WooSox closer AJ Politi on waiting for MLB call: 'It's just part of the business'
WooSox closer AJ Politi on waiting for MLB call: 'It's just part of the business'
The Red Sox saw two pitchers get taken in the first round of the 2023 Rule 5 Draft. Thad Ward was selected by the Washington Nationals and AJ Politi was selected by the Baltimore Orioles.
Politi spent his entire Spring Training with the Orioles, as he was gunning to earn a spot in their crowded bullpen. He ultimately ended up coming up just shy and was returned to the Red Sox organization where he picked right back up where he left off last season in Worcester.
“I think my season has been going well.” Politi told Beyond the Monster. “In the beginning, I had a couple of rough outings. I think I recovered from it well. I think it was just getting back into the groove of things and just that first month I was working on my mechanics and up to game speed. It has clicked and I have gotten back to where I was before.”
The life of a minor league reliever is no easy one. With so many arms needing to get in during the Triple-A season, one or two bad outings can skew the numbers of any member of the bullpen.
“It wasn’t anything too crazy, just one or two bad outings.” Politi said of his early season outings. “It’s just something that happens as a reliever. It’s not always mechanical. Sometimes you just leave a pitch up and they get a good piece of it and your numbers get skewed a little bit. It was nothing mechanical or anything like that. The velocity was down in the beginning and that didn’t help my stuff play up. Everything has been back up. I have just been getting my arm strength back.”
The New Jersey native is doing all he can to put himself in a spot to be an option for the MLB bullpen this season. Politi is 6-1 with a 2.73 ERA over 29 games. His last 7 outings have been scoreless, as his ERA for the month of June sits at 0.84. The right hander is once again eligible for the Rule-5 Draft this offseason, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a team take a chance on him if the Red Sox don’t add him to the roster.
“It’s just staying consistent now and waiting for your time to come.” Politi said on a potential MLB promotion. “It’s not an easy task to get up there and I know that. It’s just part of the business. I am just going to keep going out there and throwing and doing what I can control and whatever happens, happens after that.”
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