ATLANTA — The Red Sox’ uncertain mix at the first base position will become even more crowded in the next few days.
With Kristian Campbell scheduled to make his first base debut Sunday against the Braves and Romy Gonzalez (out since May 8 with a left quad contusion) set to be activated in the coming days, Alex Cora will have a deep menu of imperfect options at his disposal as the Red Sox try to find the best long-term fit to replace Triston Casas. For now, they’re mixing and matching on a daily basis but hope that someone will emerge as the primary option — while still remaining pessimistic that Rafael Devers will emerge as a realistic option.
“I think there’s a bunch of ways we can address this and I think we need to be open to any of those,” chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said Saturday. “Right now, (Abraham) Toro’s playing really well there. We’ll get a look at Kristian there. Our hope is somebody will step in and be able to nail that down, but as we’ve seen on the pitching side, some of maximizing our roster is having to move some guys around.”
When Casas first went down with a torn patellar tendon in his left knee on May 2, the Red Sox immediately identified Gonzalez — Casas’ platoon partner early in the year — as the main replacement. But less than a week later, in a first base collision of his own, Gonzalez got hurt. He has taken much longer than the Red Sox expected but is on the verge of returning. Gonzalez began a Triple-A rehab assignment Saturday at first base, will be the WooSox’ designated hitter Sunday and may be back with the Red Sox as soon as Monday when they open a three-game homestand against the Angels.
“If everything goes well, he should be back with us early next week,” Cora said.
Since Gonzalez went down, the Red Sox have split first base between two switch-hitters: veteran Abraham Toro and call-up Nick Sogard. Entering Saturday, Toro and Sogard have each made 11 starts at first. But Toro, who has hit .400 in his last eight games and now has a .294 average and .843 OPS after a three-hit showing Friday, has pulled ahead. Saturday marks his fifth start in six days.
“K.C. is playing tomorrow,. Toro’s playing today. We’ll see who plays Monday. We’ll mix and match,” Cora said. “Toro is playing excellent right now. He’s swinging the bat well. He’s a quality at-bat. He doesn’t rush into the at-bat. He takes pitches and he’s doing well.”
It appears Sogard, who has a career .634 OPS in 45 big league games, will be the odd man out when Gonzalez is activated. The Sox could then platoon Gonzalez and Toro (who is better against righties throughout his career) in the near-term. The wild card, however, is Campbell, who will take on the challenge of playing a fourth position as a rookie when he takes over at first on Sunday. The impetus for beginning Campbell’s workouts at first base was to potentially open second base for Marcelo Mayer. Now, with Mayer playing third every day in the wake of Alex Bregman’s injury, it’s David Hamilton who will benefit from playing time at second when Cmapbell plays first.
“It’s not a given (Campbell) is going to play every game over there, especially with where we’re at right now,“ Cora said. ”With Alex’s injury, Marcelo will take most of the innings at third base. We’ve still got a decision when Romy comes back. But we’ll mix and match. Having Romy available is going to help us early in the game if we have to pinch-hit and do all that stuff.”
