3 Red Sox most likely to get DFA’d or sent down with Garrett Cooper joining team

The Boston Red Sox have found their Triston Casas replacement. With Casas set to miss substantial time with a rib injury, the Red Sox made a trade with the Chicago Cubs, acquiring the recently DFA'd Garrett Cooper.

No, Cooper is not the player Casas is or a player making a lot of money, but he's a solid fill-in option. When healthy, he's always been a slightly above-average hitter. He was in a small sample this season too before the Cubs DFA'd him.

The arrival of Cooper means someone has to go. The Red Sox moved Casas to the 60-day IL to create room on the 40-man roster, but they still have to add Cooper to the 26-man active roster. These three players are most likely to get sent down when the Red Sox add Cooper to the roster.

3) David Hamilton has already lost his starting job

The Red Sox have been ravaged by injuries so far this season. Not only is Casas out for a substantial period of time, but they already lost Trevor Story to a season-ending shoulder injury.

With Story out for the year, the Red Sox turned to David Hamilton to take over as the team's primary shortstop. That experiment did not last long at all.

The 26-year-old is slashing .211/.286/.316 with one home run and two RBI in his 38 at-bats. He showed last season that he couldn't hit MLB pitching, and all he's done in his limited chances this season is prove that he's still just a subpar hitter. With Hamilton struggling, the Red Sox moved Ceddanne Rafaela to the shortstop position where he has started each of the last eight games.

With Hamilton pinned to the bench, the team could easily send him down, but the fact that he's a middle infielder makes it more likely that he stays up in the majors for now.

2) Pablo Reyes could be DFA'd now that Garrett Cooper is joining the team

Pablo Reyes was a player that the Red Sox acquired in mid-May of last season as the Red Sox were dealing with a bunch of injuries and he performed admirably. He didn't hit for much power but had a .287 batting average and saw time at all four infield positions.

Reyes got off to a great start last season but cooled off as the season progressed and has taken those struggles into the 2024 campaign. The 30-year-old is slashing .183/.234/.217 without a home run and with five RBI in 21 games and 64 plate appearances.

Outside of a hot streak that began his tenure with the Red Sox, Reyes has shown very little over the course of the parts of the six MLB seasons he has participated in to show that he's irreplaceable.

The fact that Reyes is so versatile and that he's out of options could allow him to stay with the team, but the reality is he's really nothing more than a low-end bench player. If he isn't DFA'd now, there's a good chance it'll happen at some point this season.

1) Bobby Dalbec should be sent down with Garrett Cooper joining the team

Casas suffering the injury meant that Bobby Dalbec was going to get another chance as a starter. He has started five of the six games at first base since Casas went down and has actually performed admirably, recording five hits in 17 at-bats in those games.

The problem with Dalbec is that this recent stretch of him being productive has boosted his slash line to .128/.180/.170. He has just four RBI on the season with two of them coming against a position player in Saturday's 17-0 win.

Dalbec has fanned 24 times in 51 plate appearances. Nearly half the time. He has a total of two extra-base hits with one of them coming against that same position player. It simply hasn't worked. It hasn't worked in four of his five MLB seasons for Dalbec at the MLB level.

He can provide a little bit of versatility with the ability to play a couple of other infield positions, but the reality is that Dalbec shouldn't be playing at all. Perhaps some regular at-bats in the minors will help him figure out a way to make more consistent contact and rediscover his power. It certainly couldn't hurt.