Red Sox announce three non-roster spring training invitees

Reports are indicating that Rob Manfred is set to announce later this week that spring training will be delayed due to the ongoing owner-imposed lockout, which certainly did not come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. However, that is only for major-league camp. Minor-league camp is still going on, and in fact some non-40-man players for the Red Sox are already down in Fort Myers. And now, the Red Sox have invited three more to major-league camp whenever that comes, with two being new additions to the organization. The team announced on Wednesday that Roldani Baldwin, Roberto Ramos, and Yolmer Sánchez have been invited to spring training.

Sánchez is the newest addition of the trio, as it was not known he had inked a minor-league deal until this announcement was made. After a long career with the White Sox, whose organization he called home from the start of his pro career in 2009 through 2020, Sánchez signed a minor-league deal with the Braves last season but never made it to the majors. In 355 plate appearances at Triple-A, he hit .216/.309/.352. Prior to that he had spent a few years as an everyday player in Chicago’s infield and over 658 career major-league games he’s hit .245/.300/.360 for a 79 wRC+, putting him 21 percent worse than the league-average hitter according to that particular metric.

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Sánchez, who will be in his age-30 season in 2022, has been an excellent defensive infielder over his career, though, with most of that time coming at second base. Given the team’s questions there, he has a real road to the active roster (assuming a season happens) depending on what happens transaction-wise after the lockout.

Along with him, Roberto Ramos is another new addition. We haven’t covered this signing in depth here at OTM, but the move was reported on Monday by Chris Cotillo of Masslive. The 27-year-old had formerly been a Rockies prospect, but he never quite made it over the hump into the majors. Eventually he made his way overseas, spending the last two seasons in the KBO, where in 2020 he was one of the best players in that league. That season he hit .278/.362/.592 with 38 homers in 494 plate appearances. A left-handed hitting first baseman, if he can impress in camp there’s a road to him being a left-handed complement to Bobby Dalbec, though I wouldn’t consider that a foregone conclusion.

Finally, Baldwin has been in the organization his entire career and was re-signed to a minor-league deal earlier this month. The soon-to-be-26-year-old is quietly an interesting young catcher. The defense still has some questions and he’s the kind of player who could be helped by robo umps. He’s also played some third base as well. Offensively, he’s been a solid bat over his career, hitting .242/.321/.389 last season at Double-A. He’s probably more of an up-and-down player ultimately, though, but you can never have too many catchers in camp.