Pelham's Rivera thriving in first year as Sox minor league coach

Jul. 31—This past offseason Juan Rivera earned the opportunity of a lifetime. Long held in high esteem throughout the New England baseball community, the former St. John's Prep assistant was offered the chance to join the Boston Red Sox as a minor league coach.

Midway through his first season, he says it's been everything he hoped it would be and more.

"In terms of a baseball experience it's been tremendous. Easily the best baseball experience of my life," said Rivera, a native of Pelham, N.H. "I give credit to the people I work with every single day where going in first year of pro ball, and having not played pro ball myself, you have this anxious feeling that people might look at you a certain way or think about you a certain way because you don't have that experience under your belt. But it's the furthest thing from the truth and that's really helped me this year."

Rivera is currently serving as a development coach for the Low-A Salem Red Sox in Virginia, the first step on the organization's affiliate ladder. In his new role Rivera works to incorporate analytics into the team's player development processes, and he also works directly with many of the organization's top prospects, most notably shortstop Marcelo Mayer.

Having now spent more than six months with his new team, Rivera said fans have a lot to be excited about.

Mayer advanced beyond his years

As Rivera tells it, everything people have heard about Mayer is true. Selected No. 4 overall in the 2021 MLB Draft, Mayer boasts uncommon talent and carries himself with a confidence and maturity you don't normally see from someone his age.

"You forget he's 19," Rivera said. "He makes you think he's been doing this for years."

Mayer has lived up to expectations at the plate in his first full season of professional baseball. Entering Saturday he was batting .281 with a .386 on-base percentage and .494 slugging percentage with eight home runs and 24 doubles. He's been hitting especially well lately, posting a .303 average in the month of July, but Rivera said his favorite Mayer moment didn't have anything to do with a great play or a great game, but how he handled things on a night where nothing went right.

"This kid goes 0 for 4, finishes the game as the tying run at the plate, just not a great day result-wise for him," Rivera said. "Sits in the dugout for about 10 minutes, breathes, takes it in, leaves the dugout and signs autographs for 10 or 15 minutes for kids screaming his name. For me that was my favorite moment of the year for him.

"To see him do that, I was really impressed because that's a really easy moment for anyone, never mind a 19-year-old, to essentially be 'leave me alone, I'm just going back to my locker, I don't want to talk to anyone,'" Rivera continued. "His willingness to understand the moment, take his time and still take the time to be with the fans and specifically the kids who are there, that was very impressive to me and that's an example of where he's at in his headspace."

Jordan, Bastardo ones to watchMayer is far from the only budding star playing in Salem. Blaze Jordan, currently ranked as the No. 14 prospect in the Red Sox system by SoxProspects.com, is also putting together a terrific season at 19 years old.

Originally known for hitting 500-foot home runs in high school home run derbies, Jordan is proving himself a strong all-around hitter who is currently batting .286 with eight home runs and 55 RBI. He had a particularly strong month of June, batting .404 with a 1.141 OPS, but Rivera said for his flashy reputation he is at his core a very low-key, focused player.

"Blaze is all about his work. Not a lot of words come out of Blaze Jordan and when he speaks there's a lot of value behind it," Rivera said. "He is day in and day out just focused on his work and his ability to just focus and not have ups and downs emotionally is very impressive."

Other top prospects currently in Salem include infielder Eddinson Paulino (No. 12 by SoxProspects), pitcher Wikelman Gonzalez (No. 13) and infielder Brainer Bonaci (No. 26), but one less heralded player that Rivera is high on is pitcher Angel Bastardo, a 20-year-old Venezuelan who Rivera said has improved considerably as the year's gone along.

"At the beginning of the year no one ever spoke his name as this prospect, I don't even know if he's currently considered a top prospect to the general public, but he's definitely a guy people should look out for," Rivera said.

Ward looks good in rehab starts

Thad Ward, a right-handed pitcher who the Red Sox selected in the fifth round of the 2018 MLB Draft, had emerged as one of Boston's most promising pitching prospects before the pandemic and injuries kept him off the mound for the better part of two and a half years. He underwent Tommy John surgery last June but is now on the road to recovery and recently made two rehab starts in Salem.

Rivera said the 25-year-old didn't look like someone who'd undergone reconstructive elbow surgery so recently.

"He came in I would say more polished than you'd think he'd be at this point in his rehab," Rivera said. "It's really fast. He's only about 13 months post-Tommy John, somewhere around that window, and to be as polished as he was command-wise with all of his pitches was really impressive.

"That's typically the last thing you'll see from a Tommy John guy," he continued. "Their stuff will come back, they get healthy, they're willing to throw, they feel good, but having feel and command of their pitches is typically the last thing to come and he basically had that from the jump in his two starts here. I was impressed, I was impressed for sure."

Ward has since moved up to High-A Greenville and is likely to return to Double-A Portland once fully recovered. He is currently No. 20 on SoxProspects.com's rankings and during his last full season in 2019 posted a 2.14 ERA with 157 strikeouts and 57 walks over 126.1 innings split between Low and High-A.

