Who's on Third?

By Scoop Fox

And so the the MLB non-waiver trade deadline came and went. Boston got the player that they wanted in Jake Peavy to bolster a rotation that has been hit by injuries. To get Peavy, they had to part ways with their young infielder, Jose Iglesias. Because of that, there's a gaping hole over at third. So now, the question looms: who is the man for the Sox' hot corner?

For the most part of the season, the Red Sox 3B was Will Middlebrooks. In 53 games this season, he played 461.1 innings with 29 putouts, 94 assists, and 8 errors for a fielding percentage of .939. However due to injuries and a bad slump, he was sent down to Pawtucket. During that same stretch, the Red Sox have plugged in the following players at third:

• Jose Iglesias: 34 games (279.0 innings, 19 putouts, 56 assists, 3 errors, 1.000 Fielding Percentage) 
• Brandon Snyder: 13 games (81.1 innings, 5 putouts, 22 assists, 1 errors, .964 Fielding Percentage) 
• Brock Holt: 10 games (75.2 innings, 8 putouts, 14 assists, 1 error, .957 Fielding Percentage)
• Pedro Ciriaco: 10 games (56.0 innings, 3 putouts, 11 assists, 4 errors, .778 Fielding Percentage) 
• Jonathan Diaz: 3 games (12.0 innings, 2 putouts, 3 assists, 0 errors, 1.000 Fielding Percentage)

Now with Ciriaco in San Diego and Jose Iglesias with the Detroit Tigers, the Red Sox are left without an everyday third baseman. Interestingly enough, in more recent action, the PawSox had Xander Bogaerts playing the hot corner. In five games there, Boagerts had 4 putouts and 3 assists with zero errors, giving him a fielding percentage of 1.000%. However that is still  much too small of a sample size.

So what do the Red Sox do? Do they go back to Middlebrooks? Do they roll the dice and stick Bogaerts in? Or do they try and go out and make a waiver wire trade for somebody else's leftovers? The only ones who know are the Red Sox brass. Whatever decision they make, they will have to stick with it.

This is Scoop Fox, signing off.