It’s a bit hard to imagine right now because Adley Rutschman’s only played 19 games in a Red Sox uniform (including just four of the last ten), but when the regular season ends, he’s the only man I’d expect to see behind the plate. Not only will the games be orders of magnitude more important, pushing the Sox out of their current rest and recover mode and into “you need to win every game” mode, but if you make a legit run in the postseason, it’s littered with off-days.
Let’s be optimistic and say
the Sox win both the Wild Card round and the ALDS in their maximum three and five game versions. In that scenario, their schedule over the first two weeks of the playoffs will look like this (with off-days in bold):
- 9/28 (Off-Day)
- 9/29 (Game 1)
- 9/30 (Game 2)
- 10/1 (Game 3)
- 10/2 (Off-Day)
- 10/3 (Game 1)
- 10/4 (Off-Day)
- 10/5 (Game 2)
- 10/6 (Off-Day)
- 10/7 (Game 3)
- 10/8 (Game 4)
- 10/9 (Off-Day)
- 10/10 (Game 5)
- 10/11 (Off-Day)
And again, assuming the Red Sox win both of these series, this is the minimum amount of off-days they would get over this stretch. They could easily win the Wild Card round in two games or the LDS in three or four. That means there’s even a scenario out there where they make it to Game 1 of the ALCS with nine days off in the previous 14.
I’m not going to go on another rant about how ridiculous I think this element of the postseason format is today, but for Red Sox purposes, it does present them with an intriguing opportunity. Specifically, is Connor Wong even necessary on the postseason roster? And, if not, what else can they add in that spot?
From the Rutschman side of things, if he’s going to become a permanent fixture behind the plate, you really only need an “in case of emergency, break glass” guy as the backup. That’s completely different than the “we need somebody to start half the games behind the plate while we rest the main guy” role the Sox are using Connor Wong for right now. That’s not going to exist by the end of the month.
The ideal guy for the postseason Sox backup catcher role is somebody who can hit and be useful in other situations, and then — if and only if you absolutely need somebody else in there to catch at the end of a game thanks to a ten run blowout or an injury — you put them in there. And wouldn’t you know? The Red Sox seem to have just the guy for that role.
Last night adds even more evidence to this theory. In a mostly forgettable game that saw the Sox fall behind 6-0 early on a rainy night at Fenway in which they also had to compete with the Patriots season opener for New England’s attention, there was one very notable element: Mickey Gasper started behind the plate and caught all nine innings.
I don’t think that’s a “hey, let’s make this a permanent thing” kind of start.” I think that’s a “hey, let’s make sure you can do this in a pinch if needed” kind of start because we want you on the postseason roster.
Remember, once the Wild Card series starts, the rosters have to go back down to 26 men, and that almost certainly means 13 position players and 13 pitchers. Not only are the Red Sox using 14 position players right now, but they also will be adding Willson Contreras and Ceddanne Rafaela back later this month, meaning simple math says that three guys gotta go.
Two of them I think are pretty obvious: Andruw Monasterio and Nate Eaton. Monasterio served a key role for this club in the summer months, but with his bat cooling off (a .398 OPS in the last month since August 10th) and the team seemingly committed to Trevor Story, Nick Sogard and Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the middle infield, he becomes an easy target to squeeze out. Eaton on the other hand is really only here because of injuries, and while his stay could get extended if the Sox get bad news on Eli White, it’s hard to imagine him surviving into October.
From there (assuming health, which admittedly is always a dangerous thing to do), the decision gets much more difficult. The Sox would either need to drop one of the Story / Sogard / Kiner-Falefa trio, drop Jahmai Jones and his elite ability to crush lefties, or drop Eli White who has top notch speed and the ability to cover all three outfield positions.
This is the compelling bottle neck teams run into when you have 13 men available, a DH, and a need for a backup catcher. Specific bench roles dwindle, and you really only have room for three specialists not in the starting lineup. But again, what if you don’t really need a backup catcher outside of emergencies? All of a sudden you can get a fourth, useful bench guy in there as long as he can backup catch. And folks, that’s exactly where I think Mickey Gasper fits into the puzzle.
Much of it is probably still going to depend on how hot he can stay in September (Gasper’s suddenly gone hitless in his last four games), but Connor Wong is batting .170 with a .513 OPS since July 18th, and I just don’t think he has any real use on a postseason roster if he’s not going to see much (if any) time behind the plate.
So for all the throw away stuff you can very much ignore from Red Sox baseball during the last week as they prepare for October, Mickey Gasper getting the start behind the dish last night isn’t one of them. This little maneuver feels highly significant!
