Red Sox Hurler Elects Free Agency Over Demotion, Impacting Bullpen Depth

Boston cannot afford to lose much more pitching

Scott Neville | Jul 10, 2023

Red Sox Hurler Elects Free Agency Over Demotion, Impacting Bullpen Depth /

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Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox lost a solid depth piece from their bullpen at a time when pitching is at a premium due to a slew of injuries to the staff.

The Red Sox are riding two bullpen games a week and Kutter Crawford as a starter with Chris Sale, Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock all on the injured list. To make that work, relievers will be shipped up and down to keep arms fresh.

Boston will now have one less hurler to rotate into the fold.

"Red Sox lefty Ryan Sherriff cleared waivers and elected free agency," MassLive's Chris Cotillo tweeted Monday. "He was designated for assignment the other day."

Sheriff posted a 2.70 ERA with a .240 batting average against and 1.20 WHIP in 6 2/3 innings for Boston this season.

The bigger workload came with Triple-A Worcester, where he posted a 2.82 ERA with a 24-to-10 strikeout-to-walk ratio, .207 batting average against and 1.21 WHIP in 22 1/3 innings.

The 33-year-old certainly played well enough for a big-league opportunity but it became apparent that Boston did not want to give him a role.

He'll likely be picked up in short order, though the fact that he cleared waivers indicates that he might not be the hottest commodity in professional baseball.

More MLB: Yankees Add Ex-Red Sox Slugger To MLB Roster To Replace Injured Outfielder

Published Jul 10, 2023

SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the Boston Red Sox for Sports Illustrated's new page "Inside The Red Sox." Before starting "Inside The Red Sox", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer. His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join the Sports Illustrated Media Group in his current endeavor as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Red Sox" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu