Red Sox News & Links: Sox In on Yamamoto?

Well, the Red Sox didn’t have much of an impact on last night’s All-Star Game, which was to be expected, given that the team sent just one lone reliever as its representative. But hey, when Kenley Jansen came on, he got the job done. (Peter Abraham, Boston Globe)

That’s not to say the festivities weren’t Red Sox-adjacent, to an extent. Nate Eovaldi pitched for the American League and both Mookie Betts and JD Martinez started for the Senior Circuit. Mookie is having another outstanding season and is now focused on one pretty big baseball goal: election to the Hall of Fame. (Lauren Campbell, MassLive)

And regardless, maybe we’ll look back at this All-Star game has a momentous occasion in Red Sox history — that is, if Kenley successfully recruited Shohei Ohtani, anyway! (Rob Bradford, WEEI)

Convincing the greatest player of all time to join the Sox would be a better use of time at than what Jonathan Papelbon used to do at the Home Run Derby: get drunk on the sidelines. (Ryan Gilbert, WEEI)

Even if the Red Sox are unlikely to land Ohtani, they could be in on the next superstar pitcher from Japan. Japanese media reported that Red Sox scouts were in attendance at the most recent start of all-world pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. (Darren Hartwell, NBC Sports)

The 2023 Draft is complete, and Red Sox Scouting Director Devin Pearson spoke to the media about this year’s draft class and what the Sox were aiming for. In a nutshell: athletes with good makeup on the offensive side, and projectable fastballs for the pitchers. (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)