Red Sox Links: Who Will The Sox Take In the MLB Draft?

The MLB draft is finally here! It’s Christmas for all you prospect sickos out there. Mock drafts are something of an exercise in futility, but Keith Law has his final one here. Who does he have the Red Sox taking? The awesomely named infielder Colt Emerson from the awesomely named John Glenn High School in Ohio. (Keith Law, The Athletic)

Unfortunately, the draft isn’t going to help the Sox find someone to start this weekend against the A’s. We’re looking at James Paxton sandwiched with two bullpen games. After last night’s game, the team announced that Brennan Bernardino would get the ball for the first of the bullpen games tonight. (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)

As Bob Osgood pointed out on the most recent episode of the Red Seat Podcast, the Sox actually have a number of off-days between now and the trade deadline, which is something of a lucky break given the state of the rotation right now. And there’s hope that if they can somehow keep things together, help will arrive shortly, because Tanner Houck has officially been cleared to throw. (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)

And anyway, perhaps they can survive some of these bullpen games if Josh Wincowski pitches like he did last night, when he saved the game (without getting the actual save) for the Sox. (Varun Shankar, Boston Globe)

Kiké Hernandez hasn’t been injured, but Alex Cora gave him some time off in an attempt to spur a bounce-back. Kiké actually doesn’t sound too pleased about it, but Cora’s confident it’ll help him turn his season around. (Keagan Stiefel, NESN)