{"id":121320,"date":"2026-05-04T22:14:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T02:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=121320"},"modified":"2026-05-05T21:48:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T01:48:50","slug":"danny-coulombe-injury-boston-call-up-alec-gamboa-to-replace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/04\/danny-coulombe-injury-boston-call-up-alec-gamboa-to-replace\/","title":{"rendered":"Danny Coulombe Injury: Boston Calls Up Lefty Prospect as Replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/22\/sonny-gray-justin-slaten-more-red-sox-pitcher-injury-report\/\" target=\"_self\">injury bug <\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">continues<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with this year\u2019s Boston Red Sox team, with a <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/couloda01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Danny Coulombe<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> injury (cervical spasms) the latest to result in a 15-day injured list stint. The left-handed reliever<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/03\/12\/red-sox-adding-36-year-old-lefty-reliever\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">signed with Boston<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in March, and so far has put up a disappointing 5.63 ERA this season. However, he has had back-to-back scoreless appearances (limited sample size with a combined 1 \u2154 innings, but still). There have been a number of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/18\/how-the-2026-red-sox-rookie-class-looks-so-far-ranked\/\" target=\"_self\">Red Sox rookie<\/a> pitchers who have<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> come up from the minors and made contributions<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. However, this call-up is the most interesting so far this season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOB9vVsliLL\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3600px; aspect-ratio: 3600\/2400;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><b>Who is Alec Gamboa?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=gamboa000ale\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alec Gamboa<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> got called up to Boston to replace Coulombe amid the injury, and there\u2019s one key thing about him that sticks out. The 29-year-old has yet to make his MLB debut. Drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2019, the left-hander worked his way up the system until he reached Triple-A in 2024. After underwhelming seasons in both \u201824 and \u201825, he got released to go pitch in the Korean League.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RedSox?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#RedSox<\/a> today announced the following roster moves: <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ST75SLy4Bv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ST75SLy4Bv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Red Sox (@RedSox) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RedSox\/status\/2051382409015242814?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 4, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the Lotto Giants, he became a massive success there. In the month of June, he went 5-0 and had an ERA of 1.72, both of which led the KBO during that timespan. Now, it\u2019s not <a  href=\"http:\/\/mlb.com\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MLB<\/a>, but sometimes, the international leagues are what a player needs to get back on track (just look at <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bauertr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trevor Bauer<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and his comeback recently).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>How Did Gamboa Get to Boston?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On December 9th, 2025, Gamboa signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox, getting assigned to Worcester. The promotion is certainly an interesting one, as he went 1-1 with an ERA of 6.23, allowing more hits than strikeouts. But if he wasn\u2019t brought up soon, he was going to be gone. Just like <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thaisma01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-10_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Thaiss<\/a>, who signed with the Red Sox on a minor league deal<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Gamboa has<\/span> a <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mobility clause<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, allowing him to become a free agent and sign elsewhere if he\u2019s not on the 40-man roster at a certain date. Boston\u2019s instinct was to call him up before that would happen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Is This a Good Move After Danny Coulombe Injury?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In terms of who they\u2019ve used this season and could\u2019ve brought up, Gamboa\u2019s certainly an option but in a normal situation, he might need more time. However, given the mobility clause, this is far from a normal situation, so it\u2019s worth a shot to see what he has. His key pitching rates are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">K%: 25.4%<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BB% 8.5%<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GB% (Ground Ball): 57.9%\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are stellar numbers, and the walk and ground ball percentages are certainly worthy of a call-up. But his BABIP is part of the concern. His .405 BABIP is far above the MLB average, which sits between .290 and .295. Hitters getting after him isn\u2019t the only concern, though. He\u2019s also got control issues.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Some notes on new Red Sox arm Alec Gamboa after talking with staff in Worcester:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Has done a really good job at attacking the zone over his last few outings. Has provided some deceptive qualities with above average ride on his 4-seam.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Developed a kick change this offseason\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Andrew Parker (@ByAndrewParker) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ByAndrewParker\/status\/2051384706474590293?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 4, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It hasn\u2019t been prevalent this year, but last year he had five wild pitches in 19 appearances. He also walked 49 batters. He\u2019s got a four-pitch mix, using a four-seamer, slider, sinker, and curve. So with the stuff he has, it\u2019s all dependent on whether he can control his pitches.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>The Last Word\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The call up and career path of Gamboa is certainly rare among most major leaguers. <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brasiry01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ryan Brasier<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> comes to mind when thinking of guys close to or at 30 making their debuts. The Red Sox\u2019s call-up timelines are unpredictable, sending down <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/e\/eatonna01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nate Eaton<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a day after his recent call-up, for example. But depending on how long the Danny Coulombe injury keeps him out, Gamboa may have an opportunity to make an impact here.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The injury bug continues with this year\u2019s Boston Red Sox team, with a Danny Coulombe injury (cervical spasms) the latest to result in a 15-day injured list stint. The left-handed reliever signed with Boston in March, and so far has put up a disappointing 5.63 ERA this season. However, he has had back-to-back scoreless appearances [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5767,"featured_media":121332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,35],"tags":[29500,28330,2989,29268,2435],"class_list":["post-121320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-news","tag-alec-gamboa","tag-danny-coulombe","tag-matt-thaiss","tag-nate-eaton","tag-ryan-brasier"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5767"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121320"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121394,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121320\/revisions\/121394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}