Red Sox Promote Hunter Dobbins
10:18AM: The Red Sox have officially announced Dobbins’ call-up. Manager Alex Cora indicated to reporters (including MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith) that Dobbins might be the starter in the second game of the doubleheader.
7:49AM: The Red Sox will be calling up right-hander Hunter Dobbins from Triple-A Worcester, according to Chris Henrique of the Boston Sports Journal. Dobbins will be Boston’s 27th man for its doubleheader with the Cardinals today, and since he was already added to the 40-man roster last November, no corresponding transactions are required.
If Dobbins gets some action in either of the two games, it will mark the 25-year-old’s Major League debut. The Red Sox selected Dobbins in the eighth round of the 2021 draft, even though he had undergone a Tommy John surgery that year while pitching for Texas Tech. The surgery rehab delayed Dobbins’ pro debut until 2022, but the results have been solid since the righty has gotten back onto the mound.
Over 311 career innings in the minors, Dobbins has a 3.88 ERA, 23.8% strikeout rate, and 7.94% walk rate. Only 24 1/3 of those innings have come at the Triple-A level, and he was expected to get more seasoning in Worcester as the 2025 season develops. Dobbins has started 61 of his 63 career games, though he’ll likely work out of the pen today as a fresh arm for the Sox to utilize over the twin bill.
Baseball America ranks Dobbins as the 11th-best prospect in Boston’s farm system, and MLB Pipeline isn’t far behind with a #13 ranking. Dobbins’ five-pitch arsenal includes a fastball that can touch 98mph and a splinker that he started using last season — as BA’s scouting report puts it, “he doesn’t have a single killer pitch to generate a ton of whiffs, but he steers clear of barrels.” Dobbins allowed only two homers over his 125 2/3 combined innings of Double-A and Triple-A ball in 2024, though he has already surpassed that total in his lone Triple-A appearance this year, as he was tagged for three homers and five earned runs in a 3 2/3-inning relief outing on April 1.
Red Sox To Select Hunter Dobbins, Jhostynxon Garcia
The Red Sox are adding a pair of players to their 40-man roster ahead of tonight’s Rule 5 protection deadline. Right-hander Hunter Dobbins is having his contract selected, per Christopher Smith of MassLive.com. The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier adds that Boston will also select outfielder Jhostynxon Garcia. Those are the only two players the Sox are adding, per Speier. They’ll need to open a pair of 40-man spots in order to make them official.
Boston selected Dobbins, now 25, with their eighth-round pick in 2021. He started 21 Double-A games and another four in Triple-A this past season, logging a combined 3.08 ERA with a 22.9% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate. Dobbins was the organization’s minor league starting pitcher of the season and ended the year ranked 26th among the team’s farmhands, per Baseball America. He’s 93-94 mph with his heater on average and pairs the pitch with a slider, splitter and curveball.
The 21-year-old Garcia (first name pronounced yos-TIN-son) split this past season between Low-A, High-A and Double-A. He laid waste to pitchers at the former levels (.258/.365/.517, five homers in 104 plate appearances in Low-A; .311/.371/.627, 16 homers in 229 plate appearances in High-A) before posting more modest results at the most advanced of his three stops (.263/.320/.386, two homes in 126 plate appearances).
Garcia is a power-over-hit prospect who’s played center field but seems likelier to settle into a corner. He walked in just 7.2% of his plate appearances this season against a 21.7% strikeout rate. That marks an improvement over the 30.4% strikeout rate he logged in 2022 and the 25.5% mark he posted in 2023, but the increased contact has come at the expense of his formerly plus walk rates.