Days after adding Nick Burdi to their minor league camp roster, the Red Sox struck another minor league contract with a former top pitching prospect.
Boston has brought back 32-year-old righty José De León and assigned him to minor league camp, a source confirmed Wednesday. De León, who was briefly a member of the organization in 2021, had announced the signing himself on Instagram. De León missed the entire 2024 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery (the second of his career) in June 2023.
De León was a consensus top-40 prospect in baseball before both the 2016 and 2017 seasons as a member of the Rays and Dodgers organizations (he was traded to Tampa Bay for infielder Logan Forsythe in January 2017). He saw brief major league time in both of those seasons but started dealing with arm troubles during the 2017 campaign. He underwent his first Tommy John surgery in May 2018 and has pitched in five different organizations since, logging a total of 65 ⅓ big league innings (with a 7.44 ERA) in 34 games (7 starts) for the Dodgers, Rays, Reds and Twins. De León made 12 appearances for Minnesota in 2023 before getting hurt. He was a member of the Red Sox organization for the final two months of the 2021 campaign but only made two appearances, both in Rookie ball.
After finishing his rehab, De León showed a flash of potential in winter ball in Puerto Rico during the offseason. In 13 ⅔ innings between the regular season and Carribbean Series, he logged a 1.32 ERA while striking out 15 batters and allowing 12 hits. Red Sox manager Alex Cora likely got a good look at De León, who made two starts for Cora’s hometown team in Caguas.
De León profiles simply as minor league depth. He’s likely to start the year at Triple-A if he shows something in camp.
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