Will Middlebrooks Shockingly Among First Cuts by Red Sox

The Red Sox announced their first round of cuts today and surprisingly third baseman Will Middlebrooks was among them.  Both Middlebrooks and Che-Hsuan Lin were outrighted to AAA Pawtucket to start the year, while pitcher Drake Britton and second baseman Oscar Tejeda were sent to to Double-A Portland.

Others that were sent packing today included pitchers Tony Pena Jr., Chorye Spoone and Alex Wilson along with outfielder Juan Carlos Linares.  All four were reassigned to minor league camps based on their non-roster invite status.

Middlebrooks is a bit of  a surprise, especially this early in camp.  He was having a fairly successful spring, hitting .319 with one RBI in 19 at-bats, but he did strike out seven times.  His plate discipline is lacking and is an obvious area that he needs to improve upon before he gets called up to the bigs. While I didn’t expect him to make the club out of camp, I thought he would be one of the last few cuts, if for no other reason than to give him the repetitions he needs to improve.

Considering that he only hit .143 last spring in 14 at-bats, he has shown maturity in his game, proving why many consider him to be the third baseman of the future for the Red Sox.  From a defensive standpoint he was clean in his nine games, or 43.1 innings of duty but his range factor was down from last spring, 2.20 to 1.56.

None the less, I have a feeling we will be seeing Will Middlebrooks later this year.  If he can work on his offensive weaknesses and showcase some improvements early on in the year, then a deal involving Kevin Youkilis could happen sooner than anyone expects.

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