Red Sox bring up Ryan Weber, designate Brandon Brennan for assignment

The Red Sox have played 13 straight games without a day off, and they still have four more to go before they finally get a small break. To exacerbate the issues of playing that many days in a row, the starters have been struggling to get deep into games of late, resulting in a very tired bullpen for the last week or so. The Red Sox have been doing what they can to get fresh arms, but the makeup of their 40-man with so many prospects who are not ready to be called up, along with a few injuries to depth arms, have made it difficult.

It’s been a shuffle of options in that final spot, and we get another change before Sunday’s game. The team announced prior to the game that they had called Ryan Weber up from Triple-A Worcester. To make room on both the active and 40-man rosters, they designated Brandon Brennan for assignment.

Weber should be a familiar name for Red Sox fans, with the veteran spending time in the majors in each of the last two seasons. He’ll provide some length, but there isn’t a ton of upside for the righty as he is a pitch-to-contact type of pitcher. Sometimes that can work out and induce plenty of weak contact, but generally I would expect him to serve in a mop-up, long relief type role. Weber has made six starts plus one relief appearance in Triple-A this season, pitching to a 4.63 ERA over 35 innings with 33 strikeouts and 10 walks. In 83 ²⁄₃ major-league innings with the Red Sox, he’s pitched to a 4.73 ERA with 56 strikeouts and 22 walks.

Brennan, meanwhile, was a waiver claim earlier in the season and had just recently been called up to the majors to take Phillips Valdez’s spot on the roster. He made just one appearance with the Red Sox on Saturday, tossing three scoreless innings with three hits and two walks to go with one strikeout. If he clears waivers, the Red Sox should be able to hang on to him as Triple-A depth as they did with Colten Brewer.