Harrison’s soon to-be-formed relationship with pitching coach Andrew Bailey will be key, said Webb.
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SAN FRANCISCO — In the initial chaos of the franchises-altering trade of
Rafael Devers, Giants ace
Logan Webb had a message for the departing
Kyle Harrison, the big piece the Red Sox received in return.
“He’ll be a star over there,” Webb said, publicly and privately.
Six days later, with Devers, Harrison, and the others beginning to acclimate to their new worlds, Webb’s reasons for that belief are many, he explained.
Foremost among them: Harrison’s raw talent, work ethic, and youth; his to-be-formed relationship with pitching coach
Andrew Bailey, who helped Webb break out as an elite arm around the same age; and similarities with Red Sox ace
Garrett Crochet.
Crochet, who at 26 is just two years older than Harrison, is an offseason workout buddy of Webb’s. They’ve gotten to know each other in recent winters at Push Performance in Arizona.
“They’re very similar,” Webb told the Globe on Saturday. “They don’t like anybody who is in the box. But when you get around them, they’re quiet and funny and nice. But as soon as they step on the field, it flips a switch.
“[Harrison is] a bulldog out there. He wants to compete, he wants to be the best. It’s not like he’s going out there and trying to skate by. He wants to be the best. He wants to beat everyone out there.”
Knowing what he does about Harrison and Crochet — hard-throwing lefthanders who rely on four-seam fastballs — Webb figures “it’s going to be a similar blueprint.”
“He’s got everything going for him,” Webb said. “He’s got the right mentality, he’s got a little [meanness] in him, which is how I’m competitive. Then he’s got the stuff to go with it. He works his [butt] off, which is awesome. And they got great coaches over there.”
That is where the Bailey factor comes in (though for now Harrison is with Triple A Worcester and working with the Sox’ pitching development staff). Bailey was the Giants’ pitching coach from 2020-23, a stretch that featured Webb’s transformation from “one of the worst statistical pitchers in baseball,” as he described it, to who he is today — an All-Star and Cy Young Award candidate.
His emergence came in 2021, at age 24.
“Andrew was a big reason for that,” Webb said.
Webb had made a bunch of technical and pitch-usage changes — switching from four-seam to sinker and slider to sweeper, plus tweaks to his changeup — but the sentiment from Bailey that impacted him most was simpler than any of that.
“The biggest thing Andrew did was he wanted me to be confident in everything that I threw,” Webb said. “ ‘Throw what you’re good at.’ It’s going to be fun for me to see Andrew do that for him the way he did that for me.”
Harrison has struggled in the majors, posting a 4.48 ERA over parts of three seasons. But he doesn’t turn 24 until August and possesses what Webb called “an unbelievable four-seam” fastball (which the Sox also love).
As Webb explained, Harrison didn’t become the top lefthanded pitching prospect in the sport by accident.
“And he loves the big moments,” Webb said. “He got to be a part of it with us in the Dodgers [series], we got a good rivalry going. Kyle always rose to the occasion in those rivalries. So I’m sure that won’t change when you see Kyle suit up and face the Yankees as a Red Sox. So it’ll be fun for me to follow him and watch.
“To be honest, I know he didn’t like his year last year and even this year, I know before he left he was frustrated with some of the results. But when I was in the big leagues at 22 and 23, I was pretty bad. I was not a very good pitcher. He’s already light years ahead of me in that sense.
“They’re going to get the most out of him. It’s a great spot for him.”
And of course Devers homers.
