Carolina Countdown — Salem Red Sox
The Carolina Countdown previews the rest of the Carolina League in advance of the season. We will take a look at each club, both on and off the field. The countdown will progress alphabetically, and a new post will go up every weekday until it is over.
March 26: Carolina Mudcats
March 27: Frederick Keys
March 30: Lynchburg Hillcats
March 31: Myrtle Beach Pelicans
April 1: Potomac Nationals
Introduction: Having joined the Carolina League in 1968, the Salem Red Sox are the third-longest tenured team on the circuit. Originally known as the Salem Rebels, the team was affiliated with five other MLB teams before coming under Red Sox control in 2009. Salem has won five league championships, most recently in 2013.
Last Season: Salem was the second Southern Division playoff team in 2014. The Red Sox sputtered along for most of the campaign until a seven-game winning streak in the middle of August pushed them into second place in the division, allowing Salem to clinch a playoff berth by 2.5 games over Carolina with a 35–33 second half record. The Red Sox went 33–35 in the first half of 2014 to record a 68–68 record overall, 13.0 full games behind Myrtle Beach at the top of the Southern Division. Once the Sox reached the postseason, Salem took Game 1 of the SDCS over Myrtle Beach, but the Pelicans won the last two games of the series to advance to the Mills Cup Championship Series.
The Red Sox scored the second-most runs (648) in the Carolina League last season behind catcher Carson Blair (.261/.385/.471, 9 HR, 41 RBI) and infielders Reed Gragnani (.300/.409/.406, 53 RBI) and Jonathan Roof (.301/.384/.461, 4 HR, 23 RBI). Justin Haley was the only pitcher on the team to toss at least 35 innings and post an ERA under 3.00. The right-hander went 7–4 with a 2.82 ERA in 92.2 frames.
Manager: Former major league second baseman Carlos Febles returns for his second season with Salem in 2015. Febles was signed by the Kansas City Royals as a 17-year-old in 1993 out of El Seibo in the Dominican Republic. Febles spent the 1997 season with Wilmington in the Carolina League, batting .237/.333/.347 with three home runs, 29 RBIs and 49 steals in 122 games.
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He worked his way up for an 11-game cup of coffee with the Royals in 1998 and was named the №30 prospect in baseball by Baseball America before the 1999 campaign. Over his six-year MLB career, all with Kansas City, Febles batted .250/.328/.559 with 414 career hits while smashing as many as 10 home runs and swiping 20 bags in one year. After signing with Boston as a free agent following the 2003 season, he spent the 2004 campaign with Triple-A Pawtucket before retiring from his playing career. Febles eventually began serving as a hitting coach in the Red Sox organization starting in 2007 before getting his first managing gig in 2011 with Short Season Class A Lowell in the New York-Penn League in 2011. The 2014 Salem Red Sox was the first team he helped steer into the playoffs as a manager. Joining Febles this year will be pitching coach Paul Abbott and hitting coach Joe Nunnally.
System: Under the Theo Epstein and Ben Cherington regimes, the Red Sox have become one of baseball’s model organizations, embracing the analytical side of the game, showing a keen eye towards injury prevention and stocking up their farm system with young and talented players. That being said, their previous three seasons have been a roller coaster, with the 2013 World Series title sandwiched between two last place finishes in the American League East.
However, the Red Sox should be in for a strong rebound in 2015 due to free agent acquisitions Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval, potential bounceback seasons from infielders Dustin Pedroia and Xander Bogaerts and exciting young talent playing bigger roles like infielder/outfielder Mookie Betts and outfielder Rusney Castillo.
While Boston is expected to contend in the AL East in 2015, they have a slew of prospects due to come up in the next few years that should continue to infuse the team with younger and cheaper players. In fact, the Red Sox have the sixth-best farm system, according to Baseball Prospectus.
Boston won a bidding war to sign the №9 overall prospect in baseball, inking Cuban infielder Yoan Moncada for $31.5 million. Moncada could see time with Salem in 2015. The Red Sox have also developed catcher Blake Swihart (№19), who batted .293/.341/.469 with 13 homers and 64 RBIs across Double-A and Triple-A last season, and LHP Henry Owens (№20), who was 17–5 with a 2.94 ERA and 170 strikeouts against 59 walks in 159.0 innings. LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (№90), infielder Rafael Devers (№97) and outfielder Manuel Margot (№100) are the team’s other prospects that rank among baseball’s best.
Best Promotion: On Friday, June 5, Salem will host “Harry Potter Night” against the Potomac Nationals. Fans are encouraged to grab their wand and glasses and participate in a snitch hunt around LewisGale Field.
Fun Fact: Former Boston Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield pitched for the Salem Buccaneers (Pittsburgh Pirates) in 1990, going 10–14 with a 4.73 ERA. That was only Wakefield’s second season pitching. He was originally drafted by the Pirates as a first baseman, but was constantly caught fooling around with the knuckleball with teammates during infield drills. After Wakefield batted .189 with Short Season Class A Watertown in 1988, he split the 1989 season on the mound and at first base before transition to the mound full-time in 1990. Wakefield made his MLB debut with Pittsburgh in 1992, signed with the Red Sox as a free agent in 1995 and wound up pitching in Boston for 17 seasons. In his 19-year MLB career, Wakefield went 200–180 with a 4.41 ERA and a 2009 All-Star Game selection.
Red Sox in Winston-Salem: The Salem Red Sox’s first trip to BB&T Ballpark in 2015 is for a weekend series from May 15–17. Salem comes back at the end of the month from May 30-June 2 and then again to close out the first half of the season in a four-game set from June 18–21. After that, the Red Sox make just one more trip down south to Winston-Salem for the remainder of the regular year, another weekend clash from August 7–9.
Thanks for reading! We will close out the Carolina Countdown tomorrow with a look at the Wilmington Blue Rocks.
- Scott
