Red Sox Prospect Watch: Minor League regular season is over
By Hunter Noll
The minor league season is over, meaning this is the last Boston Red Sox prospect watch of the year. There’s still a whole lot to talk about though.
The Boston Red Sox find themselves 5.5 games back from a Wild Card spot with the regular season ticking down. While they aren’t out of it yet, they need to make a ridiculously strong push.
With that in mind, the young players will play a pretty big role, especially considering September call-ups are here.
Michael Chavis has 18 homers and 58 RBI but hasn’t played since August 11. He was rehabbing but should be back with the team now that the MiLB season is over.
Marco Hernandez is hitting .303 and he’s slumping a little bit at the moment. However, he’s been a solid bat off the bench and has played some pretty strong defense at second base. With so many options at the moment, expect him to be relegated more to pinch-running. It sucks, but that will probably be his most prominent role for a bit.
Sam Travis is also slumping at the moment, and down to .239. The first baseman has six homers and 15 RBI on the year. Although he’s struggling, Travis has definitely done enough to warrant being considered an option for first base in the future.
Josh Taylor has been one of the best bullpen arms for the Red Sox this year. The lefty has a 3.07 ERA over 41 innings, striking out 53 in that time. He’s proven himself this year and helped solidify the bullpen that’s actually been better than a lot of people realize.
Speaking of solidifying the bullpen, Darwinzon Hernandez is a stud. He has a 3.08 ERA over 26 1/3 innings. In that time, the left-hander has a ridiculous 49 strikeouts. I don’t know if he’ll be a reliever next year but if he is, the Red Sox should legitimately consider him for the closer role.
Travis Lakins is back in the Majors. He gave up two runs in two innings in his return appearance and has a 4.70 ERA over 15 1/3 innings with Boston. The right-hander has struggled a bit when it comes to giving up base runners (1.63 WHIP) but could be a nice piece in the pen for the Red Sox for the rest of the year.