Red Sox Hurler Elects Free Agency Over Demotion, Impacting Bullpen Depth
The Boston Red Sox lost a solid depth piece from their bullpen at a time when pitching is at a premium due to a slew of injuries to the staff.
The Red Sox are riding two bullpen games a week and Kutter Crawford as a starter with Chris Sale, Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock all on the injured list. To make that work, relievers will be shipped up and down to keep arms fresh.
Boston will now have one less hurler to rotate into the fold.
"Red Sox lefty Ryan Sherriff cleared waivers and elected free agency," MassLive's Chris Cotillo tweeted Monday. "He was designated for assignment the other day."
Sheriff posted a 2.70 ERA with a .240 batting average against and 1.20 WHIP in 6 2/3 innings for Boston this season.
The bigger workload came with Triple-A Worcester, where he posted a 2.82 ERA with a 24-to-10 strikeout-to-walk ratio, .207 batting average against and 1.21 WHIP in 22 1/3 innings.
The 33-year-old certainly played well enough for a big-league opportunity but it became apparent that Boston did not want to give him a role.
He'll likely be picked up in short order, though the fact that he cleared waivers indicates that he might not be the hottest commodity in professional baseball.
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