Craig Breslow on newly acquired pitching prospect David Sandlin: ‘Loved the stuff, loved the makeup’
Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow took steps to strengthen his organizations young pitching pipeline. Boston acquired right-handed pitching prospect David Sandlin for John Schreiber.
Sandlin is a hard-throwing righty whose heater has reached 97 mph. The 22-year-old throws a slider, curveball and changeup as part of his repertoire.
Breslow likes Sandlin’s makeup and thinks he will be someone that’ll become a starter in the big leagues in the future.
“We had identified (him) early on as someone that we think is on the rise and has the makings of a legitimate starting pitcher,” Breslow said. “Loved the stuff, loved the makeup and we’ve seen the stuff take a pretty significant step forward. Anytime you make these trades, you have to recognize that we’re trading a really talented pitcher over there and that was difficult. Certainly wasn’t an easy decision. But like I said, I feel like my job is to do what is best for the organization. And I think this is a chance to do that.”
Sandlin spent time on the 60-day injured list with a lat injury last year. Breslow said the righty is fully ramped up and ready to contribute.
With Sandlin in the fold, it comes at the cost of losing Schreiber and makes the major league roster worse in the interim.
“It’s not a decision that we made lightly... It was tough,” he added. “But there are certain pockets of the roster where we feel like we’ve amassed depth and we need to maintain this balance of short and long term outlooks.”
Breslow felt trading Schreiber was worth the gamble for the long term of the team. With both Jansen and Martin a free agent after the season and the probability the club won’t be competitive, they could be next.
