Red Sox Select Tayron Guerrero

The Red Sox have selected the contract of right-hander Tayron Guerrero. Righty Zack Kelly was optioned to Triple-A. Boston moved right-hander Kutter Crawford to the 60-day injured list to clear a 40-man spot for Guerrero.

The 35-year-old Guerrero last pitched in the big leagues with the Marlins in 2019. His most recent stint in pro ball came in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball in 2025. The tall righty has a 5.77 across 106 innings in the majors. Guerrero was off to an excellent start at Triple-A Worcester, allowing just two earned runs across 19 2/3 frames. He was punching out nearly 30% of minor league hitters.

Guerrero has shown a big fastball and not much else during parts of three seasons in the big leagues. He was a regular member of Miami’s bullpen in 2018 and 2019. The righty averaged a hair under 99 mph with his four-seamer, which he threw at least 70% of the time in both years. Guerrero’s arsenal also included a hard slider and a sinker. The sinker sat at 99.3 mph in his most recent MLB season.

As tends to be the case with taller pitchers, the 6’8″ Guerrero has dealt with control problems. He has a hefty 13.6% walk rate across his 113 appearances in the majors. It jumped to 16.7% in Guerrero’s last season with the Marlins. He’s flashed better control at times in the minors, including an 8.0% walk rate with the WooSox this year.

Kelly didn’t break camp with the club, but he’s been up since the first week of April. The 31-year-old pitched well, delivering a 3.31 ERA across 16 1/3 innings. Kelly was occasionally in the high-leverage mix and picked up three holds. The righty has been part of Boston’s bullpen on and off since debuting in 2022. He’s in his final minor league option year.

Crawford missed all of last season with wrist and knee injuries. He experienced elbow soreness after his first minor league rehab outing and hasn’t appeared in a game since mid-April. It’s unclear when Crawford will be back on the mound in a competitive setting.