Another day, another story talking about the New York Yankees' two "Boston boys," Cam Schlittler and Ben Rice. This time, The Wall Street Journal picked up the story that Boston Red Sox fans have heard repeatedly over the last two years, since they were called up to the big leagues (subscription required).
Red Sox fans are tired of hearing it. They are tired of hearing how Rice grew up a Yankee fan, but Schlittler was a Red Sox fan until he was drafted. While it was interesting to hear a couple of times, it's been rammed down Boston fans' throats, and it begs the question: why aren't they talking about how the Red Sox are composed of a lot of former Yankees?
Boston's Wild Card roster consists of seven players who either played for the Yankees or were a Yankees prospect. While they range in pedigree, that is almost 27% of the roster is made up of players the Yankees just gave up and now could come back to haunt them.
At the top of the list are the Red Sox fearsome, back-end bullpen duo: Aroldis Chapman and Garrett Whitlock. The Red Sox signed Chapman two seasons ago and helped him regain the dominance he once showed, to the ire of Yankee fans. Whitlock was a Rule 5 Draft pick by the Red Sox from the Yankees. In their Red Sox careers, Chapman has a 1.80 ERA against the Yankees over 10 innings in the regular season, and Whitlock has a 1.63 ERA in 38.2 innings against them in the regular season.
Red Sox have players just as important as Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler that used to play for the Yankees
The Red Sox also have two other former Yankee pitchers: Sonny Gray and Greg Weissert. While Gray hasn't been a Yankee since 2018 (and apparently hated his time there), the dominance he showed this season was what New York thought they were getting when they traded for him nine years ago. Weissert was traded to the Red Sox directly from the Yankees.
Gray pitched well against New York this season, allowing just three runs in two starts, striking out 12 and walking three. Weissert has struggled against the Yankees in his Red Sox career, but in the last two seasons, he has a 2.57 ERA in nine games against them.
On the hitting side, the Red Sox will use three former Bronx Bombers. The one fans will recognize the most is Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who played for New York in 2022-23. Jahmai Jones is another player who wore the pinstripes, getting 33 games with them in 2024. The most impactful of the three bats is Caleb Durbin. While the Red Sox third baseman was traded to them from Milwaukee, a season prior he was traded there from the Yankees.
None of the three hitters did much of anything against the Yankees this season. Kiner-Falefa and Jones had eight and six at-bats, respectively, with Jones getting the lone hit and drawing two walks. Durbin hit just .182 against the Yankees in 13 games, though he did have a huge, go-ahead two-run home run off of Schlittler in June.
When the Red Sox have a handful of Yankees castoffs, some of whom have played well against their former squad already, it makes fans wonder why reporters to harp on two Yankees players born near Boston. The Red Sox players will just have to show their former team that they were wrong to get rid of them.
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