April 7, 2015 at 4:31 PM
All eyes will be on Margot and Ball in Salem
The High-A Salem Red Sox announced their roster today, with five players ranked in the top 20 on SoxProspects.com headlining the squad. The top prospect on the team, center fielder Manuel Margot (pictured), will return to Salem, where he ended last season with an impressive 16-game showing. Margot is a consensus top-100 prospect in baseball, and the Red Sox hope he can take another step forward this season, which could put him in Portland at age 20.
Two other players that Carolina League pitchers will have to worry about are first baseman Sam Travis and second baseman Wendell Rijo. Travis, who was drafted in the second round of the 2014 draft, is making the jump to Salem in his first full season in the system after brief stints in Lowell and Greenville last year. Rijo, who spent all of last year in Greenville, will look to build on a 2014 season that saw him slug 42 extra-base hits. Still just 19, the second baseman has the potential to make a big jump with a healthy and productive year.
Trey Ball’s struggles last year were well documented, as the former seventh-overall pick failed to meet the lofty expectations that fans had for the left-hander. But the 20-year-old made progress at the end of last season in Greenville, and the Red Sox will move him up to Salem, where he will be tested further. The trio of Teddy Stankiewicz, Joe Gunkel, Daniel McGrath and Kevin McAvoy will likely join Ball in the rotation after each had varying degrees of success in 2014.
The full Salem roster follows:
Pitchers
Ball, Trey
Stankiewicz, Teddy
Gunkel, Joe
McAvoy, Kevin
McGrath, Daniel
Dahlstrand, Jacob
Kraus, Kyle
Taveras, German
Adams, Mike
Grover, Taylor
Maddox, Austin
Marban, Jorge
Catchers
Romanski, Jake
Weems, Jordan
Infielders
Travis, Sam
Rijo, Wendell
Betts, Jordan
Lin, Tzu-Wei
Vinicio, Jose
Martinez, Mario
Outfielders
Tavarez, Aneury
Margot, Manuel
Sturgeon, Cole
Guzman, Franklin
Allday, Forrestt
Photo Credit: Manuel Margot by Kelly O'Connor