Marco Hernández clears waivers, is outrighted to Pawtucket

As Major League Baseball falls further down the well of absurdity — check out twitter dot com if you don’t know what I’m talking about — the Red Sox have made a minor roster move. After designating Marco Hernández for assignment when they acquired Austin Brice, he will remain with the roster. Hernández cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Pawtucket.

This is now a few times this winter in which the Red Sox have successfully gotten players through waivers — Sam Travis and Brian Johnson also come to mind — in order to keep them as depth while clearing 40-man roster space. This was a bit of a unique case because, as you may remember, Hernández was actually a free agent briefly this winter after being non-tendered. So, they may have gotten a sense of his market and interest in him around the league at that point.

Either way, there’s not a whole lot to say here. Hernández is still going to be part of the group fighting for playing time at second base, but he is clearly behind the rest of the competition that includes José Peraza, Jonathan Arauz, Tzu-Wei Lin and C.J. Chatham, not to mention Michael Chavis if they acquire another first baseman and/or Bobby Dalbec has a big spring. With all of that, Hernández is probably a long shot at this point to make the team out of camp, but with good play in Pawtucket and the guys ahead of him struggling, he could get another chance in 2020. At the very least, good play in Pawtucket could make him attractive as a second or third piece in a trade later in the year or next winter. Either way, whatever Hernández’s long-term future is, his short-term future is reporting to Fort Myers for spring training next month.