Garza, Sherriff called up in bullpen shakeup
BOSTON — The Red Sox are going to have a couple new faces in the bullpen starting Tuesday night.
With righty John Schreiber heading to the injured list and lefty Brennan Bernardino being optioned to Triple-a, the Red Sox are calling up right Justin Garza and lefty Ryan Sherriff to take their place.
Garza, 29, was recently claimed off waivers from the Los Angeles Angels and has appeared in 21 big league games, all with Cleveland in 2021. He has posted a 4.71 ERA over 28.2 innings in his MLB career, and since the start of 2022 he has pitched exclusively at Triple-a. This season he has a 3.95 ERA over 13.2 innings split between Salt Lake and Worcester.
Sherriff, 32, signed with the Red Sox as a minor league free agent this past offseason and was considered a potential contender for the Opening Day bullpen out of camp. The lefty has posted a 3.65 career ERA in four big league seasons between 2017-21 with St. Louis and Tampa Bay, and this season he has a 3.00 ERA in 15 appearances with Worcester.
The moves likely won’t be the only ones coming for the Red Sox pitching staff in the coming days. Kutter Crawford is expected to be activated ahead of Friday’s series opener in San Diego, and the Red Sox could move one or possibly two starters to the bullpen as part of a larger starting rotation shakeup once Garrett Whitlock makes his return in the next couple weeks.
Cora defends Brasier’s contributions: Late Sunday night, the Red Sox quietly designated Ryan Brasier for assignment.
It’s a move many fans were eager to celebrate, but on Monday afternoon, manager Alex Cora took time to issue a reminder of how much Brasier contributed to the team’s last two postseason runs.
“I know a lot of people are crushing him and all that, a lot of people wanted to get rid of this guy,” the manager said, “We stayed with him all the way to the end. It just didn’t work out, but the kid is Class A… He didn’t work out, but ‘Brase’ is really good. He’s really good. I know he struggled the last few years. He got hit hard, but every day, he showed up to work and tried to get better, and I’m very proud of him… A lot of people have been hard on him, very hard. And it hasn’t been easy.”
Cora also recalled his first impressions of the reliever, who joined the Red Sox on a minor league deal in 2018 after not pitching in the majors since 2013.
“In ’18, nobody knew about this kid. Nobody. He showed up, I remember, in Minnesota at a night game because we needed a guy, and all of a sudden, he’s throwing 97, 98 mph, I was like, ‘oh, shoot’,” the manager said with a smile. “And then he came here in June, and his first pitch was 99 mph. David Price was right next to me, he’s like, ‘Who’s this guy?”
Brasier appeared in 34 regular-season games that year, and pitched to a sterling 1.60 ERA and 0.772 WHIP over 33⅔ innings. He also pitched multiple times in each of the three postseason rounds, and only allowed one (earned) run on 7 hits over nine appearances en route to championship.
But in the following seasons, he compiled a 5.11 ERA and 1.347 WHIP across 188 regular-season appearances, allowing 100 earned runs in 176 innings.