At different points this year, the Red Sox sounded alarm bells about their middle infield production.
In early June, they asked Romy Gonzalez to fast-forward through a rehab assignment in hopes of getting a jolt in the lineup. He came back before he was ready, struggled, and got demoted to the minors. One month ago, the Sox traded for Curtis Mead to come aboard as a power-hitting second baseman. After Mead suffered a broken wrist in his first game, they tried to trade for a shortstop before the deadline.
But with Mead still in a cast, without a deal for Zach Neto or Otto Lopez, with Trevor Story and Isiah Kiner-Falefa on rehab assignments, with Marcelo Mayer having been dealt to the Giants, the Sox have improbably fielded one of the most offensively productive middle infields in baseball for nearly two months. The latest showcase came on Sunday, when second baseman Nick Sogard went 2 for 3 with a homer, double, and walk to help propel a 5-4 win and conclude a three-game sweep at Fenway against the Giants.
For the season, the switch-hitting Sogard is hitting .287/.401/.426, including a .299/.421/.448 line since returning to the big leagues in place of Mead. He’s 11 for 22 with two homers and four doubles during his current six-game hitting streak.
“You can’t say enough about it,” interim manager Chad Tracy said. “You’re getting power swings on the left side, powerful swings on the right side. You’re getting great defense. It’s been enormous, the at-bats he’s taken.”
The combination of Sogard and Anthony Seigler at second base, with Andruw Monasterio at short, has given lineup-changing depth. Despite considerable turnover, since July 1, the Sox have gotten a combined .284/.362/.429 line from their middle infielders — the best average, on-base, and OPS (.791) for any team.
“I guess you could say we built a lot of depth in the middle of the field in the offseason,” said Tracy. “Obviously it’s been very needed with some of the stuff we’ve gone through.”
For Sogard, the opportunity has been meaningful. The 28-year-old has started 23 of 24 games since returning to the big leagues at the end of July, performing at a level surpassing anything he’d previously done at the game’s highest level.
“It’s just invaluable getting to have that rhythm of playing every day,” said Sogard. “I haven’t done a ton of damage at the big league level yet, but I felt like I could do something similar here to what I’ve done in the minor leagues. To start to see that show up is satisfying.”
For a time, it didn’t seem certain that Sogard would get such an opportunity in 2026. His brief run in May as an everyday infielder got short-circuited by an ill-timed oblique injury.
He was either on the sidelines or back in Worcester while watching others step in at second. When the Sox traded for Mead, did Sogard worry that he’d missed his window to cement a place in the big leagues?
“Definitely a little bit of that. But at the same time, you can’t control these things. Spending time kind of concerning yourself with things that are out of your control I think isn’t valuable,” said Sogard. “I just trusted that whenever I’d get an opportunity, I’d try and take advantage of it and play the best baseball I can. We’ll see what even happens going forward, but just trying to take advantage of every day and help out.”
Sogard’s allusion to “what even happens going forward” was an obvious acknowledgement of forthcoming roster changes. Story and Kiner-Falefa both spent the week rehabbing with the WooSox. Both are nearing returns to the active roster.
But unlike with Gonzalez earlier in the year, the performance of Sogard and Monasterio has given the Sox the luxury of patience. Those two have allowed the decision about when to activate Story and Kiner-Falefa (who will both be examined in Boston on Monday) to be driven not by necessity, but instead opportunity.
“There are cases where you have no choice, like [with Gonzalez],” said Tracy. “You just get forced into things sometimes. Then there’s other times, depending on the length of time [a player is out], where you have the ability to lengthen it out.”
With just 32 games remaining in the season, the Sox will soon have a late-season roster reconfiguration. It remains to be seen what that means for the playing time of Monasterio and Sogard. Regardless of their roles, the team’s surge into contention has been in no small part due to the high level of play they’ve delivered.
“It’s everyone just trying to do their job and play their game and pick the next guy up,” said Sogard. “I think it’s the nature of the whole team — just a gritty, gritty group of guys just trying to battle and play complementary team baseball.”
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.