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A silver lining to this awful, no good season continues to be the debut of top prospects in the system. They may not be worthy of consideration on league-wide top 100 lists, but they’re prospects whose names we’ve had bouncing around our heads for a few years. Tanner Houck becomes the second top 10 prospect in the system to debut this year behind Bobby Dalbec and the sixth player to make his major-league debut with the Red Sox this season.
Before you get your hopes up, Houck is not a notably special pitcher and probably not long for the rotation. While he projects as a reliever, there’s no harm in having him take starts to close out this year when there’s nothing to play for and you’re only taking away starts from Chris Mazza. He throws a two-seamer, slider, and a splitter, the latter of which he started throwing this season. The organization had him ditch the two-seamer in favor of a four-seamer shortly after the draft, as is the new trend in player development, but it was a straight as an arrow and he got battered around the yard. We haven’t seen the split in real games yet so who knows if he has something that can put away lefties because his two-seam/slider combo won’t do it. I want this to work out not only because he’s on my favorite team (duh) but I miss sinker ballers. They’ve gone by the wayside in favor of four seam up/curveball down and while that’s cool and all I like some diversity in my pitchers.
As for the lineup, Verdugo returns to the leadoff spot while Muñoz slides down to the 9-hole. The infield returns back to the normal form with Xander Bogaerts at shortstop. A defensive infield of Devers/Bogaerts/Dalbec/Arroyo will be busy tonight behind the sinkerballer.
Update (6:40 PM ET)
To make room for Tanner Houck on the 40-man roster, Kyle Hart was transferred to the 45-day IL. To make room on the active roster, Andrew Triggs was placed on the 10-day IL with right radial nerve irritation.
#RedSox announce roster moves: pic.twitter.com/brtvjfJj9J
— Guerin Austin (@guerinaustin) September 15, 2020
In a separate move, the team also released Jonathan Lucroy.
Red Sox have released Jonathan Lucroy.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) September 15, 2020
Game 48
| Lineup spot | Red Sox | Marlins |
|---|---|---|
| Lineup spot | Red Sox | Marlins |
| 1 | Alex Verdugo, RF (L) | Corey Dickerson, LF (L) |
| 2 | Rafael Devers, 3B (L) | Starling Marte, CF (R) |
| 3 | Xander Bogaerts, SS (R) | Jesús Aguilar, 1B (R) |
| 4 | J.D. Martinez, DH (R) | Matt Joyce, RF (L) |
| 5 | Christian Vázquez, C (R) | Brian Anderson, 3B (R) |
| 6 | Jackie Bradley Jr., CF (L) | Garrett Cooper, DH (R) |
| 7 | Bobby Dalbec, 1B (R) | Miguel Rojas, SS (R) |
| 8 | Christian Arroyo, 2B (R) | Jazz Chisholm, 2B (L) |
| 9 | Yairo Muñoz, LF (R) | Jorge Alfaro, C (R) |
| SP | Tanner Houck, RHP | Sandy Alcantara, RHP |