Boston Red Sox: 5 Worcester Red Sox storylines to follow in 2024

Is Grant Gambrell legit?

The whole point of this article is to highlight how many storylines go through the minor leagues throughout a season. Grant Gambrell is the perfect example of this.

A casual fan will have heard about Roman Anthony and Kyle Teel. They were following Marcelo Mayer's season and were excited for Ceddanne Rafaela to make his Major League debut.

But they may not have heard much about Grant Gambrell despite him having one of the best stories of the year.

Gambrell was brought over in 2021 from the Kansas City Royals in the Josh Winckowski trade. He struggled in eight games in High-A after being acquired.

Then Gambrell missed the entire 2022 season due to going through five surgeries on his heel, removing a benign tumor.

The right-handed pitcher started 2023 in High-A. He struggled there in April, which wasn't exactly encouraging for a 25-year-old. Gambrell put together back-to-back great starts at the beginning of May, though. This led to a promotion to Double-A.

Gambrell became the most consistent starter for Portland. He was going six strong innings often and even worked eight innings in a start. By the end of the year, he got a taste of Triple-A.

As mentioned earlier, pitching in Triple-A wasn't great. However, Gambrell was immune to whatever cursed the rest of the team. In two starts, he allowed two runs over 10 2/3 innings. Gambrell racked up 14 strikeouts and only allowed seven hits and five walks.

Gambrell is now 26 but doesn't have a ton of innings on his arm. The fact that he responded so well to the adversity is incredibly encouraging. Gambrell seemed to get better as the year went on, and his competition got stiffer.

While he's not seen as one of the top prospects in the system, there's no denying the production. Gambrell was one of the most consistent and impressive arms for the Red Sox last year. Can he continue that in 2024? Is he legitimate? Could Grant Gambrell work his way into the Major League rotation before the end of the year? He should be fun to keep an eye on.