Tzu-Wei Lin
Lin is a member of that squad that seems to be in place to replace Pedroia if something happens to the Red Sox stalwart. He’s played in 62 games in his two season with the Red Sox and has shown some glimmers of promise.
The reason he’s made my list is that the other members of the backup trifecta are Eduardo Nunez and Brock Holt. Both Holt and Nunez have more experience and have proven themselves in big moments.
Now that isn’t Lin’s fault as he’s still very early in his young career. That’s also why he is perfect for this list though. With his promise, ability to play second, short or third, and age, he’s perfect for a trade piece. His two-year stats at the plate are .256 BA/.348 OBP/ .380 SLG.
The downside is that Lin also has 34 strikeouts in 121 at-bats to only 17 walks. So some more plate patience could really add to the promise of Lin.
Being that we technically have 3 second basemen, two shortstops and two third basemen, Lin is expendable in this scenario. He could easily be shopped to teams needing a versatile infielder in order to get us a weapon for the bullpen or built into a package to get more than one piece.
I liked Lin for the few times we saw him in 2018 but he is a player that Dombrowski can use in order to add to the team in 2019 to make another charge at the World Series.