DONE DEAL :The Boston Red Sox announces the trade of another 31-year-old Pitcher to roster

The Boston Red Sox looked to their own backyard on Friday to add left-handed depth to their bullpen, taking a chance on 31-year-old Sean Newcomb, an eight-year veteran and native of Brockton, Mass., a community of approximately 105,000 people 24 miles south of Boston. The Red Sox signed Newcomb, who was out for the majority of 2024 due to knee issues, to a minor league contract and intend to offer him a non-roster invitee to spring training.

Brockton is a city known more for boxers than baseball stars. Brockton produced two renowned fighters: Rocky Marciano, the only heavyweight champion to go undefeated, and 1980s middleweight king Marvin Hagler.

Newcomb is the most recent of just 11 Major League Baseball players from

Massachusetts city, and the first since journeyman pitcher Jim Mann pitched in two games for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2003.According to baseball statistician Thomas Nestico, Newcomb’s “breaking balls have a ton of movement due to his ability to generate spin,” giving the Red Sox pitching development staff something to work with in the hopes that he can realize some of the potential that propelled him to the top of the draft a decade ago.

Newcomb, once regarded as the game’s top prospect, was picked in the first round, 15th overall, by the Los Angeles Angels in 2014. The Angels traded him to the Atlanta Braves following the 2015 season as part of a deal that included four-time Gold Glove shortstop Andrelton Simmons.

Newcomb had some quality.

Seasons for the Braves. His career year was 2019, when he appeared in 55 games, all but four of them in relief, and had an ERA of 3.16. He was a member of the Braves’ 2021 World Series title squad, pitching 32 1/3 innings out of the bullpen with a 4.73 ERA, but did not participate in the postseason for Atlanta.

After 2019, Newcomb lost his strike-throwing ability. The Atlanta Braves traded him to the Chicago Cubs early in the 2022 season. He signed as a free agent with the San Francisco Giants after that year, but was shortly traded to the Oakland Athletics. He played in only 14 games for Oakland over two seasons, being sidelined by knee surgery in 2023 and a flare-up in 2024 that landed him on the 60-day injury list.