Red Sox Prospect Making Case For Recall With New Pitch

The 2023 season has been a rollercoaster for Red Sox prospect Brandon Walter, but one that could be invaluable for his next stint in Boston.

Walter began the season as a starter in Triple-A Worcester. His reputation has always been that of a strike thrower, compiling a 10.71 strikeout/walk ratio in 2022. That number started to dip, however, as the 26-year-old was briefly moved to the bullpen for a stretch in Boston before returning to the WooSox and being stretched back out as a starter.

That second stretch with Worcester has been superb, as Walter has compiled a 1.42 ERA over his last 25 1/3 innings of work — bringing his ERA down from 6.28 to 4.75.

The key? Developing a new pitch and throwing strikes.

“I started throwing the cutter more, which has helped me be in the zone more,” Walter told Katie Morrison-O’Day of MassLive. “It’s a pitch that doesn’t move as much as the others, so being in zone with that and then, and being in zone with the other stuff has just been crucial.

“It’s a pitch that was kind of easy for me to throw just because the way I throw, I tend to cut the ball, even by accident a lot of times, so I was like, ‘I could really just try to get around a little bit more and try to cut it a little bit.'”

“I started throwing the cutter more, which has helped me be in the zone more.”

Red Sox prospect Brandon Walter on recent success

The new pitch certainly won’t hurt his chances of making another appearance with the Red Sox this season, as he’s a prime candidate to be one of their September call ups.

He has done exactly what they asked of him, after all.

“When I went up right away, they were calling (for the) cutter a lot,” Walter said. “That shows to me that there’s a lot of trust in that pitch and I had success with it right away, so that gave me confidence to throw that pitch, even when I got down here and just kept working on it. I’m just attacking with it because if I learned it in a couple weeks and I’m using it in the major leagues and it’s working, it gave me trust in that pitch… it just kind of clicked right away.”

Things have been going well for Walter as a starter. He finished August with his longest start of the year as he went seven innings and allowed one run on five hits.