Red Sox

Luis Guerrero spent his entire 2023 with Double-A Portland until now.

One of the Red Sox organization’s best pitchers is now one step closer to playing in Boston.

Reliever Luis Guerrero is being promoted to Triple-A Worcester, per MiLB Central on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Guerrero is listed as the 31st best prospect and 9th best pitcher in the Red Sox’ system according to SoxProspects.

Guerrero spent his 2023 exclusively in Double-A Portland’s bullpen, where he posted a 1.81 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP with 18 saves in 49.2 innings pitched. He is well-known across the farm system as having an incredible work ethic and elite talent despite some command issues. 

“[Guerrero] has some of the best raw stuff of any relief arm in the system,”  wrote SoxProspects on their scouting report for Guerrero, “But needs to improve command and control and consistency.”

It appears as though those concerns are beginning to ameliorate. Guerrero issued 10 walks in 6.1 IP in July, but that number dropped to just two walks in August despite pitching in twice as many innings (12.0).

Guerrero’s improvements across the board have not only garnered attention within the Red Sox organization, but national attention as well. He was chosen to replace Triple-A Worcester starter Shane Drohan in this year’s Futures Game after Drohan bowed out due to injury. He was the final pitcher the American League sent to the mound during the game, and he struck out the only batter he faced, Colorado Rockies prospect Yanquiel Fernandez, on five pitches.

Playing for the Boston Red Sox has long been a dream for Guerrero. His family moved from the Dominican Republic to the Boston area when he was just a child, growing up near Franklin Park. In a feature written by The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier, Guerrero revealed that the day the Red Sox drafted him was an emotional time for him and his family.

“When the Red Sox called me, I told my mom immediately, and she started crying,” Guerrero told Speier through translator Carlos Villoria-Benitez. “She told me that she dreamed [the night before] about me getting picked by the Red Sox.”

Guerrero was never a likely candidate to make it as far as he did. He told Speier that when he was an infant, he underwent surgery in his right knee that hospitalized him for nine months. That surgery inhibited development of the muscles in his knee, which is why he now walks with a limp in his right leg. 

But Guerrero has never let his injury stop him. He said that it doesn’t make pitching particularly difficult because he’s able to bend his knee just enough to where he can pitch.

“[But] for pitching, you just need to bend [the back knee] a little bit,” he added. “My knee bends just as much as I need it to.”

With this promotion, Guerrero has only one obstacle left before playing for the Red Sox, just like he and his family had dreamed of. And based on his statistics, his accomplishments, and all he’s overcome, that’s an honor that the Red Sox believe he deserves.

“It’s impressive what he can do on a mound,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told MassLive’s Christopher Smith in June. “Impressive.”