AJ Politi 'getting back to himself' following return after Rule 5 Draft
The Red Sox lost three guys to the MLB Rule 5 Draft this offseason. AJ Politi was selected by the Baltimore Orioles and Thad Ward was selected by the Washington Nationals. Ward has been pretty solid so far for the Nationals, carrying a 3.97 ERA through eleven games. Politi, however, was returned back to the Red Sox organization after not making the Orioles out of spring training.
Now 26 years old, Politi finds himself off the 40-man roster in Worcester to begin the 2023 season. After serving as the team’s closer in his first few outings, Politi started running into some trouble in back-to-back outings. After giving up 7 hits and 5 earned runs over a four inning stretch, the team knew Politi was not feeling right.
“In the skid he had, he wasn’t as crisp of getting on top of the ball. He was losing some stuff arm side.” WooSox Manager Chad Tracy said postgame on Tuesday. “We didn’t get to spend any time with him in Spring Training. We wanted to get him in a multi-inning outing in the middle part of the game to get some work in. He fell behind in some counts today but was able to come back and make some quality pitches. Even when we used him in middle part of game it was still high leverage due to being a tie game or guys on base.”
After the rough few outings, the former Seton Hall product has started to turn things around lately. In the five innings since, Politi has given up three hits and one run. The latest outing was on Tuesday night, where he was able to pick up the four out save.
“If he gets himself right and it starts coming out hot and crisp with the cutter… watch out.” Tracy added. “He still has a very good breaking ball too that can get guys out.”
The WooSox bullpen has intriguing talent from top to bottom. From guys who have MLB experience, to guys that barely have AAA experience, there are plenty of options to pitch in high leverage spots now on the team that have started to prove themselves in 2023.
We have seen Politi, Chase Shugart and Joe Jacques take on the higher leverage roles for the club to this point. Kaleb Ort has also returned to the WooSox, where he held a high leverage role before earning his MLB promotion. Tracy noted that all four will be thrown in there at different times and he won’t truly have one guy that will be the team’s closer. Look for Politi to be used often when the game is on the line for the 2023 WooSox.
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