Red Sox waiting to make position switch for Yoan Moncada
The second baseman is being brought along slowly.
According to GM Mike Hazen, top Red Sox prospect Yoan Moncada will remain at second base for the time being.
Moncada, whom the Red Sox signed with a $31.5 million signing bonus in February of 2015, is currently playing for the Red Sox ‘Double A affiliate Portland Sea Dogs. He is hitting .325 with five home runs over 20 games in Portland, and has stolen base successfully 43 of 52 times over his time between Greenville and Portland – the skill that may get him called up to the big leagues sooner rather than later.
Talk surrounding Moncada has begun to center around his future position, with Dustin Pedroia still producing at second and newly acquired Aaron Hill filling in for the immediate future. While most agree that Moncada would be most effectively used elsewhere, Hazen says that Moncada needs to settle in at his current position before learning a new one.
“We want him to get comfortable at second base,” Hazen told reporters, via WEEI.com.”He’s showing very well at second base right now. He’s developing at Double-A. We want him to go day in and day out, learn a position, master a position. We’ll tackle that as we need to.”
The GM’s stance hasn’t changed since spring training, when he said, “No. 1, we have to make sure the base position is always taken care of first. So we won’t just rush into a decision to move a guy around until the base position is in a good spot.”
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