After picking up a win in his first Triple-A start, David Sandlin was moved to a relief role to potentially help the Boston Red Sox down the stretch.
WORCESTER — Enter Sandlin.
After making his Triple-A debut as a starting pitcher on Aug. 1, Red Sox pitching prospect David Sandlin is shifting to the bullpen.
The Red Sox, happy with Sandlin’s performance as a starter in his second year with the organization, decided to start preparing the hard-throwing right-hander for a relief role with Worcester. If all goes well for Sandlin, there’s potential for a promotion to Boston to help the Red Sox with their playoff push.
“We want to explore that and see,” WooSox manager Chad Tracy said, “and at least get him ready to do that if that was to be an option.”
“Anything I can do to help the big-league team,” Sandlin told the T&G prior to the WooSox’ game Tuesday. “So, we’ll see how it goes moving forward.”
And fans didn’t have to wait long to see Sandlin pitch in relief.
On Tuesday, the 24-year-old righty entered the WooSox’ game in the fifth inning. Sandlin allowed three hits, two runs and struck out three across 1⅓ innings of work and picked up his second win in as many appearances in Worcester’s 10-6 victory over the Buffalo Bisons.
Acquired by the Boston Red Sox on Feb. 17, 2024, in a trade with the Kansas City Royals for pitcher John Schreiber (who ironically pitched in relief for the Royals against the Red Sox Tuesday night), Sandlin threw 33 pitches (22 for strikes) and topped out at 98.4 mph on his four-seam fastball.
“For the first one, it was not bad,” Tracy said. “All of these initial ones are going to be a lot of learning for him. Not just on the mound but warming up, and whose coming up and which pitch (does he) need to dial in here. All that stuff is going to be good for him as he goes through this.”
Following his promotion from Double-A Portland to Triple-A Worcester on July 29, Sandlin started for the WooSox on Friday at Polar Park. He pitched five innings, giving up four hits, one run and one walk while striking out four to pick up his first Triple-A win in Worcester’s 5-1 victory over Lehigh Valley at Polar Park.
Asked Tuesday before his first relief appearance in AAA, Sandlin was satisfied with his first outing with the WooSox.
“It was really good,” he told the T&G. “(I) limited hard contact, limited runs, limited baserunners, got in the zone and got ahead. So, I couldn’t really be upset with it.”
“It was awesome,” Tracy added.
Four days later, Tracy outlined a plan for getting Sandlin used to a role in the bullpen that at first would include a few bulk outings and then be whittled down to one inning each — and then ultimately be unscheduled.
“It’s just this slow progression of getting him used to doing that,” Tracy said.
David Sandlin has had 'Enter Sandman' by Metallica as his walk-out song since high school.
— Tommy Cassell (@tommycassell44) August 5, 2025
I thought I was clever after his first start posting an "Enter Sandlin" thing but that's been his jazz since his teenage days. But Sandlin's mustache is new.
Sandlin will have to get used to being reliever for the time being in Worcester.
But for the man whose walk-up song is “Enter Sandman” by Metallica, a la former New York Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera, the proposition of helping Boston down the stretch — by entering from the bullpen — is an exciting one.
“Especially when the team’s winning like they are right now, making the push for the playoffs,” Sandlin said. “So that’d be really exciting to get up there and help those guys.”
—Contact Tommy Cassell at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tommycassell44.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Boston Red Sox move David Sandlin to bullpen with Triple-A Worcester
Category: Baseball
