Red Sox Demote Starting Shortstop With MLB Lead In Errors To Utility Role
Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora confirmed to reporters on Tuesday that Kiké Hernández will no longer be the club's everyday starting shortstop.
The expectation is that Pablo Reyes and Yu Chang -- when he returns -- will get the bulk of the starts moving forward until Trevor Story makes his long-awaited season debut. Hernández will be primarily used as a second baseman and center fielder.
To say this move was very much needed for the Sox would be the understatement of the century.
To start the 2023 campaign, Hernández leads Major League Baseball in errors with 14. That's in just 52 games played at short, resulting in a whopping error for every 3.7 games played at the most important spot in the infield.
After Xander Bogaerts signed a massive 11-year, $280 million deal with the Padres in December, the Sox were left with very big shoes to fill. The team would soon after determine that Story required right elbow surgery, and all of a sudden Hernández was awarded the everyday shortstop role.
Hernández quickly reminded the public of the few highlights he's made in his career at short with a tweet showcasing some flashy plays from his new position.
Instead of getting more comfortable with his new role in spring training, he elected to play center field for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic. Who knows the difference those couple of weeks could have made, but it might have been a better idea.
Hernández had only made 64 career starts at shortstop before this season. That amounts to just 9% of his total starts for his nine-year career ahead of 2023.
It's been very clear just two months into this experiment that Hernández was not the right man for the job. Making 14 errors by June 13 is one thing, the magnitude of those errors is a whole other situation.
It felt like more often than not a Hernández error would directly lead to a Red Sox loss. Just last night Hernández's most recent error led to the Colorado Rockies' first run of the night. The game was decided in extra innings so you can argue that error cost the Sox yet another possible win. In a 33-34 season so far, this team can't afford to be making those rookie-level mistakes.
I had expected this move would eventually come, but I'm very interested to see how he handles returning to the role that he is best suited for, a utility man. Once you get a taste of starting every day, I can't think it's a ton of fun to be shifted to a bench player who has no clue what position or situation he will be needed in each night.
Now we will see if Hernández is up to the challenge, or if he can't wait to get the chance to be an everyday starter somewhere else after his contract expires at the end of this season.
More MLB: Recently Released Red Sox Outfielder Quickly Signs With New Team
