Boston Red Sox roster: José Iglesias was extremely important to the Red Sox

The Red Sox had to spend the past few weeks adjusting on the fly and trying to counter every unexpected loss as COVID began to spread through their clubhouse. With one of the worst epidemics the league has seen all year, the Boston management team was constantly on high alert and it seemed every day there were long lists of roster changes, to the point where frankly , here at OTM, literally couldn’t keep up. And the outbreak has touched every area of ​​the roster, with the rotation requiring reinforcements like Kutter Crawford and Connor Seabold while the reliever box turned to players like Brad Peacock and Stephen Gonsalves, among others.

But daily programming has also been affected, which could be the most egregious consequences of the outbreak. With Christian Arroyo and Xander Bogaerts on the COVID list – and Arroyo continues to work his way back despite being one of the first to be taken off the list – the middle infield was a mess. For a good part of the time, Jonathan Araúz and Jack López took care of it, and they actually performed admirably. But with some luck, former Sox prospect José Iglesias was released, and Boston had the opportunity to add a great, experienced player to their roster.

There weren’t many expectations for Iglesias, whose offense grew to the point where he was able to stay in the league for nearly a decade, but still below par almost every year. And this year with the Angels, he landed an 84 wRC + before being released, meaning he was 16% worse than the league average hitter. Boston wasn’t looking for an offensive savior, or really a savior at all. They were just trying another route to maybe get some sweetness before their list came back.

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But what they’ve gotten is actually one of their most valuable players in this streak. Now, given that we are talking about a small sample of 10 games, we certainly don’t read any of these productions as indicating long-term success, but rather note what they delivered in those 10 games. And that’s a shocking performance with the bat. In 26 home plate appearances, Iglesias had 10 hits, including three for extra goals with a homerun and two walks. This is in addition to a 213 wRC + (again, no one thinks this is sustainable) as he shows better discipline at home since arriving as well as an unexpected ability to keep the ball in the air.

And while Iglesias’ offense has been incredibly surprising and very helpful at the bottom of the order to set the table for the top of the roster, what he did for the defense was perhaps just as important. . Iglesias, as most who follow the league know, is one of the top two or three defensive players in the league, or at least he had been for most of his career. He’s taken a step back this year (not surprisingly considering he’s on the wrong side of the 30s at this point), but the talent is still there. And we saw him both at shortstop and second base, where his insanely fast hands form a truly intriguing double play combo with Bogaerts.

Beyond his own individual contributions with the glove, his mere presence improved the entire defense, including in the outfield. Since Cora can be confident that Iglesias will be good at bats most of the time right now and providing a solid defense in the middle, he doesn’t have to play with the idea of ​​putting Kiké Hernández on second base to consolidate this place, leaving Alex Verdugo to play in the center. We have seen too many times recently that this is a losing recipe. With Araúz and / or López in the middle of the infield, it may be easier to convince yourself to live with Verdugo in the middle. The arrival and production of Iglesias makes this untenable, as it should be.

Iglesias is not eligible for the playoff roster, which nobody really expected him to care too much about when he signed, but now it’s something to matter. Alex Cora will have an interesting decision to make when Arroyo returns – which could be as early as today after his second appearance in rehab in Worcester on Friday – as to whether to stay with his warm hand in Iglesias as ‘they’re trying to lock in a playoff spot or to give Arroyo time to prepare him for the playoffs. I’m not sure what the right balance is, but I do know Iglesias did his job and that’s a surprisingly big reason the Red Sox were able to stay above the water in the midst of this outbreak of COVID.