Jarren Duran optioned to Worcester despite strong spring training performance
Duran batted 6-for-18 in spring training.
Promising Red Sox centerfield prospect Jarren Duran is headed back to Worcester to start the season.
Duran was one of several Red Sox players cut from the spring training roster on Sunday, despite a solid performance — Duran went 6-for-18 at the plate (.333) with a .429 on-base percentage.
Duran raised eyebrows with an impressive run on Sunday when he scored from second base with relative ease, tagging on a fly ball.
After his call-up in July last year, Duran — a seventh-round pick in 2018 — showed some flashes of the skill set that helped propel him up to No. 37 on Baseball America’s list of MLB prospects. Maybe most impressive: His near-inside the park homer, which was later corrected to be a triple and an error.
Still, Duran needed time to adjust to major-league pitching.
“It’s fun and it’s hard at the same time,” Duran said shortly after his call-up. “It’s a mental toll, but it’s fun to know you can come in each day and get better.”
Duran slashed .215/.241/.336 in 33 games and 112 plate appearances at the MLB level. Earlier this month, he said he put a lot of pressure on himself to succeed last season.
“In the big leagues, it just felt like more,” Duran said, per MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. “Instead of taking it as ‘It’s just still a game,’ I took it as, ‘This is the big leagues. I have to be smarter. I can’t play with my hair on fire like I did in Worcester. I can’t scream and yell at my teammates.’ But I can do that. They want me to… I made it way bigger than it needed to be. It’s literally just going out with the same group of guys and having fun.”
Both Connor Wong and Ronaldo Hernández were sent to Worcester as well. Infielder Ryan Fitzgerald — who hit four homers in spring training — was reassigned to minor league camp, along with catchers Roldani Baldwin and Kole Cottam, Roberto Ramos, and right-handed pitchers Silvino Bracho, Taylor Cole, Michael Feliz, Darin Gillies, Geoff Hartlieb, and Zack Kelly.
The Red Sox start their regular season against the Yankees on April 7.
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