Should Pitching Prospect Earn Next Red Sox Triple-A Promotion?
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PORTLAND, Maine -- The Boston Red Sox have clearly outlined their next wave of talent with four marquee prospects being promoted to Triple-A Worcester over the last week.
The organization entered the season with a widespread goal to improve the internal pitching pipeline. As of late, Hunter Dobbins seems to be one of the greatest beneficiaries.
The soon-to-be 25-year-old right-hander offers one of the system's better performers this season, going 7-3 with a 3.17 ERA in 21 starts with Double-A Portland. The Red Sox prospect turned in more dominance in his most recent outing Tuesday, tossing six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts.
Dobbins sports a 1.03 ERA over the last 28 days, per Baseball Reference. In that span, he's allowed just three earned runs across 26 1/3 innings with 25 strikeouts.
Along with other right-handers such as Richard Fitts, Dobbins appears to be rising as a starter that could offer depth to the Red Sox rather shortly. Wednesday also brought reports of Dobbins potentially taking his next step toward Triple-A Worcester.
His 2024 season certainly posts a resume deserving of such a promotion.
In terms of that mindset, Dobbins shared his thoughts on future promotions, both for Triple-A and MLB, in an exclusive interview with NESN.com following the All-Star break.
"I let the front office do the front office thing," Dobbins told NESN.com. "I'm gonna focus on what I'm doing here. If they think I'm ready and they want to use me, if I can help the big-league team in any way and any form, I'm all for it."
Boston drafted Dobbins in the eighth round of the 2021 MLB Draft out of Texas Tech. It took time to adjust to pro ball before Dobbins appeared to find a comfort level during the 2023 campaign.
"I feel like I spent the first year finding myself again after Tommy John (surgery)," Dobbins shared. "Finding that chip on my shoulder of, 'You know what? I'm healthy. I can go full at it.' Last year, kind of found my stride. Could really start working on things the organization wanted me to work on. This year, it's a lot more of, 'You know what? I know who I am as a pitcher.'"
Dobbins continued: "I think that's something the Red Sox do a really good job of is encouraging us to be who we are. Don't try to be too much and just go after hitters."
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The right-hander got off to a strong start with High-A Greenville in 2023, striking out 44 hitters with just five walks in seven starts before his promotion to Double-A Portland. He gave solid innings but certainly embraced the chance to improve this past offseason.
"Last year when I was in Greenville, I kind of got in a groove pretty quick," Dobbins said. "I would definitely say when I first got to Double-A, the level of hitters took a big jump. Being able to settle in, find that groove again last year really helped with my confidence coming into this year. I knew I could handle it. I knew I could really attack these hitters. This year, I'm bigger, stronger, throwing a little harder. Stuff's a little better. I know I can handle it. Now it's just kind of fine-tuning some stuff."
Dobbins cited fellow minor league arms such as Angel Bastardo and Grant Gambrell as those who helped him take steps forward in the Red Sox system. Among several improved traits for Dobbins, his durability as an innings-eater stands out.
"At the beginning of the year, I set the expectation to be the guy that goes six, seven innings every start anyways," Dobbins said. "That's just kind of my mentality. I want to be that workhorse in the big leagues that goes 200 innings a year that the team can lean on."
Dobbins fell into tweaks that have gone on around the Red Sox system, led by pitching coach Andrew Bailey reworking arsenals for pitchers with Boston. The righty specifically cited a change in his breaking ball, going from a bullet slider to more of a sweeper. That pairs with a fastball that's bumped into the mid-90s this season to attack opposing hitters.
"Our motto as a pitching staff, top to bottom, is throw nasty stuff in the zone," Dobbins said. "For me, my focus has been throwing my slider and my splitter. Land the curveball early in counts. Then, we can get a little extra nasty. Try to get some chase later."
Should Dobbins be promoted, he would join a quartet of talented position players in Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, Kyle Teel and Kristian Campbell as the latest to move to Worcester.
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