Taking Chance On Ex-Yankees Star May Make Sense For Red Sox Depth After Rough Start

Should the Red Sox take a chance on the former Yankee star?

The Boston Red Sox's depth already has taken a hit. 

Boston's infield appeared to be thin after losing Xander Bogaerts in free agency to the San Diego Padres but the club couldn't predict how thin things actually would become. The Red Sox lost second baseman Trevor Story to an elbow injury and he will miss at least half of the 2023 campaign. 

The Red Sox acquired infielder Adalberto Mondesi from the Kansas City Royals in exchange for reliever Josh Taylor but the speedster was placed on the 60-day injured list as he continues to recover from surgery to repair a torn ACL in his knee. Boston entered the 2023 campaign with Enrique Hernandez as the team's everyday shortstop and Christian Arroyo at second base and both have gotten off to extremely slow starts.

Hernandez enters Wednesday's contest against the Tampa Bay Rays sporting an abysmal .087 batting average to go along with five errors at shortstop. Arroyo has been impressive defensively but has a .176 batting average in 11 games. Boston has Yu Chang on the roster as a bench option and Bobby Dalbec will see time across the infield for the club this season, but it couldn't hurt to add another minor-league depth option. 

Boston has Enmanuel Valdez and David Hamilton on the 40-man roster playing with the Worcester Red Sox, but neither has seen time at the big league level. One player the Red Sox could target that could provide more veteran depth at the minor league level would be former New York Yankees star, Robinson Cano. 

Cano is 40-years-old, but still played in the big leagues in 2022. The eight-time All-Star struggled and split time between the New York Mets, San Diego Padres, and Atlanta Braves, but is a 17-year veteran who could give the Red Sox another depth option just in case more injuries pop up. When Mondesi can return, he likely will take over the team's starting second base job. But, the infield is unclear due to the recent injury to Adam Duvall. Hernandez's role with the Red Sox is in flux so adding another infielder with big league experience could help. 

The 40-year-old isn't currently playing for a club, but did play for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic and showed some flashes. Cano no longer is a starting MLB second baseman, but if he's still looking to play, adding him on a minor league deal to Triple-A and seeing if he can impress wouldn't hurt. Boston could use another infielder and there aren't many available as free agents at this time. A move may not happen and if it were to ever happen probably should've been years ago, but Cano is someone to look out for if Boston wants to add more minor-league depth. 

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