The Red Sox are designating catcher Kevin Plawecki for assignment, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive (Twitter link). Boston has yet to formally announce the move, but their 40-man roster tally is slated to drop to 38.
Plawecki has spent the past three seasons in Boston, with much of that time backing up Christian Vázquez. The right-handed hitting backstop performed well in a limited role between 2020-21, but he’s had a rough go of things in 2022. Through 173 plate appearances, Plawecki carries a .219/.291/.290 line with one home run. He’s made plenty of contact, but he hasn’t made a huge impact from a power perspective.
Boston dealt Vázquez to the Astros at the trade deadline, but they also brought in the lefty-hitting Reese McGuire in a subsequent trade with the White Sox. McGuire and the right-handed Connor Wong have joined Plawecki on the active roster since the rosters expanded in September. Both McGuire and Wong are controllable for multiple seasons beyond this year, while Plawecki was headed for free agency. With the Red Sox playing out the final few weeks of what’s likely to be a last place campaign, they’ll devote more playing time to their controllable options while cutting Plawecki loose a bit early.
Plawecki will land on outright or release waivers in the next few days. In either event, he’ll hit the open market is he goes unclaimed. That seems likely, as any claiming team wouldn’t be able to carry Plawecki on a postseason roster since he wasn’t in the organization prior to September 1. Plawecki’s also making $2.25MM this season, and while the final few hundred thousand dollars of that deal aren’t onerous, it decreases the chance of another team adding him as a strictly a regular season depth option for the final two and a half weeks. In all likelihood, Plawecki will head to the open market a bit early and turn his attention to next offseason.