Red Sox's Jarren Duran: Left off Olympic roster for reason

Duran was not selected for the Team USA roster at the Olympics, because the Red Sox felt they may need to call him up while he was in Tokyo for the Games, Joe MacDonald of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports.

Duran was a key piece for Team USA in the qualifying tournament, so it was surprising to see his name omitted from the final roster. The Red Sox did not have an issue with Duran participating in the Olympics, but they told Team USA manager Mike Scioscia that if Boston needed to call up Duran during the games, they would pull him back from Japan. That sounds like the Red Sox intend to call him up before the end of the Olympic Games, which are scheduled to wrap Aug. 7. Duran has a .971 OPS with 15 home runs in 39 games for Triple-A Worcester.