How the Red Sox see Justin Hagenman's role evolving
The second to last trade in the Chaim Bloom era was the one that we saw Nick Robertson and Justin Hagenman over from the Dodgers. While Bloom might have been high on both, it is telling that the organization as a whole feels the same with Robertson in the Red Sox bullpen and Hagenman coming on as of late into a new role for the WooSox.
“When we acquired him, the interest level was being in a bulk bullpen role.” WooSox manager Chad Tracy said of Hagenman. “It is more like a multiple inning reliever somewhere in the middle part of the game to carry it to the back end and we have used him primarily that way.”
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Over his last two appearances, Hagenman has thrown 98 pitches in relief. Both of those outings were his first ones since coming over in the trade that he went longer than two innings.
“There have been talks about him starting that have popped up to extend him further than two innings.” Tracy added. “We got in a spot last week in Gwinnett when he went three innings. This week he had another outing of three innings. If there are opportunities where we don’t get as deep into the game with the starter, then we will try to stretch him out more to see what he looks like. I think he is up to ten scoreless innings now over the last handful of outings. He has done good for us.”
Hagenman is no stranger to starting as he spent his entire career at Penn State as a starter and has made 10 starts over his minor league career, 5 of which came in 2023 with the Dodgers Triple-A. It wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see them stretch him out as a starter as they go into 2024 needing starting spots filled in Worcester.
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Can we get a few starters for the big-league team, too, while we're at it? Is that possible?