Keep an eye on the catcher’s position this weekend in The Bronx.
You’re bound to hear groans if Adley Rutschman performs well.
After all, the Red Sox beat out the catching-in-need Yankees for the three-time All-Star and former Orioles backstop before the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
“It’s an important addition. He’s a leader behind the plate, he’s a three-time All-Star,” interim manager Chad Tracy said before the rivals kicked off a four-game series at the Stadium Friday night. “Prior to this thing [with his elbow], he had started to get going with the bat a little bit here. He’s also a very good at-bat. He doesn’t swing at balls.
“He fits the mold of what we’ve done here, which is we grind at-bats, we swing at strikes, we put the ball in play. When he’s right, that’s what he does and on top of that, he’s a really, really good catcher who communicates well with pitchers.”
Rutschman, 28, has yet to hit for the Red Sox, sporting a .146/.255/.244 slash line with a .499 OPS. But he is a quality player and will likely produce soon. Prior to the trade, he had a .764 OPS with eight home runs and 47 RBIs in 67 games.
“It’s been really fun. This team is tight-knit, they do a great job of someone new stepping up each night,” said Rutschman, who was back in the Red Sox lineup Friday night after missing the previous two games due to elbow soreness.
There was a chance he could’ve wound up a Yankee. Rutschman had never experienced the trade deadline before and tried to just focus on other things.
“You never know what happens in baseball,” he said. “It’s one of the things that’s very uncertain. It’s part of it.”
The Yankees have gotten very little from their catchers. Austin Wells has a .571 OPS on the season and, after a decent stretch, is in the midst of a 5-for-28 stretch with 12 strikeouts. He has only one extra-base hit in his last 12 games.
The Yankees tried to land Rutschman, but the Red Sox blew them away with an offer that featured minor league pitcher Anthony Eyanson, their No. 2 prospect, and two other top five prospects. This weekend, losing out on Rutschman could haunt them.
He wasn’t sure what to expect from his introduction to the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, but he was picking a good time to experience it with both teams fighting for playoff positioning.
“Take it as it comes,” Rutschman said. “New experience.”
