Red Sox News: Kyle Schwarber to debut tonight, Marwin Gonzalez DFA’d

Red Sox make some roster moves to spark the lineup

We all knew things were going to being to change around Fenway Park as the Red Sox continue to lose their grip on the divisional and Wild Card standings. Today, Boston made two moves that will alter their current lineup and very well could give them the spark they desperately need. With a very light remaining schedule, it’s time to use every weapon in the arsenal to get to October.

The Red Sox have chosen to forego a rehab stint for Kyle Schwarber and are instead activating him from the IL and he’ll debut tonight, per WEEI’s Rob Bradford. Boston’s new slugger has been putting in the hours in the batting cage and has been working out at first base, but it was believed he’d be making his way to Worcester to shake the rust off. Well, just when we think we have the answers Chaim Bloom and Alex Cora change the questions.

Schwarber will be in tonight’s lineup as the last-place Orioles have made their way to Boston and I couldn’t have picked a better opponent myself. The righty will hit sixth in tonight’s lineup and act as the team’s DH with J.D. Martinez once again playing in left field. Schwarbs was supposed to make his Woo Sox debut last night but a rainout put a damper on that so it looks as if the Red Sox are just going to expedite the situation.

Against the O’s this season, Schwarber has two doubles and a homer for a .417/.500/.833/1.333 slash with five whiffs and a pair of walks. Those are the kind of numbers I definitely want in my lineup against this opponent. A big concern among Red Sox Nation is that we have no idea which version of the slugger we’ll see. Will he be more May and June or April and July, nobody knows. Then again, we don’t know which version of our own lineup we’ll see night to night so what does it even matter.

In order to make room for Schwarber on the active roster, the Red Sox chose to designate Marwin Gonzalez for assignment. This move shouldn’t come as much of a surprise and I’m sure that another team in the league will gladly scoop him up, but his time in Boston has been a nightmare. While Marwin is a defensive wizard and can play more positions than anyone else on the team, he couldn’t get it done in the batter’s box.

Gonzalez slashed a paltry .202/.281/.285/.567 with two homers and 20 RBI. That’s not going to get it done with the lineup and club and we needed much more from him than we got. AC loves Marwin and was close to him from their time together in Houston but it simply didn’t work here. There are a lot of guys coming back from the IL in the near future and some tough decisions had to be made, BSI’s Sean Penney rounded up his Top-5 choices and Margo was on his list as well.

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At just 32 years old, Gonzalez has plenty left in the tank as every team in the league could use a guy that is as diverse as he is on the diamond. I would be shocked if he wasn’t picked up by another squad as we’re inching closer and closer to the postseason. Considering his deal was up at the end of the season this also shouldn’t come as a surprise and in order to make some of the upcoming moves, I’d expect Boston to target any underperforming players nearing free agency.

The Red Sox start their playoff push tonight as they have 45 games left on the schedule and the opponents are pretty weak. If they can take advantage of these matchups and knock off a good run of wins then we could have a divisional race back on our hands. It’s going to take a lot of work after this freezing cold stretch since the All-Star break but adding a bat as strong as Schwarber’s is definitely a step in the right direction.