Another possible target for the Boston Red Sox is no longer available.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Gio Urshela and the Detroit Tigers have agreed to a $1.5 million, one-year contract. The Red Sox were intrigued in the infielder, but they never stood out from other interested teams or were particularly aggressive in Urshela’s market, a source told MassLive on Wednesday.
For the most part of his career, Urshela has played third base. Furthermore, Boston was probably considering the 32-year-old as a right-handed bat who could both backup Rafael Devers and play first base because the Red Sox now had Devers at the position.
However, Urshela made a lot of sense to the Tigers, who needed a right-handed infielder just as much as, if not more than, Boston. Throughout his career, he has batted.290 against lefties overall and.373 in the 2023 Major League Baseball season.
Before being dealt to the Minnesota Twins in a deal that saw New York acquire Josh Donaldson, Urshela played for the Yankees for three seasons. In an attempt to provide Los Angeles some infield depth, he was dealt to the Angels during the 2022 offseason. Playing shortstop at first, he was only able to play in 62 games due to a pelvic fracture that he sustained in June. Urshela missed the rest of the season even though he did not require surgery.
