The Red Sox announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Joely Rodríguez. Right-hander Greg Weissert was optioned to Triple-A Worcester in a corresponding active roster move. To open a 40-man roster spot, lefty James Paxton was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic was among those to relay the moves on X.
Rodríguez, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox in the offseason. He cracked their Opening Day roster but didn’t post strong results initially. He made 11 appearances for the club with a 6.55 earned run average, the same numbers he had in limited time with them last year.
He was designated for assignment at the end of April and accepted an outright assignment after clearing waivers. He then spent about six weeks on the minor league injured list from the middle of May until late June. That has left him with just 14 1/3 Triple-A innings pitched this year, but with a strong 1.88 ERA. There’s likely a good deal of fortune in there, based on his .175 batting average on balls in play in that small sample. His 20.6% strikeout rate and 12.7% walk rate in that time were subpar, though he did get grounders at a strong 52.6% clip.
Those rate stats aren’t too far off of his major league track record. In 168 innings dating back to his 2016 debut, he has a 4.82 ERA, 22.8% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate and 55.7% ground ball rate. He’ll give the club a second lefty in the bullpen alongside Brennan Bernardino. He is out of options but can be retained beyond this season via arbitration if he holds onto his roster spot through the end of the year.
As for Paxton, it’s not a surprise to see him moved to the 60-day IL. He suffered a partially torn right calf muscle last week and manager Alex Cora said it was unlikely that the lefty would be able to return this year. He’s now officially ineligible to be reinstated until the second week of October. Unless the Sox make a deep playoff run and he heals up in the next two months, his season is over.