Pawtucket Red Sox Add Brandon Phillips To Roster In A Flurry Of Roster Moves

The Pawtucket Red Sox have officially added Brandon Phillips to their official roster. He has been with the Lowell Spinners since he signed with the Red Sox organization. With the Lowell Spinners, Philips hit .318 in 6 games while hitting 1 home run and 7 RBI’s. Phillips has spent a majority of his 16 years as a major league ball player with the Cincinnati Reds before playing the 2017 season with the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Angles.

In 1893 major league games, Phillips has hit well, posting a .275 batting average while connecting for 210 career home homes and 949 RBI’s. Phillips also spent 4 seasons with the Cleveland Indians. Phillips will be batting third for the Paw Sox on Saturday night as the designated hitter.

Trevor Kelley Added

The Paw Sox added RHP Trevor Kelley from AA Portland this morning as well. Kelley did pitch in 2 games for the Paw Sox earlier this season while he had 3 and 1/3 scoreless innings for the team. In 2018, he has posted a 3.60 ERA in 30 innings. This is between AA Portland Sea Dogs and AAA Pawtucket Red Sox.

Other Transactions

The Paw Sox have activated infielder Ivan De Jesus Jr. off of the temporary inactive list. He was placed on the list on July 11th.

The Red Sox bullpen carousel also continued this morning as the major league team recalled Bobby Poyner from AAA Pawtucket. To make room for Poyner in Boston, the Red Sox optioned Robby Scott back down to AAA Pawtucket. Scott pitched in two innings for the Red Sox on Friday night while throwing 37 pitches. Due to that heavy workload, Scott was probably not going to be available on Saturday for the Red Sox and it gives the Red Sox flexibility out of their bullpen.

In total, the Paw Sox have had 14 player transactions in the last three days.

PawSox Notebook: Ortega Up Quick After Draft, Witte Back In Town, Buttrey Gets Closer Shot With Brasier In Boston

The Boston Red Sox transferred their 19th round draft pick from the 2018 MLB draft to Pawtucket on Friday after just 16 games in Lowell. That player is Jonathan Ortega who has batted .326 (14-for-43) in just 16 games with the Spinners.

Prior to Friday’s game PawSox Manager Kevin Boles said a few words on Ortega already being in Triple-A Pawtucket.

“I have talked with Corey Wimberly, their manager in Lowell. He’s a guy that can play shortstop, second base, and third. He has impressed them defensively. Looked up his numbers his last 10 games he’s been competitive at the plate. So we will see what we get. He’s depth for us, we’ve kind of run sort with our roster these days. But hopefully he’s a guy that gets an opportunity here in the next couple of days.” Boles said prior to Friday’s game.

On Friday the injured Marcus Walden threw a simulated game, and by all accounts it went very well.

“Good.” Said Boles. ” He got up and down twice, 15 pitches each time. Said he felt good afterwords. The ball was coming out of his hand pretty good.”

On Thursday night, the first game back after the all-star break, Ty Buttrey was called upon to finish out the game. With Ryan Brasier in Boston it was Buttrey’s first chance at taking the closer role with Brasier up in the Majors. Boles liked what he saw but there was rust.

” I liked it. But again, watching our pitchers yesterday. With Buttrey, it looked like he was getting some of the rust off a little bit. So to me, it was a little bit suspect at times. But again, he’s got power at the end of the games, this is something that maybe we will continue. The one thing you have got to make sure that you don’t run into a trap. You are pitching at the end of a game, you still have to use your secondary pitches. And I think sometimes the trap can be is if you are in the 9th inning and the game is on the line, you just want to go straight power. And so, you still have to have some balance in that really.”

One thing that Buttrey has improved upon lately is mixing.

“Before, he was at 70-72% fastball percentage and we are starting to see a little bit more balance with the off-speed. We are going to get there. Again, this takes time. This is something that’s not going to happen overnight. You are not going to get a 50-50 split within a day or two. It’s just not realistic. Nor is it fair to ask. There is some balance here and another trap that guys fall into is that they hear the noise and that they know they are competing and doing well. And if they are blowing fastballs by a guy, they don’t want to run into their bat speed. So they want to put up numbers here so people will take a look at them up top. He’s done that, and now the plan is to step further on how we can develop so when he gets up to Boston. Whenever that maybe. That he is able to use that mix.”

Red Sox Talk: Next Man Up Mentality From The Pawtucket Red Sox

Every season there is always a flurry of roster moves between the Boston Red Sox and the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox. This is the nature of any big league club and their top minor league affiliate. Lately the roster moves have ticked up a bit, on Thursday, Rafael Devers was placed on the DL and Tzu-Wei Lin was recalled.

This move is just one of many that have taken place since the start of the 2018 season. So far as of July 12th, 10 different PawSox players have at one time this season been promoted to Boston.

The list in order is Lin, Marcus Walden, Bobby Poyner, Sam Travis, Brandon Workman, Jalen Beeks, Justin Haley, Robby Scott, William Cuevas, and Ryan Brasier. As of July 12th, Lin, Beeks, Workman, and Brasier are on Boston’s roster.

So the question that everyone wants answered is who is the next man up from Pawtucket that hasn’t already been called up at some point.

There are several options, many of which will likely take place at some point and are more likely to all appear in a Boston Red Sox uniform during the September call-ups.

• Ty Buttrey (On 40-man, hard throwing reliever)
• Williams Jerez (On 40-man)
• Chandler Shepherd (On 40-man, reliever turned starter)

As for positional players, there are none currently in Pawtucket that are on the 40-man roster outside of Sam Travis. However, there are several non-40 man options.

• Adam Lind (MLB hitter)
• Dan Butler (Catcher)
• Rusney Castillo (Unlikely call-up due to cap space)

There are of course other options if players get hot or a need for another infielder is called for and that could be a player like Mike Miller or Ivan De Jesus Jr.

In terms of who I think is the actual next man up, for a starter that hasn’t been called upon before it is Shepherd, reliever it is Buttrey. As for a hitter it is clearly Lind, but a catcher is Butler or even Mike Ohlman.

Boston will likely use Cuevas, Scott, and the other call-ups from earlier on in the season before the other pitching options which is certainly worth noting.