Bobby Dalbec is a very good athlete, and it appears the Boston Red Sox will try to take advantage of that in 2022.
The young slugger has spent the majority of his big league career at first base -- after coming up as a third baseman -- and the team will now give him a spin at second base and outfield during spring training, manager Alex Cora said Thursday.
It's actually not an entirely new concept. Dalbec took grounders at second base late last season, and Cora mentioned it was something they were toying with, just in case.
Dalbec, who also pitched during his college career at Arizona, is an intriguing player to watch during the team's abbreviated stint in Florida. The idea of working him in at second base would have made plenty of sense had Boston landed free agent first baseman Freddie Freeman before he reportedly agreed to a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
That doesn't mean it's not still worth seeing what Dalbec can do at second. Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom on Wednesday sounded like someone who wasn't ready to stop looking for ways to upgrade his roster, especially as the rest of the American League East loads up.
Maximizing Dalbec's versatility would allow the Red Sox to get more creative with how they look at potential upgrades -- from either inside or outside the organization. There's not much left to the group of free agent corner infielders, but the trade market has been fairly robust. Or here's another potential scenario: What happens if prospect Triston Casas has a great spring and proves he's ready for the big leagues?
For now, those are just hypotheticals but are examples of how expanded versatility for a player like Dalbec could benefit both the team and the player.
