Dip into Triple-a depth reveals an improved Cordero
Is there anyone else down in Triple-a Worcester who might be worthy of a look?
Thus far, the Woo Sox have a perfect record of sending up players who look as able, if not even better-suited to make contributions than some of the guys on the big league team.
Tuesday night, it was Franchy Cordero, Tyler Danish and John Schreiber who played key roles in the Sox’ 9-4 win over the Atlanta Braves.
Cordero was on base three times with three walks. Danish got the win after relieving a struggling Garrett Whitlock in the fourth inning and throwing two scoreless frames. Schreiber got the save with scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth.
These are three guys who were in Triple-a a week or two ago.
The Red Sox haven’t been willing to give any of their prospects a try just yet — Chaim Bloom indicated on Saturday that it’s too soon to think about Triston Casas’ promotion, despite his .373 on-base percentage and six home runs — but at least the Sox have started to show the willingness to shuffle the roster in other ways.
Cordero wasn’t expected to do much this year, but suddenly looks like a player who can control the strikezone and do it from a position that has been killing this team.
At first base, the Sox entered the Atlanta series with a 30th-ranked .129 batting average, 30th-ranked .195 on-base percentage, 30th-ranked .190 slugging percentage, and a 30th-ranked negative-four defensive runs saved.
Cordero probably won’t help much on defense, and he may have actually hurt the Sox when he couldn’t come up with a hot shot off the bat of Matt Olson that led to a Braves run in the seventh inning. But at the plate, he offered something out of character for him: a cautious and calculated approach.
His first time up, he walked on four pitches, one of which was a first-pitch curveball on the outer edge of the plate, a pitch that others in this Red Sox’ lineup probably would’ve swung at and rolled over for a groundball to the shortstop. But Cordero laid off, took his free pass and then walked two more times in the game.
Cordero is the first Red Sox first baseman to reach safely three times in a game this year.
It’s particularly notable given how poorly Cordero has been at handling the strike zone. He chased 33% of the pitches he saw outside of the strikezone last year, but that rate has fallen to 24% entering Tuesday, and soon to fall even further after his threewalk game.
If Cordero can offer the Sox anything at first base, it’d be an upgrade from what they’ve gotten. And it could potentially start to even the scale for Bloom, who traded Andrew Benintendi to acquire Cordero, only to watch him hit .189 with a stunning 51 strikeouts in just 136 plate appearances a year ago. This year, Benintendi is hitting .330 with the Royals.