Deven Marrero optioned to Pawtucket, Hector Velazquez re-called

The Red Sox have a lot of tired relievers in their bullpen at the moment, so they’ve dipped into their Triple-A depth for some help on the pitching side of things. On Wednesday, the team demoted Deven Marrero to Triple-A to make room for Hector Velazquez.

At first glance, this is sort of a strange move. Marrero certainly hasn’t lit the world on fire in his time in the majors this season and he’s been particularly discouraging at the plate. However, the infielder provided strong defense in an infield that could really use some help with the glove.

However, since they could use a fresh arm in the bullpen, Marrero was really the only option among position players to send down to Pawtucket. This does, however, mean he will not be able to rejoin the team over the next ten days unless there is an injury. So, assuming this is a short-term move and the roster will be back to its regular 13 position player/12 pitcher split after the two games in Philadelphia, someone like Steve Selsky will be coming up instead of Marrero. Keep in mind that Sam Travis is also ineligible to be re-called until next Monday.

On the other side of the coin, this seems like an odd decision. Velazquez certainly has his merits and his horrible major-league start last month isn’t wholly indicative of his talent level. However, as a command/control guy he doesn’t strike me as someone whose stuff will play up in the bullpen. I’m surprised someone like Kyle Martin didn’t get a chance to prove himself in the majors. Perhaps it’s because they know it’s a short-term plan and they want someone who can pitch in mop-up duty over the next couple of days. Either way, I’m not expecting Velazquez to be up for all that long.