Minor Notes: Lakins and Hernandez debut, Chavis goes yard

Here are Thursday's minor league notes:

• A flurry of promotions and strong performances were the theme of the week on the Red Sox farm. Darwinzon Hernandez and Travis Lakins joined the recently-promoted Michael Chavis (pictured) in Boston for Tuesday's doubleheader, and each made their debuts on the mound. Hernandez struck out four in 2 1/3 scoreless innings, while Lakins fared a little worse by surrendering a run and striking out two in his 2 2/3 innings of work. On Wednesday, Hernandez was optioned back to Portland to join the rotation. 

• The aforementioned Chavis made his Fenway debut this week and started both games of the doubleheader against Detroit. In the nightcap, Chavis went 2 for 4 with a home run, the first of his MLB career. 

• Down on the farm, Tanner Houck continued to bounce back from his Opening Day struggles with a dominant five-inning shutout, in which he struck out nine. Also in Portland, CJ Chatham continued his red-hot start to the year with three straight three-hit efforts and new outfielder Marcus Wilson (acquired from Arizona in the Blake Swihart trade) has made his debut, starting in each of the last three games

• Speaking of the Blake Swihart trade, the SoxProspects Podcast guys released another episode on Tuesday which featured a healthy discussion (read: monologue) about the end of Blake Swihart's Red Sox career. In addition to the Swihart discussion, Chris and Ian broke down the beginning of the minor league season, singling out strong performances and causes for concern.

• Following Portland's Monday night victory over Hartford, Christopher Smith of MassLive broke down the strong performances of Tanner Houck, Bobby Dalbec, and CJ Chatham. Included in his summary of the three Sea Dogs players' seasons (who each rank in the top 10 of the SoxProspects rankings), Smith included video of a round of Chatham's batting practice from Spring Training.

• After his dominant performance Monday night, Tanner Houck earned praise from Justin Coleman of Baseball America who included him in his daily Prospect Report.

• Ben Wilson of Prospects 1500 recently did a Q&A about the Red Sox farm system. Topics covered included the upside of the 2018 Lowell pitching staff, Brett Netzer, the Red Sox third base prospects, and Jay Groome.

• Michael Chavis hit his first career MLB home run on Tuesday night, and John Tomase of NBC Sports Boston caught up with him to go over this memorable moment. Chavis wanted to thank Dustin Pedroia who stepped up with an autographed baseball in order to secure the memento for the Red Sox top prospect.

• David Laurila of Fangraphs also caught up with Chavis and went over the young infielder's memorable first week in the major leagues. Chavis described the emotions surrounding the life-changing experience and trying to fit in both on and off the field with the big league club.

• The struggles of the Red Sox bullpen have been well documented, and Christopher Smith of MassLive thinks that Travis Lakins could offer a potential solution. Lakins made his debut this week, and Smith saw enough to indicate that Lakins could be the high leverage arm the Red Sox so desperately need.

• In transactional news, the Red Sox signed left-hander Jeremy Bleich and assigned him to Pawtucket. Bleich was drafted by the Yankees and has spent time with the Pirates, Phillies, Dodgers, and A's. The Red Sox also activated Chad de la Guerra and Teddy Stankiewicz from the IL and assigned them to Pawtucket, while promoting Oscar Hernandez and Matthew Gorst from Portland to Pawtucket.

Photo Credit: Michael Chavis by Kelly O'Connor

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