Brandon Walter pitched in relief Thursday; What does this mean for one of the Red Sox top pitching prospects?
Brandon Walter isn’t your typical prospect.
The left-hander was drafted as a college senior out of the University of Delaware when he was 22 years old. That year he was drafted happened to be in 2019, which as you know is one year before the world shut down and ended up cancelling all minor league level games.
Walter didn’t throw his first pitch at Low-A until he was 24 years old. However, he breezed through Low-A, High-A, and AA all by the time he was 25. He was pitching in Worcester at 25-years-old too. A back injury unfortunately cut Walter’s AAA season to two starts in 2022.
The Delaware native is ranked as the 10th best prospect in the Red Sox system, according to SoxProspects.com. He slots in as the 4th best pitching prospect behind Shane Drohan, Bryan Mata, and Luis Perales. Walter has started every single game he has pitched in the minors since he was in Salem in 2021.
That streak ended Thursday night.
Shortly before the game, the WooSox announced that left-handed reliever Joe Jacques would be starting in place of Walter. Jacques ended up throwing the first two innings before being replaced by Walter.
So, the question remains, why is Walter coming in out of relief?
We saw the WooSox in this same scenario last month when veteran starter James Paxton was on his rehab stint. Chris Cotillo of MassLive wrote about what Alex Cora was saying at the time regarding the bullpen appearance. Obviously things changed after that appearance, as Paxton was only able to record two outs and gave up seven earned runs. Walter was in the same boat on Thursday.
Walter pitched 3.2 innings in relief and gave up nine hits and seven earned runs. At the end of the day, this could end up being just a one game thing given the results. On the other hand, the Red Sox could’ve been trying to see what the results will look like coming out of the bullpen.
The injury to Joely Rodriguez and the struggles of Richard Bleier had created a massive need for lefty relievers in the bullpen. Rodriguez is back from injury and Bleier is on the IL. Brennan Bernardino currently fills Bleier’s spot, and we have seen Ryan Sherriff for a few games as well.
We will know more regarding Walter’s situation once his next start comes next week. Given his status as a 40-man roster player, could we see the Red Sox test out another relief appearance to be an option in the bullpen later this season? Walter is currently 0-4 with a 6.80 ERA on the season. Could a switch to the bullpen spark his production?
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