Red Sox Promoting Nate Eaton Leaves Major Question Unanswered

Boston Red Sox outfielder Nate Eaton

(Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images)

The Boston Red Sox are reportedly promoting utility man Nate Eaton to the majors on Wednesday, and that leaves a big question left to be answered.

According to a report from MassLive's Chris Cotillo, the 29-year-old Eaton was scheduled to be promoted by the Red Sox on Wednesday afternoon, which hadn't happened by noon ET. That also meant someone from the 26-man roster had to be either placed on the injured list or demoted to Triple-A.

Well, we're writing this article because as we're typing, we don't exactly know what's coming.

Eaton is a nice bench piece, and it was pretty unfair to him that he was left off the opening day roster, though it's not as if the Red Sox could do much about it. He was legitimately one of the team's best hitters in September, while Roman Anthony and Wilyer Abreu were on the injured list, and started two of the team's three playoff games.

But because he only plays third base out of all the infield positions, and barely touched it after Alex Bregman returned from the injured list last season, it wouldn't be a very clean fit for Eaton to come up as an infielder unless starting third baseman Caleb Durbin was the man going on the IL. We don't currently have any evidence that Durbin is banged up.

So is Anthony headed to the IL after going 1-for-11 in his three games back from a brief injury absence? Or is Abreu or Jarren Duran banged up instead? Those seem like the more feasible scenarios.

Soon enough, we'll know the corresponding move. And the move is likely to cause ripple effects that impact the Red Sox for at least the next couple of weeks.

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