The Red Sox have released reliever Brandon Brennan, reports Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). He’d been with Triple-A Worcester after passing through outright waivers a couple months ago.
A Rule 5 draftee of the Mariners over the 2018-19 offseason, Brennan was a frequently-used bullpen option in Seattle in 2019. That year, he tossed 47 1/3 innings of 4.56 ERA ball, issuing a few too many walks but missing a fair amount of bats and racking up ground-balls at a 55.2% rate. The right-hander missed most of last season due to a severe oblique strain, though, and Seattle designated him for assignment this April.
The Red Sox claimed Brennan off waivers, but he’d only make one appearance with the big league club. He tossed three innings of scoreless relief but was designated for assignment the following night when Boston needed a fresh arm. Otherwise, Brennan has spent the year with Worcester, tossing 37 2/3 frames of relief for the WooSox. He’s only managed a 5.97 ERA, but his strikeout and walk rates (21.4% and 8.7%, respectively) weren’t far off the league average.
Brennan was plagued by opponents’ elevated .363 batting average on balls in play in Worcester and probably didn’t pitch as poorly as that run prevention mark would indicate. Nevertheless, he’d clearly fallen down the organizational depth chart, as the front office called upon other hurlers to come up in recent weeks while the big league pitching staff dealt with a series of COVID-19 related absences. Brennan will now be free to sign elsewhere, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see another club add the 30-year-old on a minor league deal to bolster their bullpen depth.