Free agent left-hander Sean Newcomb has gotten attention from teams both as a starter and reliever, write Will Sammon, Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The 32-year-old began the season in the Red Sox’s rotation but moved to relief after five starts.
Newcomb is coming off his best season in at least six years. A former first-round pick who held a rotation spot with the Braves between 2017-18, Newcomb moved primarily to the bullpen in 2019. He pitched well that year but struggled with both injuries and a lack of command over the next few seasons. He combined for 98 2/3 MLB innings between 2020-24 and took a minor league contract with Boston last winter.
The Massachusetts native surprisingly nabbed the fifth starter spot out of camp. He only once completed five innings and allowed four-plus runs in three out of five outings. The Sox moved him to a long relief role when Lucas Giolito returned from a hamstring injury in late April. Newcomb was solid out of the bullpen but was nevertheless pushed off the roster. The Sox traded him to the Athletics, for whom he’d logged some time as a depth reliever in 2023-24.
Newcomb turned into an unexpectedly important bullpen piece for Mark Kotsay. He fired 51 1/3 frames of 1.75 ERA ball while working 1-2 innings at a time. Newcomb punched out a quarter of opponents against a career-best 7% walk rate. He worked in the 93-94 MPH range with both his four-seam fastball and sinker while using a low-80s curveball as his best secondary pitch. Newcomb dabbled with a cutter and changeup against right-handed batters, but the fastball/curve combination was where he found most of his success.
The 6’5″ southpaw pitched particularly well down the stretch, turning in a 0.96 ERA over 28 innings after the All-Star Break. His season ended a couple weeks early because of elbow inflammation, but there’s no indication that’ll be an issue going into next season. Durability has generally been a concern, albeit mostly with lower half injuries. Newcomb missed time with a sprained ankle in 2022 and battled knee problems over the following two seasons.
Newcomb’s strong year was enough to land a big league contract this time around. A one-year deal seems likely, though it’s not out of the question he commands a modest two-year guarantee. Sixth starters and swing types like Griffin Canning, Joe Ross, Jakob Junis, Colin Rea and Michael Lorenzen landed contracts between $4-7MM last winter. Newcomb’s former teammate Michael Soroka pulled a $9MM deal from the Nationals at the higher end of that range, though he’s five years younger and had shown more strikeout potential in the bullpen.
I’ve been rooting for Newk since he came up. His issue always seemed to be a huge curve that wasn’t nearly sharp enough to fool hitters and led to lots of homers .
Unc still has a bit left in the tank.
Truly hoping he can have a good 26!
Come back to the Angels. We need pitching.
First thing Billy Eppler did when he got hired by the angels was get rid of him for Andrelton Simmons. One of the only good things he ever did for the organization.
I wonder what his numbers were before and after the near no hitter against the Dodgers. Feels like he wasn’t the same after that.
Happy to see him experience success. That said, if you have to consider this guy as a traditional starter, you are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. He just does not & has never had a good feel for pitching. That kind of thing plays up in the bullpen.
I agree until this past season. His command was significantly better down the stretch, which is why he put up the numbers he did and probably why he has some interest as a starter
He can get work as a Longman/6th starter going 3-4 innings. A team like Tampa could get quality out of him
Totally agree. I think he could be good one time through the order, or to spell a young starter if they need to be pulled early.
I hope for his sake he proves me wrong but I would bet heavily against him ever being an acceptable 5+ inning starter.
Tampa is a bunch of miracle workers. They could probably get value out of Frankie Montas.
The reliever to starter gimmick is so tiring and unnecessary. Just pay the starting pitcher instead of assuming massive risk for the same outcome. Newcomb and helsley FAILED as starters so why make the same mistake minor league teams did forever ago with these guys. The best recent example, Clay Holmes, was a 5 and dive pitcher with a whip problem. The risk and savings are not worth the reward
As a Brave, it seemed like he became his own worst enemy. Would get ahead of hitters and then not put them away. And if he started to struggle, the situation would spiral downward.
I hope he has figured things out and becomes more than a journeyman.
If you think Newcomb was good at any point of his regular season Red Sox tenure, then you didn’t watch or listen to him pitch.