The Boston Red Sox turned to Tsung-Che Cheng on Friday night, recalling him from Triple-A Worcester and dropping him straight into the lineup at shortstop for his major league debut against the New York Yankees. He batted ninth.
The move came after Marcelo Mayer was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left forearm injury, a roster shift that opened the shortstop job and sent Cheng into the spot Boston needed filled immediately. Mayer had been the club’s fourth overall pick in the 2021 MLB draft, but the injury left the Red Sox without their regular option for the game.
Cheng’s call-up was the latest step in a season where Boston has had to keep reshaping the infield. Trevor Story needed sports hernia surgery in May, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa went on the injured list with a forearm injury last week, making Cheng the third infielder this season who started the year with the club to land on the injured list. For Boston, the change was not just about replacing one player. It was about stitching together the middle of the diamond again.
That is why Cheng’s debut mattered beyond the box score. Boston claimed him off waivers from Washington in February, after he had played with Pittsburgh last season, and the club chose him as the next answer even though Mayer had been dealing with soreness for a while. Chad Tracy said the doctors recommended rest if it could be done, because that was the best move at the time. The team said the problem was a bone stress reaction to Mayer’s left ulna.
Cheng now becomes the shortstop solution while Mayer sits on the shelf, but the Red Sox did not say how long that will last. The immediate question is whether Friday was a one-night opening or the start of a longer run for a player Boston only recently brought in, and whose first chance came because the infield had already been stretched thin.
