Waving flag with Boston Red Sox professional team logo. Editorial 3D
Angel Bastardo was one of 11 minor-league pitchers in the Red Sox organization to reach the century mark in strikeouts this past season.
Bastardo, 21, split the 2023 campaign between High-A Greenville and Double-A Portland, posting a 4.68 ERA and 4.16 FIP with 149 punchouts to 55 walks over 24 total starts (119 1/3 innings pitched) in which he held opposing hitters to a .221 batting average against.
After spending all of 2022 at Low-A Salem, Bastardo broke camp with Greenville this spring. The right-hander initially got off to a rough start with the Drive and finished the month of April with a 6.63 ERA through his first four outings of the year. He began to turn a corner as the calendar flipped to May, however, and lowered his ERA by nearly two runs before going on a tear in July.
Unlike fellow righties Wikelman Gonzalez and Luis Perales, who also recorded 100-plus strikeouts this season, Bastardo was not added to Boston’s 40-man roster in November and was therefore eligible to be picked up by another team in last month’s Rule 5 Draft. But while other notable arms like Shane Drohan (White Sox) and Ryan Fernandez (Cardinals) were plucked by other teams, Bastardo was not.
That, for all intents and purposes, likely had something to with Bastardo’s lack of experience in the upper-minors as well as his struggles when it comes to commanding the strike zone. As noted by Cundall, Bastardo currently “lacks the fastball quality and command to stick as a starting pitcher.” And while his secondary offerings are ahead of his fastball, he “needs to further refine his two breaking balls, which can run into each other at times.
