Angel Bastardo was one of 11 minor-league pitchers in the Red Sox organization to reach the century mark in strikeouts this past season.

Bastardo, 21, split the 2023 campaign between High-A Greenville and Double-A Portland, posting a 4.68 ERA and 4.16 FIP with 149 punchouts to 55 walks over 24 total starts (119 1/3 innings pitched) in which he held opposing hitters to a .221 batting average against.

After spending all of 2022 at Low-A Salem, Bastardo broke camp with Greenville this spring. The right-hander initially got off to a rough start with the Drive and finished the month of April with a 6.63 ERA through his first four outings of the year. He began to turn a corner as the calendar flipped to May, however, and lowered his ERA by nearly two runs before going on a tear in July.

In his final full month for Greenville, Bastardo went 2-1 with a 2.89 ERA (1.48 FIP) and 42 strikeouts to just five walks across five starts spanning 28 innings of work. He threw back-to-back complete game shutouts (the second of which he struck out a season-high of 14 batters over seven innings) in that stretch and was unsurprisingly named the South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Month as a result.

Shortly after earning that honor, Bastardo spent some time on the development list before receiving a promotion to Portland in late August. Tasked with facing more advanced competition in the Eastern League, the righty closed out his season by allowing nine earned runs on 12 hits, nine walks, and 10 strikeouts in three starts (16 innings) for the Sea Dogs.

While the ending may have been underwhelming to some degree, it was still a breakout year of sorts for Bastardo. Among the 177 minor-leaguers who accrued at least 110 innings on the mound this season, Bastardo ranked 15th in strikeouts per nine innings (11.24), 14th in strikeout rate (29.4 percent), 25th in batting average against (.221), seventh in swinging-strike rate (15.5 percent), and 42nd in xFIP (3.98), per FanGraphs.

A native of Venezuela, Bastardo originally signed with the Red Sox for $35,000 as an international free agent coming out of Moron in July 2018. Throwing from a three-quarters arm slot, the 6-foot-1, 175-pound hurler operates with a four-pitch mix that consists of a 93-95 mph fastball that has topped out at 97 mph, an 84-88 mph changeup that he has an advanced feel for, an 81-84 mph curveball that features 11-to-5 break, and an 85-88 mph slider that has tight gyro-spin, according to SoxProspects.com’s director of scouting Ian Cundall.

Unlike fellow righties Wikelman Gonzalez and Luis Perales, who also recorded 100-plus strikeouts this season, Bastardo was not added to Boston’s 40-man roster in November and was therefore eligible to be picked up by another team in last month’s Rule 5 Draft. But while other notable arms like Shane Drohan (White Sox) and Ryan Fernandez (Cardinals) were plucked by other teams, Bastardo was not.

That, for all intents and purposes, likely had something to with Bastardo’s lack of experience in the upper-minors as well as his struggles when it comes to commanding the strike zone. As noted by Cundall, Bastardo currently “lacks the fastball quality and command to stick as a starting pitcher.” And while his secondary offerings are ahead of his fastball, he “needs to further refine his two breaking balls, which can run into each other at times.”

Bastardo, who does not turn 23 until next June, ended the 2023 season ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 17 prospect in Boston’s farm system. Baseball America had him listed 28th on its list while SoxProspects.com currently has him ranked 27th (ninth among pitchers) in the organization.

Assuming he remains with the Red Sox through the winter and into the spring, Bastardo is projected to return to Portland for the start of the Sea Dogs’ 2024 season in early April.

(Picture of Angel Bastardo: Kelly O’Connor/sittingstill.smugmug.com)