For a career major-leaguer like the Red Sox‘s Sean Newcomb, the 2025 season has been an especially exciting one. He was a first-round pick of Atlanta back in 2014, and was up as a starter for the Braves just three years later, going 12-9 as a rookie. In part because of injuries, his career never really took off from there, and he has bounced around from the Braves tot he Cubs and A’s.
Until this January, at least, when he signed with the Red Sox as a non-roster invitee, and then pitched well enough in Florida to earn a place on the team out of spring training. It was a dream come true–Newcomb was born in Brockton, went to high school in Middleborough and pitched for the University of Hartford.
As he told the Boston Herald last month, “Coming into camp being non-roster, I kind of had to grind to get here. I kind of had a feeling, the way my spring was going and the way things were lined up, but it’s just kind of surreal.”
Until Saturday that is. That’s when the Red Sox announced they had designated Newcomb for assignment just hours after he had thrown one inning of relief against the Orioles in the first half of Boston’s day-night doubleheader.
Red Sox Bring Up Another Arm
The Red Sox, in a corresponding move, brought up Luis Guerrero from Triple A Worcester. Newcomb was, it seems, the victim of a combination of unfortunate events that led to his DFA. He had not pitched badly, going 0-4 with a 3.95 ERA, but was not so stellar as to render himself irreplaceable.
Red Sox starters have struggled to give the team innings this week, which included games in which Hunter Dobbins was lifted in the fifth inning on Monday, Walker Buehler was ejected in the third inning for arguing on Tuesday, ace Garrett Crochet was unwisely lifted in the sixth on Wednesday, and–despite a 19-5 final score–Brayan Bello did not make it out of the fifth on Friday.
In the last 13 days, Crochet is the only Red Sox starting pitcher to record outs after the fifth inning. At 197.1, the Red Sox bullpen has thrown the fifth-most innings in baseball, and with the double-header on Saturday, another arm was badly needed. Dobbins was the odd man out.
Sean Newcomb Recalled Fenway Trips
Technically, the Red Sox could re-sign him to Worcester if he clears waivers. But given his versatility and experience, he probably will latch on elsewhere.
Which would be unfortunate for a hometown-er who recalled fondly his trips to Fenway in his youth.
“Each season I’d probably come over to Fenway anywhere from five to ten times, maybe a dozen depending on the year,” he said. “(We’d) take the commuter rail up or we’d go park in Quincy and take the Red Line in.
“I remember my first game was an Easter Sunday or something like that. I was probably five, seeing Mo Vaughn out there.”
