Rule 5 picks aren't supposed to leave these types of marks. Their existences typically involve finding a way to be stashed on a major league roster just long enough to continue the logical development throughout the minor leagues the following season.
Best-case scenario, that's usually how it works.
The Red Sox have officially adjusted that best-case scenario.
First, and most notably, they found a player in Garrett Whitlock who is firmly in the American League Rookie of the Year conversation thanks to hiss 2021 evolution. All things considered, this was though to be a once-in-a-lifetime Rule 5 find. That story has been one of the Red Sox' most talked-about hat-hangers all season long.
Then there is Jonathan Araúz.
Like Whitlock, his story was already a somewhat unexpected one. He the Red Sox' Rule 5 pick from 2020, living life as a 20-year-old in the major leagues despite having played just 28 games at his highest minor league level, Double-A, the year before.
The notion of not returning a Rule 5 player last season, however, wasn't so out-of-the-ordinary considering it was just a two-month season and the Red Sox were going nowhere, anyway.
But where they have landed with Araúz a year later is the true feather in the Sox' decision-making cap.
The former Astros' farmhand woke up Saturday morning the latest Red Sox hero. having made up for two missed bunt attempts with a game-changing, three-run, eighth-inning home run Friday night. To date, the swing -- which handed the Sox a 4-3 win over Cleveland -- was one of the biggest of this playoff push.
“I was actually upset at myself during the first couple of pitches, I didn’t get the bunt down," Araúz said through a translator. "I just took some time to myself and kind of kept my head up and said, 'OK, if I didn’t get the bunt down, I have to move him over somehow, move the runners, get good contact, I’ve got to do something and make up for missing a bunt.' And thank God I was able to put a good swing on that pitch and hit the ball out.”
When Kiké Hernandez (COVID) and Christian Arroyo (close contact) were taken out of action, it was Araúz (and Yairo Munoz) who the Red Sox turned to. Not another top prospect. In the Red Sox' eyes, this was a guy who had shed any Rule 5 labels to become a legitimate major-league option.
And that one swing served as his punctuation.
After the game everyone was latching on to the story of how Araúz arrived in Cleveland -- having to be woken up out of his bed in Buffalo, hopping on a bus and arriving at Progressive Field just 1 1/2 hours before first pitch.
“I was actually sleeping in the hotel when they called," he said. "They called at around 1 just to let me know I had to get up in a hurry and get luggage real quick and get to the stadium as fast as possible, get that bus to get over here. Yeah, everything happened really quick.”
But the real story is why and how he got that call at all.
Who knows what kind of major leaguer Araúz becomes. But for the time being we do know that he is someone who came out of nowhere to play in 42 big-league games and now has played hero at a time the Red Sox needed it the most.
"The good thing is we put ourselves in a situation to win the series right away and we’ve been talking about that," said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. "You don't have to win 30 in a row, you just have to keep winning series, and it felt good. We grinded today. One of those that like I always tell you guys, 162 is real. It’s not fake. It’s not 60 sprints, although last year there was a World Series champ, last year was a sprint. This year you have to deal with a lot of stuff. Roster moves, injured guys, it’s 162. It’s very gratifying when kids like Jonathan come up and -- he didn’t do the job when we put the bunt sign, then he was patient enough and got a pitch up in the zone and he hit a laser to right field. Those are fun. That’s why I do this. To enjoy stuff like this. I know I suffer and I get frustrated but this is very gratifying and all the sacrifices the organization has to go through with everything that goes on and in every organization, games like that, it’s like yeah, this is why we’re back, this is why we’re here."