Red Sox prospect who reached 101 mph in video ‘has fun seeing fan reaction’

Righty David Sandlin knows how Red Sox fans like to keep up-to-date with prospects.

The 23-year-old saw their prospect fervor again earlier this month when multiple X accounts tweeted a video that Pitching WRX initially posted on Instagram. It showed Sandlin reaching 101 mph with his fastball during an offseason workout.

The video received almost 500,000 views from just two of the X users (PeskyReports’ Matthew Crory and 98.5 Sports Hub’s Tyler Milliken) who posted it.

“I’ve always been a guy that loves interacting with fans so X is a great platform for it,” Sandlin said. “I have a lot of fun seeing that fan reaction and interacting with a lot of those accounts.”

Fans not only noticed 101 mph flash on the radar gun but also a dog roaming behind the catcher.

“I think I had more fun with it talking about the dog Bailey, our facility dog,” Sandlin said. “Everybody was checking to make sure she was OK. I promise she was behind a net. She’s OK. She’s always there.”

PitchingWRX ended up tweeting some photos of the 11-year-old Border Collie the next day, then Sandlin quoted tweeted it with a pointed finger and wrote, “Since Bailey seemed to be a big hit yesterday.”

“Even the stuff I don’t comment on, I still see a lot of it and a lot of the stuff is funny to me,” Sandlin said last week at Boston’s Rookie Development Program. “I get behind it. So I love the Boston fans and how passionate they are. It’s an honor to be in this city and be a part of that.”

MassLive named Sandlin one of nine Red Sox prospects who has a chance to make his MLB debut in 2025.

He’s one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in the system. He also reached 100.4 mph with his four-seamer during a minor league game last year.

But he also knows for his fastball to be effective, his secondary pitches need to play better.

Sandlin — who Baseball America ranks Boston’s No. 10 prospect — finished 2024 with an impressive 12.9 strikeouts and 2.8 walks per nine innings.

But he also got hit around at times, finishing with a 5.34 ERA and .269 batting average against in 18 starts between High-A Greenville and Double-A Portland.

ERA doesn’t always tell the whole story in the minors because of the development aspect. A pitcher might be asked to throw his best stuff less often so he can work more on pitches that need to develop.

Sandlin, who Boston acquired from the Royals for reliever John Schreiber last Feb. 17, worked on different slider and splitter grips throughout the 2024 season.

He also threw a sweeper, which he said was a “totally new pitch throughout whole the year” and one that the Red Sox might end up eliminating because it doesn’t play as well with his arm slot.

He said he’s working more toward “a bullet, gyro-type of slider.”

”And then maybe adding a cutter as well," he said.

“I think it’s fine-tuning those secondary pitches, that way I can get the guys off the fastball and be able to use that fastball as a weapon,” he added.

Sandlin also began elevating his fastball more in the zone toward the end of last season.

“Not leaving it as middle and then fine-tuning the slider, the splitter to kind of give me the secondary pitches I can use vs. right-handed and left-handed batters,” Sandlin said.

He said he found the right grips to get the slider and splitter “to click” toward the end of ‘24.

Sandlin has always been a strike thrower, averaging just 2.6 walks per nine innings in 33 minor league starts.

The importance he places on throwing strikes dates back to one of his first pitching coaches, Bill Fisher, who taught him “damage happens when you walk batters.” Fisher told him to “limit the free stuff” and “make the hitters earn it.”

While he has shown impressive control, he knows he needs to improve his command within the zone.

“I think it comes down to the execution inside the zone,” Sandlin said. “Of course I want the batting average against to be low. I wish it was .000. But I think it’s just executing the pitches late in counts and then executing inside the zone. It also probably goes into just as much if not falling into a rhythm — becoming predictable. I think that’s a big part of my game-plan — being able to go out there first pitch of the at-bat and not just throw a fastball or slider. Have the whole repertoire to go at them."

He views both strikeout percentage and walk percentage as two of the more positive stats from last year.

“Try not to listen to the noise of obviously ERA and all that when we’re working on stuff,” Sandlin said. “But that was a positive reinforcer — the walk rate telling me that I’m in the zone and the strikeout rate showing me I’ve got the swing-and-miss stuff. So it’s just fine-tuning the locations in the zone.“

Sandlin also is focusing on his mechanics to help him put less stress on his body, which is especially important because he’s such a hard thrower.

“Keep moving down the mound more efficiently is a big thing,” Sandlin said.

Senior director of player development Brian Abraham raved not only about Sandlin’s “pure stuff” and “incredible fastball” but also his competitiveness and confidence to challenge hitters. Abraham added that the Red Sox asked Sandlin to get stronger this offseason so he can “maintain his power stuff throughout a long season.”

Boston took a conservative approach with Sandlin in ‘24. He spent from May 14-June 15 on Greenville’s IL with forearm tightness, then never threw more than 4 innings in any of his 14 starts after being activated.

“I think the two biggest things for me (this offseason) were mobility and putting on healthy weight,” Sandlin said. “I think I’m up about 10, 12 pounds right now from where I was at the end of the year last year. And now you see the velo tick up again this offseason.”

How important does he think ERA is? He knows it must improve.

“Obviously it’s a good stat to have in a good direction,” Sandlin said. “The minor leagues is about development. So a lot of those things can get inflated. I’m not trying to make excuses or anything like that at all. But yeah, they can get inflated a little bit. There are finer things behind the scenes that you look at and those are the most important. So obviously once you get up in the high levels, yeah, it becomes a little more important and it’s usually a good tell but it’s not the end-all be-all I would say.”

As a hard thrower, Sandlin potentially might be a candidate to break into the majors as a reliever if bullpen help is needed this season.

“Obviously I want to start but whatever the team throws at me I’m going to tackle it with the best of my ability,” he said. “If that’s coming out of the bullpen to help at the big league level, obviously it’s every player’s dream to play at the big league level no matter how you get there. So if that opportunity arises, I’ll be ready for it and excited to tackle it.”