Red Sox: Examining the remaining non-roster invitees in major league camp
By Jimmy Longo
Allen Craig, 1B
A supposed cornerstone of the trade that gave John Lackey away to the St. Louis Cardinals, Allen Craig has had quite the following out with being able to be the player he once was in St. Louis since joining the Red Sox organization, having been delegated as a non-roster invitee with realistically no shot of contributing at the major league level any time soon.
This spring, Craig is 7-30 (.233), with a home run and two doubles to his credit. Another benefactor of being on this list due to the sheer lack of volume of non-roster invitees, the Allen Craig we see now is some kind of out-of-body version of the former Cardinals run producer aficionado.
Though Craig’s home run this spring did provide some nostalgia and maybe some misguided glimmer of hope for some Red Sox fans and maybe Ben Cherington as well.
Looking forward, the prospects of Craig playing for a major league baseball team again, let alone the Red Sox, diminish often are diminishing now. Craig will be 33 in July and hasn’t played in the majors since 2015, where he hit only .152 in 36 games for the Red Sox.