Red Sox bring Travis Shaw back to the active roster
For the first time since 2016, Travis Shaw is a member of the Red Sox. He was claimed off of waivers over the weekend and is now back home. The versatile player was twice drafted by Boston and spent two seasons calling Fenway Park home before being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers. Chaim Bloom claimed the infielder off of waivers on Sunday and he was added to the active roster this afternoon. He’ll most likely make his debut against the Yankees tomorrow in the Bronx.
During his short stint with the club, he covered both corner infield spots as well as the outfield. Though he’s primarily an infielder he was given the playing time in left and center but that didn’t stick much with his future clubs. That came during a period of time where the Red Sox loved taking promising young guys and turning them into utility players. As for this go-around, he’ll probably be splitting time with Bobby Dalbec at first while offering sub-options at second and third base.
Things haven’t been going great for Travis with the Brewers this season and with Milwaukee running the NL Central, they’re going to trim the fat as October looms. A perfect storm brewed and Shaw is the ideal situation that Bloom loves and has built his Boston tenure on.
"“We’re going to use him the right way,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Sunday. “I think it gives us more weapons to maneuver over nine innings. We can pinch hit. We can platoon. We can do a lot of things with him and looking forward to seeing him and start working with him.”"
Taking a player that may be in a rut or just isn’t quite working out with their existing club and putting a massive shine on them. It’s very possible that this could be another home run for Chaim and “The Mayor of Ding-Dong City,” could see a resurgence with the Red Sox.
Through 202 plate appearances in 2021 Shaw is hitting .191/.279/.337/.616 with six homers and 28 RBI. As I said, not exactly lighting up the stat sheet but he can offer Boston something they could really use, a left-handed first baseman. Something that many of us thought that Bloom would target at the deadline but just never happened.
Well, once again Chaim may be playing chess while we’re staring at a checkerboard. Getting a component that this lineup is begging for without losing anything in the process is peak Bloom. In order to make room for Shaw with the squad, the team needed to make some other roster moves. Franchy Cordero and Connor Wong have been optioned back to Worcester while Marwin Gonzalez has been released.
The Cordero and Wong moves come as no surprise as both are down the depth chart and won’t see much playing time in the future. For Marwin, it was a matter of time as he was DFA’d on Friday and it was clear that they had no intention of retaining him. For as good as he is with his glove, he just couldn’t get it done in the batter’s box and it was time to cut bait on the utilityman.
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I don’t know how the ‘Travis Shaw Experience’ will play out this time around in Boston but the fact of the matter is he’s an improvement over what we were getting before. He’ll allow for a solid platoon partner with Dalbec and can competently manage first base, something that the Sox have needed all season long. As Cora said, they’re going to use him the right way which again makes me think that first and third base will be his main homes in the lineup.
This Red Sox roster continues to morph and take shape between the big club and minors as we inch closer to the postseason. Boston has a serious shot at not only qualifying for October baseball but they can be a force if everything continues to click. The last three games have shown that this team still has plenty of fight left in them and bringing a homegrown guy like Shaw back home can be another spark that pushes them to reach heights nobody expected before Opening Day.