There's a new arm in the Red Sox pipeline that's turning heads, and his name is Tayron Guerrero. Standing at an imposing 6-foot-8 and 225 pounds, this reliever is absolutely dominating for Triple-A Worcester, posting a microscopic 1.15 ERA over 15 2/3 innings across 12 outings. Opponents are hitting just .200 against him, and he's racked up 16 strikeouts against only five walks. But the real headline? His fastball has touched an eye-popping 101.3 mph this season.
Guerrero's journey to this point is as compelling as his heater. A native of Colombia, he didn't even know what baseball was until he was 16 years old. While watching his grandfather tune into Game 4 of the 2007 World Series between Boston and Colorado, Guerrero asked, "What's that sport?" He sat down, watched the Red Sox clinch the championship, and started playing the very next day. Now, 19 years later, he's on the cusp of earning a call-up to the very team that sparked his love for the game.
This season, Guerrero's fastball has averaged 98.4 mph, but it plays even faster. Thanks to its "heavy" movement, it looks 1.2 mph quicker to hitters, registering a perceived velocity of 99.6 mph. He's hit triple digits in eight of his last nine outings, with his best performance coming on April 15 against Nashville, where he cranked it to 101.3 mph twice and averaged 100.2 mph on nine fastballs. Red Sox catcher Mikey Gasper, who caught Guerrero in Worcester before his own call-up, described the pitch as "a heavy fastball at 99" that attacks the zone with authority.
The biggest improvement for the 35-year-old has been his command. Historically, Guerrero struggled with walks, averaging 5.7 per nine innings in the majors and 5.6 in the minors. This year, he's trimmed that to a sharp 2.9 per nine innings. And when he's not blowing batters away with heat, he's getting them to chase his slider, which boasts an elite 36.4% whiff percentage. "He's landing a slider and mixing it up," Gasper noted.
For a Red Sox bullpen always looking for depth and power, Guerrero is shaping up to be a strong candidate for a promotion. If he keeps this up, it won't be long before he's wearing a Boston uniform—completing a full-circle story that started with a World Series on TV nearly two decades ago.