Inside The Red Sox

Newly Acquired Red Sox Pitching Prospect Reportedly Set For Breakout Season

Boston has struggled to develop pitchers for decades
Scott Neville|
Jun 22, 2022; Omaha, NE, USA; Oklahoma Sooners starting pitcher David Sandlin (28) pitches against
Jun 22, 2022; Omaha, NE, USA; Oklahoma Sooners starting pitcher David Sandlin (28) pitches against | Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports

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Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox are off to a strong start thanks to an unexpectly lights out pitching staff.

It appears that newly acquired pitching coach Andrew Bailey is as good as advertised -- likely better. The early season results make it much easier to buy into Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow's vision -- which placed a large focus on overhauling the pitching development system.

The pipeline does not feature many highly-touted hurlers as only five of the Red Sox's top 25 prospects are pitchers. The quintet features a pair of newly acquired hurlers, Richard Fitts and David Sandlin. The former is the highest rated of the duo but the latter appears to have just as much upside.

Baseball America's Geoff Pontes listed 20 pitching prospects he felt were primed for breakout campaigns and gave Sandlin some shine.

"Acquiring the underrated righthander was a quiet victory for Craig Breslow’s Red Sox regime," Pontes wrote Friday. "An organization light on pitching prospects with real upside potential, Sandlin represented a departure on a smaller scale from the aversion to acquiring pitching at the minor league level. Sandlin sits mid-90s with a fastball that features above-average ride and run, pairing it with a mid-80s slider with sweep, a firm split-change and low-80s two-plane breaking curveball.

"Sandlin misses bats with all of his pitches, though none are plus swing and miss offerings, and showed above-average command of his fastball, slider and changeup trio in 2023. He will begin 2024 with High-A Greenville."

Sandlin posted a 3.51 ERA with an 87-to-18 strikeout-to-walk ratio, .253 batting average against and a 1.22 WHIP in 66 2/3 innings pitched across 14 starts between the Single-A Columbia Fireflies and High-A Quad Cities River Bandits.

It cost Boston right-handed reliever John Schreiber to acquire Sandlin from the Kansas City Royals, who was a solid high-leverage arm for Boston. Given the amount of young arms infused into the big-league bullpen paired with the desperate need for pitching prospects, Breslow was wise to make the swap.

Now it's up to Sandlin to live up to the hype.

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Scott Neville
SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the Boston Red Sox for Sports Illustrated's new page "Inside The Red Sox." Before starting "Inside The Red Sox", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer.  His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join the Sports Illustrated Media Group in his current endeavor as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Red Sox" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu

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