Who’s he and the place does he come from?
He’s Danny Coulombe and he comes from Scottsdale, Arizona, the place he attended a kind of powerhouse warm-weather excessive colleges that by some means produces extra baseball gamers in a decade than most New England colleges produce in a century. Paul Konerko, Ike Davis, and Brian Bannister are all alumni of Coulombe’s Chaparral Excessive Faculty, as is the actress Busy Phillips, the Bella Twins of WWE, and Stephanie Meyer, vampire romance millionaire.
However Coulombe’s journey to the Notable Alumni tab of his highschool’s Wikipedia web page was an arduous one. In truth, fifteen years in the past he virtually gave up on baseball altogether. This was after a disastrous freshman season at USC, the place he solely made 4 appearances, and a good worse sophomore marketing campaign at a Phoenix-area neighborhood school, the place he injured his shoulder within the first inning of first begin and was misplaced for the yr.
Coulombe thought-about calling it quits, however made yet another switch, this time to Texas Tech, the place he not solely made it via his opening day begin, however threw the majority of the workload in a mixed two-hitter. Coulombe was injured once more after simply 21 innings and underwent Tommy John surgical procedure. However the Dodgers preferred what they noticed in his small pattern dimension and to took him within the twenty fifth spherical of the 2012 MLB Draft. Coulombe made his large league debut two years later and subsequently put collectively an 11-year profession as a left-handed reliever, primarily with the A’s and Twins. The Crimson Sox signed him yesterday to a one-year, $1 million deal.
In 40 appearances for the Twins final yr, Coulombe put up an eye-popping 371 ERA+, making him one of the vital dominant relievers within the recreation for a lot of the season (Aroldis Chapman’s ERA+ final yr was simply 351, for comparability’s sake). He’s the dictionary definition of a artful lefty: a man who strikes out a ton of batters and limits walks (when wholesome, his strikeout and stroll charges are each constantly nicely above common), and does all of it with a fastball that averages only a contact over 90 MPH, making him one of many baseball’s softest tossers.
Given the success he’s had, you’re most likely questioning why the Crimson Sox had been in a position to signal him for simply 1,000,000 bucks. Properly, the very first thing to contemplate is that Coulombe has by no means been in a position to shake the accidents that began dogging him again in school. From 2022 via 2025, Coulombe averaged simply 39 video games a season, lacking time as a consequence of accidents to his hips, bicep, elbow, forearm, and shoulder. That’s quite a lot of physique elements! Furthermore, Coulumbe was traded from the Twins to the Rangers on the deadline final yr, and was completely horrible in Arlington, giving up 11 hits and an unsightly 9 walks in simply 12 innings.
Coming into his age-36 season, Coulombe could be very a lot within the Eddie Harris part of his profession, getting by on guile and guts and hoping his physique holds up for an additional season or two.
Tl;dr, simply give me his 2025 stats.
With the Twins: 31.0 IP, 1.16 ERA, 31 Ok, 21 H, 9 BB, 0 HR
With the Rangers: 12.0 IP, 5.25 ERA, 12 Ok, 11 H, 9 BB, 3 HR
Present me a cool spotlight.
Right here’s his 2025 spotlight reel. Try how annoyed these hitters are. When he’s proper, Coulombe is the kind of pitcher who results in quite a lot of damaged bats — not from making contact along with his pitches, however from making contact with the dugout partitions.
What’s he doing in his image up there?
He seems to be trying a cartwheel earlier than delivering a pitch. That’s undoubtedly in opposition to the foundations, nevertheless it’s additionally the kind of transfer that Bugs Bunny would possibly pull out whereas twirling one more excellent recreation, which solely burnishes Coulombe’s artful lefty credentials much more.
What’s his function on the 2026 Crimson Sox?
Properly, as Jacob Roy identified simply yesterday in his horribly-timed preview of the Red Sox left-handed relievers, the Sox had been critically missing in depth in that a part of the roster, with Jovani Moran being the main candidate to be the primary lefty arm out of the bullpen. Coulombe will instantly step into that function. How lengthy he stays there might be decided by his well being and whether or not he can repair no matter went unsuitable for him final yr in Texas.
