activated Koji Uehara from the 15-day disabled list, and called up Christian Vazquez, Heath Hembree, and Noe Ramirez from Pawtucket, taking advantage of the recently expanded rosters.

While Uehara would once have been the big name of the bunch, it's hard to really say that's still the case. He has a 4.50 ERA on the season, and has looked largely incapable of pitching the way he once did--no great surprise seeing as he's now 41. It's possible that the time-off will do him some good, but expecting him to fill anything close to the role he once did would be unrealistic to say the least.

More likely to contribute is Heath Hembree, who would've been back earlier had he not just been sent down. It's a bit odd that he's been the guy so regulalry put on the Pawtucket Shuttle given his 2.40 ERA and 36:13 K:BB on the season. He's had some down stretches, but nothing so bad as we've seen from some of the other relievers that have largely kept their jobs. The burden of having options, I suppose.

At the very least, Hembree replaced Noe Ramirez on that shuttle, which was good news for the Red Sox because man, he's been nothing short of a disaster when he's taken the mound. Even with the Sox' bullpen a mess, they should probably not even be trying him in anything but the lowest-leverage of innings.

Christian Vazquez' return is, unfortunately, not all that triumphant. He hit to a .713 OPS in Pawtucket, which won't give the Sox much hope that he's come around at all with the bat. His presence should allow them to drop one of Bryan Holaday or Ryan Hanigan from the 40-man if they want to make room for another player, and he's probably better than either one as a backup option at this point, but it's still very much Sandy Leon's show behind the plate.