Mike Olt
The first name is someone who Boston might want to see what’s left from him. At one point, Mike Olt was a lauded prospect with insane power potential. In 135 regular season games (352 at-bats) he does have 16 home runs, but also a .168 batting average.
He hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2015, but he showed some life in Double-A last season. With the Portland Sea Dogs, he slashed .245/.332/.436 with 23 doubles. His 57 runs batted in and 51 runs scored (as well as the 16 home runs) were all his best since the 2012 season.
After electing free agency in November, Olt signed a new deal with the Red Sox in December. He’s clearly on the team as nothing more than an emergency plan. The hope is that he can perform well enough in the minors that if something were to happen and Boston needed another bat on short notice, he’d be ready.
You would think that a team so short on power would be interested to see what someone with decent pop can bring to the table. No invite for the right-handed bat though.
While he’s probably not going to live up to the potential he once had, Olt still gives a little something. The 29-year-old plays both first and third base and there’s still some pop in his bat. Giving him a shot in Spring Training to see if there’s any juice left didn’t seem like a bad idea – at least to me.