Fernando Abad is wasting a roster spot

Last year gave the Red Sox little reason to have any faith in Fernando Abad.

He did not do the things they expected out of him. Sure, he was able to get left-handers out and sure, he was a good value pickup since all the Red Sox had to give up was Pat Light, who while has an electric arm, doesn’t have the command or a ton of movement to fill the ceiling of high-leverage reliever they may have been hoping for out of him. Anyways. Not really the point because they could’ve given up anyone for Abad. Now, the focus has to be on his results and what he can do for the Red Sox. Pretty much like that JFK speech that Brian Williams attended.

Here’s the catch though: he didn’t even pitch until the eighth game of the season, and that’s because it was an all-out blowout where Steven Wright surrendered eight runs in 1.1 innings. And no, Abad didn’t even get mop-up duty. He got one inning–and he let up a run. It doesn’t really matter but hey, the guy can’t be trusted in low-leverage situations. That says something about him.

It also says something about Abad that the Red Sox used Robby Scott four times before they used him. They’re both left-handed specialists, aren’t they? The only difference is one is a big league vet and the other came into the year with only seven career MLB appearances. That’s awfully telling, ain’t it?

You have to wonder how this one all goes down. The guys without options often are able to keep spots in the big leagues over better players because of the importance of depth. But it honestly just seems like the Red Sox have no intentions of using Abad, or they haven’t just yet in any sort of meaningful way. Guess we’ll see what happens there….