The Red Sox optioned veteran reliever Ryan Brasier to Triple-A Worcester following Thursday night’s 12-6 win over the Mariners at Fenway Park, reports Julian McWilliams of The Boston Globe.
The move to send Brasier down to Worcester allows the Sox to create a spot on their 26-man roster for fellow right-hander Michael Wacha, who is expected to be activated from the 15-day injured list and start against the M’s on Friday night.
Brasier was an obvious candidate to be demoted since he is in his final season with a minor-league option. Thus far in 2022, the 34-year-old hurler has struggled to the tune of a 6.28 ERA with 16 strikeouts to three walks over 18 appearances (14 1/3 innings pitched) out of the Boston bullpen. He gave up his fifth home run of the year to Julio Rodriguez in the ninth inning of Thursday’s victory.
By sending him down to Triple-A, the Red Sox are presumably hopeful that Brasier can work on some things with WooSox pitching coach Paul Abbott. The same sort of thing happened last year as well.
After returning from the 60-day injured list in September, Brasier produced a 10.09 FIP over his first five outings of 2021. Boston then optioned him to Worcester on September 17 and called him back up just four days later. From there, the righty did not allow a single run across his final eight appearances (7 2/3 innings) of the season.
Going back to the start of last September, no Red Sox reliever has made more regular season appearances than Brasier (31), so he is clearly someone manager Alex Cora likes to go to when he is on.
With that being said, perhaps Brasier can once again find something in Worcester and use that to turn his season around for the better.
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