Red Sox: Franchy Cordero has earned a return to Boston

Red Sox should give Franchy Cordero a reprieve from Worcester

The Red Sox roster is getting reinforcements with the two most noteworthy being Jarren Duran and Tanner Houck. Duran can provide an injection of speed and a left-handed bat. Houck is back after some arm miseries and will get a start. Pitching trumps hitting so the addition of rookie Houck is critical. Then there is first base.

The Red Sox offensive capabilities at first are pure vegan – there is no meat being produced for the lineup. At last glance, the Boston grouping registered a -1.4 fWAR or dead last in the American League.

The triumvirate of Danny Santana, Michael Chavis, and Bobby Dalbec are the culprits. Dalbec has settled in with Santana having injury issues and Chavis being promoted and demoted to Worcester on a steady basis. Dalbec has had his shot and is firing blanks. Too many whiffs, too little contact, signs of consistent progression. What to do?

Franchy Cordero was a disaster for Boston. Projected as a potential steal as part of the Andrew Benintendi trade, Cordero was dead weight in the lineup. Boston management had finally seen enough and Cordero was shipped to Wormtown (AKA – Worcester).

Management, in a moment of enlightened clarity, looked at Cordero’s athleticism, the pathetic first base numbers for the big club, and Cordero’s possibly booming bat and shifted him to first base. What could go wrong? Nothing, apparently.

In the confines of Polar Park, Cordero has mutilated International League pitching. He started out as a California forest fire and has only cooled slightly. Transferring from the outfield to first apparently was not emotionally traumatic for Cordero. What is a speck that one sees in his statistics is six steals in seven attempts. The big guy can move.

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Cordero has failed elsewhere and certainly in Boston. I was as far from a Cordero advocate as possible and joined the screeching social media hyenas in dismissing Cordero as another mistake – or was it? Cordero has earned a reprieve. A call from Governor Bloom’s office to commute his Worcester sentence. He has earned the right of return.

Cordero’s strength is his ability to crush left-handed pitching. Of course, the term “crush” should be taken rather lightly as his career average is .233 against righties. With Dalbec, the opposite happens since he gets the jitters against right-handers, hitting just .202 for his career. This does not require reams of advanced metrics to see platoon pop up in a conversation.

Dalbec and Cordero both have options remaining. Both are on the 40-Man roster so a sleight of hand by Bloom is not necessary. With the Red Sox limited in budget and wary of trading prospects, I doubt Anthony Rizzo is coming to town. So far the team has been successful with less than prime-time players scuttling along and contributing. A big thank you to manager Alex Cora.

Cordero’s return may be like marrying an ex. We have been down that road as San Diego and Tampa have. Cordero is enticing and mesmerizing as his physical ability and overall skill level are impressive, but something is missing. It may just be possible that Cordero’s sojourn to WooSox Land could jump-start a career that has staggered like a drunk on a three-day binge.