Red Sox Prospect Watch: Two players traded away weaken ranks
By Hunter Noll
The Boston Red Sox made a pair of moves last week that saw two prospects traded away. Lorenzo Cedrola and Santiago Espinal are two major losses to the minor leagues. There’s still plenty of talent to watch for this week though.
The Boston Red Sox didn’t help the perception that their minor league depth is lacking. Over the last week, they traded away two young prospects having fantastic seasons. Two players who were regular features on the prospect watch.
Lorenzo Cedrola was slashing .318/.350/.427 with 40 runs and 10 steals for the Full-A Greenville Drive.
Meanwhile, Santiago Espinal slashed .313/.363/.477 with 15 doubles and three triples, as well as seven home runs for the Advanced-A Salem Red Sox. The shortstop also had 32 runs batted in, 53 runs scored and nine steals.
It’s easy to see how losing the two could hurt the Red Sox minor league system a little.
No reason to dwell on the past for too long though.
For the Red Sox, Justin Haley and Tzu-Wei Lin have been sent back down to Triple-A. Haley looked serviceable in the Majors, but doesn’t seem like someone who will factor into the bullpen much in the future.
Lin didn’t get much playing time this stint, but has been hot in Pawtucket. He still holds value for Boston. His glove is elite-level and if the bat can make strides like it has in Triple-A the shortstop will have a place on the team.
William Cuevas was called up to replace Haley. He’s thrown 5 1/3 innings in the Majors in his career, but this will be his first time up in 2018. The 27-year-old has a 3.65 earned run average over 86 1/3 innings with Pawtucket.
There doesn’t seem to be much of a role for the right-hander at the moment, and the hope is that Tyler Thornburg will be the true big addition to the bullpen soon enough. Due to that, Cuevas is clearly just a placeholder at the moment.