Red Sox add one more undrafted free agent over the weekend

Amid the constant negotiations between the players and the league for a 2020 season, there was the unprecedented 2020 draft that only lasted five rounds. That left a whole lot of players who ultimately went undrafted and had to be signed as free agents. The signings, unsurprisingly, came fast and furious for those first couple of days when players were eligible to sign, with the Red Sox doing as much as just about any other team, at least in terms of quantity of players. Boston signed six players on that first Sunday and then added four more on the following Monday. Things have slowed down a bit since then, but they haven’t totally stopped. Case in point: The Red Sox added one more free agent over the weekend in right-handed pitcher from Marshall University Robert Kwiatkowski.

Kwiatkowski played high school ball in Georgia and was one of the better prep arms in the state during his time there, which is a big deal as Georgia is one of the best baseball states in the country. He was a top-500 high school arm in 2016 according to Perfect Game, but did not get drafted and first went to community college at Spartanburg Methodist College. From there, he transferred to Marshall, where he has pitched almost exclusively as a reliever for two seasons. He struggled a bit in 2019 as a redshirt sophomore, pitching to a 6.82 ERA over 30 ¹⁄₃ innings with 29 strikeouts and 15 walks. In 2020, though, he was off to a scorching start before the season got banged. Over eight appearances and 12 innings he pitched to a 2.25 ERA with 14 strikeouts and three walks.