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MLB News: Boston Red Sox Acquire Aaron Hill From Milwaukee Brewers

By Mark Suleymanov
Published on: 18:11 PST, Jul 7, 2016

The Boston Red Sox have shored up their infield depth by acquiring veteran Aaron Hill in exchange for two minor leaguers, the team announced on Thursday. Minor league right-hander Aaron Wilkerson and second baseman Wendell Rijo will head to Milwaukee in the deal.

Also, to make room on the 40-man roster, Boston announced that outfielder Ryan LaMarre was designated for assignment.

Hill, 34, was traded to Milwaukee this offseason as part of the deal that sent Jean Segura to the Arizona Diamondbacks. After struggling the last two seasons, posting a batting line of 0.237/0.291/0.356, Hill has enjoyed a productive 2016 campaign.

In 78 games with the Brewers, Hill has hit 0.283/0.359/0.421 with eight home runs, 11 doubles, and 29 runs batted in. Primarily a second baseman in his career, Hill has spent most of his time at third base — appearing 59 times at the hot corner as opposed to his 20 appearances at the keystone.

“We’ve been looking for a right-handed-hitting infielder who can play third base for really a while,” said Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski (via Boston Globe). “He complements the players we have.”

With Hill in the mix, Boston has a viable platoon candidate for Travis Shaw. The lefty-swinging infielder is hitting just 0.211/0.240/0.380 against southpaws this year despite a solid 0.274/0.336/0.465 overall line.

LaMarre, 27, now finds himself in DFA limbo with the team’s acquisition of Hill. The University of Michigan product signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox this past offseason after spending his first six seasons in the Cincinnati Reds organization.

LaMarre appeared in just six games with the Red Sox this season, drawing one walk and not recording a hit in six plate appearances. Boston now has 10 days to trade, release, or outright LaMarre to the minor leagues, where he’s a 0.267/0.332/0.409 hitter in parts of four Triple-A seasons.

While Rijo has been generally viewed as one of Boston’s top prospects, Wilkerson’s performance in the minors this year has been tremendous. After spending his first season in independent ball, Wilkerson signed with the Red Sox prior to the 2014 campaign. In 17 games (16 starts) between Double-A and Triple-A, Wilkerson has pitched to a combined 6-3 record with a 2.14 ERA in 92-and-one-third innings. The 27-year-old righty also has shown solid strikeout (9.9 K/9) and walk (2.4 BB/9) rates.

Wilkerson was originally viewed as a potential high draft pick out of Cumberland University. But Tommy John surgery scared teams away and took him out of organized baseball for one year. As profiled in this Boston Globe piece by Alex Speier, Wilkerson thought his baseball career was over before an invite to independent ball revived his career. Now, with the struggling Brewers owning a rotation full of fillers, his comments from the aforementioned interview may be prophetic.

“The whole path that I’ve taken is kind of the road less traveled,” Wilkerson said. “It’s always been a little harder road. My dream is one step away.”

Finally, Rijo, 20, has been in the Red Sox organization since 2013. Baseball America rated him as Boston’s 15th-best prospect following last season, while MLB.com ranked him 17th-best. Following a call-up from Class-A Advanced to Double-A, Rijo has struggled, batting just 0.186/0.245/0.266 in 51 games. Scouting reports say that Rijo possesses solid gap power that could make him a solid everyday infielder in the majors.

[Featured Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images]

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