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The Red Sox signed right-hander José de Leon to a minor league deal earlier this week, as the right-hander announced himself on his Twitter feed. De Leon was nominated for an assignment and then released by the Reds two weeks ago.
Darren Wolfson of SKOR North tweets that the Pirates and Blue Jays have also shown interest in De Leon’s services, and it’s no surprise that several teams have considered taking a leaflet on the right-hander given his past status as one of the game’s top prospects. Unfortunately for De Leon, his development was hampered by a Tommy John surgery that cost him the entire 2018 season, not to mention other injuries.
As a result, De Leon has just 48 Major League innings on his resume since making his big-league debut in September 2016. De Leon has an unimpressive 8.44 ERA on his brief stint in the majors, including one 8.35 ERA on 18 1/3 frames with Cincinnati in 2021. Control (14.5% walk rate) has been a significant issue, although De Leon misses a lot of bats with a pull rate of 27.7%.
Red Sox chief officer Chaim Bloom is no stranger to De Leon, as Bloom was working in the Rays front office when Tampa Bay acquired the right-hander from the Dodgers in January 2017. There is no risk for the Sox to see if their minor league development staff can fine tune De Leon’s control and turn him into a true paddock weapon, given his obvious knockout ability.
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