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A person familiar with the negotiations says the Boston Red Sox have agreed to a minor league contract with right-handed reliever Tony Pena Jr.
The person spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity because the team had not made an announcement.
The Red Sox announced two other moves, claiming catcher Max Ramirez off waivers from the Texas Rangers and designating righty reliever Matt Fox for assignment.
Pena, the son of former Boston catcher Tony Pena, became a full-time pitcher last season after playing shortstop with the Atlanta Braves and Kansas City Royals. Last season he was in the San Francisco Giants system. He pitched in 53 games, all in relief, at Double-A Richmond, where he had a 2.35 ERA, and Triple-A Fresno, where his ERA was 6.60.
In 2007, Pena played 152 games for Kansas City with a .267 batting average and .284 on-base percentage.
It was reported earlier on Ted's Army that we FINALLY signed out "catcher of the future" in Max Ramirez after numerous attempts fell through (last I heard Mike Lowell is still retiring and not heading to Texas). Tony Pena Jr. has only been pitching professionally the past two seasons and judging from that ERA, struggled a bit against AAA batting. He will probably be in between Portland and Pawtucket all year and maybe play for the Sox if injuries mount up in the bullpen (which hopefully won't need to happen.) or a September call up.
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