The Red Sox brought back right-handers Isaiah Campbell and Bryan Mata on minor league contracts, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive. Both players were designated for assignment on Tuesday when the Sox added a pair of prospects to their 40-man roster.
Boston waited until tonight’s non-tender deadline to cut them loose, thereby sending them to free agency without needing to run them through waivers. They evidently had a handshake agreement with both pitchers to circle back to the organization without occupying a 40-man spot. Both pitchers will be in big league camp as non-roster invitees, per Cotillo.
Mata, 25, was once among the most highly-touted pitchers in the Boston system. The Venezuela native posted excellent numbers in the low minors and earned a 40-man roster spot after the 2020 season. He unfortunately hasn’t made it to the big leagues four years later, largely because of injury. Mata underwent Tommy John surgery early in the ’21 campaign. He hasn’t topped 83 innings in a minor league season since then.
A hamstring strain limited him to 22 2/3 innings between four minor league levels this year. Mata turned in a 4.37 ERA as he tried to work to the majors. He has allowed 4.87 earned runs per nine through 87 career Triple-A frames. Mata has struggled to throw strikes consistently, but he routinely posts huge ground-ball numbers.
Campbell, 27, also lost most of the season to injury. Acquired from the Mariners last offseason for infielder Luis Urías, he only pitched 6 2/3 innings in a Sox uniform. Campbell was blitzed for 13 runs in that small sample, a far cry from the 2.83 ERA he posted in 27 appearances for the Mariners as a rookie. The Arkansas product missed time with both a shoulder impingement and elbow inflammation amidst a difficult year. He fared much better in a limited sample in Triple-A, where he struck out 19 batters while allowing only four runs over 16 1/3 innings.
Can’t hurt but probably won’t help either.
One open spot on the Red Sox 40 man roster now.
Soto !
You are dreaming my friend. I will not get my hopes high for this team in picking up impact players after “Full Throttle” last year and we will see if “All In” comes to fruition. I still feel Breslow is in over his head and Henry is in Cheap Mode.
I didn’t know signing a player to a $300m+ contact was cheap…..
I think Campbell will have a great bounce back year in 2025.
Glad to see Mata back, seemed like a shame to not be able to find out what he’d turn into in Boston, but definitely was heavy in that 40-man spot. Campbell is a fine non-roster option too.
Great to see both players back in the organization but I assume both Campbell & Mata will still be available to other teams via the Rule V draft, correct? I’m not sure if other teams would be willing to give Mata a 26 man roster spot, but given Campbell’s MLB rookie year success, I could see a team selecting him in the upcoming Rule V draft and using him as a long man in their bullpen.
Both need to get their balls out of their purses and perform because their very baseball existence is on the line at their age and history. Kicked to the curb by new players and abundance in the world. Hope they both do but they should be training like their baseball life is on the line. Because it is!
Campbell has shown potential at least with Florida and with the bounce back when he got demoted. I’m pretty much done with Mata, he will never be more than a replacement level player and maybe not even that.
You say that as if replacement level has no value on a MLB roster. Having replacement level players at the ready for when injuries occur is how good teams survive those situations and stay in the playoff hunt most seasons.
They to groom Mata into a closer
I was thinking all the injuries from trying to be a starter equals try him as a reliever and maybe then he can have success. Same with Whitlock. He ain’t a starter but he is is a fine reliever so keep him as that of which he can be successful for our BoSox
Interesting that they wouldn’t want to explore their options before rejoining on a minor league deal. Campbell has been an interesting guy before and has an option remaining. You’d think there’d be a team willing to give him a 40 man spot.
It is harder to stash players on the 40-man roster. Several podcast i have listened to talk about the increase to 26-man active and the increase MLB pitching staff to 13 has made roster spots on the 40 a premium. With the increase in injuries, especially to pitchers, there needs to be more MLB ready replacements in AAA that are already on the 40-man.
Yeah, but Campbell is a guy I could see in the majors next year. And with the option could be an up and down guy that helps keep your bullpen fresh. Or is number 9 on the depth chart and first guy up. Of course, my perception of him is from Seattle as he obviously didn’t have much major league time last year. Maybe he’s still injured and not ready to be back at full strength next year. But I’m assuming his poor stats this year are a combination of not being fully healthy and tiny sample. Even if he’s going to be set back a bit, I’d be interested in my team giving him a major league contract and getting him back up to speed by mid season.
Kam – The Red Sox are aiming much higher for Isaiah Campbell’s spot….Soto, Fried, Snell, or whoever they can get that is high end who will accept the contract they are offering….
If that’s their stance, doesn’t it make it even stranger that he would sign a minor league deal with them? Wouldn’t he want to explore his market and see if there’s a team that at least is willing to keep him on the 40? At least in that scenario, he’s in position to get a short term callup if someone is going to miss the minimum IL time or something. I’m a Blue Jays fan and they have maybe 2 guys you could write in pen on the relief depth chart. The rest of the spots are up for grabs. Campbell would be worthy of a spot on Toronto’s 40 and would be in competition with guys who have had much less major league success than he’s had. I’m sure there are plenty of teams who are in a spot where they have questions around health or depth in their bullpens that could use a guy like him with options remaining.
To me, this sounds like he’s fairly assured of being back on the roster after spring training but there was a mechanism to remove him from the 40 without exposing him to waivers so the team has a 40 spot to maneuver the offseason in the short term. Especially with 60 day IL not existing in the offseason and a few candidates to go back on it in the spring. Without that assurance, perhaps in the form of an opt out, I wouldn’t sign a minor league deal with a team that is “aiming much higher” for my spot.
Kam – Just because the Red Sox are going to spend money and sign upper tier players does not mean Mata and Campbell will not be in the MLB. The Red Sox had between 5 and 7 players on the 60-day DL for a significant (most) of the season in 2024. Bernardino started the 2024 in AAA, and he was their ‘top’ left handed reliever. Just because Mata and Campbell are not currently on the 40-man does not mean they will not be.
The Red Sox under both Breslow and Bloom have signed players to ‘split’ contracts which pay much higher than normal minor league salaries while in the minors and have a higher than competitive salary if and when in the MLB. That is how they get the players to sign with the Red Sox after being released. This is the 6 or 7th contract i have seen the Red Sox sign like this over the last half dozen years. The affect is like the Red Sox having a 42-man roster instead of 40. The players re-sign and the competing team will not sign these players, because it is more than they want to spend on a player of that talent level. Over paying minor league roster players is one way big market teams can use their financial might within the ‘rules’. It adds quality depth.
Mata should adjust to a bullpen role. He may have some success there.
If I’m understanding this correctly, they DFA’d them earlier this week, but because the DFA window hadn’t run out, they did not place them on waivers and non-tendered them instead? So they were DFAd but not exposed to waivers? A Sporting News article I just read said that they did clear waivers.
Does the mechanism by which they find themselves not on a 40 man roster determine their eligibility in the rule 5 draft?
Inconsequential addition #450 since February 2020. Yawn!!!!