Boston, MA
Ex-Yankees 1st-rounder among non-roster invitees to Red Sox spring training
Come February a former New York Yankees first-round draft pick, will get a chance to prove himself to their longtime rivals.
Left-hander T.J. Sikkema, 27, is one of seven non-roster invitees to Red Sox spring training, the club announced Tuesday.
Catcher Jason Delay, infielder Vinny Capra, lefty Alec Gamboa, and right-handers Osvaldo Berrios, Hobie Harris and Devin Sweet round out the group.
The Yankees drafted Sikkema 38th overall in the ‘19 draft. He was one of three minor league pitchers they dealt to the Kansas City Royals for former Red Sox star Andrew Benintendi at the ‘22 MLB trade deadline.
Sikkema spent the last two years in the Cincinnati Reds organization. Last year he reached Triple-A for the first time, and pitched to a 3.47 ERA over five games (four starts) with nine earned runs allowed over 23.1 innings, following the late-August promotion.
While the Red Sox had a top-ranked farm system last year, their catching depth is notoriously thin. Delay, 30, has 134 games of big-league experience with the 2022-24 Pittsburgh Pirates, including 131 behind the dish, a career .231/.333/.400 line in the majors. He spent last season with the Double-A and Triple-A levels of the Atlanta Braves organization.
Capra, 29, appeared in 47 major league games last season, 24 with the Milwaukee Brewers and 23 with the Chicago White Sox. Since his debut with the ‘22 Toronto Blue Jays, he has played 67 big-league games over the last four years.
Though a lifetime .133/.181/.188 hitter in the majors, Capra brings defensive versatility to the table. In just 58 fielding games, he has already covered third base, second, shortstop, left and right field, and made three pitching appearances.
Gamboa, 28, comes to the Red Sox after a season split between the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Triple-A Oklahoma City Comets and the Lotte Giants of the Korean Baseball League. He was the Dodgers’ ninth-round pick in ‘19, and owns a 4.23 ERA over 131 career minor league games, including 41 starts.
Berrios is one of several former St. Louis Cardinals who will be in Red Sox camp next month. The Puerto Rico native split last season between Cardinals’ Double-A Springfield and Triple-A Memphis. Working primarily in relief, he logged a 5.12 ERA and struck out 62 over 58 innings (40 games, four starts).
Harris’ name will likely be familiar to Red Sox fans, as he spent all of last season in Triple-A Worcester. The 32-year-old righty posted a 4.05 ERA with 45 strikeouts over 31 relief appearances and one start. He also has 16 games of major league experience, from his time with the ‘23 Washington Nationals.
Like Sikkema, Harris is a former Yankees draft pick; they selected him in the 31st round in 2015.
The Red Sox signed Sweet to a minor league deal last month. He has seven games of big-league experience between the ‘23 Seattle Mariners and then-Oakland Athletics. He spent last season with the Philadelphia Phillies’ Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs, with whom he posted a 5.08 ERA over 46 games, including two starts, and struck out 49 batters in 51.1 innings.
Tumbling from top spot
Entering last spring training, the Red Sox earned the top spot in Baseball America’s farm system rankings for the first time since the publication began their assessments in 1984.
“The Red Sox have returned to the top of the farm system rankings, even after dealing four prospects to the White Sox to bring Garrett Crochet to Boston,” Baseball America’s explanation stated. “No other organization can match the trio of Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer, and Boston’s pitching depth has improved as well.”
The publication’s annual Prospect Handbook ranks the Red Sox 14th.
Chalk some of that up to the aforementioned trio making their respective big-league debuts and progressing out of prospect eligibility. Players like Anthony don’t exactly grow on trees.
Other top prospects, like slugging outfielder Jhostynxon Garcia, have since been traded away. (Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow has made a staggering 49 trades since taking the reins in November ’23.)
At present, most of Boston’s current top prospects are in the lower levels of the farm system. Three of the organization’s top five on MLB Pipeline are expected to debut in 2027 or later; the exceptions are lefties Payton Tolle (No. 2) and Connelly Early (No.4), who both debuted late last season but remain prospect-eligible.
It’s going to be a little while longer before Roman Anthony returns to action.
The Red Sox outfielder has suffered another setback in his recovery from a sprained right hand and will be shut down from swinging for a couple of days.
Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters in Cleveland that Anthony tried hitting off a tee Thursday for the first time since suffering his injury on May 4, but that he found doing so to be painful.
“He hit off the tee (yesterday) and had some discomfort, so we’re going to slow play it,” Tracy said, per MLB.com’s Henry Palattella. “It’s going to be day-to-day, or even the better way is ‘action-to-action.’ (We’re going to be asking), ‘What did he do today, is that uncomfortable and do we have to wait?’ ”
Originally thought to be a minor issue that might not even require a stint on the injured list, Anthony has now missed 21 games and likely won’t be back until early-to-mid June.
