Hunter Dobbins went 7-3 in 21 starts for the Portland Sea Dogs before earning a promotion to Triple-A Worcester. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Red Sox right-handed pitching prospect Hunter Dobbins received the phone call from Director of Player Development Brian Abraham last Tuesday. Abraham gave him the good news: Boston was adding Dobbins to its 40-man roster before the deadline to protect Rule 5 Draft eligible players.

“They put you on the 40-man because they expect me to be able to help the big league team this year,” Dobbins said. “And so it opened my eyes to realize I need to be ready to help the team in any way that I can – whether that’s starting, bullpen or whatever. It definitely kind of opened my eyes and got me to focus even more than I already was.”

Baseball America ranks the 25-year-old Dobbins as Boston’s No. 21 prospect. He was the Red Sox minor league starting pitcher of the year in 2024 after posting a 3.08 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and .237 batting average against in 25 starts for Double-A Portland and Triple-A Worcester.

Dobbins throws hard, sitting at 95-97 mph as a starting pitcher. The Red Sox have built up starting pitching depth at Triple-A and could use Dobbins, with his high-end velocity, out of the bullpen early in his major league career, the same way they did with Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck. Crawford impressed so much during spring training in 2022 that he made the Opening Day roster as a reliever. He worked his way into the rotation by July.

Dobbins has experience as a reliever. Fifteen of his 20 appearances at Texas Tech were out of the bullpen.

“Honestly, I would be really comfortable with it,” Dobbins said. “My freshman year at Texas Tech, I was fully out of the bullpen, and I made a couple spot starts here and there, which I feel like would be my role this year. Then, my sophomore year, I was coming out of the bullpen on the weekends and I would make starts on Wednesdays. So kind of another year where I was doing both. Really, the only time I’ve been a full-time starter is in pro ball.”

Dobbins has pitched in 62 games in the minors, 61 of them starts.

“I’ve always been a guy, whether I’m coming out of the bullpen or I’m starting, I like to have the same mentality and the same approach to everything,” Dobbins said.

Hunter Dobbins made 15 of his 20 appearances for Texas Tech out of the bullpen, a role he could play for the Red Sox in 2025. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Dobbins worked with fellow prospects Richard Fitts, David Sandlin and Isaac Coffey last offseason. He said getting the chance to attend big league camp for the first time in February will be a great opportunity to work side-by-side with experienced pitchers like Houck, Crawford, Brayan Bello, Lucas Giolito and, as he put it, “whoever we (add).” The Red Sox are in the market to add a front-of-the-rotation starter this offseason.

“And also getting to work with (pitching coach) Andrew Bailey,” Dobbins said. “I feel like I’ve made a lot of strides in the last couple of years to become a really great version of myself, but I think we’ve seen what Andrew Bailey can do and unlock some stuff guys didn’t even know they had. So I’m really looking forward to that.”

Dobbins allowed just two home runs in 125 2/3 innings in 2024.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been a guy that has given up a whole lot of home runs,” Dobbins said. “I think this year, it was really the first year I felt full-go.”

Dobbins missed his final year at Texas Tech because of Tommy John surgery. Boston drafted him in the eighth round in 2021.

The 2022 season was his first year back from injury and he made just 17 starts (69 innings), the first coming two months into the season. He then battled some vertigo symptoms during spring training in 2023, a setback he said prevented him from starting the season the way he wanted. He also said he was more focused on his development in ’23.

“This past year, it was one of those where we knew what my arsenal was going to be for the most part,” Dobbins said. “I really focused on developing those (pitches) and then being able to attack hitters in that way. It really helped me have the mindset of, ‘I’m going to go right after these guys. I know my stuff is good. And I’m not going to be, for lack of a better term, scared.’ So I think kind of having that mentality of just going right at guys – plus having a five-pitch mix doesn’t hurt either – it kind of keeps the hitters off-balance to where they couldn’t get their A swing off as much.”

In addition to his fastball, he throws a splitter, sweeper, cutter (also known as a gyro slider) and curveball. He has a newer splitter grip and the pitch plays like a splinker, a hybrid between a splitter and sinker.

He recorded an impressive 55.6% ground-ball rate in his final four starts after his promotion to Worcester. He also had 22 strikeouts in 20 2/3 innings (9.6 strikeouts per nine innings).

“Once I got up to Worcester, the splinker really took a turn for the better,” Dobbins said. “So having something that would move in to the righties, away from the lefties.”

He said his cutter – which is more of an 88-91 mph gyro slider – working along with his splinker helped increase his groundball percentage.

“I definitely think that now that I’m not messing with my arsenal this offseason, I can really hone in those pitches. I expect the K-per-9 to go up a little bit,” Dobbins said. “My core philosophy and belief of the pitcher that I am is I’m not really the guy who goes and chases strikeouts. I don’t go and try to punch out the world. I’m going to live off soft contact because at the end of the day, I want to be 12 to 15 pitches an inning. That way, you look up and still see me still standing out there in the sixth, seventh inning.”

Dobbins felt there was a good chance that the Red Sox would place him on the roster. If not, he felt there would be a pretty good chance of him getting selected in the Rule 5 Draft.

“I tried my best to not think about it and focus on it as much,” Dobbins said. “But it was definitely one of those, it was a pretty big relief when I saw Abe’s number pop up because I love the group of guys that I’m around. And so it’s going to be a lot of fun being able to stick with guys like Marcelo (Mayer) and all those guys I’ve come up with. So definitely a load off when I got the call.”