Bobby Dalbec At Shortstop? Red Sox Manager Alex Cora ‘Liked What I Saw’

The Red Sox are thin in the infield as COVID-19 has run through the Boston clubhouse over the past five days.

Xander Bogaerts, Kiké Hernández, Christian Arroyo and Yairo Muñoz are among the infected players. The Red Sox claimed versatile infielder Taylor Motter on Thursday, but he needs to clear COVID-19 protocols before he joins the team.

So with Boston perhaps needing to shuffle things around, Alex Cora revealed on WEEI that he’d consider a position switch for Rafael Devers and Bobby Dalbec should they need to pinch-hit for Jonathan Araúz or Jack López. The Red Sox manager further elaborated before Boston’s finale against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday night.

“We have to be open-minded with Raffy and Bobby,” Cora told reporters. “Just one of those, if we hit for one of those kids who’s gonna play up the middle. We talked about Raffy, he plays there in the shift, when Bobby plays third base he plays there in the shift, so I told him to get some ground balls at short. Actually he was pretty good. He was actually good at short the way he moves is very similar to the way he moves at first base. I liked what I saw.”

We’ll have to wait and see if either Devers or Dalbec will find themselves in unfamiliar territory as the Red Sox wait to get healthy.