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Red Sox prospect has ‘something to prove’ on his wolf path journey after going undrafted
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- Red Sox prospect has ‘something to prove’ on his wolf path journey after going undrafted
Red Sox pitching prospect Calvin Bickerstaff’s parents debated over two middle names.
“It was actually down between Wolfgang or Tarzan,” Bickerstaff said by phone Saturday. “My dad’s choice was Tarzan and my mom thought that was a little too crazy, so they settled on Wolfgang.”
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Wolfgang, meaning “wolf path” or “journey of the wolf,” suits him well as he’s on a difficult journey, trying to work his way up through the minors after going undrafted in 2024.
“I go out there every day and I feel like I have something to prove, and I just want people to see me play my game,” he said.
The 24-year-old righty, armed with a new pitch this season, is 3-0 with a 2.50 ERA, 0.83 WHIP and 17 strikeouts in 18 innings across six outings for High-A Greenville. Opponents are batting only .167 against him.
Bickerstaff was in Cape Cod as a member of the Harwich Mariners when the 2024 Draft took place. He was prepared to return for a fifth year at Kent State University to pursue a master’s degree in engineering while playing baseball.
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“I hadn’t talked to the Red Sox at all leading up to the draft, but I was still ready by my phone all day,” he said.
During the draft’s third and final day, a Red Sox scout informed him and his agent about the possibility of drafting him late.
“They didn’t take me in the 20th round, and they called back and they said that they still wanted me,” Bickerstaff said.
The 6-foot-5 pitcher said the call came within two minutes after the draft ended.
“So we did a free agent deal and drove home from the Cape and headed down to Fort Myers, Florida,” Bickerstaff said.
Bickerstaff throws four pitches — a four-seam fastball, slider, splitter and sweeper. He was only a two-pitch pitcher entering pro ball.
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“That was my arsenal my whole life — fastball, slider," he said. “And I think it’s pretty obvious that at this level, you need more than just two pitches. So I started learning that splitter last year in spring training.”
He threw that pitch throughout the 2025 season, his first full year of pro ball. He then added the sweeper this year — right before the regular season began.
“I started learning it with about a week left in spring training,” he said. “Continued working on it in my time here so far in Greenville, and it’s been working pretty well for me. We’ve been getting great results from it. We’ve had great usages with it and the pitch is just playing right now.”
He met with the development staff during the final week of spring training camp.
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“We were thinking what could be next in my development? What’s going to benefit me the most right now? And we decided on learning a new pitch,” he said.
After some discussion, they narrowed the new pitch down to either a curveball or sweeper.
“A curveball would be more traditional for my arm slot, but if we could get a sweeper off of it, that’s more unexpected,” he said. “I’m more of an over the top guy. Sweepers are tough to get horizontal break from over the top. We started working on it and actually started seeing some really good results with the sweep — getting good horizontal break on it. So we just kept that and we ran with it and we’re still building on it.”
He referred to his splitter as a “splitter-changeup.” He said he saw improvement on the pitch throughout 2025.
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“I was able to understand, just by feeling the ball come out of my hands, if it was a good one, bad one, good break, bad break. So the splitter is about a year older than the sweeper. But along with everything, you can never be perfect. So it’s good to keep working on it all.”
He hasn’t shelved the slider. He continues to throw it.
“The sweeper and splitter are both my main out pitches at the moment, I would say, but the fastball and slider are still very much in play,” he said.
His four-seam fastball tops out at 94 mph and typically sits around the low-90s.
“Ideally the fastball will be up in the zone,” he said. “I’m more of a ride guy with my heater so more times than not, we want that ball to play at the top of the zone.”
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Bickerstaff is certainly enjoying the journey.
“Oh, it’s the best time ever,” he said. “It’s still the same old kid’s game that we all played, but it’s just at a very talented level and traveling around, seeing the country, playing against great competition. There’s nothing like it.”
Get to know Bickerstaff off the field
Bickerstaff keeps himself busy outdoors in the offseason and indoors during the season when he’s not at the field.
“When I’m at home, I like riding my four wheeler. I have a four wheeler. My parents, they have a side-by-side, so we spend quite some time out in the woods, just rolling around, hanging out, bonfires, stuff like that.”
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During the season, he brings his Xbox everywhere the team travels.
“Just because most of the time you’re stuck in a hotel or apartment when you’re away from the field and there’s not much else to do,” he said. “But I also use that as my social hour to keep up with friends from home, which is nice.”
Bennett in play for MLB debut this weekend?
Red Sox pitching prospect Jake Bennett was scratched from his start with Triple-A Worcester on Tuesday .
The 25-year-old left-hander is on the 40-man roster, and the Red Sox are keeping him available in case they need him to pitch this weekend.
“We’re just keeping options open leading into next week after the off day (Thursday),” interim manager Chad Tracy said.
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Ehrhard retiring from playing
With the Red Sox shaking up their coaching staff over the past two days, 27-year-old Drew Ehrhard went from the Double-A Portland roster to a bullpen catcher in the big leagues.
He’s been referred to as part of the taxi squad. But Ehrhard confirmed before Thursday’s Red Sox-Blue Jays game that he is done with his playing career to pursue this new path.
Ehrhard initially signed with Boston as an undrafted free agent out of Division II Tampa in July 2023.
Hall of Famer Wade Boggs — who coached Ehrhard at Paul R. Wharton High in Tampa, Fla. — was one of his biggest advocates during his collegiate career. Boggs quoted a May 18, 2023 tweet about Drew becoming the all-time Sunshine State Conference hits leader. Boggs wrote , “Needs to get drafted. The kid can play.”
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Campbell ‘on the right path’
After a slow start at Worcester this season, Kristian Campbell has his average up to .277 and his on-base percentage at .383.
“I think he’s in a good spot,” Tracy said. “I think a lot of it has been centered around getting his timing and his toe tap back to where it was and really getting him timed up to where he can catch the ball out front. It’s no secret that he was battling with fastballs. But we’ve seen a lot of growth, at least in the time that I was there. There was a lot of growth and a lot of positive as far as the quality of the at-bats. So he’s got more to do, but he’s on the right track.”
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