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Newest Red Sox pitcher was told as rookie, ‘You’re supposed to be behind a desk somewhere’
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- Newest Red Sox pitcher was told as rookie, ‘You’re supposed to be behind a desk somewhere’
CINCINNATI — Ryan Madson towers over Danny Coulombe .
Coulombe, the newest left-hander in the Red Sox bullpen, is approximately 5-foot-9 ¾.
Madson, Coulombe’s teammate with the Athletics 10 years ago, stood at 6-foot-6, 234 pounds during his playing career. Back in 2016, Madson was the A’s closer featuring a mid-90s fastball, while Coulombe was a 26-year-old rookie with a heater that averaged 90.3 mph.
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“One day he just looked at me, we were sitting on the bench, and he said, ‘Good for you,’” Coulombe recalled. “I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ He’s like, ‘I’m supposed to be in the major leagues. You’re not. You’re supposed to be behind a desk somewhere. An accountant.’”
The Red Sox signed the 36-year-old Coulombe to a one-year, $1 million contract March 12.
He takes pride in what he has achieved as a major league pitcher with well below-average size. He has a 3.35 ERA in 343 career appearances across 11 major league seasons with six different teams. He posted a 2.30 ERA in 55 outings for the Twins and Rangers in 2025.
“I love it because that’s the beautiful thing about baseball: It’s all shapes and sizes,” Coulombe said.
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He’s the smallest pitcher on the Red Sox’ 26-man roster , just a fraction shorter than 5-foot-10 Sonny Gray .
Garrett Crochet and Johan Oviedo are eight inches taller than Coulombe. Garrett Whitlock and Ryan Watson are seven inches taller. Justin Slaten and Aroldis Chapman are six inches taller.
“God creates in all different shapes and sizes and I found some stuff that works for me and I’ve been able to spin a baseball and here I am,” Coulombe said. “It’s been cool.”
Coulombe looks at his size as an advantage.
“I believe I heard this stat a few years ago that the best ERA for height is under six feet in the big leagues,” he said. “I think there’s just some more unique angles. Like when hitters see really tall guys all the time and they get a little guy like me on the mound with some funky mechanics and all that, I know it might shock them a little bit.”
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Coulombe feels he can be an inspiration for kids.
“I’ve got a first grader and 4-year-old, and they’re in sports,” he said. “It’s a lot of kids that are probably going to look like me someday. And I can just essentially say, ‘Hey, the beautiful thing about baseball is everybody’s got a chance.’”
Coulombe reduced his pitch mix to mainly a four-seam fastball and curveball in 2022. Then, in 2023, he asked himself, “What do I do well?”
“I spin the ball,” Coulombe said. “So I think a guy like me that doesn’t throw 95 to 100 (mph), as many looks as possible benefits me.”
He decided to lean into his secondaries and throw as many spin pitches as possible.
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“The cutter has been a pitch that’s just really come around,” he said.
Coulombe has thrown his cutter more than any other pitch the past three seasons, with opponents going 44 for 194 (.227) against it.
The 782 cutters he has thrown since the beginning of the 2023 season have averaged 2,634 revolutions per minute. He’s one of just 57 pitchers who has had a spin rate on his cutter of 2,600 revolutions or higher over the past three seasons.
He learned the grip in 2014 from his then-Double-A pitching coach Scott Radinsky, a former left-handed reliever who played 11 seasons in the big leagues.
He threw the cutter sparingly before 2023.
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“I had it, but I didn’t throw it as much as I do now,” he said. “I relied more on four-seams and then my big curveball.”
Coulombe does a nice job minimizing hard contact, limiting barrels and making batters chase pitches outside the strike zone.
But he also fills up the strike zone. He trusts his stuff and has walked just 35 of the 493 batters he has faced (7.1%) since the start of 2023.
“The goal is just to game-plan well,” Coulombe said. “Know what the hitters do well and just try to avoid what they do well. And then honestly, it’s just execution. That’s all pitching is — being able to throw pitches in good spots. And I trust that my stuff is good enough that if I hit good spots, I’ll give myself a chance.”
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Coulombe went the first month of spring training unsigned.
“It was the most stressful when everybody was leaving for spring training originally. And I’m like, ‘I guess I’m not leaving for spring training,’” Coulombe said. “We had a good plan about how to stay ready as best I could at home.”
Coulombe’s brief time in Red Sox camp was marked by an X-ray on his right wrist after being hit with a comebacker and going home sick during the final weekend.
He stayed back in Fort Myers when the rest of the team left Tuesday evening. He then threw a live batting practice Wednesday at JetBlue Park before flying to Cincinnati to join his teammates for the regular-season opener Thursday.
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“We felt like, especially with the off days, it would be a good way to just kind of face as many hitters as I could,” he said.
Despite just two Grapefruit League appearances, he felt ready.
“I’ve been around for a while now,” he said. “They’re like, ‘Hey, you know what you need to get ready.’ And my last outing, it started off a little rough, and then just something clicked. That’s what always happens in spring training. But luckily it clicked before a major league game.”
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