First base the latest spot for Red Sox utility man Tzu-Wei Lin

BOSTON --- Tzu-Wei Lin is running out of defensive positions to learn.

Sunday saw the Red Sox utility man make his debut at first base. His lack of familiarity was obvious on a couple of occasions during the afternoon intrasquad game, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Lin took ground balls with Boston third base coach Carlos Febles prior to the first pitch, mixing in with Bobby Dalbec and the early infield group. He’s played third base, shortstop, second base [...]

BOSTON --- Tzu-Wei Lin is running out of defensive positions to learn.

Sunday saw the Red Sox utility man make his debut at first base. His lack of familiarity was obvious on a couple of occasions during the afternoon intrasquad game, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Lin took ground balls with Boston third base coach Carlos Febles prior to the first pitch, mixing in with Bobby Dalbec and the early infield group. He’s played third base, shortstop, second base and all three outfield positions at either the big league or Triple-A level since 2017.

"I know he’s going to field the ball well," Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke said. "It’s a question of figuring out how to get to first base in a hurry, to get your body turned around and your foot on the bag."

Roenicke has an eye on a particular rule change in this case. Lin is a quick runner, and Major League Baseball’s decision to begin extra innings with a man at second base this season could offer him an additional role. Lin has appeared in 75 games over the last three seasons since making his Boston debut in 2017.

"The ninth inning, Mitch Moreland makes the last out," Roenicke said. "He’s going to go out there and you’re going to put him on second base. Well, we may run Lin.

"Then, if we end up scoring or not, you really don’t want to end up using another player all the time to go out to first base. Sometimes you will, but you don’t want to have to.

"If he shows he can play first base like he does all the other positions we know we’ve got a valuable player who’s a good defender."

bkoch@providencejournal.com

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