{"id":690366,"date":"2026-05-04T20:27:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/690366\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T20:27:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:27:24","slug":"red-sox-select-alec-gamboa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/690366\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Select Alec Gamboa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Red Sox announced they have selected the contract of left-hander Alec Gamboa<\/a> from Triple-A Worcester. Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com<\/a> first reported that Gamboa was on a flight to Detroit and likely to be added after exercising an upward mobility clause. He takes the active roster spot of fellow lefty Danny Coulombe<\/a>, who has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to cervical spasms, retroactive to May 2nd. To open a 40-man spot, lefty Patrick Sandoval<\/a> has been transferred to the 60-day IL.<\/p>\n

Gamboa will take the mound as a 29-year-old rookie when he\u2019s first plugged into a game. The 2019 Dodgers ninth-rounder spent years climbing the ranks in L.A.\u2019s system but never reached the majors. The Dodgers granted him his release last year in order to sign with the KBO\u2019s Lotte Giants, and Gamboa wound up making 19 starts with a 3.58 ERA in 108 innings in that overseas run. He fanned just under one quarter of his opponents, issued walks at a 10.3% clip and recorded a 55.2% ground-ball rate. Both his ERA and FIP were about 20% better than league average in South Korea\u2019s hitter-friendly environment.<\/p>\n

That showing prompted the Sox to bring Gamboa aboard on a minor league deal. He only pitched two spring innings and has tossed 13 frames in Worcester. The 6.23 ERA he\u2019s turned in thus far isn\u2019t going to generate much excitement, but Gamboa has a nice 25.4% strikeout rate with a solid 8.5% walk rate and a huge 57.9% grounder rate. He\u2019s been plagued by a mammoth .405 average on balls in play that\u2019s sure to regress closer to the .290 league average.<\/p>\n

This move will keep the Sox with an even split in their bullpen for now. They have been operating with four lefties and four righties. Coming into today, the southpaws were Aroldis Chapman<\/a>, Jovani Mor\u00e1n<\/a>, Tyler Samaniego<\/a> and Coulombe. It\u2019s unclear how long Coulombe is expected to be out but Gamboa will slot in for him.<\/p>\n

Presumably, Gamboa has a full slate of options, since this is his first major league call-up. Sometimes, a player coming to North America from overseas will get language in his contract stating that he can\u2019t be sent to the minors without his consent, though it\u2019s unlikely that a minor league contract would have such a provision. Samaniego has options if the Sox need a fresh arm at some point.<\/p>\n

As for Sandoval, he still hasn\u2019t pitched in the majors since June of 2024. He underwent surgery on his ulnar collateral ligament that month and has been in recovery mode ever since. The Angels non-tendered him at the end of that year, which led to the Sox signing him to a two-year deal worth $18.25MM.<\/p>\n

Boston knew that they likely wouldn\u2019t get much from Sandoval in 2025 but presumably hoped he would be back on the mound by now. He began a rehab assignment a few weeks ago but that was shut down after just two outings due to some biceps soreness.<\/p>\n

His current timeline is unclear but this transaction rules out any chance of him returning in the next few weeks. His 60-day count is retroactive to his season-opening placement on the 15-day IL but that still means he\u2019s ineligible for reinstatement until late May.<\/p>\n

Boston\u2019s rotation was supposed to be a strength but injuries have really impacted them. In addition to Sandoval, they have Garrett Crochet<\/a>, Sonny Gray<\/a>, Kutter Crawford<\/a>, Johan Oviedo<\/a> and Tanner Houck<\/a> on the IL. Ranger Su\u00e1rez<\/a> hasn\u2019t been placed on the IL but did depart his most recent start with a hamstring strain<\/a>. For now, assuming Su\u00e1rez avoids the IL, he is surrounded by Brayan Bello<\/a>, Payton Tolle<\/a>, Connelly Early<\/a> and Jake Bennett<\/a> in the rotation. Bello has a 9.12 ERA and would probably be in the minors if not for all these injuries. Unless he gets back on track soon, he could be in an awkward spot as guys come off the IL.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Red Sox announced they have selected the contract of left-hander Alec Gamboa from Triple-A Worcester. Chris Cotillo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2290],"tags":[12241,5,7792,14123],"class_list":{"0":"post-690366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-alec-gamboa","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-danny-coulombe","11":"tag-patrick-sandoval"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116518193932229079","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}