DETROIT -- Maybe someone should check the trophy case at Fenway Park, just to make sure there’s still something bright and shiny inside declaring the Red Sox the 2013 World Series champions.
Because one by one, the guys who put it there are disappearing into the mist.
The latest to go was first baseman Mike Napoli, who minutes before Friday night’s game against the Detroit Tigers was scratched from the lineup and sent back to Texas, where he likely would have been named World Series MVP in 2011 if the Rangers had won.
Texas, trying to make another run at October, added Napoli as an extra right-handed bat, hoping that his recent revival at the plate is more reflective of what he might do for them down the stretch than the nearly four months in which Napoli’s batting average hovered around .200.
The Red Sox, meanwhile, trying to avoid their third last-place finish in the past four years, did a good turn for Napoli by giving him a chance, as GM Ben Cherington said Friday night, to “play some meaningful games”, while also giving themselves a chance to figure out who will be playing first base next season.
Rookie Travis Shaw, who has played both corner infield spots since his call up and made some good contact at the plate, will get plenty of playing time, manager John Farrell said Friday night. Cherington also said it was “likely” that the all-but-forgotten Allen Craig, who came in the John Lackey deal last year but was outrighted to Pawtucket earlier this season, will get another look on the big league level.
“I haven’t had a chance to talk to John [Farrell] about a roster move,” Cherington said, “but at some point I would expect it likely Allen would get another opportunity.’’
Cherington all but ruled out that the Sox will experiment with either Pablo Sandoval or Hanley Ramirez at first base. “I think that’s unlikely,’’ he said in a conference call with reporters.
That is consistent with what Cherington said earlier this week in New York, where he said the club’s priority was to get improved play from Sandoval and Ramirez at their current positions, third base and left field.
Cherington said once Napoli cleared waivers earlier in the week, the Sox reached out to several of the teams with whom they had been discussing Napoli prior to the trading deadline. The deal he made with the Rangers, the Sox sending Napoli plus cash to help pay for the estimated $5.2 million left on Napoli’s contract for a player to be named later or cash considerations, was better than anything he had at the deadline, he said.
Of the players who were on the World Series roster in 2013, only eight remain: David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Koji Uehara, Junichi Tazawa, Craig Breslow, Xander Bogaerts, Clay Buchholz and Brandon Workman. Napoli joins Shane Victorino as the most recent players to depart, both of whom having made huge contributions to Boston’s success in 2013 but have been struggling in subsequent years.
Napoli’s signature moment came here in 2013, when he hit a home run off Tigers ace Justin Verlander that was the only run in Boston’s 1-0 win over Detroit in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. He was even prouder of his base-running in Game 5, when he smartly advanced from second to third on a chopper to the mound, then scored on a wild pitch. That run proved to be the difference in Boston’s 4-3 win.
Buchholz had a chance to speak with Napoli before he departed the clubhouse bound for Seattle, where the Rangers are playing the Mariners.
“He’s a baseball player, he knows most of it is a business,’’ Buchholz said. “He’s going to have fun regardless of where he’s at. He’s just that kind of personality. He’s easy to get along with, an easy guy to follow and that’s what he’s done here the last three years.
“He was a good guy to have in the clubhouse, regardless of what the team was doing. He was someone you could look to give guidance, whether young kids or veteran guys scuffling, he was a guy you talked to. Texas knows what they’re getting. That’s part of it.’’
