Enmanuel Valdez’s flight was delayed when he got the call that changed his life.
Held back an extra day in Worcester, the Red Sox prospect was trying to rejoin his WooSox teammates on their road trip to Lehigh Valley when he was told he’d be needed at Fenway Park in Boston instead.
“The first person I called was my dad,” Valdez said via translator Carlos Villoria Benítez. “I got to tell him the news that finally today my dream is going to come true and I’m going to be able to play a major league game for the Boston Red Sox.”
Valdez, the No. 17 prospect in the Red Sox organization according to MLB Pipeline, made his MLB debut for the Red Sox on Wednesday night against the Minnesota Twins. The 24-year-old slugger batted ninth and played second base, filling in while Christian Arroyo continued recovering from hamstring tightness and while Yu Chang was out on paternity leave.
Originally acquired in exchange for Christian Vazquez at last summer’s trade deadline, Valdez had a chance to meet the former Red Sox and current Twins catcher on the field during batting practice. The lefty-hitting utility man is renowned for his big bat and last season he batted .296 with 28 home runs with 107 RBI in 126 games split between the Houston Astros and Red Sox organizations.
“He controls the strike zone,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora prior to the game. “He might swing at every pitch today, it’s his big league debut, but he’s got some power, good pitch recognition, he’s a good hitter.”
Though Valdez has played all over the field throughout his minor league career, he primarily plays second base and could conceivably have an opportunity to stick with the big league club at the position if he’s able to hit anywhere near as well as he has in the minors.
While defense isn’t considered Valdez’s strong suit, he said second base is his natural position and he spent the offseason working with Red Sox third base coach Carlos Febles in the Dominican Republic to improve that part of his game.
“I’ve been getting better on the defensive side of the ball and that’s one thing I’ve been working really hard on the past few months,” Valdez said. “Thank god my work paid off and I’m here.”
Though Valdez’s family couldn’t make it up to Boston in time to see his debut in person, he said telling them he’d been called up was a great moment and that he wakes up every day to play and provide for them.
But speaking to his father, the message was clear. This is only the beginning.
“He told me finally we made it but now is when the real work starts,” Valdez said.
Days earlier it wasn’t clear if Kutter Crawford would be staying with the big league club at all. He’d already been sent down to Triple-A once the prior week to clear space for Garrett Whitlock, only to turn right back around after Zack Kelly got hurt in Tampa Bay.
This time, when Brayan Bello was activated for his season debut on Monday, the Red Sox not only kept Crawford around but gave him the ball after rain cut Bello’s outing short.
For a young pitcher still working to carve out his place, that faith isn’t something to be taken for granted.
“It means a lot,” Crawford said. “Obviously I’m not getting comfortable by no means, but it does mean a lot to see the success I’ve been having after my rough first start, but being able to bounce back and have a few good outings, it means a lot.”
Since allowing seven runs in his season debut Crawford has been terrific, giving up just two runs over 14.1 innings across his last three outings. He was especially good on Monday, pitching 6.1 scoreless innings out of the bullpen to give the Red Sox offense a chance to fight back late.
“The rain delay honestly helped me out because you had the hour delay or whatever it was, so I almost took that time to prepare almost like it was a start,” Crawford said. “In regards to pitching on Marathon Monday, there was a little extra motivation for sure because that day means a lot to the people of Boston. I watched the Netflix documentary this past weekend, and that might have given me more motivation to throw really well.”
Pitching in the traditional Marathon Monday matinee wasn’t the only memory Crawford made this week. Due to a bizarre confluence of factors that led to Boston losing the DH, Crawford was called upon to serve as the “ghost runner” to start the 10th inning of Tuesday’s eventual 5-4 win.
Crawford said it was the first time he’s run the bases in seven years, and he joked afterwards he might need to get the scorecard framed after he scored his first career run.
“The only thing going through my mind was to not get picked off and don’t do anything stupid,” Crawford said. “It was pretty cool, honestly, it was a pretty cool experience to run the bases.”
The mystery surrounding Zack Kelly’s balky elbow has finally been solved.
The good news? The Red Sox rookie will not need Tommy John surgery.
The bad news? He’s still going to be out for a while.
Though Kelly’s ulnar collateral ligament and internal brace from a previous surgery are intact, he needs to undergo ulnar nerve transposition, a procedure that will likely sideline Kelly for most, if not all, of the season. A date for the surgery has not yet been set.
According to Cooper University Health Care, ulnar nerve transposition is surgery to relieve pressure on one of the three main nerves (ulnar) in the arm by moving it from behind the elbow to the front. The procedure is done to relieve numbness and tingling in the ring and small finger and tenderness near the “funny bone.”
The outcome is likely a best-case-scenario for Kelly, who previously underwent internal bracing surgery in 2020 and who was highly emotional on the mound after fearing he’d blown out his elbow last week in Tampa Bay. The former Division 2 college pitcher had already overcome considerable odds to reach the big leagues, and since making his MLB debut last September Kelly has posted a 3.86 ERA in 19 appearances.