Daily Red Sox Links: Examining Deven Marrero’s Red Sox Career

In a trade that was more about giving a player an opportunity to get more playing time than actually improving the roster, the Boston Red Sox traded infielder Deven Marrero to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday. The Sox did not get a ton in return, with a player to be named later or cash the price the D-Backs had to pay. In essence, the Sox were just doing Marrero a solid. The former Arizona State Sun Devil will no longer have to hope to squeak onto the Red Sox’s 25-man roster and can still help a team that should contend.

But before we put this trade in the rearview, let’s take a look at what Marrero brought to the table for the Red Sox.

Drafted as the 24th overall pick in the 2012 MLB Draft, Marrero was a top 20 prospect for the Red Sox pretty much from the moment he entered the system. He reached as high as the No. 8 prospect (per SoxProspects) in the organization and in April of 2016 was considered the No. 9 prospect for the Sox. That last ranking came after he made his MLB debut during the 2015 season.

He played a smattering of games during the summer of that campaign but got the bulk of his work done in September and October. In that time he slashed .226/.268/.283 with an OPS+ of just 48. However, he made solid contributions with his glove, playing third base, second base and shortstop.

In 2016 he only played in 13 games at the MLB level, serving mostly as a mid-game replacement. That’s part of the reason he only hit .083. But Marrero kept doing enough in the minors to earn extended playing time in 2017. Speaking of the minors, Marrero produced a .245/.312/.332 triple slash across six seasons, making stops from Lowell to Pawtucket. He also showed some speed (90 steals) and again, consistently solid work with the glove.

Back to 2017. Marrero was still not an everyday starter, but he did appear in a career-high 75 games. That led to personal bests in a number of counting statistics, including home runs (four), RBI (27), runs (32), hits (36) all while slashing .211/.259/.333. That only gave him an OPS+ of 54, so he is still in need of drastic improvement at the plate before he will be considered an above average major leaguer. I know I’ll be watching to see if he can do so with the Diamondbacks.

David Price is feeling good and it has shown on the field during spring training. (Ian Browne; MLB.com)

Nobody was happier than Chris Sale for Christian Vazquez’s contract extension. Well, other than Vazquez himself. (Dakota Randall; NESN)

Price and Sale are doing fine and so is Craig Kimbrel. (Nick Cafardo; Boston Globe)

While the top arms are ready to go, the Sox still need to make a decision about the fifth starter. (Sean McAdam; Boston Sports Journal)

Jason Groome was able to reach 96 on the radar gun over the weekend. (Christopher Smith; MassLive)

Even though Sam Travis was sent down to Pawtucket, he is not currently on the trade block. (Christopher Smith; MassLive)