Typically you don’t see established big league veterans traveling on road trips much in the Grapefruit League. The spring training sites are spread out all across Florida, often necessitating long bus rides that routinely top two hours.
Yet even with the Red Sox making a 90-minute drive up I-75 to Sarasota, Alex Bregman made a point to take the trip.
The 30-year-old veteran was in the starting lineup for the Red Sox on Monday against the Baltimore Orioles, a lineup that otherwise consisted of second baseman Vaughn Grissom, shortstop David Hamilton, catcher Connor Wong and a collection of prospects, bench players and non-roster invitees.
Bregman said on the ESPN broadcast that he wanted to keep getting to know the club’s younger players, and manager Alex Cora told reporters prior to the game that Bregman had volunteered to make the trip.
“We talked about it like two days ago,” Cora said, according to MLB.com’s Ian Browne. “He’s like, ‘I want to go. I want to be around the kids.’ Baltimore, too. ESPN [game also], so just kind of give everything to everybody, right?”
Prior to his arrival Bregman was renowned as a clubhouse leader, and ever since he signed with Boston he’s made a concerted effort to work with the club’s top prospects. His locker in Fort Myers is right next to Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell, and the trio have spoken on numerous occasions how the two-time All-Star taken an interest in their development and offered pointers on how they might succeed at the big league level.
Bregman served as the designated hitter and wound up going 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout in the eventual 6-6 tie.
Monday wasn’t shaping up to be a banner day, but the Red Sox rallied from being down 5-0 in the top of the seventh to pull out the draw. All of Boston’s offense came via a trio of two-run home runs, including ones by Abraham Toro and Nathan Hickey in the seventh and a third by Nick Sogard in the eighth to tie the score.
The game wound up ending in a draw after Jhostynxon Garcia doubled up a runner at second on a line drive putout in center field to end the bottom of the ninth.
Top Red Sox prospect Kristian Campbell has struggled through the first week or so of Grapefruit League play, but he finally broke through for his first hit on Monday, knocking a leadoff single to right field to start the top of the fourth.
All told Campbell went 1 for 3 with a strikeout after getting the start in left field. Fellow prospect Marcelo Mayer went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and an error after starting at third base, and Garcia went 0 for 2 after subbing in at center field.
Veteran reliever Adam Ottavino made his spring debut on Monday, posting a scoreless bottom of the third with two strikeouts. Ottavino previously pitched with the Red Sox in 2021 and was one of the club’s top relievers that season, and now after returning to Boston on a minor league deal the 39-year-old right-hander is looking to earn his way back into the big league bullpen.
Hunter Dobbins made his second start of the spring, allowing two runs (one earned) on two hits and a walk over two innings. Dobbins allowed a solo home run to Adley Rutschman in the first and a sacrifice fly to Luis Vazquez in the second.
Josh Winckowski allowed three runs on four hits and two walks over his two innings, Sean Newcomb allowed one run over two innings and Noah Davis posted two scoreless with no hits, no walks and a strikeout.
Roman Anthony was originally expected to lead off and play center field on Monday before being scratched shortly before first pitch. According to MLB.com’s Ian Browne, Anthony wasn’t feeling well and was given the day off.
Cora also provided an update on outfielder Wilyer Abreu.
“Swinging already. He’s up to 40 swings, I think it is. And then he’s playing catch today. So little by little, he’s getting there,” Cora told Browne. “We’ll see where he is physically. We can help him with at-bats, with Trajekt and Minor League at-bats and all that. I think the physical part of it, he lost a little bit, lost some mass, hopefully he can regain that and be ready.”
Abreu was recently cleared to resume baseball activities after missing the first two weeks of camp with a viral gastrointestinal illness.
MLB and Apple announced their Friday Night Baseball matchups on Apple TV+ through the end of June, and the Red Sox will be featured on the streaming platform twice in the first half. The first game will be at the Cleveland Guardians on Friday, April 25, and the second will be the following month at the Atlanta Braves on Friday, May 30.
Both games are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Apple TV+ is available for $9.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers.
The Red Sox will hit the road again Tuesday to face the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton. Quinn Priester is scheduled to start for the Red Sox against Pittsburgh’s Andrew Heaney, and Michael Fulmer, Luis Guerrero, Justin Slaten and Jacob Webb are all expected to take the mound for Boston as well.
First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on NESN, NESN 360 and WEEI 850 AM.