The Boston Red Sox haven’t done anything fun before the trade deadline, but they are taking care of business.
Boston has plenty of needs to fill before the deadline hits at 6 p.m. ET on Thursday, including starting pitching, relief help and some sort of upgrade at first base. I don’t know if anyone would place catching depth above any of those options, though, which is likely why the club took an alternate path to fill that void.
The Red Sox reportedly signed catcher Chadwick Tromp, according to Christopher Smith of MassLive. Tromp was seen working pregame with Triple-A Worcester on Tuesday, and since he doesn’t have any options left, is almost certainly on a minor league deal.
Tromp, 30, has played extremely sparingly across stints with the San Francisco Giants, Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles — including just eight games this season split between the latter two teams. Tromp has a career slash line of .221/.230/.390 in 67 total games in the big leagues.
“How does this matter,” you ask?
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It’s an example of covering all bases, as the current depth behind Carlos Narváez and Connor Wong consists of Seby Zavala — who can opt out of his contract on August 28 — and Ronaldo Hernández — who was just demoted to Double-A Portland. Tromp should never make an appearance with the big club, but if things go horrible wrong at the position, at least you won’t have to worry about who to call.
