PawSox Notebook: Ortega Up Quick After Draft, Witte Back In Town, Buttrey Gets Closer Shot With Brasier In Boston
The Boston Red Sox transferred their 19th round draft pick from the 2018 MLB draft to Pawtucket on Friday after just 16 games in Lowell. That player is Jonathan Ortega who has batted .326 (14-for-43) in just 16 games with the Spinners.
Prior to Friday’s game PawSox Manager Kevin Boles said a few words on Ortega already being in Triple-A Pawtucket.
“I have talked with Corey Wimberly, their manager in Lowell. He’s a guy that can play shortstop, second base, and third. He has impressed them defensively. Looked up his numbers his last 10 games he’s been competitive at the plate. So we will see what we get. He’s depth for us, we’ve kind of run sort with our roster these days. But hopefully he’s a guy that gets an opportunity here in the next couple of days.” Boles said prior to Friday’s game.
On Friday the injured Marcus Walden threw a simulated game, and by all accounts it went very well.
“Good.” Said Boles. ” He got up and down twice, 15 pitches each time. Said he felt good afterwords. The ball was coming out of his hand pretty good.”
On Thursday night, the first game back after the all-star break, Ty Buttrey was called upon to finish out the game. With Ryan Brasier in Boston it was Buttrey’s first chance at taking the closer role with Brasier up in the Majors. Boles liked what he saw but there was rust.
” I liked it. But again, watching our pitchers yesterday. With Buttrey, it looked like he was getting some of the rust off a little bit. So to me, it was a little bit suspect at times. But again, he’s got power at the end of the games, this is something that maybe we will continue. The one thing you have got to make sure that you don’t run into a trap. You are pitching at the end of a game, you still have to use your secondary pitches. And I think sometimes the trap can be is if you are in the 9th inning and the game is on the line, you just want to go straight power. And so, you still have to have some balance in that really.”
One thing that Buttrey has improved upon lately is mixing.
“Before, he was at 70-72% fastball percentage and we are starting to see a little bit more balance with the off-speed. We are going to get there. Again, this takes time. This is something that’s not going to happen overnight. You are not going to get a 50-50 split within a day or two. It’s just not realistic. Nor is it fair to ask. There is some balance here and another trap that guys fall into is that they hear the noise and that they know they are competing and doing well. And if they are blowing fastballs by a guy, they don’t want to run into their bat speed. So they want to put up numbers here so people will take a look at them up top. He’s done that, and now the plan is to step further on how we can develop so when he gets up to Boston. Whenever that maybe. That he is able to use that mix.”
