Red Sox: Left-hander Edgar Olmos is a veteran surprise at Pawtucket
Left-hander Edgar Olmos is not a Boston Red Sox prospect, but a veteran who was signed as a baseball insurance policy. At Pawtucket Olmos has delivered.
Edgar Olmos is a 27-year-old lefty who was a third-round draft pick by the Miami Marlins in 2008. Olmos now is on the staff of the Pawtucket Red Sox after signing a minor league deal with Boston, but he has moved around more than a perpetual rent jumper.
Olmos appeared briefly in five games for Miami, taking the loss in his only MLB decision with the fish. BSI had an article on Olmos during spring training and maybe as the article states the Red Sox have struck gold.
After the Marlins came the Mariners, who claimed Olmos on waivers. Then the road show continued when he was designated for assignment and eventually surfaced with the Texas Rangers. That stint was also about as long as the life of a fruit fly. A shoulder injury sent Olmos back to the Mariners where he actually pitched six games including two starts and got his only MLB win. Then back to being a traveling man.
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Olmos became a waiver ping-pong ball between the Chicago Cubs and Baltimore Orioles as they took turns signing and releasing Olmos, who finally caught on with Boston. Now Olmos is a regular in the PawSox rotation.
There is nothing impressive regarding Olmos’s ten seasons of minor league baseball. In 260 games Olmos has made 78 starts as he has bounced around from the bullpen to starter. Along the way, Olmos even picked up seven saves. What does stand out in his baseball minor league journey is a career 4.6 BB/9 so it seems Olmos suffers from that fatal baseball career killer – too many walks.
Digging a bit further up pops a 7.6 K/9 and a nice 0.6 HR/9, but also a career 8.9 H/9 that leads to an assumption – too many hits allowed in conjunction with too many walks. The K/9 suggests that Olmos does not have A Chris Sale fastball – maybe a Jamie Moyer one? What has made Olmos a success is summarize in this article – his curveball.
“The hitters will tell you what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong,” he said. “When I threw a lot of fastballs, I got hit. When I threw a lot of curveballs, I didn’t.” – Edgar Olmos
This season at Pawtucket, Olmos has split duty with six starts and the remaining of his 19 appearances out of the bullpen. Olmos also has gathered in a pair of saves in his Pawtucket adventure and his hits allowed is now down to 6.9 H/9. Walks are still an issue at 3.8 BB/9, but the hits figure makes that more palatable.
Is there a future in Boston?
Never say never especially if you are a lefty and especially with a Boston staff that seems on a perpetual fast track to the disabled list. But Boston this season is a relatively long shot unless the two resident bullpen lefties Robby Scott and Fernando Abad go on the DL.
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Olmos continues to impress at Pawtucket with his latest effort a win against Buffalo with six scoreless innings that puts his record at 6-2 and his earned run average at 1.64. So Boston may be a road block, but other teams have needs and it looks like Olmos is deserving of another MLB shot.