Red Sox sign outfielder Brian Bogusevic to minor league deal
By Sean Penney
The Boston Red Sox have signed former first-round pick Brian Bogusevic to a minor league deal with an invitation to camp this spring.
The Boston Red Sox have bolstered their organizational outfield depth by signing Brian Bogusevic to a minor league deal.
The former first-round pick was selected 24th overall in 2005 by the Houston Astros. Originally a left-handed pitcher coming out of Tulane University, Bogusevic was converted into an outfielder back in 2008.
One interesting tidbit for Red Sox fans is that Bogusevic was selected one pick after Boston drafted Jacoby Ellsbury with the first of their four picks in the first round that year. Craig Hansen, Clay Buchholz and Michael Bowden rounded out the rest of their first-round selections. Which goes to show that even in the first round, the draft is basically a crap shoot.
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Bogusevic hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2015, when he played 22 games for the Philadelphia Phillies. He owns a career .238 average and .684 OPS over 748 at-bats spread across five seasons at the big league level.
The 32-year old spent last year in Japan with the Orix Buffaloes, hitting a meager .187/.320/.322 over 193 plate appearances.
There isn’t much on Bogusevic’s resume that would get fans excited about this addition, but the Red Sox farm system is starved for major league ready outfielders. Boston is loaded with talent at the big league level, but there isn’t much depth waiting in Pawtucket to count on in the event of a rash of injuries. Bryce Brentz is the only outfielder on the 40-man roster expected to begin the season in Triple-A, but he’s essentially a replacement level player.
Rusney Castillo and Allen Craig remain in the organization as potential emergency options. However, their cumbersome contracts would eat into a significant portion of the remaining space the Red Sox have beneath the luxury tax threshold if they were to be added back to the 40-man roster. If Dave Dombrowski wasn’t willing to go over the tax for a high profile free agent slugger, do you really think he’d risk it for one of those two massive disappointments?
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Bogusevic is expected to participate in major league camp this spring, where he’ll look to earn a starting role in Pawtucket’s outfield entering the season. Boston would need to find themselves in a desperate spot to end up relying on him for any significant role in the majors this season, but it doesn’t hurt to have some depth that includes veterans with experience at this level.