Red Sox Roster Moves: Marlon Byrd Designated For Dice-K

With Daisuke Matsuzaka set to make his major league return on Saturday night the Red Sox have to clear a roster spot for him.  They will do so by designating outfielder Marlon Byrd for assignment according to Ian Browne of MLB.com, via Twitter.

Byrd, who was acquired from the Cubs as an emergency fill in for what was a depleted outfield at the time has a line of .273/.288/.323/.612 with one home run and seven RBI through 99 at-bats and has appeared in 33 games during his time in Boston.

With the recent acquisition of Scott Podsednik , the stellar play of Daniel Nava and the regular outfielders starting to return from the DL, a move involving either Byrd or Podsednik was evident.  Given Byrd’s .238 batting average in his past ten games and the hot stick that Podsednik is swinging since rejoining the Red Sox, the decision is a rather easy one for Ben Cherington and his posse to make.

Podsednik, in a small sample pool, has a line of .387/.394/.548/.942 with one home run and four RBI in 11 games.  He also has three stolen bases and has shown exceptional speed both on the base paths and in the outfield when tracking down well hit fly balls.  Even at the age of 36, Podsednik is proving he has plenty left in the tank and could very well be a useful bench player for the Red Sox come the dog days of summer.

For the struggling Byrd, the future remains unclear for the under producing outfielder.  It’s likely he’ll land with another club given the Cubs are paying most of his $5.5 million dollar contract for this year.

Byrd was traded to Boston for Michael Bowden and Hunter Cervenka when Jacoby Ellsbury went down with a shoulder injury in April and for the record, now neither Bowden nor Byrd will be with either club they were dealt to.