Robert Stock is getting another shot with the Red Sox, and it’s quite a comeback story. Boston signed the right-handed reliever to a minor-league deal with a spring training invitation after he spent years battling his way through international leagues to return to affiliated baseball.
Stock’s last stint in Boston came during the 2020 COVID season, where he posted a 4.73 ERA across 13 1/3 innings of relief work. His path back to MLB has been anything but straightforward.
“I tore my hamstring running the bases during a start in 2021 and that’s the last time I was ever on a major league baseball field,” Stock shared on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast. “After that, I played in Korea in 2022. The Brewers gave me a minor-league shot in 2023, but I was just horrendous.”
That’s when things got really tough. Stock had to grind through independent ball, then the Mexican Summer League, and finally winter ball just to keep his career alive. But he kept working on his craft, refining his pitches until the opportunity came.
Social Media Boost
Stock’s winter ball performance caught some attention, particularly after Pitching Ninja shared a highlight compilation of his pitches. The timing wasn’t lost on him.
“I thought I was pitching pretty well,” Stock said. “Teams look at two things – your stats and your underlying pitch metrics. Both were solid. A day or two after that video went up, a couple teams, including the Red Sox, reached out to my agent.”
The choice to return to Boston was deliberate. “Having played with them before, it felt like the best spot for me,” Stock explained.
While there’s no guarantee he’ll break camp with the big league club, just getting back to affiliated baseball is a milestone for Stock. He’ll have his shot to compete for a bullpen role in spring training, marking his first opportunity with an MLB organization since 2021.
