Daniel Palka’s acquisition earlier this month — on a waiver claim from Minnesota — only got a passing mention here. I was out of town at the time, I didn’t see an obvious path for him, and he seemed like somebody who could easily be shuffled out during the Rule 5 draft machinations.
But now that the Sox have prioritized him over in-house 2018 roster candidates like Jordan Guerrero and Jake Peter — and based on a few subsequent questions about Palka — it’s worth fleshing out his profile a bit more, because this blurb I wrote requires a few assumptions everybody might not share:
Guerrero’s absence is conspicuous at a time when Gillaspie and Daniel Palka are recreating the “Two Spider-Men Pointing At Each Other” meme, but some of the 40-man roster’s lumpiness should be mashed out in 10 days when the deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players arrives.