”I’ll Not Be Held Responsible For This Great Lost” Red Sox Head Coach Angrily….

After making his debut in a tiny, platoon-heavy sample, Wilyer Abreu gradually developed into a reliable option, while not being an immediate answer in the outfield.

It appears that the return on the Christian Vazquez trade is quite favorable. The early news at second base went to Enmanuel Valdez, a power hitter who is at least a versatile fielder if not a very good one. However, he may not turn out to be the most valuable return. Late in the season, Wilyer Abreu, who would later be selected to the Worcester postseason Triple-A All-Star team (and become a father in August!), received a call-up to the Majors and took advantage of the chance to establish himself.

In 85 bat appearances, he hit.316 with two long balls (on an unsustainable BABIP of.431). Additionally, he maintained a solid WrC+ of 135—higher than he had ever claimed in the minors. His war of aggression was 2.9. He had 4.5 fastball runs above average. To put it plainly, he was a proficient fastball hitter, as seen by the 22 home runs he scored in 86 Worcester games.

His swing rate was 44.6%, so he wasn’t sure what else to hit. Every other pitch that Abreu was given had a runs above average value that was below average.

Notably, Abreu walked fewer batters (10.6% vs. 16.3%) and struck out a lot more often with Boston than he did with Worcester (27.1% to 20.4%). Additionally, he’s not well-known in the minor leagues for his excellent fielding, despite Baseball Savant rating his arm strength at the 97th percentile (small sample size; he had just 40 putouts and 2 outfield assists with 1 error for a.977 fielding %). However, he might be effective enough to not be a problem; given the Red Sox’s recent defensive struggles, “not a liability” might just be sufficient.

This is the game, in the midst of a three-week string in Worcester where he hit over.400, that prompted the Red Sox to give him another look. Abreu hit three home runs in a single game on August 13. Yes, that was in opposition to Triple-A pitchers. Even yet, it was entertaining to watch an outfielder virtually engage in batting practice while playing, particularly given the big league team’s inability to hit home runs.