Red Sox officially add Christian Arroyo, option Marcus Walden

As the Red Sox were getting ready to try and avoid a 10-game losing streak on Wednesday afternoon, the front office made a few roster moves just before game time. As has been expected for a little while now, Christian Arroyo was officially added to the active roster. Marcus Walden was optioned down to Pawtucket to make room on the 28-man roster while Mike Shawaryn was designated for assignment in order to make room on the 40-man roster.

Arroyo was claimed off waivers from the Indians by the Red Sox last week, and they have been waiting for his intake testing to complete before adding him to the active roster. The infielder is out of minor-league options, so he had to be added to the active roster or placed back on waivers. A former top prospect with the Giants, Arroyo is familiar to Chaim Bloom as he was acquired by the Rays in the trade that sent Evan Longoria to San Francisco. He is a bit of a tweener who’s bat plays better in the middle infield but glove plays better on a corner. He’s a bit redundant on this roster with so many infielders — even with Tzu-Wei Lin and José Peraza able to play in the outfield as well — so I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if this is a short-term assignment and they try to sneak Arroyo back through waivers again in a week or so.

Walden, meanwhile, has had a brutal start to the season. He came into the year expected to be one of the main parts of this bullpen, but instead he has been one of their worst arms, which is saying something. The righty has a 13.00 ERA in nine innings this year. I wrote about his struggles earlier today, and now he’ll have to work on these issues at the alternate site in Pawtucket.

Finally, Shawaryn was designated for assignment before getting a chance to carve out a role on this big-league club. A former fifth round pick, the righty made his way fairly quickly through the lower levels of the minors but his flaws started to show up more against more advanced competition. He did make his major-league debut last season, pitching to a 9.74 ERA over 20 ¹⁄₃ innings. In Pawtucket last season, he pitched to a 4.52 ERA over 89 ²⁄₃ innings. I’d expect him to clear waivers, but there could be a team that is intrigued enough by his fastball/slider combo to try him in a straight relief role.

All of these moves leave the Red Sox with a full 40-man roster but with an open spot on the player pool down in Pawtucket. Chris Cotillo of Masslive had previously reported that Triston Casas would soon be added to the pool, so expect that move to become official soon.