Joe Jacques

The Red Sox have designated left-hander Joe Jacques for assignment, with Chris Cotillo of MassLive among those to relay the news. His roster spot will go to Cam Booser, whose promotion was reported yesterday.

Jacques, 29, was first added to Boston’s roster last year. To this point, he has thrown 28 1/3 innings in the majors with a 5.08 earned run average. His 16.8% strikeout rate is subpar but his 7.6% walk rate is solid and his 64.8% ground ball rate is very strong.

His production in the minors has been fairly similar, though with a few more punchouts. He tossed 39 Triple-A innings last year with a 2.54 ERA, keeping the ball on the ground at a 60.4% rate. He struck out 21.6% of batters faced while walking 8%.

The Sox seemingly prefer to get a look at the fireballing, late-blooming Booser, as opposed to the soft-tossing Jacques. The latter throws his sinker, which averages just over 90 miles per hour, roughly two thirds of the time. Booser, meanwhile, can get his fastball up into the high 90s.

Boston will now have a week to trade Jacques or pass him through waivers. There’s often demand for lefty relief and Jacques still has options, meaning he wouldn’t need an active roster spot if any team were to acquire him.

Left-hander Cam Booser is joining the Red Sox in Pittsburgh tomorrow, per Ian Browne of MLB.com. The lefty will be added to the club’s 40-man roster, per Andrew Parker of Beyond the Monster, who adds that lefty Joe Jacques will be optioned to open a spot on the active roster. The Sox will also need to open a 40-man roster spot but could do so easily by transferring Trevor Story to the 60-day injured list, since he will miss the rest of the year due to shoulder surgery.

Booser will crack a major league roster for the first time at an usually old age, as his 32nd birthday is just a few weeks away. It’s a testament to his determination that he will make it to the show after all these years, as he made his minor league debut over a decade ago, playing Rookie ball in the Twins’ system in 2013. After a few years in the minors, he topped out at High-A in 2017, not pitching in any official capacity for the next few years.

He resurfaced with the Chicago Dogs, an indy ball team, in 2021. He tossed 23 1/3 innings with a 1.93 earned run average for the Dogs that year and showed enough promise to get a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks for 2022. He tossed 25 innings in Double-A but struggled with a 6.48 ERA and got released. He then joined the Lancaster Barnstormers, another indy ball club, and tossed 11 2/3 innings with a 4.63 ERA.

He was able to secure himself a minor league contract with the Red Sox for 2023 and made 48 Triple-A appearances last year. He had a 4.99 ERA in his 57 2/3 innings, striking out 26.7% of batters faced while walking 9.7%. He received an invite to major league camp in 2024 and seemed to impress manager Álex Cora, as the skipper mentioned him to reporters last month, highlighting his high-90s fastball and ability to throw offspeed pitches in the zone.

It was around that same time during Spring Training that Ian Browne of MLB.com profiled the lefty. Booser apparently retired at the end of the 2017 season following several injuries, a marijuana suspension and “self-admitted attitude problems.” He then turned his attention to a carpentry career but stumbled back onto the mound by doing lessons with kids and rediscovering his past form.

“After the kiddos would leave, I would stay in the dark and throw into a net by myself for a couple of months. And through that process, I found out that my arm felt better than it ever had with that time off. One day, I got on the mound and my fastball was pretty good, 97-98 [mph]. So we figured, ‘Let’s give it a shot.’ I met with a trainer back home the next day and went out there to [independent] ball in 2021, and it’s been a great journey ever since.”

Booser didn’t break camp with the Sox but reported to Triple-A and has thrown 6 2/3 innings over four appearances this year, allowing two earned runs while striking out 15 opponents against just one walk. Though he obviously didn’t take the traditional path, Booser has found his way to the big leagues in amazingly unique fashion. The Sox have Brennan Bernardino and Joely Rodríguez in their bullpen but Booser will give them a third southpaw option.