WORCESTER – From Sunday Night Baseball to a stunning Sunday night trade, it’s been a “crazy” 48 hours for Kyle Harrison.
The 23-year-old left-hander was about 20 minutes away from starting for the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium when he was told to leave the field.
“Just crazy. They’re like, ‘can you go talk to the manager real quick?’,” he said. “The first moment, I was like, ‘man, why are they bugging me 20 minutes before?’ I’m like, maybe they got a little inside trick for where they want me to attack these guys, but no it’s the complete opposite and I was getting shipped off.”
“Next thing you know, I’m here,” he said. “Excited to be here, and I was stoked about the opportunity.”
‘Here,’ specifically, was the dugout at Polar Park, home of the Worcester Red Sox, Boston’s Triple-A affiliate.
Harrison left the ballpark on Sunday, spent Monday breaking his lease and packing some, but not “enough” of his belongings.
“I saw Jordan (Hicks) fly over here and he had like, seven or eight bags and I only brought like, three or four,” he said of his fellow pitcher from the Rafael Devers trade. “I got no baseball stuff, it’s getting shipped over.”
On Tuesday, his 7:10 a.m. flight from San Francisco was delayed. He finally landed at Logan Airport, where the Red Sox had a car waiting for him, and got his first taste of Boston traffic, as he sat in the daily rush-hour exodus from the city for about two hours.
The end of this roller coaster was just like the beginning: he arrived at his new ballpark about 20 minutes before first pitch.
After the long travel day, he suited up to sit in the dugout with his new WooSox teammates. He even did some throwing, since his Sunday start had been shelved, with a glove borrowed from a new teammate.
“I felt pretty at home here today,” he said. “A lot of good teammates here and they were welcoming me with open arms, so I’m excited.”
Yet there’s no denying this is a significant change for Harrison. In 2020, the Giants used their third-round pick to draft Harrison from Concord High School, 31 miles away from San Francisco’s Oracle Park. On Aug. 22, 2023, the lefty had the rare fortune not only to debut with his hometown team, but at their ballpark.
“I’m a west coast kid so this is all new to me, east coast,” he said.
On top of being traded to an organization on the other side of the country, the Red Sox optioned him to the minor leagues.
Was it hard to accept being optioned on top of the trade, Harrison was asked. “Honestly, not really. I know it may sound weird, but it’s baseball. I’ve been in Triple-A a decent amount of time in my life now, and it’s not about where I want to be today, it’s about where I want to be five, 10 years from now and where I see myself getting better, and I think this is a place that I’m gonna get better and develop.”
One key area of need is stronger pitches to complement his four-seam fastball. Harrison’s slurve and changeup both get hit hard. He noted that he might “tinker with the sinker” or a gyro-slider in Worcester; he threw a minuscule number of sliders and sinkers during his first two years in the majors.
“It starts there with the pitch arsenal,” he self-assessed.
While most of the organization is unfamiliar – Harrison said the only Boston big-leaguer he’d spent any time with in the past was Garrett Crochet, whom he’s worked out with in Arizona – the lefty is looking forward to working with Andrew Bailey, who was the Giants’ pitching coach when Harrison debuted in 2023. That offseason, the Red Sox hired Bailey, a former member of the Boston bullpen, to serve in the same capacity.
“(I) talked with him on the way over, and it’s always cool to have a familiar face,” Harrison said. “He’s been nothing but great to me with my time in San Francisco… He’s stoked to have me and I’m stoked to have him there.”
Harrison was upbeat, beaming a megawatt smile throughout his first experience with the Boston media. Being part of a trade for a player of Devers’ “magnitude,” he said he planned to focus on controlling only what he could control. He spoke with enthusiasm about the “fresh slate” and was effusive in his praise of his new team.
He might endear himself to fans, if they can separate him from a trade in which he had no say. Asked what he’d like Red Sox Nation to know about him, Harrison described himself as “hungry.”
“I’m a hungry pitcher,” he said. “I’m ready to go. I’ve been waiting for my opportunity… You’re gonna get a guy that loves to play the game and plays the game hard.”
After his first foray into Boston media, it was time for Harrison to go back to the hotel, unpack, and finally get some sleep before his first day on the new job.
“Just looking back on it, kinda crazy that that chapter’s closing, but another one opens, and I’m just so excited to have this opportunity here,” he said. “Hometown team drafts you, but on to bigger and better things now.”
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