Red Sox seek value with non-roster invitees for 2020 Spring Training

The Boston Red Sox announced eight non-roster invitees to the team’s 2020 Spring Training roster. Can any of these longshot options help?

We’re still a couple of months away from when players will report to Fort Myers for Spring Training but the Boston Red Sox are already handing out invitations.

The Red Sox have added eight non-roster invitees to their Spring Training roster: Catcher Jett Bandy, outfielder John Andreoli, first baseman/outfielder Nick Longhi, corner infielder Jantzen Witte, left-handed pitcher Mike Kickham, and right-handed pitchers R.J. Alvarez, Robinson Leyer, and Domingo Tapia.

Non-roster invitees are a long shot to break camp with the team but a strong spring performance can get a player on the team’s radar. The Red Sox currently have an opening on their 40-man roster. Unless they make a blockbuster trade that sheds significant salary, Boston isn’t expected to make many more moves in free agency. That could allow one of these players to claim that final spot, providing some organizational depth at a cheap price.

Bandy could be an option to keep an eye on for a team in need of a backup catcher. Christian Vazquez is the only catcher on the Red Sox 40-man roster so they will need to add another before the season begins. Bandy spent all of 2019 in Triple-A but has 156 career games of major league experience.

He won’t provide much production with the bat, owning a career .218 average and .647 OPS, but they weren’t getting much out of former backup Sandy Leon either. Boston traded Leon because he wasn’t worth the nearly $3 million he was projected to earn in arbitration. Bandy is essentially a cheaper version of Leon. He’s nothing to get excited about but a team on a budget could do worse.

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The outfield is crowded in Boston and the Red Sox should be able to find a better option than Andreoli even if they do trade away one of their starters. The 29-year old could latch on with a minor league deal though. He hit a career-high 16 home runs with a .837 OPS in 116 games at Triple-A last season. Playing for the Red Sox Triple-A affiliate may appeal to Andreoli with the team preparing to move to Worcester in 2021, the city he was born in.

Longhi was drafted by the Red Sox in 2013 and spent the first few years of his professional career in their system before bouncing between Cincinnati’s Double and Triple-A teams over the last three years. Witte was also drafted by the Red Sox that same year and has spent time in Pawtucket and Portland in recent years. Neither has any major league experience and that’s unlikely to change this year.

Kickham and Alvarez are veteran pitchers who haven’t sniffed the majors in at least four years. Leyer and Tapia are both still waiting for their major league debuts. The Red Sox farm system is thin on pitching depth but they have a few arms with more upside than any of these options so it’s doubtful that these four non-roster pitchers will stick.

We shouldn’t expect much from any non-roster invite but it doesn’t hurt for the Red Sox to get a look at these guys without making any commitment. There are still holes to fill on the big league roster and if Boston fails to plug them with their limited financial resources, these players could potentially provide a cheap solution.