The recovery process has also been halting. Anthony has continued doing most other baseball activities, including running and throwing, but it wasn’t until earlier this week that he could swing a bat free of discomfort.
Once he was able to comfortably take dry swings — or swing a bat without hitting the ball — the next step was hitting off a tee. Now he’ll be given a couple more days to heal and likely won’t try again until the Red Sox return home from Cleveland and are back at Fenway Park on Tuesday following Monday’s off day.
Tracy acknowledged that the recovery hasn’t gone as smoothly as expected, but emphasized that isn’t because of anything Anthony’s done wrong.
“That’s not Roman’s fault, it’s not anyone’s fault,” Tracy said. “It’s just he got hurt, and it’s a nagging injury on a hand when he’s trying to hit.”
Speaking to Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast prior to Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Braves, Anthony clarified the exact nature of his injury, which was officially announced by the team as a right wrist sprain. Anthony said he has a partially torn ring finger ligament, specifically his ring finger CMC (carpometacarpal).
The sprain versus torn verbiage has generated some confusion among fans, though medically there isn’t a meaningful distinction between the two.
“I know stuff came out yesterday about tear versus sprain versus strain and all these different things, and I don’t know what to say other than any of those are a tear,” Tracy said. “You strain a hamstring and that’s a partial tear; fibers let go a little bit and they need to heal.
“I don’t think anything is portrayed differently or wrongly. If a guy strains his hamstring, I won’t come out here and say he tore his hamstring. That’s not how that works.”
Prior to suffering his injury, Anthony was batting .229 with one home run and a .675 OPS through his first 30 games this season.
Surprise: Another weekend and there’s more rain on the way. It’s bad enough we’ve had to post a First Alert.
For now, we’ll watch as clouds thicken today. We’ll squeeze out some drops later this afternoon and evening.
A weather maker is winding up in Canada, wrapping in cold air. All of that is going to dive down to New England.
We’re in the thick of it tomorrow. Rain will be coming at us in bursts with some dry time in between. Winds will likely push past 50 mph in Boston.
Those winds will eat away at temperatures; with wind chills barely above freezing. And no – not just in the morning – but the afternoon, too!
It’s so cold there’s the threat of snow as that rain bumps into colder air over the Berkshires, Worcester Hills and southern New Hampshire right up to Mount Washington.
The snow isn’t going to pile up but just know there could be some flakes flying over our highest hills.
The blue on our Futurecast map marks the spots where snow could mix with rain.
Rain spins out by Saturday evening but not before dumping about half an inch over Boston.
We’ll try to salvage the rest of the weekend with temperatures in the upper 60s by Sunday. Still, there’s the threat of bits and pieces of rain.
By the way, this isn’t any weekend, it’s the last weekend of spring. Meteorological summer starts on June 1.
The first day of summer remains drab and dreary with more rain chances and temperatures in the low 60 on Monday.
Federal immigration demands are once again centered on Massachusetts.
The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday sent three letters to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins and Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden demanding, among other things, information on how many ICE detainers BPD has received and declined to honor from 2022 to 2026 and any communication between the three departments related to immigration.
House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a statement that “releasing repeat criminals back to the streets solely because of their immigration status is crazy, and that’s exactly what Boston is doing.”
But Democrats push back on that framing.
“You’re familiar with Jim Jordan and his antics,” said Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. “This is more circus, it’s more theater and it’s not making our community safe.”
A spokesperson for the City of Boston wrote, “the city has provided this information many times…” going on to say “…these policies are part of keeping Boston the safest major city in America.”
The letters call for the documents to be sent to the House Judiciary Committee by June 10th at 5:00 pm. District Attorney Hayden’s office told NBC 10 they are reviewing the letter, neither Commissioner Cox or Sheriff Tompkins responded to requests for comment.
-
Los Angeles, Ca10 minutes agoMan arrested for multiple Los Angeles freeway shootings: CHP
-
Detroit, MI30 minutes agoArchdiocese of Detroit’s list of parishes chosen for halted Masses grows
-
San Francisco, CA39 minutes agoGiants reassign 3B coach Borg; Wotus named interim replacement
-
Dallas, TX45 minutes agoVigil honors victims of Dallas apartment explosion that killed three and injured five
-
Miami, FL52 minutes ago
Miami kosher, Mutra, restaurant earns Michelin star | The Jerusalem Post
-
Boston, MA54 minutes agoRed Sox outfielder Roman Anthony suffers another injury setback
-
Denver, CO59 minutes agoDenver weather: Warm weather to end May
-
Seattle, WA1 hour agoSeattle City Council proposal would use street closures to curb gun violence
