The Red Sox acquired righty relief pitcher Austin Brice from the Marlins on Friday, sending 21-year-old minor league shortstop Angeudis Santos to Miami in exchange.
Brice, who has worked exclusively in relief, was drafted by the Marlins out of high school in the ninth round of the 2010 MLB June Amateur Draft. When he made his Major League debut in 2016 he became the first player born in Hong Kong to appear in a Major League game.
Miami traded Brice to the Reds in 2017. In Cincinnati, he recorded a 5.40 ERA over 55 appearances of the next two seasons.
In 2019 the 27-year-old returned to The Fish for an eventful 2019, setting career-bests in ERA (3.43), innings pitched (44.2), appearances (6) and strikeouts per 9.0 IP (9.27). He held opponents to a .214 batting average, with righties batting at just .192 against him. Brice did, however, have three stints on the injured list in 2019. He missed all of September with a right forearm strain.
Brice’s pitch mix last season was 44.6% curveball (with an an average velocity of 81.7 MPH), 31.4% four-seam fastball (93.1 MPH), 19.5% sinker (93.3 MPH) and 4.3% changeup (87.1 MPH).
Sox DFA Marco Hernández
To make room on the 40-man roster for Brice the Red Sox designated Marco Hernández for assignment. As such, Hernández is now off the team’s 40-man roster and, within seven days, can either be traded or placed on irrevocable outright waivers. In the latter case, if no team claims him off waivers, Hernández may be sent outright to the Minor Leagues or released. Since Hernández had just a little more than three years service time he can reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency.