Red Sox add four more to player pool, sign Shane Drohan

Red Sox add four to the player pool

Earlier this week the Red Sox had made a few prospect additions to their player pool, adding Tanner Houck, Jarren Duran, Jeter Downs, Bryan Mata and Jay Groome to the group of players that will be working out in Pawtucket. That brought their total number of players up to 55. Today, they have added four more to get all the way up to 59. As pointed out by Sox Prospects on Twitter, the Red Sox transaction page indicates they’ve added Josh Ockimey, Bobby Poyner, RJ Alvarez and Jhonny Pereda to the player pool.

Ockimey and Poyner are fairly familiar names in the organization, with the latter having played in the majors before. Poyner actually looked quite good in 2018 and pitched to a 3.22 ERA over 22 ¹⁄₃ innings, but last season he regressed heavily with a 6.94 ERA over 11 ²⁄₃ innings. His performance in Pawtucket was rocky as well. Ockimey, meanwhile, is a solid Triple-A bat who could get his first chance in the majors this year. He is a power-hitting lefty who struggles without the platoon advantage but can be a guy who comes off the bench to hit righties.

Alvarez, meanwhile, has some major-league experience with a couple of stints back in 2014 and 2015 with the Padres and Athletics, respectively. Over 28 career innings in the bigs he has pitched to a 7.39 ERA. The righty has spent the last few years bouncing around Triple-A in a few different organizations, with 2019 spent with the Marlins. There, he pitched to a 4.70 ERA over 53 ²⁄₃ innings.

Pereda is a catcher who the Red Sox acquired back in March just days before transactions were frozen, as he came over from the Cubs as the player to be named later in the deal that send Travis Lakins to Chicago. Pereda has been a strong defensive catcher in the past having won a minor-league Gold Glove last season. Offensively the results haven’t really been there consistently, though. Last season at Double-A he hit .241/.336/.305 in 398 plate appearances.

All four of these additions are of the depth variety, with none likely to play a major role on the roster unless there is a rash of injuries and/or positive COVID tests. With their presence on the roster, the Red Sox now have only one open spot on the player pool, and it still seems fairly likely that that will be filled by right-handed pitcher Zack Godley, currently a free agent.

Shane Drohan signs

The Red Sox made another move on Friday, signing their fifth round selection Shane Drohan, which officially wraps up their draft class. As expected, Boston inked all four players they drafted to a deal. According to Jim Callis, Drohan’s signing bonus is worth $600,000.

As noted by Callis, this is an overslot deal for the left-handed pitcher out of Florida State, which was to be expected after the team had previously signed fourth rounder Jeremy Wu-Yelland to an underslot deal. With this deal coming in $235,600 over slot, the Red Sox total bonuses come in at $5,250,000. That is over their allotted draft pool, but below the five percent overage number that comes with hefty penalties. Drohan is an intriguing arm who you can read more about here.