Red Sox sign veteran lefty, Brockton native Sean Newcomb to minor-league deal
BOSTON -- The Boston Red Sox continued to add to their pitching depth on Friday, signing veteran lefty and Brockton native Sean Newcomb to a minor-league contract. The deal also included a spring training invite for the 31-year-old southpaw.
Newcomb attended Middleborough High School and and was a first-round pick (taken 15th overall) by the Los Angeles Angels in 2014 out of the University of Hartford. He's pitched for three teams over his eight-year MLB career, going 28-25 with a 4.51 ERA while bouncing between the starting rotation and the bullpen.
He's struggled for the last five seasons, and will now look to bounce back with his hometown team.
Sean Newcomb's MLB career
Newcomb was traded by the Angels to the Braves in 2015 and spent five-plus seasons in Atlanta, making his big league debut in 2017. He started 49 games for the Braves over his first two seasons, including 31 games in 2018 when he went 12-9 with a 3.90 ERA. While Newcomb struck out a career-high 160 batters over 164 innings that year, he struggled with his control and issued 81 walks.
He was moved to the bullpen in 2019 and appeared in 55 games (making only four starts), and finished the season with a 3.16 ERA and 1.317 WHIP. But Newcomb struggled over his next three seasons and pitched just 73.2 innings in the majors. He had a 7.45 ERA over that stretch, and had a 1.805 WHIP after walking 52 batters. His control escaped him in those three years, as Newcomb hit five batters and threw eight wild pitches.
The Braves traded Newcomb to the Cubs in the middle of the 2022 season, and he had a 9.13 ERA and 1.809 WHIP in 17 games for Chicago.
Newcomb started the 2023 season with the San Francisco Giants, but didn't appear in any games in the Majors and was traded to the Oakland Athletics in late August. He had a 3.00 ERA over seven appearances with the A's, including a pair of starts, but suffered a knee injury in September. He had surgery on both of his knees that offseason, and then had a 6.30 ERA over seven games and 10 big league innings before Oakland released him in July.
In his nine seasons in Minor League Baseball, Newcomb owns a 27-17 record (starting 78 of the 126 games he's appeared in) to go with a 3.12 ERA and 1.278 WHIP.