Right-hander Robert Stock has been outrighted to Triple-A Worcester, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment earlier this week.
Players have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency if they have at least three years of major league service time or a previous career outright. Stock meets the latter criterion but it’s not clear if he will exercise his right. He could return to the open market or stick with the Sox as non-roster depth.
He just had a very brief stay on Boston’s roster, his first time in the big leagues in years. He wasn’t in the majors at any point during the 2022-2024 seasons but he put up some good numbers in Mexico last year. That led the Sox to give him a minor league deal. They played a doubleheader on Sunday with one game going to extra innings.
They added Stock on Monday to give the bullpen a fresh arm. That night, the Sox found themselves losing 5-1 to the Blue Jays after seven innings, so Stock was sent in to mop up the final two frames. He gave up three hits and issued one walk, leading to one run as the Sox lost 6-2. He was designated for assignment the next day.
The Sox ended up going to extras on Wednesday and Thursday as well. They don’t have another off-day until the 17th and then play another ten straight after that. Perhaps they may need a fresh arm in the bullpen again soon but they also might be able to strengthen the staff with Lucas Giolito and Brayan Bello, who are both currently on rehab assignments and almost ready to rejoin the big league club. That could push Richard Fitts or Sean Newcomb from the rotation into a long relief role.
Stock now has 74 2/3 innings in the majors, most of that coming from 2018 to 2021. Overall, he has a 4.70 earned run average, 22.5% strikeout rate, 12.1% walk rate and 49.3% ground ball rate. He pitched in Korea in 2022 then split 2023 between the minors and Indy Ball. Last year, he had a 3.38 ERA over 19 starts for Tecos de los Dos Laredos in the Mexican League. He then remained in Mexico for the winter ball season to put up a 1.60 ERA for Naranjeros de Hermosillo, which led to a minor league deal with the Red Sox.
Photo courtesy of David Butler II, Imagn Images
The Boston Red Sox are out of stock.
More like nobody was interested in picking up stock this week, markets been too volatile.
His stock is trending down
What no one wanted him for free after he reinvented himself? Color me shocked.
My guess is that Stock will not opt out since the BoSox gave him another shot and in the hope that he’ll get another call up when someone gets hurt. The main thing is to continue to pitch well in AAA.
The Red Sox retain the option to call this Stock.
Red Sox STOCK their AAA Club.
The Red Sox (and MLB teams in general) are playing a dangerous game by sticking to short-term bullpen solutions while their long-term bullpen stability continues to suffer. Rather than addressing the deeper issues in pitching development and roster construction, they are spending time and resources on players like Stock, who are likely to move in and out of the roster, rather than solving the problem of high-leverage, consistent bullpen depth for a championship-caliber team.
Red Sox need a better bullpen. Whitlock every three days and systemically overusing “Old”is Chapman is not a strategy. Bunch of “Mid”-dle relievers. I remember the days of Schilling or Pedro to Alan Embree to Mike Timlin to Keith Foulke.
He was great in Airplane!.
Newcomb shouldn’t be on the roster.