The Red Sox plan to select the contract of infielder Pablo Reyes, reports Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). Corner infielder Bobby Dalbec will be optioned to Triple-A Worcester in a corresponding active roster move, reports Christopher Smith of MassLive. Boston already had an opening on the 40-man roster after losing Zack Littell on waivers.
Reyes has played the 2023 campaign in the A’s system. The utilityman signed a minor league contract with Oakland and started the year with their top affiliate in Las Vegas. The Red Sox acquired him for cash this morning. It’s unclear whether Reyes’ deal with the A’s contained an upward mobility clause that required them to make him available if another team offered an immediate roster spot or whether Oakland made the deal out of courtesy. In either case, the 29-year-old returns to the majors for what’ll be a fifth season in six years.
A native of the Dominican Republic, Reyes began his career in the Pirates’ system. He reached the majors with Pittsburgh in 2018 and tallied a personal-high 157 plate appearances the following season. He was suspended for the entire 2020 campaign after failing a performance-enhancing drug test and Pittsburgh cut him loose at the end of that year. Reyes signed a minor league deal with the Brewers and cracked the MLB roster early in 2021. He’d appear in 59 games over the next two seasons.
Between Pittsburgh and Milwaukee, the right-handed hitting Reyes has a .238/.307/.361 batting line over 323 big league plate appearances. He owns a solid .273/.342/.440 slash in just under 1300 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level. That includes a .257/.385/.351 start over 21 games for the Aviators in 2023. He’s long shown solid plate discipline and contact skills without much power.
Reyes is out of minor league option years. Boston will have to keep him on the MLB roster or make him available to other teams via waivers. He brings a fair bit of flexibility to Alex Cora’s bench. He’s logged ample minor league work at both middle infield positions, third base and in left and center field. The bulk of his time — just over 3000 innings — has been spent at the keystone. He’ll add some middle infield depth behind the current starting duo of Enmanuel Valdez and Enrique Hernández.
As for Dalbec, he heads back to Triple-A after a brief recall from the minors. He’s appeared in just seven MLB games this year after topping 100 contests in each of the preceding two seasons. The right-handed hitter owns a solid .238/.374/.475 line over 23 games with Worcester but he’s striking out almost 40% of the time at the Triple-A level.