Red Sox Pitching Prospect Taking Unorthodox Path In Farm System

The Boston Red Sox have turned one of the league's worst farm systems into an elite pipeline in the course of four years.

The group is headlined by impact position players such as Kyle Teel, Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Nick Yorke. On the pitching side, Boston has a few potential starters, however, one reliever is rising in the minor leagues, both on the mound and on social media feeds.

Right-handed pitcher Christopher Troye continues his development in the Red Sox farm system after Boston selected him in the 12th round of the 2021 MLB Draft. The 6-foot-4, 225 righty has taken an interesting path to pitching, converting from catching to pitching and taking his talents to the mound at the University of California Santa Barbara. While building his talents as a pitcher, Troye suffered a setback in 2019 while pitching for the Cotuit Kettleers in the Cape Cod Baseball League. In his debut, the reliever tore his UCL, an injury that required Tommy John surgery.

"I really feel like I had a self-identity crisis after TJ," Troye told NESN.com in an interview. "Obviously tore that in my first outing in Cotuit. Had a little bit of hype and had the stock tending up."

Due to the recovery time and the COVID-19 pandemic, Troye missed nearly 24 months of game action and had to take a major reset on his career.

"Really had to take a step back. Reimagine, reinvent myself," Troye said. "Feel like I came out a better person. A better baseball player through that. Happy to be where I'm at today."

In 2021, Troye returned to the mound at school and earned another chance in Cotuit. It was during his second stint in the Cape League when he received a call that the closest team to the area would be giving him a professional opportunity when the Red Sox drafted him.

"When I got the call, we were about to head out to the game," Troye remembered. "I got the call that morning. I was kind of waiting on the call. I had gotten a few calls before from different teams talking about different things. I was on the phone all morning, coordinating when I was talking to these teams and my agent. By the way, super grateful and super blessed to have him in my corner because I would have said yes to the first offer I got."

After chances to potentially be picked in earlier rounds for less money, the pitcher feels he ended up in an ideal spot.

"I think that was probably the best-case scenario," Troye said.

As he completes his second full season in the minor leagues, the adversity of finding consistency, overcoming injuries and committing to a new position has been quite the journey.

"That's progress, right?" Troye said. "You set a north star and think that's the best dream you can make. You try to sprint toward that star and then life happens, right? Obstacles come up. Tommy John comes up. Conversions happen. Things happen where you're constantly adjusting your north star. To look back on my journey and my story, I don't know any different. It's the life I live. It's the process. It's the story. It's the journey that I've written. For me, it's just about continuing to progress and continuing to make the most out of every situation I find myself in."

As his career progresses in the minor leagues, Troye has gained traction on social media, offering insight into the life of a player and gaining attention in a system filled with headlining prospects. Additionally, Troye is certainly thinking years beyond his playing days, dabbling in real estate and investing opportunities. For now, his growing presence on platforms such as Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter, are allowing for new opportunities.

"First and foremost, there's not that much attention to the bullpen as a position," Troye explained. "To get the attention and recognition I've been getting, I'm extremely grateful for that."

Samples of his content exist such as his reflection on X about how he looked to improve after a tough outing in the Arizona Fall League in October.

"It's funny because they absolutely loved it when I reflected on an outing when I gave up five earned (runs) without recording an out," Troye shared. "Since then, I've gotten two save opportunities and I've been lights out. That's not gotten as much attention. It's funny, right?"

While his primary focus is on the diamond, the young reliever knows just how valuable of a tool social media can be to athletes in the modern game.

"Social media is such a big deal and just plays such an important role in our economy today," Troye explained. "If you're not on it, you're getting left behind. I think it's the same way with real estate. It's the same way with investing. It's with anything that you're compounding. Anything that requires compounding over long-term horizons like skill acquisition. Like pursuing a mastery of a skill. Something such as pitching."

Troye's rise in popularity is abnormal for players of his background who were not superstars in college or high-level prospects who instantly took over a farm system. As a result, he is not taking his platform for granted.

"As a 12th round (pick), the cameras just aren't on me," Troye admitted. "They're on the first-rounders, pretty much exclusively in Minor League Baseball. If you weren't a first, second, maybe third-rounder that came from an SEC school, you probably aren't getting much attention in the minor leagues. For me, there's always that mix of it's good to self-promote and it's good to market myself. Also, how do you do that humbly? How do you do that with humility? That's something I'm learning."

With quality and a high quantity of posts to engage with fans, Troye has felt a connection with Red Sox Nation throughout his minor league path.

"They've been extremely positive," Troye said. "From what I've been hearing, that's pretty tough to do with the Red Sox fan base. To have a lot of Red Sox fans on Twitter (X) supporting me, I think that's just a nod of confidence that I'm going about it the right way.

Troye's first full season in the minors came with Low-A Salem. The reliever performed in a way, striking out 13 1/2 hitters per nine innings, but also walking 6 1/2 batters in that same span. It's been a process throughout his career in finding consistency and attacking hitters. 2023 offered a step in that direction.

Pitching to a 3.10 ERA across two levels, the righty still has to throw more strikes with a similar walk rate. On the other hand, Troye certainly showed he can be a quality reliever and rack up the strikeouts to do so, tallying 87 punch-outs in just 49 1/3 innings, good for just under 16 per nine innings.

"That's my game, man," Troye added. "Strike dudes out."

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The Red Sox saw potential in Troye and sent him as one of several representatives of the organization to end 2023 with more reps in the Arizona Fall League. As he has been throughout his baseball life, Troye accepted the chance to keep pitching and showed gratitude for the opportunity.

"First and foremost, to get the invite from the organization tells me a lot," Troye explained. "It shows me how much they value, which is greatly appreciated. Grateful for every opportunity I've ever gotten. I'm not taking it for granted. For me, there's still progress to be made. I'm still trying to create the big-league version of myself. ... This is just another opportunity for me to refine that and continue to chip away. The process hasn't changed. I'm still working on the same things I've been working on my entire life. Now, we're getting a little more nuanced, right? Use the cutter. The cutter's been a new pitch for me this year. Trying to figure out when to use that and when that plays. I've learned over my last few outings that my fastball and slider are better options to righties ahead in the count than the cutter is."

Troye believes that just as legendary artists of the path never found true satisfaction with their work, the pitcher knows that there is always room for improvement and wants to make any and all adjustments to his repertoire to further his baseball goals.

"I've used this analogy before, I'll use it again. I'm a slab of marble," Troye described. "That's really how I view myself as a pitcher. There is a big-league version of myself. For me, it's about uncovering that. It's about chipping away to get to the big-league version. Once I get to the big leagues, it's readjusting that North Star. It's going to be about winning rings."

After 24 Double-A outings in 2023, Troye hopes to reach the majors in 2024. If his pure stuff progresses, the walk numbers come down and the strikeout numbers maintain themselves, Boston may have found a steal for the bullpen in the show in the near future.