The Astros signed a lefty Brandon Walter to a minor league deal, according to his trade tracker on MLB.com. The left-hander was released by the Red Sox earlier this month, which freed him from signing the deal.
Walter, 27, was a 26th-round pick of the Sox in the 2019 draft. He made the short board at the Rookie ball level that year, but the minor leagues were canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. In the years that followed, he raised his hopes with some encouraging results.
In 2021, he threw 89 1/3 innings at the Single-A and High-A levels, allowing a 2.92 earned run average over nine innings. He struck out 36.3% of the batters he faced while striking out at just a 5.5% clip and also got more than half of the ground balls he allowed. Baseball America ranked him #11 in Boston's program going into 2022, noting that he spent the offseason working on his arsenal.
In 2022, he was promoted to Double-A and made nine starts there before moving to Triple-A. A ruptured cervical disc ended his season in June, just after two major league starts. Still, he finished the year with a solid 3.59 ERA in 57 2/3 innings in his 11 starts at those two levels. He struck out 32.2% of the batters he faced, issued a walk 3% of the time and continued to get plenty of grounders.
In November 2022, the Sox added him to their roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft, and his results weren't as good in 2023. He threw 23 major league innings with a 6.26 ERA in that small sample, along with a 15.1% strikeout rate and a 6.6% walk rate. He also added 94 more Triple-A innings with a 4.60 ERA, a 21.3% strikeout rate, an 8.5% walk rate and a 49.5% ground ball rate.
Here in 2024, he has yet to enter the official game. He landed on the minor league injured list to start the year with a left rotator cuff, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive at X. The Sox needed a 40-man roster spot when they acquired the right Lucas Sims at the appointed time and appointed Walter to be assigned. Injured players cannot be sidelined, so the Sox had no choice but to release him.
At this time, Walter's medical condition is not publicly known. Even if his shoulder is healed and he's ready to take the mound again soon, he'll likely need some downtime to get back into game shape. That could make him a long-term play for Houston instead of undrafted depth. But Walter has posted impressive numbers in recent years with his health, so it's understandable why they'd want to bring him in.
If he finally earns his roster spot, he'll still have one option year left after this one, and there will be an easy case for a fourth option to be granted because he's missing most or perhaps all of 2024. less than a year of service, which means he can be controlled for many years in the future.
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