I have another entry in the 2017 BP Boston Roster Recap series up on the site. This time around, I recapped run-of-the-mill middle-reliever, Heath Hembree’s season. A few years ago, Hembree, then part of the San Francisco Giants’ system, was projected as a high-level, power arm and handed the Closer-of-the-future moniker. Well, it turns out that projection missed the mark by a considerable amount. The Red Sox acquired Hembree at the 2014 trade deadline in exchange for Jake Peavy. Since then he has developed into a catch-all, fringy middle reliever, which is disappointing. With that said, he had success in 2016 in his role and his flexibility and ability to throw multiple innings certainly saved the team in a number of games. But he had tremendous difficulty against left-handed batters, has yet to show that he should be given a more important role, and as such will be fighting for his place in the organization every time he takes the mound in 2017.
Head over to BP Boston and read about Hembree’s season: Roster Recap: Heath Hembree is Every Middle Reliever.
My previous Roster Recap articles for the 2017 series can be found at the following links:
Christian Vazquez
Dustin Pedroia
Rafael Devers
Note: This post is a copy of a post from my previous site.