If the Red Sox get the 2017 Marwin Gonzalez, this signing is a pretty big deal.
If not? Alex Cora's plan might be thrown for a loop.
Cora is confident Gonzalez will be more of a solution than a problem.
"Good defender, switch hitter, so he can protect Bobby (Dalbec)nat first, he can protect people at second hitting lefty, he can play third against a tough lefty whenever Raffy (Devers) gets a day off, can play short and he's a left-handed hitter to help Xander (Bogaerts)," the Red Sox manager said Thursday. "He can play, left, he can play right, very versatile. Last year wasn't a great year for him, but he's a guy you look at '19, he hit the ball hard with the Twins. We have a really good relationship. This is a guy that I trust. I know he can do a lot of stuff on the field, in the clubhouse and I'm happy that he's with us."
Gonzalez's existence is an intriguing one considering he represents yet another fail-safe for the unknowns at first, second and in the outfield.
Last season with the Twins, the switch-hitter played 14 games at first base, 21 at second and 23 at third. The only outfield position Gonzalez played in 2020 was right field, manning the spot eight times. In previous seasons, the majority of the 31-year-old's games saw him play in the outfield.
"I see him playing all over the place and getting at-bats," Cora said. "The fact that he's a switch-hitter, it gives us balance as far as the roster. We've got a lot of versatile guys, we've been talking about this the whole offseason, and to have Enrique (Hernandez) and Marwin on the same team, just being creative, people talk about creative teams and how cool it is. Well we have a cool team, too. That helps us a lot. They know how to play defense. Whenever they play, you're not worried about making the right decisions, throwing to the right base, being in line for the cutoff man. Both of them are really solid and we'll ask them to do a few things in the clubhouse, too. We ended up with both of them and it's going to help us out a lot."