News and notes from around Red Sox Nation.
Trevor Story is back on the field — during batting practice, anyway. The injured shortstop took some grounders at Fenway before Monday’s game against the Texas Rangers and launched a few balls over the monster (hey! that’s us!). The next step will be facing increasingly faster pitching; he remains a long-shot to return in time to make a difference. (Julian Benbow, Boston Globe)
Triston Casas will return to the Red Sox much sooner than Story — possibly as early as this weekend for the series against the Orioles. Tyler O’Neill and Cooper Criswell, though, are still struggling with a leg infection and COVID, respectively. (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)
Maybe Casas is just taking his time because he wants a chance to hang with the Big Three down in Worcester. Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, and Kyle Teel are thrilled to have been promoted together, even if there’s still more development ahead of them. (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)
Unfortunately, though, everyone I just named is more likely to return to the Sox this year than James Paxton, who was the team’s sole starting pitching acquisition at the trade deadline. (Rob Bradford, WEEI)
We know one guy who is definitely not excited to play with the Big Three: Reese McGuire. McGuire seems seriously aggrieved by Craig Breslow’s decision to trade for Danny Jansen, which led to McGuire’s demotion. (Christopher Smith, MassLive)
I’m sure prospect Kristian Campbell would be thrilled to take Reese’s roster spot in Worcester. Roman Anthony would probably be thrilled about that, too, since he’s likened Campbell to Barry Bonds. Seriously. (Christopher Smith, MassLive)
But if we’re going to call anyone Barry Bonds, it should be Mickey Gasper, who is currently sporting an OBP of 1.000. Sure, he accumulated that OBP via just a single walk, but what a walk it was! (Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic)
And finally, one more twist in the Jarren Duran saga. On Monday night, Gabrielle Starr of the Boston Herald tweeted that Boston mayor Michelle Wu had reached out to the Red Sox requesting a meeting about the incident in which Duran directed a homophobic slur at a fan. If it seemed strange to you that the mayor would get involved in this, that’s because she didn’t. Wu’s office denied the report, saying “[w]e don’t think the reporter had a real source because that information was completely made up.” Starr deleted the tweet but has not addressed it. (Patriot Ledger)