WORCESTER — Red Sox prospect Tyler Uberstine’s journey to Triple-A Worcester included pitching just seven innings as a senior in high school and receiving no college scholarship offers.
“My freshman year of college I hung the cleats up and was just a normal student,” Uberstine said.
A half decade later, the 26-year-old righty has a 3.44 ERA in 11 outings (eight starts) at Worcester after a promotion from Double-A Portland in May. He has struck out 91 and walked 21 in 82 innings combined between Portland and Worcester.
“He was pretty much sitting 95 (mph) against St. Paul,” Worcester manager Chad Tracy said. “So the velocity’s kicking and when he’s throwing 95 and he drops that breaking ball in there and a good changeup like, it’s pretty darn effective and it’s pretty intriguing.”
It’s not always easy for Uberstine to “put into perspective” how much his life has changed since freshman year of college. He’s one step from the big leagues.
“To be at this level, obviously it feels close, but I’m not really worrying about looking up,” he said. “I’m trying to stay here and dominate here and that will take care of itself. But for sure, it’s definitely crazy … It’s just definitely surreal how much can change in a couple years.”
Uberstine initially enrolled at USC as a regular student/non-athlete. He studied business.
“If I showed you a photo of me from graduating senior year of high school, I look like I’m 12 years old,” he said.
A career in finance looked much more obtainable. He said he worked at UBS Financial Services following his freshman year. He also completed an internship at Ernst & Young.
He finally hit his growth spurt while interning between freshman and sophomore year. He also began lifting weights for the first time and getting stronger.
He decided to try out for the USC baseball team his sophomore year but didn’t make it as a walk-on. He still pitched well during weeks of practice before getting cut. He knew he wanted to play somewhere. It wasn’t important for him to pitch a lot. He just wanted to be part of a team.
He began working out with Joe Beimel, who appeared in 676 major league games over 13 major league seasons (2001-11, 2014-15).
His saw his velocity increase and his stuff get better. He said he always felt like had “a good feel on the mound” and offspeed pitches that played.
“I think just seeing myself finally throwing harder, which is like something that I didn’t have in high school,” he said. “And just like hitting 90 for the first time and then hitting 92. … Really it just came down to realizing that I had the potential to play Division I baseball.”
He transferred to Northwestern where he earned a spot in their starting rotation his first year there in 2020. He posted a 2.86 ERA in six starts before COVID canceled the season. He had a 4.82 ERA in 13 starts combined between 2020 and ‘21. Boston selected him in the 19th round of the 2021 Draft.
He continued to face adversity in the minors. He got hurt and underwent Tommy John surgery 99 ⅓ innings into his professional career. He missed 2023 and most of 2024. He returned in late August 2024 to make three starts for High-A Greenville.
“I think coming out of TJ a big step for me was just getting back into games and seeing the accumulation of work in the offseason and through rehab and trying to see if I can build off a really strong 2022 that I had,” Uberstine said.
In 2022, Uberstine sat 90-93 mph and reached up to 94 mph with his fastball. He threw a changeup and a sweeper. The sweeper was a new pitch for him that year.
He added his cutter during the final stage of his Tommy John rehab and began incorporating it during his three starts for Greenville and then during the 2024 Arizona Fall League.
“This year, I came in throwing 92, 94, 95, hitting 96 now with a new cutter and a sweeper and a changeup,” Uberstine said. “At my best, all those pitches are in the zone in any count.”
Tracy added, “When he’s sitting there 95 for most of the game, you look and go, ‘This is interesting,’ especially given his ability to get in the strike zone.”
He and the coaching staff tinkered with his cutter after his promotion to Worcester.
“We made some changes once I got here just to give it a little more vert and throw it harder, and it’s been huge,” he said.
His changeup is his best secondary pitch.
“It has a lot of depth and it has a lot of run,” Uberstine said. “And paired with a fastball just at my arm slot with the VAA (vertical approach angle), it’s just like a great combo because I can command it also in any count. And I can throw both to righties and lefties.”
Uberstine has averaged 10.0 strikeouts and just 2.3 walks per nine innings this year.
“He’s a strike thrower,” Tracy said. “When he first got here, I can remember the outing in Buffalo, the first inning or two, battled with the smaller zone but then figured it out really quick and said, ‘I’ve got to get in the zone.’”
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