News and notes from around Red Sox Nation.
By all accounts, the Red Sox have one of the game’s very best farm systems. (FanGraphs, which still counts the Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, and Marcelo Mayer as prospects, currently pegs the Sox as the best system in baseball, but also says the system is well above average outside of the Big Three). But the Futures Game rosters were just announced and only one Sox prospect made the cut: Jhostynxon Garcia. It was one year ago that Anthony won the skills contest, so hopefully we get a repeat. (Sam Dykstra, MLB.com)
Garcia has made a name for himself with his power (and also with his, uh, name), hitting nine homers over the course of his first 33 AAA games. But Alex Cora says he’s a complete player. (Christopher Smith, MassLive)
Alex Bregman played in the Futures Game nine years ago in 2016. Given everything that’s gone down since he went on the IL, sometimes it feels like he’s been out that long. But he says his quad injury is “healing exceptionally well” and he hopes to be back on the field soon, potentially even skipping a rehab assignment. (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)
Pitcher Patrick Sandoval, currently recovering from Tommy John surgery, is not close to returning. But he is still working towards his goal of pitching in the big leagues at some point this season. (Sean McAdam, MassLive)
It’s good to see Terry Francona back in town at the help of the Cincinnati Reds, and it’s surprising, too, since Francona had seemingly retired from baseball. But the greatest Red Sox manager of all-time says he’s now re-energized as he chased down his 2,000th win. (Matty Wasserman, Boston Globe)
And, lastly, the baseball world lost a great one this week, as former Pirates star Dave Parker passed away at the age of 74. Jim Rice once appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with The Cobra and talked about the photoshoot. (Steve Buckley, The Athletic)