Minor Lines: A Good Day, or a Gudiño Day?

There are three different levels of relief in the world and all of them have to do with being told by Dan Secatore that you’re on Monday Minor Lines on a Sunday night when Wrestlemania is on. The first is realizing that the only minor league team currently playing is the Triple-A affiliate Worcester, which features a starting lineup with many players you just saw a week ago in Spring Training. The second is Dan mercifully telling you that the formula for this season’s Minor Lines is easier than last season, and the third is realizing that the WooSox, the only minor league team currently playing, won in a 8-1 handling of the Syracuse Mets.

Worcester Red Sox 8, Syracuse Mets 1

Norwith Gudiño was born the day before Thanksgiving in 1995. On this day, in his first 2023 outing, the WooSox were thankful Gudiño (and Joe Jacques and Chase Shugart) pitched well enough to let this game remain a low-leverage situation for long enough to score four insurance runs in the seventh inning. Gudiño allowed two hits and shut the Mets out across five innings, although he did walk three. The only Syracuse Met to record multiple hits against this pitching staff was old familiar face Jonathan Araúz.

Fun fact, since I’m doubtful I’ll ever have the chance to say this anecdote again: one time at Polar Park, they were showing off a pickup truck for a promotional display between innings and the truck was rounding the home dugout at an alarming rate. I almost saw Araúz endure quite possibly one of the most tragic things to ever to a baseball player on the field. It was almost the biggest headline in his Red Sox career. Instead, he’ll settle for being the only player to record multiple hits for the Syracuse Mets in a 8-1 loss to his old team. Promising outfield prospect Khalil Lee managed almost a 1.5 OPS in this series, but managed just an early triple against Gudino in this contest.

As far as the WooSox bats go, they were pretty active. One thing that I nitpick about Chaim’s depth signings is that Boston’s organization has 60 guys who can be on other teams’ 40-man rosters... but almost no studs to speak of. Now, an advantage of that is, as someone who lives closer to Worcester, it’s fun to have a deep roster to watch for ten to fifteen dollars before injuries on the main roster eventually make Worcester’s roster barren like last year. In the meantime, though, Greg Allen opened the game up with a two-out, two-RBI double in the seventh inning; earlier in the game, Bobby Dalbec showed his quad-A repertoire with a speedy triple and showed his willingness for versatility, making the start at third base.

While the WooSox were beneficiaries of three Met errors, it wasn’t all roses, as they left a dozen men on, but some guys with major league experience like Daniel Palka, Narcisso Crook, Dalbec and Allen all took advantage of Jose Butto and company. It almost makes you think, hey, this could be a low-tier Major League team with the amount of depth pieces here... but let’s not think like that, for the sake of our own sanity... such will be the theme of the WooSox season. In the mean time, at least when these players make non-roster mistakes, that they have little consequences, and at the very least, we know with some surety some of these guys will be up at some point.... but let’s not wish on a star for that, please!