Red Sox Release 29-Year-Old Gold Glover As Opening Day Arrives

The rough injury luck continued and the Sox had to move on

May 10, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; A general view of a Boston Red Sox's cap and glove on the field before a game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter Aiken-Imagn Images | Peter Aiken-Imagn Images

What began as a highly intriguing minor-league deal ended with a dissatisfying conclusion between Brendan Rodgers and the Boston Red Sox.

Rodgers, the former Gold Glove-winning second baseman with the Colorado Rockies, came to the Red Sox after a rough, injury-shortened season with the Houston Astros. He was hoping to compete for a spot on the opening day roster, but a shoulder injury sustained while diving for a ball in a spring training game on Feb. 25 required surgery to fix.

With the very strong possibility that Rodgers would miss the entire season it made little sense for the Red Sox to keep him around. He was released on Tuesday, according to the official transactions log, though the transaction was not reflected until Wednesday.

Rodgers' run of tough luck continues in brief Sox tenure

May 18, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Houston Astros second base Brendan Rodgers (1) throws to first base during the second inning against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-Imagn Images | Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

At age 29, Rodgers was entering what he hoped would be his eighth season in Major League Baseball. Many know him best as the third-overall pick in the 2015 draft, just after Dansby Swanson and Alex Bregman, who teamed up on the Chicago Cubs this offseason when the latter left Boston.

Rodgers has never played more than 137 games in a season, and has only reached the 100 mark three times. His Gold Glove campaign in 2022 was easily his best work in the majors, as he posted a .733 OPS and 22 defensive runs saved, but a similar shoulder injury from spring training cost him most of 2023, and his defense regressed in 2024.

Last year, while rehabbing an oblique strain suffered in the majors with Houston, he got into a nasty collision while on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Sugar Land that resulted in a concussion, a broken nose, and more injuries still.

Then, there was the shoulder injury this year: a torn labrum and chipped bone, which seems to have set his return to the majors back until the start of next season at the earliest.

"It wasn’t even impact, man,” Rodgers told Peter Abraham and Tim Healey of The Boston Globe. “I was just reaching for the ball [while on the ground after a dive] and put my hand down and I guess the perfect angle, the perfect amount of pressure. (The shoulder) just slid out a little.”

Red Sox fans can cross their fingers and hope Rodgers eventually finds another opportunity, perhaps even with Boston next spring. But this contract unfortunately didn't work out the way anyone would have hoped.