The Red Sox added seven non-roster invitees to their spring training roster on Monday.
Pitchers Jorge Benitez, Cam Booser, Frank German, and Helcris Olivarez, infielder Jamie Westbrook, outfielder Mark Contreras, and IF/OF Eddy Alvarez will have a chance to prove themselves in Fort Myers, Fla.
The Red Sox signed left-handers Olivarez, 23, and Benitez, 24, in November and assigned them both to Triple-A Worcester. They previously pitched in the Colorado Rockies and Seattle Mariners organizations, respectively. Benitez just posted a 1.95 ERA over 45 appearances between High-A and Double-A, while shoulder surgery cost Olivarez most of the ‘22 season and all of ‘23.
Westbrook, 28, was originally the Arizona Diamondbacks’ fifth-round pick in 2013, but most recently played second base in the New York Yankees’ organization. He hit .294 with a .897 OPS and 121 hits, including 20 doubles and 21 home runs, in 117 Triple-A games for them this season.
If German’s name rings a bell, it’s because he arrived in Boston in the Adam Ottavino trade during the ‘20-21 offseason and debuted with the Red Sox in ‘22. German was traded to the Chicago White Sox last February, but re-signed with Boston in July. His five ‘22 appearances with the Red Sox are the only Major League experience of his career thus far.
Contreras and Alvarez also bring a bit of Major League experience to the table. The former debuted in ‘22 but spent all of ‘23 with Triple-A St. Paul. The latter played 50 big-league games with the Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Dodgers between ‘20-22.
Then there’s Booser, the 31-year-old lefty reliever who has overcome so much. He broke a femur and his back playing high school football, then underwent Tommy John surgery as a college freshman and went undrafted. In December ‘15, he was rehabbing shoulder surgery (torn labrum) at the Twins’ spring training facility – also in Fort Myers, just down the road from the Red Sox’s – and got hit by a car. The incident fractured his sacrum, the bone at the base of the spine that supports the vertebrae and pelvis. In layman’s terms: broken back, round two.
Booser’s stat page suggests he bounced around the minor and independent leagues for seven seasons with a sizable chunk of missed time. What the records of his ERAs, strikeouts, and years without any numbers at all don’t tell you is that after spending five seasons in the Minnesota Twins organization, the left-hander retired from baseball, joined a carpenters union, and became a construction worker in his home state.
If that doesn’t already sound like the plot of the 2002 film “The Rookie,” in which Dennis Quaid stars as the real later-in-life MLB pitcher Jim Morris, it gets even Rookie-er.
Booser began giving baseball lessons. At one point, he decided to test his own arm, and found out he could throw fastballs in the high 90s. So, at 28 he began pitching, first semi-pro, then in the independent American Association. After the Twins finally granted his release, he was quickly snapped up by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
By the time he reached Double-A Amarillo in the spring of ‘22, his fastballs were blazing at triple-digit speed. But they released him in July, so he spent the rest of the season with the independent Lancaster Barnstormers.
Finally, his childhood team signed him to a minor-league contract last February. Though he grew up in Seattle, Booser loved the Red Sox. Perhaps that gave him a little extra oomph this year, because in his first-ever Triple-A season, he made a career-high 48 appearances, tied for second-most on the WooSox roster.
Pitchers and catchers are due to report to the Fort in just over two months.
Now, Booser will be one of them. Another chance to overcome astounding odds.
