The Red Sox have signed right-hander Devin Sweet to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Worcester but may get an invite to big league camp in spring training.
Sweet, 29, has a limited big league track record. He tossed 8 2/3 innings in 2023, split between the Mariners and Athletics. He allowed ten earned runs, giving him an unsightly 10.38 earned run average in that small sample.
The M’s called him up in July of 2023 but he was designated for assignment the following month and went to the A’s via waivers. In the 2023-24 offseason, he went to the Giants and Tigers via waiver claims. Detroit later passed him through waivers unclaimed in February of 2024. In November of 2024, the Phillies acquired him and added him to their 40-man, preventing him from becoming a minor league free agent. He was outrighted in August of 2025 and then became a minor league free agent at season’s end.
Despite his limited track record, the interest from all those clubs demonstrates his appeal. From 2021 to 2024, he tossed 257 2/3 innings on the farm, with a 4.19 ERA. His 9.2% walk rate was a bit high but he struck out 30% of batters faced. Unfortunately, he had a downturn in results in 2025. He logged 51 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 5.08 ERA, 21.2% strikeout rate and 11.7% walk rate. That’s why the Phillies bumped him from the roster last summer and no one claimed him.
For Boston, there’s no harm in a non-roster deal for some extra bullpen depth as they see if Sweet can bounce back. If he eventually earns his way onto the roster, he still has an option year remaining and less than a year of service time, meaning he can provide roster flexibility and is still years away from qualifying for arbitration.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images