Red Sox Memories: What happened to these four former players?
The Boston Red Sox have had their list of memorable players, and some not so memorable. The following are four players whose names will bring back good and bad memories.
Where are they now? The usual focus is on the star players once they retire as they are generally involved in baseball, entertainment, business, charitable, and other endeavors. David Ortiz is never really out of the picture nor are the ancient ones such as Carl Yastrzemski or Dwight Evans.
The Red Sox often have promotions centered around a returning star who will be planted in a skybox for the adoring masses or at least those who can afford to take part in a meet and greet with spiffy photos. Fred Lynn and Carlton Fisk seem to be regulars, but what about some other less notable players?
Today I will offer up a selection on a chosen few with a profile of their careers with the Red Sox and in baseball. The most difficult part even in this age of Google is to discover information on just what has happened when the ball and bat days have ended. Most will form the statistical summaries of their days in “The Show” with an occasional personal memory.
Justin Masterson
In 2008, right-hander Justin Masterson came on the scene with little fanfare but much promise. A player I remember watching when he pitched for the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod League. With Boston, Masterson performed a dual role as a starter and out of the bullpen and continued into that slot in 2008 before being traded to Cleveland for Victor Martinez.
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Masterson’s Cleveland stay was highlighted by a 2013 All-Star season (14-10, 3.45 ERA) before the bottom fell out for a promising career. In 2014, contractual issues and a series of injuries and downgraded performances culminated in another trade with Masterson going to the Cardinals.
Masterson returned to Boston as a free agent in 2015 (4-2, 5.61 ERA) only to be released in mid-August. That started an attempt at resurrecting his career with the Pirates and Dodgers before retiring in 2018. Retirement just segued into phase two of Masterson’s life and that is giving back.
Masterson is a Christian and with former Red Sox batting coach Chili Davis shares the distinction of the only two MLB players born in Jamaica. With Masterson, it was the result of his father being a dean of students at a Theological Seminary. Those roots have blossomed today with several non-profits including Not For Sale that Masterson is involved with along with his former business partner and Masterson’s wife.
Daniel Nava
Every player that has been dumped from an organization and eventually attempts to hold on to a career in the Independent Leagues must have a picture of switch-hitting Daniel Nava in their locker. The well-documented rise and fall and rise and fall again of Nava is part of Red Sox and baseball lore.
Nava broke on the scene in 2010 with a dramatic grand slam off Joe Blanton at Fenway Park on the first MLB pitch he saw. Nava resurfaced with Boston after a year in the minors and became a key to the 2013 championship team, hitting .303. Then the journey started with multiple organizations before culminating with a .301 season with the Phillies in 2017. Nava, however, was not done.
Nava signed with the Pirates and was released after back surgery and signed to a minor league deal. At the end of the 2018 season, Nava was once again jettisoned from an MLB roster, but still not out of baseball.
He returned to the Indy leagues with the Kansas City T-Bones in 2019, joining Henry Owens and Danny Mars to represent a trio of former Boston organization players. Nava hit .288 for KC and as of now has not retired and probably will not.
Wily Mo Pena
In 2006, the Red Sox rewarded recently signed right-hander Bronson Arroyo by trading him to Cincinnati for right-hand slugger Wily Mo Pena. Arroyo won 108 games for the Reds and Pena may have lost 108 games for the Red Sox defensively.
Pena’s first season in Boston was not that bad offensively with Wily Mo hitting .301 with 11 home runs in just 84 games. The downside is Pena had 90 K’s in his limited action with a -0.6 UZR/150 playing all three outfield positions. Pena, despite his bulk, was surprisingly agile with excellent speed. But his decision-making and ball-hawking skills were minimal. The Red Sox perpetual search for right-hand sluggers was coming up empty on Pena.
What Pena had was power. In 2019, the tape was out with numerous Michael Chavis home runs and that was almost every bomb Pena hit. Nothing cheap from his bat. During the late stages of 2007, Pena was finally traded and that started a professional merry-go-round since prodigious power is difficult to ignore, but the recipe was the same everywhere. Monumental blasts, questionable glovework, too many whiffs and finally several seasons in Japan.
Pena gives back and in 2007 started a foundation to address diabetes concerns for Hispanic males. As a player, that ended with Chiba Lotte of the JPPL in 2017 with Pena hitting 15 home runs in just 70 games. Of course, an old dog new tricks surfaces and Pena managed to whiff 72 times. Last noted, Pena is coaching in the Tampa area.
Shea Hillenbrand
Quite by accident, I was channel surfing a few years ago and quickly a show called House Hunters International caught my attention with the name Three-Run Homer and Shea Hillenbrand. Was this the former Red Sox? Most certainly was. Seems the focus on the show was Hillebrand’s vacation home in Puerto Penasco with his third wife. Three wives!
The right-hand hitting Hillenbrand made his Red Sox début in 2001 hitting .263. In 2002, Hillenbrand made the All-Star team and hit .292 with 18 home runs and 82 RBI playing almost exclusively at third base both season. The following season the Red Sox looking for an OBP upgrade signed Bill Mueller and in May shipped Hillenbrand to Arizona for Byung-Hyun Kim.
Hillenbrand had issues with management at nearly every destination after leaving Boston. Brush fires with the Blue Jays and later the Angels certainly affected his career and tarnished his reputation among baseball management, but Hillenbrand did produce at almost every stop.
After the 2007 season with the Dodgers, Hillenbrand once again was on the open market and remained unsigned but not done. Hillenbrand played the 2008 season, or part of it, with the York team in the independent Atlantic League and then called it quits – at least temporarily.
Hillenbrand came back I 2012 with another Indy team, the Bridgeport Bluefish, hitting a paltry .194 before ending his professional career. Hillenbrand on the personal side had started a non-profit to rescue abused animals but that site was foreclosed and the charity ceased to exist. For greater detail, here is Steve Scolloway’s somewhat dated article on Hillenbrand.