Since the Martinez and Nuñez threads are getting cluttered with speculation on who the odd men out will be, I figured I'd start a new thread for discussion of precisely that.
If you'd asked me a couple of weeks ago, I would have assumed that the Sox had a mostly-set bench: Holt, because of his track record, would probably have to really be terrible to lose his gig, and then there were four other guys who couldn't be optioned. Three of them - Brentz, Marrero, and Leon - fit obvious bench roles, and the fourth, Swihart, has been adding versatility and is generally a guy who it would suck to lose for nothing. Add a guy like Lin or Hernandez to fill in for Pedroia, and they're good to go.
Now with Nuñez and JD on board, things are more complicated. At the very least, either Moreland or Hanley has to sit more often and carrying three multi-position infielders seems ... sub-optimal. So who stays? Who goes?
(I recognize there is also the possibility of trading Bradley or Benintendi, but let's not get into that right now.)
If you'd asked me a couple of weeks ago, I would have assumed that the Sox had a mostly-set bench: Holt, because of his track record, would probably have to really be terrible to lose his gig, and then there were four other guys who couldn't be optioned. Three of them - Brentz, Marrero, and Leon - fit obvious bench roles, and the fourth, Swihart, has been adding versatility and is generally a guy who it would suck to lose for nothing. Add a guy like Lin or Hernandez to fill in for Pedroia, and they're good to go.
Now with Nuñez and JD on board, things are more complicated. At the very least, either Moreland or Hanley has to sit more often and carrying three multi-position infielders seems ... sub-optimal. So who stays? Who goes?
(I recognize there is also the possibility of trading Bradley or Benintendi, but let's not get into that right now.)