Red Sox sign Daniel Schlereth to minor-league deal

The Red Sox continue to say they are not planning on making a big splash to supplement their major-league bullpen, but while we wait to figure out if that is real or just something they’re saying publicly to maintain leverage they are at least adding some depth to the organization. They’ve made a number of minor-league signings to boost the pitching depth of the last month, and they added another guy with a possibly familiar last name who will compete for a spot in Pawtucket’s bullpen. According to Chris Cotillo of Masslive, Boston has signed former Tigers southpaw Daniel Schlereth to a minor-league deal. There is no invite to spring training.

Schlereth is probably most famous for being the son of Mark Schlereth, an NFL analyst for FS1 and formerly for ESPN. As far as his baseball career goes, he did spend some time in the majors earlier in the decade, but it’s been a while. Schlereth, now 32 years old, was a first round pick for the Diamondbacks back in 2008 and he shot his way quickly through the minors and appeared in 21 games in 2009. After that, he was traded to the Tigers (by Dave Dombrowski) as part of the three-team deal that sent Max Scherzer to Detroit and Curtis Granderson to New York. The lefty spent three years in Detroit, showing off solid strikeout stuff but not being able to harness his control or command.

Since leaving Detroit in 2012, Schlereth has bounced around baseball on minor-league deal after minor-league deal. He’s had some good moments and some rough ones playing for a different organization every year. In 2018, he started the season by taking an Independent League deal on Long Island before eventually signing on with the Mariners. Between the Indy Ball and two levels with Seattle he appeared in 28 games over 24 ¹⁄₃ innings with 27 strikeouts and 15 walks. Schlereth had some intriguing talent a long time ago, but him not even getting an invite to spring training is telling. This is just a signing to fill a spot on the minor-league pitching staff with a very, very slight chance of him getting back to the majors for the first time in seven years.