The Red Sox announced five transactions this morning, including the news that left-hander Zach Penrod’s contract has been selected to the big league roster. Catcher Tyler Heineman was designated for assignment to open up a spot on the 40-man roster, and left-hander Cam Booser and right-hander Zack Kelly were both optioned to Triple-A Worcester to create space on the active roster. Boston also called up southpaw Bailey Horn from Triple-A. Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe (X link) was the first to report on the Penrod, Booser, and Horn transactions, while MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo (via X) reported yesterday that Kelly was being optioned.
Kelly and Booser were two of six pitchers used by the Red Sox in Friday’s 5-4 loss to the Yankees, so today’s moves brings some fresh arms into Boston’s relief corps. For Penrod, he is now on the verge of his Major League debut, making quite a culmination of a six-year pro career that began as an undrafted free agent.
Penrod pitched briefly with the Rangers’ rookie league club in 2018 but he then spent two years on the sidelines due to both a Tommy John surgery and the canceled 2020 minor league season. The southpaw returned to pitch in the independent Pioneer League from 2021-23, and this performance caught the eye of Red Sox scouts and led to a minor league deal partway through the 2023 season. This year, Penrod has a 4.16 ERA over 62 2/3 combined innings at Double-A and Triple-A ball, as well as a huge 34.8% strikeout rate.
There is a pretty wide variance in those minor league numbers, as Penrod posted a 2.80 ERA in 35 1/3 Double-A innings and a much heftier 5.93 ERA in 27 1/3 frames in Worcester. Control has been a bit of a question mark for Penrod throughout his career, and his walk rate also spiked up to 16.1% in Triple-A after a more palatable 9.1% number in Double-A action.
Still, the strikeouts are playing at both levels, and Penrod’s upper-90s fastball makes him an interesting bullpen weapon for the Red Sox to explore. Penrod has mostly started throughout his pro career but worked out of the pen for 10 of his 15 appearances in Worcester, so Boston figures to use him in a long relief role here at the tail end of the 2024 season. As Alex Speier of the Boston Globe explored back in May, Penrod’s development of a slider as a third pitch after his fastball and changeup could help him carve out a path as a starter, but the 27-year-old is surely pleased to work in the majors in any capacity.
The Red Sox acquired Heineman in a trade with the Mets back in February, and he has spent almost the entire season in the minors save for two games at the MLB level. Connor Wong and Reese McGuire handled most of the catching duties for the Sox this season, and after Danny Jansen was acquired at the trade deadline, McGuire was outrighed to Triple-A and Heinemen was pushed even further down the depth chart.
With his two appearances in a Red Sox uniform, Heineman has now now suited up for five different teams at the big league level over his five seasons in the Show, and he has also been organizational depth for six other franchises. Heineman has hit .216/.297/.280 over 286 career plate appearances, with 174 of those PA coming as a member of the Pirates and Blue Jays in 2022. Because Heineman has been outrighted before, he has the ability to elect free agency and reject an outright assignment from Boston if he clears DFA waivers.
Indy ball grinder getting his shot.
Dark – When BaseballReference has “Bats: Unknown” and “Throws: Unknown” you know he’s an obscure player. LOL!!
Before the season started, I was sure Penrod was going to be the left-handed starter they needed by the end of June. So much for that–an injury derailed him in AAA, and I’m not so sure that he’s fully back. Still, he’s been really good at every level, including the Ariz Fall League, and I’m glad to see him up. And I’ve seen more than enough of Kelly and Booser–they’ve just run out of gas.
Horace – This all goes back to last offseason when the Red Sox had a glaring need to acquire a good lefty reliever …. but they were too cheap and didn’t care that Bernie was the ONLY reliable lefty on the team.
At one point they even demoted Bernie and had just Joely as the sole LHP ….. just horrific decisionmaking by the front office. Yeah I know they punted on the season before it even started, but still how can ANY MLB team go into a season with just one lefty on the team?
We sound like a season long broken record mentioning all the bone headed decisions the team made/didn’t make, things just flat out ignored and it irksome. This year, more than many others because the extreme short sightedness probably cost them a post season birth as good as the team was for much of it.
Like seeing anyone have to pay for the piss-poor results of incompetance the last 4y in Washington, nobody in Boston will get fired either. coverups and failing upwards. All we see now.
Cora extension, undeserved put a candle on top of a crap sandwich.
I’m glad to see Penrod up and getting a shot he’s a three pitch pitcher and his stuff has played up out of the bullpen and he was rule 5 eligible this off-season so good to add him know. Guerrero has looked solid but more importantly I think his stuff plays at the big league level now it’s time to see if Penrod’s stuff can play he’s essentially a three pitch pitcher with a fastball nearing 100 a good changeup and slider. I really like this call up along with Guerrero now there’s really only Dobbins and Monegro I think needed to protect in the rule 5.
Bruin- We’ve been seeing on a few sites where both Fitts and Penrod were not ready. Ditto meidroth, but guys struggling remain on the roster. It’s maddening.
WHY is Valdez still around and taking AB’s??
I have to think Valdez is gone this off-season they are going to need his 40 man spot.
Guerrero and Penrod should have been up as soon as it was obvious that the failed trades for Simms and Garcia didn’t work out.
I’m fine with what they did with Fitts he really wasn’t pitching that well in AAA until the last month before he was brought to Boston. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him start in AAA again next year. My hope is we see Fitts, Dobbins, and Penrod in AAA as depth. I do think they will stretch Penrod out next spring and continue to develop him as a starter. He has a true starters mix and swing and miss stuff.
It’s important to remember not only is Gio coming back next season but Breslow also signed Fulmer to a 2 year contract and he’s back next year as well to help the bullpen. I’m not real sure much of this matters though because it’s obvious Cora can’t manage a pitching staff. If he’s going to go so heavily with analytics they need to figure out how much it costs the team by not letting the starters go deeper. It’s been years now the bullpen implodes in the second half they need to figure out why and fix the problem or it’s going to more of the same again next year.
I think this team is going in the right direction I really believe that next year we are going to start to see pitching emerge in this system. I still believe the future is bright in Boston but I’m not a Cora believer.
Fitts so far has shown that he deserves consideration to stay in the rotation. I’d much rather have him as a forth starter with upside for more even it means bumping crawford out of the rotation.
yea don’t bump the guy who can’t keep the ball in the park. Great recipe for success. How ignorant do you have to be to not realize he’s a swing starter.
Two fresh arms for the current series. Not a surprise they’re both lefties as the Yankees have had issues with southpaws all season.
If games were six innings long, the Sox would be in first place.
Sox should have a 10 man starting rotation. First guy goes five innings, the 2nd guy goes four innings and finishes the game. Voila problem solved. As you said, first place.
Problem with that Gary is the relievers capable of going multi innings all year have been awful, sans Winckowski. Rest of them have been discards collected from around the league, like Anderson, Horn, Bailey etc
johnsilver
The Red Sox need to stop messing around with Winkowski as a starting pitcher, his role in 2023 was as a multi-inning pitcher and he did well, obviously experimenting in 2024 didn’t work out well.
Cora needs to stop using pitchers that are designed for one inning for multiple innings, he has overloaded Kelly (who is back from an injured 2023), Booser, Bernie, Weissert with his incompetent actions.
Clearly, the Red Sox need more than one multi-inning reliable pitcher—Whitlock filled that role well in 2021, Winkowski in 2023.
Relievers should have a clear role and no overload.
But I’m afraid that with Cora’s philosophy it will be difficult to achieve this, because this crap with experiments on relievers has been going on for 3 years.