Report: Red Sox designate Davis, Sawamura for assignment in bullpen shakeup

Aug. 29—The Red Sox bullpen has been a mess all season, and after Sunday's latest meltdown the club is set to make significant changes heading into the final month.

According to multiple reports, the Red Sox are designating left-hander Austin Davis and right-hander Hirokazu Sawamura for assignment. In their place the club is reportedly set to promote righties Zack Kelly and Kaleb Ort from Triple-A Worcester, and with rosters set to expand from 26 to 28 on Thursday the Red Sox may have an opportunity to make additional changes soon.

Kelly, 27, is set to make his big league debut after five years in the minor leagues. A former Division 2 pitcher at Newberry College in South Carolina, Kelly signed with the Oakland Athletics organization as an undrafted free agent in 2017 for $500 and later joined the Los Angeles Angels. He signed with the Red Sox in January of 2021 after missing the prior year due to the pandemic and elbow surgery, and this season he earned an invite to big league spring training and is currently 6-3 with a 2.72 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 49.2 innings at Triple-A.

Ort, 30, has some big league experience under his belt but has yet to enjoy sustained MLB success. This season he has a 9.00 ERA in 15 innings over 12 appearances, though that number is somewhat skewed by one particularly bad outing where he allowed eight runs on seven hits and a walk over 0.2 innings. Ort has been much better at Triple-A, however, going 2-2 with a 2.88 ERA and 16 saves over 40.2 innings in Worcester.

Originally acquired at last summer's trade deadline for Michael Chavis, Davis got off to an excellent start this season before falling apart during the second half. The lefty was one of Boston's best relievers throughout the spring, holding an ERA as low as 1.46 as of June 12, but since July 16 he's posted a gruesome 11.81 ERA while allowing opposing batters to hit .343 with a .972 OPS against him.

Sawamura, meanwhile, boasts overall numbers that don't look bad but which are somewhat misleading. The Japanese veteran has a 3.73 ERA and has held opposing batters to a .224 average, but he also has wildly disparate home/away splits and for whatever reason has consistently gotten crushed at Fenway Park. Sawamura's road ERA is 0.84 while his home ERA was 5.08, and the last straw came Sunday when he allowed three runs in the sixth inning to give Tampa Bay what proved an insurmountable lead.