Red Sox outright offseason trade acquisition

The Red Sox have sent utility player Blake Sabol outright to Triple-A Worcester, per Tim Healey of The Boston Globe. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment a few days ago.

Sabol, 27, was acquired from the Giants in January. He had been designated for assignment by that club but some international bonus pool space was sent from Boston to San Francisco in order to add Sabol to the Red Sox’s roster. That gave the Sox some extra depth at various positions, with Sabol capable of playing catcher, first base and the outfield.

Boston started the year with Connor Wong and Carlos Narváez as their big league catching duo, with Sabol optioned to Worcester. Wong suffered a finger fracture a week into April. That got Sabol up to the majors for close to a month while Wong recovered. However, they didn’t put him in the lineup often, as he only got into eight games and was only sent to the plate 18 times. He struck out seven times, a 38.9% clip, and produced a line of .125/.167/.188.

Sabol was once a nice Rule 5 pickup of the Giants. Going into 2023, he was technically plucked from the Pirates by the Reds, but Cincinnati flipped him to San Francisco for cash. He went on to appear in 110 games for the Giants that year, slashing .235/.301/.394 for a wRC+ of 91 while splitting his time between catcher and left field.

It seemed like he had a path to being a useful utility player, but it hasn’t quite panned out that way. He spent most of last year on optional assignment, having a fine-but-unexceptional season. He slashed .246/.340/.388 for a wRC+ of 96 at the Triple-A level and was only called up for 11 big league games. In his 25 Triple-A games this year, he has a .193/.304/.341 line while striking out in a third of his trips to the plate.

The 29 other clubs passed on the chance to grab Sabol off waivers. Since this is his first career outright and he has less than three years of service time, he doesn’t have the right to reject the outright assignment. He’ll stick with the Sox as non-roster depth and try to earn his way back to the majors.

Narváez and Wong are the only two catchers on the 40-man so Boston is probably happy that Sabol is sticking around as non-roster depth. Yasmani Grandal was in Triple-A on a minor league deal but it seems like he might be retiring.