Red Sox sign left-hander Thomas Pannone to minor-league deal for 2022 season

The Red Sox have signed free agent left-hander Thomas Pannone to a minor-league contract for the 2022 season, per the team’s transaction log on MLB.com. It seems likely that the deal includes an invite to major-league spring training, though Pannone has already been assigned to Triple-A Worcester.

Pannone, who turns 28 next month, is a native of Rhode Island who spent the entire 2021 season with the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels after inking a minors pact with the Halos in November 2020.

In 24 appearances (21 starts) for the Salt Lake Bees last year, Pannone posted a 7.07 ERA and 6.25 FIP to go along with 82 strikeouts and 40 walks over 118 1/3 total innings of work.

A former ninth-round selection of the Guardians out of the College of Southern Nevada in 2013, Pannone was traded to the Blue Jays four year later. The lefty made his big-league debut for Toronto the following August and made a total of 49 appearances for the club.

Across those 49 outings — 13 of which were starts — with the Jays from 2018-2019, Pannone yielded an unsightly 5.43 ERA and 5.14 FIP with 98 strikeouts to 46 walks over 116 innings pitched.

After beginning the pandemic-shortened 2020 season at Toronto’s alternate training site, Pannone was outrighted off the Blue Jays’ 40-man roster that August. He then became a free agent less than three months later, allowing him to spent the 2021 campaign with the Angels in the first place.

Listed at 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds, Pannone — as of 2019 — operates with a four-pitch mix that consists of a four-seam fastball, curveball, changeup, and cutter, per Baseball Savant. The 27-year-old southpaw is also out of minor-league options, according to FanGraphs.

Assuming he does indeed have an invite to big-league camp, Pannone becomes the 12th non-roster invitee the Red Sox have added to their spring training roster. He joins the likes of fellow pitchers Silvino Bracho, Taylor Cole, Tyler Danish, Darin Gillies, Michael Feliz and Zack Kelly, catcher Roldani Baldwin, infielders Roberto Ramos and Yolmer Sanchez, and outfielders Rob Refsnyder and Christin Stewart.