Red Sox Sign Brandon Phillips

With no clear sign of regular play in the near-term future for Dustin Pedroia and continued concerns about Eduardo Núñez, the Red Sox have signed three-time All-Star Brandon Phillips as infield insurance.

Phillips, who turned 37 years old today, debuted with the Indians in 2002, but he’s probably best known for his 11 seasons with the Reds (2006-16) where he played a club-record 1,586 games at second base and earned himself four Gold Gloves.

Overall, Phillips slashed .279 AVG/.325 OBP/.429 SLG with 191 home runs over 1,614 games with the Reds, the 6th-most in club history. His 1,774 hits and 851 RBIs are 8th- and 9th-most in franchise history. Phillips’ 113 home runs at the club’s ballpark is still the 4th-most for all-time.

The Reds traded Phillips to the Braves in February 2017 for pitcher Andrew McKirahan. Atlanta moved him to the Angels last August 31 for catcher Tony Sanchez.

Phillips hasn’t played at the minor or major league levels since last season. To prepare, Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski says Phillips will start at the club’s spring training facility in Florida before an assignment to Triple-A Pawtucket.

Welcome Brandon Phillips to the Red Sox organization. He’s on Twitter at @DatDudeBP.

Now some other news and notes of interest:

• Speaking of the Reds, Cincinnati great Joey Votto earlier this month played in the 1,500th game of his career. Votto’s career slash line of .313 AVG/.428 OBP/.536 SLG across his 12 major league seasons makes him just the sixth player since 1871 with a slash line of at least .310/.425/.530 across 1,500+ games played. The others are Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, Babe Ruth and Red Sox lifer Ted Williams.
• The Giants have released veteran infielder and former Red Sox Josh Rutledge from their Triple-A affiliate. Rutledge played in parts of the three last seasons with Boston slashing .252 AVG/.319 OBP/.313 SLG in 104 total games. The free agent signed on with San Francisco last December but hasn’t seen major league action this year.
• MLB and the players union are negotiating changes to the footwear policy that requires “at least 51 percent of the exterior of each Player’s shoes must be the Club’s designated primary shoe color and the portion of the Club’s designated primary shoe color must be evenly distributed throughout the exterior of each shoe.” Earlier this season, Cubs infielder Ben Revere ran afoul of league rules by wearing all black shoes “to pay homage to the history of our great game.”