Red Sox News: Latest roster moves including Kiké Hernández to IL

The Red Sox finally made some roster moves

The Boston Red Sox have placed Enrique Hernández on the 10-day Injury List with a hamstring strain. The right-hand-hitting 29-year-old had signed a two-year deal with the Red Sox for $14 MM. This season Hernández has slashed 239/.298/.425 with four home runs while appearing in 30 games. Hernández has played 24 games in center field.

Hernández’s roster spot will be filled by Michael Chavis. Chavis had a productive spring training for the Red Sox but was sent to the WooSox after appearing in just one game as a pinch-runner. Chavis has slammed 23 home runs and hit .241 in his 138 MLB career games.

Brandon Workman is back with the Red Sox signing a Minor League deal. Workman and Heath Hembree were traded to the Phillies in 2020 for pitchers Nick Pivetta and Connor Seabold. Workman failed in Philadelphia and this season with the Cubs pitching to a 6.75 ERA/6.22 FIP in eight innings. That earned Workman his latest release.

Workman had some solid numbers with Boston after undergoing Tommy John Surgery including a 16 save and 10-1 season in 2019. Workman picked up another four saves in 2020 before his trade to Philadelphia and subsequent Phillie meltdown.

Right-hander Ryan Brasier is now on the 60-day Injury List with a left calf strain. Brasier had a solid 2020 season appearing in 25 games with a 1-0 record and a 3.96 ERA. Now, 33-years-old Braiser was expected to be a solid bullpen piece for the Red Sox in the 2021 season.

Braiser’s loss opened up a spot for the Red Sox to claim righty Brandon Brennan off waivers from Seattle. The 29-year-old pitched for the M’s over two seasons – 2019-2020 – appearing in 49 games and tossing 54.2 innings. Brennan over that spread has a 23.6 K% and 12.7 BB%. His two main pitches are a slider and change with the occasional fastball that can touch the mid-90s. Brennan will be assigned to Worcester.

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It was a matter of time before Alex Cora and Bloom began shuffling the roster around as injuries have begun to pile up. Though we’re only a little over a month through the regular season Boston has had some bad luck with players getting bit by the injury bug recently. Some of these moves were expected as in Chavis getting recalled but definitely not for Hernández. Bobby Dalbec lives to play another day as the slumping slugger broke out of his shell last night against the O’s.

Times like these will come and go and it’s all a matter of how the team reacts to them. We all know AC can be a bit stubborn in regard to his plans so it’s a good sign to see him and Bloom work to make sure Boston doesn’t miss a beat while undermanned. As the first team to hit 20 wins in 2021 they’ll need all the firepower they can get and bringing back some familiar faces could allow them to fend off the rest of the league.

They’re in a big series right now with Baltimore and they need to walk away with a series sweep to erase the damage they did by losing in Texas and barely escaping Detroit. We’ve seen this Boston squad beat good teams and struggle against mediocre ones and this weekend against the Orioles could be a step in the right direction to correcting that. Now that we have the roster shuffled and set to compete we should hopefully see some positive results.