Growing up before your eyesOne thing about Rivera's new job that's hardly been an adjustment at all has been the age of the players he's worked with. Much like before, when he was primarily working with high school and college-aged players, the vast majority of Salem's roster consists of 19 and 20 year olds who are still figuring things out as they experience a professional baseball environment for the first time.

With the exception of Hunter Dobbins, a former college star who played in the College World Series with Texas Tech, almost everyone Rivera has worked with fits that description. One particularly enjoyable part of the job has been seeing those younger players start enjoying success for the first time, which often leads to some humorous reactions as they get used to the idea they're getting noticed and people are starting to tweet about them.

"It's pretty comical. I've seen those guys, and for most guys that come into the year without notoriety that's been the case," Rivera said. "They've had this really good stretch of games and they almost don't want to believe it's happening."

If all goes well many of those players eventually move on up the organizational ladder, and Rivera said it's been a pleasure being a part of their journeys and getting to witness the beginning of what he hopes will be some long professional careers.

"I've been really fortunate to have this group and be in with them day in and day out. The skill level of the guys that are here and some of the guys that we've already moved up to Greenville is awesome," Rivera said. "It's awesome to work with players of that caliber day in and day out."

Why use Davis as opener? He explains

Friday night the Red Sox did something that on the surface seemed odd. Rather than start rookie Brayan Bello as originally planned, the Red Sox decided to have left-handed reliever Austin Davis start as an opener and then use Bello as a long man out of the bullpen.

But why bother doing that if Bello is going to pitch the bulk of the game anyway? and why Davis in particular?

"For teams that we've done it there are good lefty matchups early in the lineup," Davis explained, "which sets up our starter for success for the rest of the game."

Davis has started all three games the Red Sox have used an opener this season, the first being on May 15 against the Texas Rangers and the second on July 4 against the Tampa Bay Rays before Friday's outing against Milwaukee. In all three the traditional starter entered the game in the third inning, with Bello taking the ball on Friday after Davis retired lefty Kolten Wong in the top of the third, setting Bello up to face a pocket of four righties in five batters to start is outing.

"The situation dictates it and like we saw yesterday, I went out there and faced the bulk of the lefties and then Bello came in and got to get comfortable in an inning with one out and no one on and then rolled from there," Davis said. "So I think just what makes the most sense trying to get a win."

Davis has more than held up his end of the bargain when called upon. In his three starts he's combined to pitch 6.1 innings while allowing no runs, one hit and two walks while striking out eight. Overall he's held lefties to just .156 with a .447 OPS on the season.

Dupere off to great startLast summer Amesbury's Jared Dupere was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 13th round of the 2021 MLB Draft. The former Governor's Academy and Northeastern University star has spent most of his first year with the club since then playing rookie ball, but recently Dupere was promoted to the Giants' Low-A affiliate and he's gotten off to an incredible start.

Through his first 10 games with the San Jose Giants, Dupere is batting .342 with three home runs, 12 RBI and a 1.024 OPS. His best performance so far came on July 17, when he went 3 for 4 with a home run, five RBI, two runs scored and a stolen base in a 14-4 win over the Visalia Rawhide.

Prior to his promotion Dupere had batted .254 with four home runs, 13 RBI and a .884 OPS in 17 games in the Arizona Complex League.

Castillo, Benintendi early trade highlights The trade deadline is still three days away, but we've already seen a couple of bombshells come together as baseball's contenders try to load up for the home stretch.

The first big domino to fall came late Thursday when the New York Yankees acquired all-star outfielder and former Red Sox standout Andrew Benintendi from the Kansas City Royals. The Yankees gave up three prospects in the deal, two of whom ranked No. 19 and 21 in their system according to MLB Pipeline, and Benintendi should now give the scuffling Yankees a serious boost at the top of their lineup.

The next big move came Friday when the Seattle Mariners acquired Cincinnati Reds pitcher Luis Castillo, signaling to the wider baseball world that they are serious about ending their 21-season playoff drought.

Castillo, the top starting pitcher on the market, remains under contract through the end of next season and gives Seattle an impressive one-two punch at the top of their rotation along with reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray. The Mariners gave up an impressive haul of prospects highlighted by shortstop Noelvi Marte, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 12 prospect in baseball, but now stand as a clear favorite to finish among the top three in the AL Wild Card race.

One deal that won't happen, however, is a reunion between the Red Sox and Daniel Bard.

The former Red Sox reliever, who famously spent seven years out of the big leagues due to a series of prolonged struggles, has reemerged as a dominant closer with the Colorado Rockies. The 37-year-old was viewed as a prime trade candidate, but the Rockies announced Saturday that they've resigned Bard to a two-year extension. Bard returning to Boston would have been quite the feel-good story, but now if the Red Sox decide to make an upgrade in their bullpen, they'll have to look for help elsewhere.

Email: mcerullo@northofboston.com. Twitter: @MacCerullo.