BOSTON — With Trevor Story set to make his season debut at shortstop Tuesday night, the Red Sox cleared a roster spot by designating Yu Chang for assignment.
Chang, the interim starting shortstop in recent weeks, had a bigger role than anticipated for the first four months of the season but did not hit enough to keep his roster spot with Story healthy. Despite being a strong defender (+1 DRS) and showing some power (6 homers), Chang hit just .162 with a .552 OPS in 39 games (including 32 starts). He struck out 34 times in 112 plate appearances (30.4%). Before Tuesday’s matchup with the Royals, the Sox officially reinstated Story from the 60-day injured list and cut Chang to clear a 40-man roster spot. Story missed the first 112 games of the season after undergoing offseason elbow surgery.
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Instead of keeping Chang, the Red Sox opted to keep Monday hero Pablo Reyes on their roster. For now, Reyes will back up Story at shortstop (and play a lot in the coming days as Story gets re-acclimated) while getting starts at second against left-handed pitchers in a timeshare with newcomer Luis Urías. Justin Turner will also mix in at second base on days when Cora wants his best offense on the field.
Cora said the decision to cut ties with Chang was made before Reyes went 3-for-4 with a double and a walk-off grand slam Monday night.
“It’s where we’re at roster-wise,” Cora said. “We have to make a move. With Luis and Pablo, we feel comfortable and this is the route we have to go.”
After playing 11 games late last season with the Red Sox after they claimed him on waivers, Chang was non-tendered in November but re-signed with the club on a one-year, $800,000 deal during spring training. Originally a depth add to a middle infield mix that was expected to include Kiké Hernández and Christian Arroyo as starters and Adalberto Mondesí as a utility man, Chang made the Opening Day roster as a backup. By late April, with Hernández’s throwing woes persisting, Chang assumed the starting shortstop role for about 10 days before fracturing his hamate bone on a swing in Baltimore on April 24. He returned on July 7 and has started 19 games at shortstop in the last month, providing sure-handed defense but not much in the way of offense (.180 average in 65 plate appearances).
“He was here to play defense and he played great defense for us,” Cora said. “Offensively, he is who he is. There’s a few things he needs to keep working (on). Pitch recognition and swinging at the right ones. He shows flashes of power and he put good at-bats with men in scoring position and all that stuff. There’s still growing in his game.”
Story will be the seventh different Red Sox player to start at shortstop this season, joining Hernández (54 starts), Chang (30), Reyes (15), David Hamilton (10), Arroyo (2) and Bobby Dalbec (1). Cora believes the former All-Star will bring much-needed stability to the spot.
“If you look at our roster, it’s a different one than early on,” Cora said. “It doesn’t happen often but there’s certain guys that didn’t play well at their positions. Then certain guys played well. We knew Trevor was gonna be part of this at one point. It just happened that we had to make adjustments throughout the process. In a perfect world, it was Kiké and that was it until Trevor came here. But it didn’t work that way.”
Cora believes Chang, who will be exposed to waivers in the coming days, will draw interest from other clubs.
“The front office did an outstanding job in the offseason saying Chang is a big part of what we’re trying to accomplish,” the manager said. “We didn’t see him that often here. He didn’t play that much. He had been with four teams in one year. They always talked about the potential of him being an impactful guy defensively. And he did. Now, we’ve got Trevor. Hopefully, now we can slow it down, he’ll be the guy and we’ll make adjustments at second.
“(Chang)’s a good defender and teams like that. We’ll see how it goes.”
